City of Aurora Fox Walk Overlay Review Committee Met May 5.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
ROLL CALL
The following Committee members were present: Fernando Castrejon, Karen Christensen, Fawn Clarke-Peterson, Clara Diaz, Brian Failing, Jeff Palmquist and Charlie Zine.
OTHERS PRESENT
The following staff members were present: Jill Morgan, Ed Sieben, Sue Jackson and Jen Evans (Public Art).
Others Present: Marissa Amoni (Aurora Downtown), Christopher Lucero (Artist) and Harish Ananthapadmanabhan (JH Real Estate Group, LLC).
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
21-0336 Approval of the Minutes of the FoxWalk Overlay District Design Review Committee meeting of April 7, 2021.
A motion was made by Mr. Failing, seconded by Mr. Palmquist, that the minutes be approved and filed. The motion carried.
COA REPORT
21-0335 FoxWalk Certificate of Appropriateness Report (COA's Approved by Staff - April 1, 2021-April 31, 2021)
This COA Report was discussed and filed.
PUBLIC COMMENT
None.
AGENDA
21-0325 Certificate of Appropriateness to install a mural on the east elevation at 105 E. Galena Boulevard (JH Real Estate Partners, LLC - 21-0325 / AU22/3-21.122-FCOA - JM - Ward 2)
Mrs. Morgan said let me bring up an image of it. I’ll briefly introduce it, kind of give you the location and a brief description and then turn it over to Jennifer Evans, our Art Director, to add any additional information. This mural is located at 105 E. Galena. They are proposing to paint a mural on the concrete wall on the second story. The concrete wall is an alteration from the original historic building. The theme of the mural is Diversity in Technology. It is going to be approximately 38 feet by 52 feet. It is being funded partially by a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts, as well as a matching amount from Aurora Downtown. It will have our typical anti-graffiti coating that we require in our murals. There is an agreement with the city and the owner regarding the mural. There was a RFP process and it was awarded to local artist Rafael Blanco. He is an Art Professor at Elmhurst College. I will turn it over to Jen.
Jen, do you have any additional comments? Do you want to talk about the mural design or the RFP process or anything?
Ms. Evans said I don’t have too many comments. It is probably 90% that we are going to have augmented reality added to this. It is planned tentatively to have portraits of more diverse community members, as well as animating that green background. We will put up a QR code by the mural for the public to be able to access that augmented reality experience through their phone. Mostly, I’m just available to answer questions.
Mrs. Morgan said Jen, could you also talk about how you are wanting to do kind of everything simultaneously as kind of a mural festival?
Ms. Evans said yes. So in 2020, we had planned to do our first annual mural festival per national standards of what has been a fantastic marketing opportunity for other cities around the country and the world. We certainly couldn’t do it last year. We don’t have the budget to do it this year, but we are going to continue to try to do all of the murals at once and partner with Aurora Downtown and Alley Art Fest, as well as Family Focus and Roots Aurora if that goes through. It will be in that time period so that we can build the biggest impact possible downtown to bring visitors and residents to the area. In the future, we hope to have more entertainment. We do, in the Lot H project that will be coming up in a couple of items, we do plan to have DJ’s and break dancers there, but this will doing them simultaneously and will be the beginning of what we hope to be an annual festival that will bring a lot of attention to downtown Aurora.
Chairman Zine said can you explain the augmented reality?
Ms. Evans said yes. You hold your phone up to this QR code that leads you to an app that we are hoping to connect with the new Otocast audio tour app that we just published a few weeks ago that gives you a tour of all of the public art. Now there are 25 public are installations that are on this Otocast audio tour app, kind of like if you go to a museum and then you get a little audio tour of where everything is. We are hoping technology-wise it can be embedded in that and then you will hold your phone up to the mural and there will be additional elements, so it can be audio, it can be visual animations, so it will be bring more visual, at the very least, more visual elements, animated to the mural than you can just see with the naked eye.
Mr. Castrejon said so the green is like a green screen?
Ms. Evans said no. The camera of your phone shows you what’s actually there, so you are looking at it like you would be looking to take a picture through your phone, but then this program will show that say the green like technical stuff in the background of the portrait will sort of like turn and kind of come out at you in 3-D at the very least.
