Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 19, 1990 TAG: 9005190127
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY and GREG EDWARDS BUSINESS WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The variances involve building height, location on the site and the width of the service entrance, which will face Church Avenue.
The anticipated cost of the new 11-story building at Williamson and Franklin roads has been revised from $17 million to $25 million, NS spokesman Bob Auman said Friday.
The cost of the building is increasing because the size of the building has been increased by about 70,000 square feet.
The building will contain 220,000 square feet of space with about 180,000 square feet of usable working space, Auman said. By comparison, the new Faison office tower downtown will contain 205,868 feet of office space.
The railroad will occupy all of the building with the exception of some commercial space on the ground floor. The railroad originally planned to relocate 1,000 workers in the building but now anticipates only 900 will be stationed there, Auman said.
Friday afternoon the Roanoke Architectural Review Board gave informal approval to the variances and the design of the building. The ARB has no authority over the NS project, but because the site is adjacent to the downtown historic district, the ARB was asked to give an informal opinion on the plans.
William Whitwell, ARB chairman, had high praise for the project. "They've spent some architectural money they didn't have to spend," he said.
Norfolk Southern needs a variance for its 200-foot-tall building, which will be considerably taller than what's normally allowed in the area that abuts the downtown historic district.
NS also wants to place the building 10 feet closer to the property line than is allowed by the building code. This means the NS building will encroach on the view from Elmwood Park to the City Market created by the pedestrian walkway.
A wider-than-normal service entrance also must be approved. The variances will be considered by the Board of Zoning Appeals in July.
Whitwell said he had no problem with any of the requests. Whitwell is a Hollins College professor of art and architectural history. He said the design of the building is Post-Modern with Palladian (curved arch) windows and with a takeoff of the double-sloping mansard roof. He said the NS building should complement the Dominion Tower, which is being built three blocks away.
Ground was broken on the 20-story Dominion Tower May 11 and construction is expected to begin on the NS building in late summer.
ARB member architect Timm Jamieson went on record as opposing the setback variance for the NS building. He said there had been an "implied corridor" from the park to the market for many years and "this is a chance for a major building to conform."
The building was previewed for the Roanoke Planning Commission earlier this week and there also was some objection in that group to the setback variance.
The building is being placed on the site as close as possible to the pedestrian crosswalk, freeing the portion of the site toward Williamson Road for further development, said David Goff of Carter & Associates of Atlanta.
Carter & Associates is development consultant for the NS Roanoke project. Goff said NS had asked for a plan that gave the most efficient use of the site so that it could "be in competitive position" in the Roanoke real estate market in the future.
To change the plans would require "economic and aesthetic sacrifice," Goff told the commission. The project gets a formal hearing by the planning group next month.
Of the $25 million NS will spend on the new building, $1,375,000 will be paid to the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority for the land.
NS will relocate employees to the building from its two current office buildings across from Hotel Roanoke and others from its offices in the old Colonial American building at Jefferson Street and Campbell Avenue.
NS' main Roanoke office buildings across from the hotel are on the proposed site for the city's new convention and trade center.
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on May 22, 1990\ Correction
A setback variance that will be asked for the Norfolk Southern office building planned on a site at Franklin and Williamson roads was incorrectly described in Saturday's newspaper because of a misunderstanding by a reporter.
The railroad's request for a setback variance involves a corner of the building on Franklin Road and not along the pedestrian walkway from the City Market to Elmwood Park.
At a Thursday meeting of the Roanoke Planning Commission, the discussion of a setback for the building on the side bordering a pedestrian walkway involved a voluntary setback, not one required by code. NS has volunteered a 10-foot setback to create an open area alongside the walkway, but it was pointed out that this still could mean that the building will intrude on the line of vision created by the walkway that extends from Elmwood Park to the City Market.
Memo: correction