Too Big, Too Tall for the Site

More Version 3

Version 3 was recently rejected by the Lawrence Historic Resources Commission. The design features a glass box on top of a glass pillar.  It's two and a half times taller than the Lawrence Art's Center, which itself is twice as tall as some historic dwellings on Rhode Island Street.

If built as planned, 900 New Hampshire Street would be 15 feet from its historic neighbors. Notice that 15 feet is smaller than many living rooms. Imagine a 70 foot building dropped at the end of a person's living room, which also happens to be a City, State and National Historic District.

Why so tall? It's the main thing the developers want.  Wealthy out of town people could dine in the glass box, and swim in a pool on the roof, enjoying their privilege to destroy the integrity of a neighborhood preserved more than 150 years, intact and dating from before the US Civil War.

Allen Fieldhouse to Scale

Allen Field House fits sideways in a little more than the same space as the Big Box Hotel.
Here's it's shown with the glass box and glass pillar for scale.  Note the Field House is long enough to go across New Hampshire Street and more. We cut it off to compare widths.

Shadows to Scale

When the 900 NH design Version 2 was submitted, citizens discovered that the lengths of shadows had been rendered more than 200 feet shorter than reality.  Oops!  Since then the architects were told to stop
showing any shadows. Here's the computer-generated shadows for 4-5 PM, December 21. It's a design that "finds its place in the Sun", while a historic downtown neighborhood is crowded out.