You look and you just see the regular mural, but then you look through your phone.
You see the entire mural plus animated digital elements.
Chairman Zine said so the mural is on the second floor, correct, on the second floor wall?
Ms. Evans said yes.
Chairman Zine said is there going to be like a designated area on the ground on the parking lot back there where you can stand to get the best position? Do you need to be in a certain place?
Ms. Evans said so it looks like our best, Aurora Public Art will be spending an additional $6,000 on the project, most likely, to have a swing stage, which is like what they use for window washers on skyscrapers. There’s a possibility we could still use a boom. It will be just one artist working by himself, so in terms of physics, that safe.
Then we need traffic, you know, when he is coming from the Galena side of the wall, we’ll need traffic control, so we are probably going to go with the swing stage and then the artist and myself will both get safety training for that.
Chairman Zine said is the image that we saw the final image?
Ms. Evans said yes. His portfolio includes completed portraits of that level of realism.
Chairman Zine said so we’re looking for a motion then to approve this?
Mrs. Morgan said yes. If you recall, it is a recommendation from the Design Review Committee that will go to the Building, Zoning and Economic Development for the final approval.
MOTION OF APPROVAL WAS MADE BY: Fawn Clark-Peterson
MOTION SECONDED BY: Fernando Castrejon
Mr. Castrejon said also the additional diversity sketching painting that’s going to be added, will we see that before it’s actually started or will it be just the green background with the painting of the woman in the forefront?
Ms. Evans said I’m not sure I’m understanding the second part of the question as far as being a green screen.
Mr. Castrejon said will there be more than one figure to the final product.
Ms. Evans said I don’t believe that the Ordinance requires that it goes through an approval process for the augmented reality portion. It is still not 100% confirmed that we will be able to afford to do the augmented reality. I am managing that project, so I can say with confidence that it will be tasteful, but it will not be available unless members of the public choose to download the app and look at it through their phones.
Chairman Zine said so the minimum we are looking at is the image that you showed us earlier?
Ms. Evans said correct.
AYES: Fernando Castrejon, Fawn Clarke-Peterson, Clara Diaz, Jeff Palmquist, Charlie Zine
NAYS: None
PASS: Karen Christensen, Brian Failing
A motion was made by Mrs. Clarke-Peterson, seconded by Mr. Castrejon, that this agenda item be Forwarded to the Building, Zoning, and Economic Development Committee, on the agenda for 5/12/2021. The motion carried.
21-0326 Certificate of Appropriateness to install a mural on the north side of the BNSF viaduct wall located on New York Street near LaSalle Street (BNSF Railway - 21-0326 / AU22/5-21.124-FCOA - JM - Ward 2)
Mrs. Morgan said let me do a quick screen share. This is the wall we are talking about. It is the one on the north of New York Street. Here is the image. Four local artists will paint a Mexican Folk Art mural on the north concrete wall under the tracks.
The project will use a portion of the wall approximately 80 feet by 15 feet. The theme of the mural is Celebration of Mexican Heritage in Aurora represented by large scales of varied animals, colors and patterns. Public Art is, again, part of putting this in that simultaneous mural. This is being partially funded by a grant from the Burlington Northern Foundation. This area is owned by the BNSF railway, but there is agreement, again, with the city on doing the mural and maintaining the mural. Jen if you want to add anymore about the design, the different animals, the artists or anything.
Ms. Evans said I worked carefully with this group of four artists. They are all, I think their average age is about 22. They are all from Aurora. They are all of Mexican heritage. It’s been fun that one of the artist’s mother is from Oaxaca and has had a lot of input into which animals should be chosen and has been very invested in the concept. They’ve provided several drafts of this. There is a slightly different final draft then what is here, which is my fault for not, I guess I didn’t send that most final one.
There’s some white circles in the background that have been changed to flowers per my playing art professor again with this group of artists. It’s really hard to work as young artists to put together four different styles of art into a cohesive composition. I’m really proud of them. They’ve done a really nice job. They took out a lot of animals so that it was better for a fast mural. In other words, something that traffic goes by quickly and there’s now this great focal point of the owl in the center and then there’s a jumping goat and a jumping rabbit sort of flanking that. There is some really nice symmetry there. They’ve done a really good job to create a composition that covers the wall really well.
