ROARING FORK BROADCASTING COMPANY
Such an alteration would be inconsistent with previous approvals from the Aspen Historic Preservation Commission, which has set a special meeting on the matter for Wednesday. The issue comes five years into the corner construction project at East Hyman Avenue and Monarch Street and reflects the latest challenge associated with keeping the contemporary development faithful to its historic roots and HPC approvals.
The HPC meeting was publicly noticed earlier this month; however, on Friday, the city of Aspen posted on its website a memo from Community Development Director Ben Anderson to the HPC recommending the public hearing be postponed. Anderson called for a pause in the process, known as a “substantial amendment review,” to allow the HPC to provide the developers “with clear direction on the proposed amendment and a path forward.”
“While the building permit remains active and in good standing,” Anderson’s memo says, “substantial progress on completing the building has stalled. There are a few reasons for this, but certainly prominent is a need to identify an alternative treatment for the west wall.”
A revised application was submitted to the city on Sept. 25 by BendonAdams, an Aspen planning firm that represents the building’s ownership, led by developer Mark Hunt. The application includes reports from five “nationally recognized building conservators” who examined the wall, which faces Monarch Street, starting in the early 2020s, after the project received its main approvals and had broken ground.
The reports, according to the application, held “that the foundation underneath the west wall is not structurally sound, the composition of the west wall indicates that it is not original 19th century construction, and the repainted Owl Cigar mural has lead paint. Removal of the west wall and the lead paint is required at the very least to proceed with the project. According to the experts, the west wall cannot feasibly be lifted in place and relocated back to its current location based on the structural stability of the wall, and furthermore, the technical reports demonstrate that there is a mix of repaired historic and new brick and mortar throughout the wall supporting the hypothesis that the wall has been rebuilt before.”
City officials indicated they agree with the development team’s contention that the west wall’s structural integrity and historical significance are in question.
Anderson’s memo points out recent discoveries showing that portions of the wall are in a city right of way. The memo adds the wall’s sandstone foundation and brick-and-mortar composition “have significant issues related to structural integrity. These conditions must be given a path to resolution.”
Demolishing and rebuilding the wall with salvaged bricks and replicating the Owl Cigar mural into the central area of the wall, however, are “not consistent with the letter or intent of previous approvals,” the memo says.
The reconstruction of the west wall highlights the application’s proposed amendment that also seeks significant architectural changes to the south and west wall, minor changes to the interior layout and the building’s top-most level.
Hunt is owner of Aspen- and Chicago-based M Development, which, with Corte Madera, California-based RH, are redeveloping the former Crystal Palace building into a boutique hotel and the former Bidwell Building at Galena Street and East Cooper Avenue into an RH Design Gallery with retail and dining.
The RH Guesthouse will have 20 guestrooms, an RH Bath House and Spa and a restaurant, cafe and rooftop terrace. The hotel rooms will average 449 square feet in size, and conditions of approval require a minimum occupancy of two guests per room.
The projects, announced in January 2021, are part of a larger RH-Hunt endeavor heralded as the “Aspen Ecosystem” with residential and retail components.
RH in public filings said the RH Guesthouse, the first of which opened in New York City’s Meatpacking District in September 2022, is a “new hotel concept for travelers seeking privacy and luxury.”
The Crystal Palace structure was built in 1891 and developed into a wholesale produce house by S.B. Clark; the operation changed to Aspen Commission Co. in the early 20th century.
The building’s original Victorian-era form waned over the years. Citing a June 1908 edition of The Aspen Democrat, the application for reconstructing the wall says the Owl Cigar was “likely painted in 1908.”
Mead Metcalf would buy and rehabilitate the building in 1958, opening the Crystal Palace dinner theater; the cabaret would remain there until 2008. The original Crystal Palace opened in 1957 in the Motherlode building next door on East Hyman Avenue.
The HPC’s 2017 approvals, meanwhile, allowed for demolition and reconstruction of the building’s east and north façades, which were rebuilt in the 1970s.
Soon after construction began in 2019, the building’s south-facing wall was replaced and replicated when “it became evident that historic materials on the south façade (along Hyman) were substantially absent. It was allowed to be demolished and construction (allowed under a new building permit) … proceeded as approved to its current state,” Anderson’s memo says.
The city administratively granted the developer’s request in 2020 for minor modifications to the project, which then settled on the following dimensions: total project floor area of 21,931 square feet, lodge floor area of 17,121 square feet, commercial floor area of 4,810 square feet and commercial net leasable space totaling 3,137 square feet.
More recently, the city’s historic preservation office in 2021 conducted an assessment of the west wall, which had become the building’s “sole remaining historic fabric.”
“Like many aspects of Aspen,” Anderson’s memo says, “the former Crystal Palace building in this location holds a great deal of romantic significance for both residents and visitors. It was an important building in terms of the town’s architectural fabric, but this sentiment was further extenuated by the great memories of the activities that happened inside the building. Additionally, the Owl Cigar mural is an iconic graphic that remains in the collective imagination of Aspen’s past and present.”
Anderson’s recommendation to the HPC is that it provide the RH Guesthouse development group one of four options “after providing the applicant with clear direction on the proposed amendment and a path forward.”
One of the opinions is to carry forward the current substantial amendment proposed to reconstruct the west-facing wall. If that were to occur, the project would need to go through demolition review or lose its historic landmark designation — one or the other “would be necessary to justify this decision,” the memo says.
“Historic preservation outcomes must be navigated and appropriate solutions identified, but it should also be considered that this partially completed construction project inhabits a very prominent location in the heart of downtown Aspen. Acknowledging the complex path that this redevelopment project has been on, staff and the applicant are unified in desiring to find solutions in moving the project forward,” Anderson’s memo says.
The application, meanwhile, notes that the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties makes a rare exception for reconstruction of historic properties, an approach not considered by Aspen’s historic preservation design guidelines.
The current proposal to reconstruct the west-facing wall is justified, the application argues, because it meets the interior secretary’s criteria for reconstruction when other treatment options are not available or have been exhausted.
Hunt issued the following statement on Saturday: “The proposed amendment is the viable solution for this property. We are grateful for the opportunity to present a building that is authentic. The guesthouse team is highly talented and creative, so we have no doubt that the building will be beautiful inside and out and something everyone can be proud of. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the city and are excited for a productive HPC meeting so we can avoid delays and finish the building in 2025.”
RH CEO Gary Friedman mentioned the disagreement with the city to investors and analysts at a first-quarter earnings conference earlier this year.
“We’re at a standoff with the city on the guesthouse and some arguments on if the wall that they want us to keep as historic, is historic,” he said. “And we believe it’s not historic and (have) proof of that.”