Government

Beautification League Offers $50,000 for Town Hall Landscaping Plan; Tree for Ben Olmstead Proposed

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A nonprofit organization dedicated to making New Canaan beautiful is offering to fund $50,000 in plantings to the grounds around the newly renovated Town Hall, and wants separately to help plan for a prominently placed sugar maple dedicated to the memory of a beloved man and municipal employee who died following an accident last summer. The New Canaan Beautification League feels that “this is a special opportunity to make a large contribution not only financially but also visually to the town,” one of its members, landscape architect Keith Simpson, said at Monday’s meeting of the Town Hall Building Committee. Part of the landscaping plan that Simpson unveiled (it already has been shown to the DPW chief and first selectman, among others) involves the planting of a tree that would be dedicated to Ben Olmstead. A well-loved town DPW worker for 37 years who possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of the town, Olmstead died July 24 at age 71 after he was struck by a car near the intersection of East Avenue at 123. (Olmstead knew so much about the town that the DPW in making its fiscal year 2016 budget request put in for a full-time person to try and fill his part-time shoes.)

In reviewing landscaping plans from a colleague for whom he has great respect, Norwalk-based Eric Rains, Simpson said it was difficult to find a tree location that would indicate it was planted for a specific, special reason.

Government

New Canaan WPA Art Work To Get Prominent Position in Renovated Town Hall

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Calling the WPA paintings that long adorned the meeting room at Town Hall “important artifacts for the town,” New Canaan’s highest elected official said the art work will grace an open, second-story hallway in the atrium of the newly renovated and expanded facility. A pair of 78-by-115-inch paintings by Walter Bradnee Kirby that imagined aerial views of New Canaan in 1834 and 1934, respectively, will be showcased under the skylight of the addition at Town Hall, according to First Selectman Rob Mallozzi. Following discussions among members of the Town Hall Building Committee, those paintings—two of 20 WPA paintings that belong to the town, according to an inventory on file with the New Canaan Department of Public Works—will sit in shadow box-like cases that protrude about four inches from the wall. Mallozzi said he would like to see a protective plexi-glass or something similar around them, as well. “They are going to be the focal point of our art work in our Town Hall just as the Historical Society focuses on certain artifacts for the town on their display, the Town Hall wants to focus the public’s attention on these paintings that were part of the WPA New Canaan effort, and that has always been vision: To showcase them.”

The paintings were originally commissioned by the Works Progress Administration, or WPA, a Depression-era government program developed under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal initiative.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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One of New Canaan’s most prominent homes—the stately ca. 1910 Colonial at 275 Main St. (on the left as you climb toward the crest of the final hill toward town)—is hitting the market Tuesday at $2,695,000. From a website featuring the property, owned by Denise Gannalo: “The house on Main Street that you have been waiting for. This turn of the century timeless classic has been lovingly restored, renovated and updated with up to the minute elegance and detailed character.

Government

With New Sidewalk, Town Hall Driveway To Become Four to Five Feet Narrower

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Main Street motorists entering and exiting the renovated Town Hall’s driveway will encounter a “pinch point” between the building and Vine Cottage retaining wall that likely will not let two SUVs pass simultaneously, officials say. Asked about the driveway’s width, Director of Public Works Michael Pastore said a new sidewalk running alongside the driveway from Main Street is expected to make what was a 24-foot-wide driveway about 19 feet across. Because the building and retaining wall opposite do not run parallel to each other, the “pinch point” occurs at the corner of the original structure. “But at 19 [feet] you can still pass two vehicles,” Pastore said. “If you get two delivery trucks or two SUVs, that could be tight.”

He noted that though 19 feet would be narrow for a street, driveways do not see the same traffic or volume of cars—in this case, additional traffic-calming measures include signs indicating a narrow drive and a planned “speed pad.” The sidewalk will only affect the stretch of the driveway directly off of Main Street—an ample, wide accessway opens up immediately after the “pinch point.”

Government

On the Town Hall Addition’s Brick: ‘We Are Not Trying to Imitate Anything’

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As the addition back of Town Hall materializes—the major piece of the historic building’s $18 million renovation and expansion—one question coming in from many observers, officials say, involves an aesthetic detail that no one expected to garner attention: its bricks. Engineers, historic preservationists, architects and builders have spent years conceiving—now building—a flexible, modern, safe, ADA-compliant, open and hi-tech Town Hall that’s sensitive to the original 1909 structure. And in fact much of the exterior work at 77 Main St. has involved restoring the original façade of the building (an effort that’s led to some exciting revelations—see below). Yet for many of those eyeballing Town Hall from angles where the original structure and addition are side-by-side—say, from beside Vine Cottage—the differently sized and colored bricks in the new construction have emerged as a kind of curiosity.