Mr. Failing said Jen, I think it looks really great and just being a neighbor to the west, it is really going to be nice for people coming in and going under that viaduct. Great job. I now it’s been a long time coming to do anything with the viaducts.
Ms. Evans said thank you Brian. We’ve been working on this for like 3 years. Thank you.
Chairman Zine said and congratulations in getting BNFS involved with some funding.
Ms. Evans said yes. We got about twice as much in grant funds as they usually give for this particular opportunity, so that’s exciting.
Mrs. Diaz said I want to know how do you keep the brilliant colors all year?
Ms. Evans said so, we have already purchased, as Public Art Department, the highest qualify light fast pigments for this that I chose myself based on my experience as a painter, so every color that we have that we will be using is a light fast level of 1 or 2 on a scale of 4. It is also kind of shaded by the bridge, which will also help that it not be faded by the sun. Lastly, it will get 3 coats of an anti-graffiti coating that also works as a UF protectant.
Mrs. Diaz said thank you Jen. We needed these beautiful colors. Thank you.
Chairman Zine said that is a gateway, so it is a nice location.
MOTION OF APPROVAL WAS MADE BY: Jeff Palmquist
MOTION SECONDED BY: Brian Failing
AYES: Fernando Castrejon, Karen Christensen, Fawn Clarke-Peterson, Clara Diaz, Brian Failing, Jeff Palmquist, Charlie Zine
NAYS: None
A motion was made by Mr. Palmquist, seconded by Mr. Failing, that this agenda item be Forwarded to the Building, Zoning, and Economic Development Committee, on the agenda for 5/12/2021. The motion carried.
21-0327 Certificate of Appropriateness to install a mural on the east elevation at 210 E. Galena Boulevard (Jasper Juarez - 21-0327 / AU22/3-21.125-FCOA - JM - Ward 2)
Mrs. Morgan said let me share my screen for this one. Here is the image of the mural.
Aurora Downtown is requesting to paint a mural on the east elevation facing the parking lot. The wall is painted brick and will be cleaned, repaired and painted with the mural and with the anti-graffiti sealant. The mural is approximately 15 feet by 30 feet.
The mural is blue with green, purple and gold accents. The design is an Art Nouveau quilt design that is meant to reflect the many different people and cultures that make up Aurora. The artists are Laura Lynne and Catalina Diaz, who are local artists who have done work, including the plywood Black Lives Matter mural that was done in the downtown. Again, there is an agreement. This one is being requested and funded through Aurora Downtown, so they did the RFP process. I believe there is a RFP process. They chose this mural design and artist. Jen Evans, as well, can talk about the design and APAC’s review of it, but we also have Marissa Amoni from Aurora Downtown on the line to answer questions as well.
Ms. Evans said so this project was passed by the Development Services Team, as well as the Aurora Public Art Commission. Any additional information I think I would defer to Marissa for.
Mrs. Amoni said so Aurora Downtown reviewed 8 proposals and the proposal submitted by Catalina Diaz and Laura Lynne received the highest rubric to move onto the next level. We also had a mural task team review this design before sending it on.
Chairman Zine said could we see the image again? I’m trying to place it. I saw the river in there, but I’m trying to place the other images.
Mrs. Amoni said you’ll notice a lot of historic architecture details from the Keystone building and from other downtown buildings and, yes, there is the Fox River and the pedestrian bridge that goes over it. There is also the mastodons.
Chairman Zine said and what are the images from the Keystone building?
Review Committee
Mrs. Amoni said they are in the tile, the four corner tiles.
Chairman Zine said got it, okay.
Mrs. Amoni said and then there is also some of the Mayan look from the Mayan.
Chairman Zine said and which image is that from the Mayan?
Mrs. Amoni said the pyramids at the bottom.
Chairman Zine said got it, okay. And then the star is the Northgate star, the 2 stars in the center?
Mrs. Amoni said yes.
Chairman Zine said nice symbolism. Thank you for that.
