322 Newton St.

Staff Recommendations: 

322 Newton Street is a two-story two-family frame residential infill building in the Algiers Point district. The building proceeded through the HDLC new construction review process and received approval in August 2023. Several deviations from the approved plans were noted in a January 2024 final inspection. The deviations mainly centered on the detailing of the front façade double gallery. Staff is currently working with the applicant to resolve issues related to the gallery soffit and box beam detailing. Three (3) items are being brought before the Commission for consideration of retention. These items include the construction and installation of incorrectly sized front façade gallery front columns, detailing of capitals of said columns, incorrectly placed second story window above the recessed entry, and the installation of a visible hot water heater at the right-side elevation. 

The stylization of the new construction infill building lent itself to a more traditionally detailed design. The front façade double gallery is a major architectural feature of its traditional focus. In this application, the overall detailing fell short of the approved drawings. Unfortunately, the front façade columns fall under this category.  Square columns rather than the approved 10"x8" were installed and detailed capitals and banding trim were omitted. The square columns are not historically accurate for double gallery construction. However, the building is new construction and not a reconstruction of an existing historic building. Staff has no objection to the retention of the square columns at the front façade double gallery provided that the correct capital trim and other column trim are installed to detail the columns as approved. 

As seen below in the approved plans, window "D" at the second story left-side elevation above the recessed entry was to be centered in the wall, equally distant from either side. The as constructed condition includes a "D" window that was installed with the right-most trim as essentially part of the corner board at that area. Visually, this creates a situation in which the window is not correctly placed on that wall. Staff has no objection to the retention of the "D" window at its current location.