Broughton Street’s east end still has some “empty teeth,” as local architect Kevin Rose puts it.
Instead of a continuous stretch of active businesses and street-level storefronts, the corridor includes vacant retail spaces and empty lots. One of the most prominent examples is the former Southern Motors building at the corner of East Broughton and Habersham streets.
But now the site is slated for redevelopment after plans for a signature bank building were approved by the Savannah Historic District Board of Review last week. The final approval concluded a nearly year-long process of refining the project through HDBR and community collaboration, amid objections over the proposal’s size.
“We feel like this bank should look like a bank. It should look like an office
building, and it should reflect Broughton Street,” said Rose, the project’s architect.
As part of the final design, HDBR granted a special exception that allowed removal of the roofline of a rooftop “flex space” from the building’s Broughton Street frontage. The special exception was required because the initial configuration was added to satisfy requirements in the city’s large-scale development standards, which the building was assessed under.
Removal of the roofline was requested by both the Historic Savannah Foundation and the Downtown Neighborhood Association. The groups made the request in order to reduce the building’s appearance of height.
HSF President and CEO Collier Neeley said the proposed structure stands as a “building of its time.”
“We find the building to be an appropriate addition to the (historic) district and compatible with the surrounding historic resources,” Neeley said.
The building is three stories, with the rooftop flex space serving as a fourth level. The rooftop addition will be used for outdoor lunches by the bank employees.
The future facility will be home to Queensborough National Bank, which currently occupies the street-level floor of the adjacent Berrien House. Rose said the proposal will help bring new energy to an end of Broughton Street that is fairly blighted.
To help give the project a signature bank feel, Rose drew inspiration from historic bank buildings on Johnson Square.
“I don’t want Savannah to be stuck in the 18th and 19th century, but I also want to reflect back,” Rose said.
The project did not pass without staunch opposition. The project received about 50 opposition letters and another five opposed in person.
The opponents claimed the project was too large for that area of Broughton Street, which turns more residential on its east end compared to the run of commercial before it. The public commenters also claimed the building was not visually compatible with the scale of those in its immediate vicinity.
Three opponents brought presentations with photographs of nearby buildings for comparison.
“This proposal does not fit into its setting. You can recognize it immediately,” said Andrew Jones, owner of the adjacent Berrien House.
Still, the project’s height and mass were approved in April by the board on a 3-2 vote. The special exception approval was unanimous last week.
When asked how he would respond to criticisms of the building, Rose offered a blunt assessment.
“I disagree,” he said, noting that differences were a matter of opinion.
Evan Lasseter is the City of Savannah and Chatham County government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at ELasseter@savannahnow.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Broughton Street bank building receives final approval