MOTION OF APPROVAL WAS MADE BY: Fernando Castrejon
MOTION SECONDED BY: Charlie Zine
AYES: Fernando Castrejon, Fawn Clarke-Peterson, Clara Diaz, Jeff Palmquist, Charlie Zine
NAYS: None
PASS: Karen Christensen, Brian Failing
A motion was made by Mr. Castrejon, seconded by Mr. Zine, that this agenda item be Forwarded to the Building, Zoning, and Economic Development Committee, on the agenda for 5/12/2021. The motion carried.
21-0328 Certificate of Appropriateness to allow Aurora Public Art to create a rotating mural exhibition space on the retaining walls along Parking Lot H located at 14 Middle Avenue (City of Aurora - 21-0328 / AU22/1-21.126-FCOA- JM - Ward 6)
Mrs. Morgan said let me do a screen share. Here is the parking lot and the retaining wall that you can see currently. Aurora Public Art would like to create an area in the city that allows artists to create like spontaneous murals displaying their own creative work and ideas. Unlike most of the murals that have RFP processes that outline specific parameters, this would give the artist the opportunity to completely create the piece themselves. Public Art will coat the murals with anti-graffiti sealant. The new murals will be solicited annually to keep the area fresh. Inappropriate content will be painted over immediately and the artist will sign off on the city being able to do that.
Here are just some samples that Jen had provided that local artists have kind of done on their own with their own impressions, more the spontaneous idea that was done. I can turn it over to Jen to explain that more.
Ms. Evans said there has been a real need for maybe over the last 40 years for local artists to be able to express their art specifically in the median of street art, which is not generally planned ahead of time in the manner that the mural Ordinance requires for a design, say 6 months ahead of time, which ends up contributing to inequitable selection of these murals and an unnecessary hurdle for certain kinds of local artists in the style that they paint and the legitimate form of art that street art is. When we had the plywood mural, the week were local artists came, we had maybe 100 community volunteers come out and it was such a positive experience of people feeling heard, people contributing, so community building. The Public Art Department has made the Artist Alliance, which is free and open to the public group to join for artist support, networking and education that we are in contact with these artists through about 2 newsletters a month, as well as a Zoom meeting every month, so just supporting the community in this way. I’ve come to see how important that is. Also, this would not be at all like the mural on the Downer Place retaining wall behind Paul and Bill’s gas station that was initially set up prior to the 2016 mural ordinance where it kind of became grandfathered in that it was legal to paint there at any time. This will be a weekend during the mural festival when we are doing all of these simultaneously where local artists can register, sign off on appropriate content according to Illinois law, no hate speech, no obscenity and if they do that anyway, which I don’t see anybody doing because they are so excited to be able to do this in the first place, it is the first time we’d ever be able to allow this, then it will be painted over. After the weekend where this is being done, then it will be sealed in three coats of this UF protectant, anti-graffiti coating and then we’d like to do it every year. Street art is this immediate form of expression that is about where the artists are currently, so we want to support that. It is something that is done all over the country in so many cities that we haven’t really had a process for. I believe that opening it up for the weekend for registered artists kind of on a first come first served basis because it is not based on artistic merit. It is about inclusion and equity of our local artists. It is targeted for Aurora artists. This will be a controlled situation to allow that kind of expression.
Chairman Zine said I have a couple of quick questions Jen. The image that we saw of that parking lot, there was a blank concrete wall on the right side of the screen and then in the center was concrete wall with vines over it and I’m not sure what was on the left. Which wall, or walls, are we talking about there?
Ms. Evans said we will start with the wall that is right along the Taqueria Restaurant property. If we have enough interest, we can extend it onto the wall where the ivy is.
Downtown Maintenance was very happy to remove that ivy and does not want it there in the first place. I’ve been in conversation with Economic Development over this project. They let me know that at some point there may be a staircase being cut into the wall in the Taqueria side and for this kind of art it just doesn’t matter because this is temporary art and if they cut out that part of the wall, this is a temporary situation, so it is just sort of going year by year, but the ivy will be removed. On the south side of the lot, the retaining wall is very short and is not something that we’re looking at using. I don’t know the name off hand of the property owner who owns that building where Oxie Eye Ware is and there is a sign advertising Oxie Eye Ware. I have not been able to get a hold of the owner to seek permission for that wall. He also owns the garage that forms the rest of the sort of U-shape of that lot. We will not be using that at all at this time.
