New objections aired to Salve dorm plan

NEWPORT, R.I. — Preserve Rhode Island, a nonprofit organization that calls itself “the statewide advocate for Rhode Island’s historic places,” has filed objections to Salve Regina University’s plans to construct two new dormitories.

The members of the city’s Historic District Commission accepted those objections on Tuesday, as well as some filed by Harle Tinney, the former owner of Belcourt Castle.

Preserve Rhode Island was founded in 1956 under a state charter to “preserve the beautiful historic buildings, places and things in Rhode Island.” In 1999, the organization adopted its current name. It previously was called the Heritage Foundation of Rhode Island and then the Heritage Trust of Rhode Island.

Architect J. Michael Abbott, of Newport, a member of the organization’s board of directors, was present at the Historic District Commission meeting on Tuesday.

“The proposed buildings are much larger than adjacent historic buildings and so, are out of scale with the surrounding historic area,” says the three-page document signed by Valerie Talmadge, the organization’s executive director.

“The design and detailing of the new buildings is uniform and institutional, and therefore not characteristic of the district,” the document says.

The pattern of the current neighborhood is described in the document.

“Historic buildings, often with adjacent carriage houses, are sited on large landscaped lots, whereas the new buildings overwhelm the landscape and change the relationships to the street as well as to the neighboring lots and structures” claims Preserve Rhode Island.

Attorney Jay Lynch, representing Salve Regina, said letters of support for the plans also were submitted to the commission, but those letters were not located until later in the meeting.

The Historic District Commission on Tuesday continued its review of Salve Regina University’s plans to construct two new dormitories on the campus.

The commission, which took up the plans at two special meetings last month, will continue that review at a third special meeting scheduled for Thursday, beginning at 6 p.m., in City Hall.

Because the proposed dormitories are multi-unit residential structures, they also will require a special-use permit from the city’s Zoning Board of Review, which has the proposed dormitories on its meeting agenda for Monday, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

A lawyer representing Alan and Marilla Cervasio, abutters to the proposed Wallace Dormitory, raised a series of objections Tuesday night, including a claim that one lot of the proposed merger of lots for the dormitories was not listed on the most recent application.

Another lawyer representing two Webster Avenue residents questioned architect Paul Weber, who designed the proposed dormitories, about a series of renderings of the project.

The Watts Dormitory that would house 214 students would be constructed just to the west of Lawrence Avenue, between Shepard and Victoria avenues. The second dormitory, to be called Wallace Dormitory, would be constructed between Victoria and Ruggles avenues, where there is now a field used for football practices. This dormitory would house 196 students.

The university is before the commission seeking initial conceptual approval, meaning the commission now is reviewing the size, scale and massing of the buildings. The commission will make any determinations on the final design at future meetings.

The commission has approved a demolition permit allowing Salve Regina to raze five small single-family homes built in the 1950s, to make way for the Watts Dormitory. However, the commission conditioned that demolition permit on eventual approval of the final design for the dormitory.

The university has been hoping to get the dorms approved in the coming months so the project can be completed by September 2019, when students in the junior class would move in. The juniors now live in off-campus housing.

So far though, the approval process has been subject to a series of delays.