BEDFORD — The Stonecutters Place senior apartments will bring a new purpose and a new look to a nearly century-old building downtown.
The Bedford Historic Review Board Wednesday approved a change in facade plans for the building. Board members also got detailed looks at some of the plans.
The project, part of Bedford’s Stellar Communities program, will transform the buildings at the southeast corner of 16th and K streets. The three-story, red brick building there dates to 1920, according to city records. It has served a variety of commercial uses, from a factory for Trav-ler Radio Corp. to a service station to a furniture store. The building immediately to the east, known as the Brock & Sears Building, also has served a variety of uses. It dates to 1924.
Hoosier Uplands originally planned to renovate the red brick building. The Brock & Sears building is deteriorating, but planners hoped to save the facade. Then a new structure would provide a new facade for the red brick building, as well as replace the Brock & Sears structure.
Wednesday the board heard that plans have changed.
“Originally the thought was we could save the facade,” said John Hawkins, an architect with Kovert Hawkins Architects. “A number of things have happened. ... The winter was very, very hard on it.”
He said the structural engineer on the project “is not at all happy with trying to save it.”
That means building a new facade across both buildings and along the east side of the red brick structure, he said.
The new construction will be in a lighter-colored brick with limestone highlights. It is intentionally different that the 1920s red brick building.
“The secretary of the interior (in setting standards for adding to historic buildings) says you don’t want to try to mimic historic details,” Hawkins told the board.
Board members also looked over plans and illustrations. Some highlights:
• Stonecutters Place will include a courtyard between the new building and the old one. The feature means that even interior apartments will have windows and access to sunlight. One option is to cover that space with what amounts to a large skylight. Hawkins said that will be an option during bidding, but it might be too expensive.
• New windows will be put in to replace the existing ones. The old ones, originally designed for a commercial building, open with a pivot mechanism and do not include safety glass. “We can’t save the ones that are there,” Hawkins said. “I’ve looked at them two or three times, and they’re dangerous.”
• Stonecutters Place will include an elevator, laundry, exercise room, community room and other amenities.