Chairman Zine said and what are the approximate sizes? Is it one size or is it going to vary?
Ms. Evans said I’m thinking that it can be approximately 10 feet wide per mural and this is a really nice incredibly inexpensive way of embracing the community kind of a way to do something like small sort of Wynwood walls like they have if Miami that many of our administrators have gone down to Miami and have been very impressed by that program. The Beeline in Chicago has something very similar with these like one mural after another. Oak Park has it, there L tracks one after another. It will be similar to that.
Chairman Zine said I like the way this fits in with the other art that has to go through the full process. This is more spontaneous and more diverse. That’s a nice one.
MOTION OF APPROVAL WAS MADE BY: Fawn Clarke-Peterson
MOTION SECONDED BY: Clara Diaz
AYES: Fernando Castrejon, Karen Christensen, Fawn Clarke-Peterson, Clara Diaz, Brian Failing, Jeff Palmquist, Charlie Zine
NAYS: None
A motion was made by Mrs. Clarke-Peterson, seconded by Mrs. Diaz, that this agenda item be Forwarded to the Building, Zoning, and Economic Development Committee, on the agenda for 5/12/2021. The motion carried.
21-0331 Certificate of Appropriateness to install three framed murals on the east elevation facing the Fox River at 36 W. Downer Place (LaSalle National Bank - 21-0331 / AU22/3-21.128-FCOA - JM - Ward 6)
Mrs. Morgan said let me bring up an image. This is an updated image from what was presented in your packet, updated by the artist to reflect some of the APAC comments. This is being requested by the owner of the building and the artist, Christopher Lucero, to paint 3 Mexican Folk Art murals to depicting calaveras. The murals will be painted on metal sheets and coated with a special vinyl to protect them from UV light and graffiti. The murals will be framed using treated wood and hung onto the wall facing the river. The frames will be attached using a French Cleat system using small holes drilled into the mortar joints. If you recall, the mural to the right came before the Committee a year or two ago and so this one will be kind of three additional murals on that wall. This has been reviewed by APAC and we have Jen who can comment on that, as well as we have the artist, Christopher Lucero, to add anything or to answer any questions about the design.
Ms. Evans said before I defer to Christopher, the Aurora Public Art Commission did approve this with the recommendation that it be a little bit less dark in color, which he did and he provided that.
Mr. Lucero said I ended up working up (inaudible). Just to clarify, it’s not going to be hanging on the metal. It’s being printed, so these are all photographs. I can show you the slightly altered version. It is not too different. This is the before version and the slightly brighter version is this one. I brightened up the eyes and the rest of the shadows. I wasn’t sure if you wanted it just to be brightened up as well or if you wanted the tone of the space to be like slightly different to give off a different emotion.
She looks a bit more angry, but I did change the eyebrows a bit. It is very subtle, or I could go with a more sad expression, but I thought that was a bit too different. There’s after and before. If anybody has any questions, I’d like to answer them.
Chairman Zine said what’s the approximate size?
Mr. Lucero said the exact measurements I haven’t gotten just yet, but I imagine from the end of the frame to one end of the frame is going to be probably 12 by 8 approximately, but the actual metal mural pieces will probably 8 by 6, give or take.
Mrs. Dias said I want to know if the three murals are the same size.
Mr. Lucero said no. I highlighted the center one to be slightly bigger. The other two, the left and the right one, are going to be the same size. I did make a mockup of them being (inaudible). I think overall, the one center one (inaudible).
Mrs. Clarke-Peterson said I think the one in the center being larger will work better and balance out with the one that is already there.
Ms. Evans said Christopher, it may be beneficial to give a very brief explanation of the concept behind the work.
