The Park City Museum and Historic Society filed the appeal after seeing what staff had approved. They argued that the changes to the barrel roof and doers and windows could possible remove the historic building built in 1929 as one of the city’s Landmark structures.
Museum Director Sandra Morrison told the Board of Adjustment that the applicants need to stick to the historic district guidelines and not allow any demolition of the double-barrel roof form. She also requested that the applicant repair rather than replace the historic windows, remove the non-historic corrugated iron siding on Park Ave. and reestablish the open bays on Park Ave.
During the public hearing Treasure Hill applicant Mike Sweeney supported the staff’s approval of the renovation and asked them to overturn the appeal.
“In this particular case I think we need to look at the functionality of the building and what we can do to make it better," Sweeney said. "And I also agree with the gentleman right here that this is a much superior project than what we were going to do for the Kimball Center itself so, I’m supporting the staff, thank you.”
After the board’s discussion about the demolition of the double-barrel roof, Morrison asked that they side with history.
“That doesn’t address universal guideline number nine that says, ‘New additions should not destroy historic materials,’” Morrison said.
Historic preservation planner Anya Grahn said she agrees but it’s a double-edged sword.
“But when does a historic addition not destroy some historic material in order to add to be added on to it," Grahn said. "We’ve seen that all over and that’s something that our historic preservation board has been looking at every month where – when you add an addition you want to try to minimize it as much as possible. We add transitional elements so that we don’t lose as much of the back of the historic wall to add that new addition. I think there’s always a little bit of give and take on how much historical material has to be lost to accommodate these new adaptions and rehabilitations.”
In the end – the board supported the staff’s approval of the renovations which require that one of the two barrels on the roof remain and that before any windows or doors are removed, an expert will evaluate whether or not they can be preserved or if they should be replaced.