By Greg Paeth
NKyTribune Reporter
One of Covington’s most revered institutions and some members of the city’s most exclusive neighborhood appear to be on a collision course over a $3 million project in the 600 block of Greenup Street.
The Baker Hunt Art and Cultural Center, an arts organization that was founded in 1922, has proposed a major renovation of the center as well as construction of a strikingly modern Garden Pavilion Building that would front on Greenup Street between the two historic mansions that are defining elements of the Baker Hunt campus.
Plans for the new building as well as an extensive renovation of the 3.5-acre Baker Hunt campus are on the agenda for Monday’s meeting of the Covington Urban Design Review Board, which examines and votes on projects inside of the city’s historic districts such as the Licking-Riverside neighborhood, which encompasses some of the city’s most expensive and historically significant homes.
Plans submitted by the architects, GBBN of Cincinnati, show a glass box whose front wall is angled slightly to the street. It also has a sharply pitched metal screen that creates a visual line between the decorative wrought iron on the porch of the Scudder mansion to the cornice and the mansard roof of the Baker Hunt home, which dates to 1840.
The building is designed specifically to attract attention and increase the visibility of Baker Hunt on the street, said Ray Kingsburg, executive director of the center. He said architecture should reflect its time – when it’s built – and not try to replicate buildings from another period.
Two prominent members of an organization called Progress with Preservation disagree with Kingsbury about the new building and say they intend to speak in opposition to the Baker Hunt plan at the design board meeting next week.
Both also say they are longtime supporters of Baker Hunt and recognize the importance of the institution to the Licking-Riverside neighborhood and the city.
In the opinion of Lisa Sauer, who chairs Progress with Preservation and lives in a historic mansion in the neighborhood, the new building violates the city’s regulations for “infill” construction in what is called a “historic preservation overlay zone.”
Sauer broke down the plan into three elements: the overall renovation of the Baker Hunt campus and restoration work on the two historic buildings on Greenup St., the new building that would front on Greenup Street, and a plan to create a new walkway into the campus by cutting into the brick retaining wall that runs along Greenup.
Sauer said she opposes the new building, supports the overall renovation and restoration, and is undecided about the walkway plan.
“We need to adhere to the guidelines and this does not follow those guidelines,” Sauer said of the new building. “The two buildings (on either side) are 2 ½- and three-stories and this is a one-story building. The height is not appropriate,” said Sauer, who also expressed her concerns about the slope of the roof for the proposed building.
The new structure also “breaks the (architectural) rhythm of the street”
and fails to meet most of the construction guidelines that were updated for the city last year, said Sauer, whose organization was created, in part, to demonstrate that historic preservation and forward-looking development can be compatible.
“New buildings are fine, but they need to respect and be compatible with the buildings that are nearby,” said Sauer, a Proctor & Gable executive who has chaired the organization since it was founded in 2006.
“It’s all glass with a metal screen and it’s not compatible with other buildings in the neighborhood,” said Sauer, who added that plans to light the building at night also may cause problems for nearby residents.
Sauer also made it clear that she and other Licking Riverside residents have a fondness for Baker Hunt. “It’s part of what makes Covington special, kind of a magical, hidden place,” she said.
Like Sauer, Virginia Kerst has been a strong supporter of Baker Hunt for many years and is a former president of a volunteer group called the Friends of Baker Hunt. She typically spends at least one day a week working as a volunteer on the landscaping and gardens.
But Kerst, who lives immediately east of Baker Hunt and both owns and manages property in the immediate vicinity, is opposed to the new building because of its design and what she sees as a violation of regulations on infill construction.
She said the height of the building as well as the texture of the materials don’t meet standards that call for new construction to “refer to” nearby buildings without attempting to replicate them.
She’s also concerned about the impact that the new building will have on the neighborhood if Baker Hunt is successful in attracting even more students to a campus that includes classrooms, studios, performance space, galleries and a museum.
“As Baker Hunt has grown, the neighborhood has been able to absorb that growth and there are now about 3,000 students,” said Kerst, who’s active in Progress with Preservation and the Licking-Riverside neighborhood association.
But she asked whether the proposed project might boost enrollment substantially and create an enormous strain on the neighborhood, especially for parking spots around Baker Hunt, where many people live in apartments and depend on the availability of on-street parking. On-street parking, of course, is equally important to landlords who may find it difficult to rent property in neighborhoods where parking is scarce.
In a press release last September, Baker Hunt said that it had doubled its enrollment in less than four years to about 2,700 students.
Enrollment is now up by about 125 percent to about 3,000, said Kingsbury, who was doubtful that the student population would grow so quickly that parking becomes difficult. He pointed out that half of the students are children who don’t drive and that a staggered class schedule has been established to decrease the demand for limited parking at any one time of the day.
There are about 35 parking spaces on the Baker Hunt property.
“I guess a few things in the plan that we’re trying to address are historic preservation and (financial) sustainability of Baker Hunt. They have been maintained, but they never have been upgraded,” Kingsbury said. “If we’re going to continue to bring students down here, we have to make their experience something they’re willing to pay for.”
One of the problems now is that Baker Hunt has very limited visibility from the street because the homes were built on raised lots and, with the exception of a small sign, the 600 block of Greenup looks residential, Kingsbury said.
Dan Groneck, president of U.S. Bank in Northern Kentucky and chair of the Baker Hunt board, said some money is available for the project. He declined to say how much has been earmarked for the project. Kingsbury also declined to talk about dollars.
But if the project gets a green light from the city, fundraising probably will begin in the fall, Kingsbury said.
Three months ago the Urban Design Review Board rejected attorney Todd McMurtry’s plan to build a home with a modern design on Sanford Street, a short distance from Baker Hunt. Two months ago the Covington City Commission overrode the design board and gave McMurtry permission to move ahead with his project.