Mr. Lucero said so the overall concept draws from people in everyday life. I try to get a different variety of people. With this one being around like a Mexican heritage next to my brother’s Mexican mural, I figured picking the three Mexican people that I’ve highlighted, it would be more fitting. I’ve done up to 44, almost 45 different sugar skulls that I’ve face painted on people, but each one is a little different in regard to their story or what they want to share. So based off of that they want to share is what I paint their face or what kind of robe or flag or accessory I usually use as a start. For example, the middle one that I just showed you, one of my best friends that I ended up growing up with, his story is regarding him having to do a lot of work, a lot of manual labor growing up. He ended up working 2 or 3 jobs and to him that’s normal. The title of his is called the Laborer. The far left one has to do with a DACA recipient who also lives in Aurora. I ended up interviewing her a few years back. You guys might know her. I think she was on one of these panels. It was Alexis, but hers has to do with the DACA and how it affects her as a resident. Then the far right one is a musician, who is my cousin, who is currently in Mexico, but it tells his aspirations to become a guitarist and songwriter.
Ms. Evans said can you speak to the artist residency that you had for the City of West Chicago?
Mr. Lucero said I’m still working for the City of West Chicago. They hired me to do 24 different portraits for their city. Each portrait would have to deal with a City of West Chicago resident. I went around interviewing people and creating 24 different portraits of West Chicago residents. So far I’ve created 20.
Mrs. Christensen said I think this is a question for Jen. Will there be some way for people who see the murals to get some understanding of the stories behind them and of Christopher’s process?
Mr. Lucero said I would absolutely love like a small plaque dedicated to it. I know like on the sidewalk there is like a little divot where you can kind of step forward and see out onto the river. If there is any possible way of making a plaque with each person’s story, that would be wonderful. I’d love that actually.
Ms. Evans said I think that’s a great idea and something that I would like to have at a lot of these sites is a QR code for people to access that and to market that this free audio tour app is available to them. When this goes up, we’ll photograph it. We’ll ask you to record exactly this kind of explanation and it will be added to the audio tour, so it will be free and available to the public this kind of explanation as you requested Karen.
Mr. Lucero said that sounds awesome. I’m definitely down for that idea.
MOTION OF APPROVAL WAS MADE BY: Karen Christensen
MOTION SECONDED BY: Fernando Castrejon
AYES: Fernando Castrejon, Karen Christensen, Fawn Clarke-Peterson, Clara Diaz, Brian Failing, Jeff Palmquist, Charlie Zine
NAYS: None
A motion was made by Mrs. Christensen, seconded by Mr. Castrejon, that this agenda item be Forwarded to the Building, Zoning, and Economic Development Committee, on the agenda for 5/12/2021. The motion carried.
21-0333 Certificate of Appropriateness to allow the paint to remain on the front façade at 1-7 N. Broadway and 100-104 E. Galena Boulevard (JH Real Estate Group, LLC - 21-0333 - AU22/3-21.129-FCOA - JM - Ward 2)
Mrs. Morgan said let me share. I have the owner’s before and after photos that was not in your packet, so let me do a screen share to show you those. I do have the owner on the line as well to answer questions once I kind of give the brief background and the photos. The subject property is currently in the Downtown Core. It is an early 20th century commercial building built in 1904. The building’s architectural character features is some of the decorative stone cornice that runs near the roofline, the tile and brick diamond features are kind of underneath that, as well as some other horizontal masonry bands. The first story was altered with a new commercial storefront, probably around the 60’s or 70’s is staff’s estimate and the brick that’s beneath the storefront probably dates to that period, so it is not original to the historic building. The left is the before. The right is the after. You notice they’ve also added an awning, which is also on the FCOA permit and that is approval by staff and that would be a permitted awning. I think staff does think that has added some benefit to the building. Here again are some before and after. This is kind of a zoomed-up picture of the current brick. As you know, the FoxWalk guidelines typically do not want you to paint brick, specifically for coating historic brick that can cause some issues with breathability and allowing water to come out of the material, the brick. It is also not recommended usually to paint brick that’s not painted just to make sure that you don’t cover any decorative brick patterns or corbeling. On this building, the brick wasn’t a decoration. It was just a simple standard brick. It wasn’t an older brick, again, probably I think from the 60’s or 70’s. Some of the issues with removing brick can be costly and can lead to additional concerns if not done correctly. I think for this building, the brick is kind of heavy textured, which can be a little more problematic when trying to remove it to get in all the little crevices. I will just turn it over to the owners to give their thoughts about it and what’s led to all of the changes to the building. I would note, and I did in the staff report, that the building has had a lot of changes in the past few years. The awnings, for instance, were just recently done, as well as the masonry along the top was stabilized and there was major tuckpinting.
There were a lot of issues with it falling down and that has been corrected. I believe it was last year. That was corrected through a COA permit. Unless there are any questions for me, I can turn it over to Harish and Kelsey to answer any questions or add any additional information.
Mr. Ananthapadmanabhan said hello everybody. I think a lot of people are there who I have prior contact with, so hello. Again, just from our perspective, the way we were looking at it is okay we need to make improvements on the building, especially since this building is located at Main and Main, so there were a lot of issues after we purchased this building that we wanted to take care of, like Jill mentioned, obviously, the brick was falling off on the second and third floor so we had to make sure that from a masonry perspective we stabilized it and also the windows were having issues.
As part of the overall improvement, that’s something that we believe in, in all the properties that we’ve invested in downtown Aurora, is not to just sit on it but actually improve it and help with the curb appeal and the businesses that are operating. So from that perspective, the awnings and the brick was painted. I’m not going to lie to you guys, I was not aware of the Fox Walk guidelines, but the intention was to sharpen the look and make it attractive. Like Jill mentioned, it is good to know that this was not the original brick that was installed much later. Again, from our perspective, our goal is to improve all our buildings that we own over here. Jen also brought up our bank building with the mural that we have, which actually signifies our, you know, so I don’t know if you guys know we are doing the non-for-profit institution called APS Training Academy to provide free technology training to the underserved community, so that building at 105 E. Galena, the mural will signify that. The QR automatic reality will include students from other races as well. We’re really excited about that. But coming back to this, our goal was to improve the look and feel of the building and make it more attractive for the tenants and well as everybody who looks at the building.
Chairman Zine said I will add that’s a bit of an understatement that you did some tuckpointing on that building. I saw how many bricks you removed from that building and it was a big job and you did a great job on that. The windows look good on the top. The whole building looks very good. I appreciate you doing that.
Mrs. Christensen said I would make a motion to approve this, but I think it calls again for the importance of revisiting the guidelines in terms of painting masonry.
Chairman Zine said I would agree with that. We’ve made several exceptions on that and I’m not necessarily opposed to those, but if you are making that many exceptions, I think that you should look at the rules and think about rewriting those, making them more specific and clear and covering more instances.
Mrs. Christensen said would it be appropriate for me to make two separate motions, one to support issuing a Certificate of Appropriateness and the second to direct staff to work on revising this section of the ordinance?
Mrs. Morgan said we wouldn’t be able to motion on it because it wasn’t on the agenda, but you can ask us to do that and we can go back and take a look at that and put it on the agenda as a discussion item for next time. I would agree that I think looking at updating it and maybe getting someone. I’ve spoken to John about trying to get some more of the architectural understanding as far as years, when does maybe the painting matter or have more of an impact and when doesn’t it from a structural standpoint.
Chairman Zine said good point.
MOTION OF APPROVAL WAS MADE BY: Karen Christensen
MOTION SECONDED BY: Brian Failing
AYES: Fernando Castrejon, Karen Christensen, Fawn Clarke-Peterson, Clara Diaz, Brian Failing, Jeff Palmquist, Charlie Zine
NAYS: None
Mrs. Diaz said I want to make a comment. Harish, I want to say thank you my neighbor for making my block beautiful. This is what we need, people like you to have a nice city. Thank you Harish.
Mr. Ananthapadmanabhan said thank you Clara. Those are kind words. I appreciate it.
A motion was made by Mrs. Christensen, seconded by Mr. Failing, that this agenda item be approved. The motion carried.
PENDING
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mrs. Morgan said I think we should have another meeting next month. There is an item that I know Economic Development is working on to kind of update the guidelines to encourage some more different types of use. I believe we should have a meeting next month. The only other thing is I would just update you on is that we are working on mailings, trying to get some letters out to the downtown owners and tenants.
ADJOURNMENT
A motion was made by Mrs. Christensen, seconded by Mr. Failing, that this agenda item be adjourned. The motion carried. Chairman Zine adjourned the meeting at 6:27 p.m.
https://www.aurora-il.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_05052021-2620
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