Preservation In Stamford
We now take a break from Norwalk preservation to view our neighbor to the south, Stamford, and the latest round in the battle of Bull’s Head. First, the part that I focus on, Whole Foods will not be landing a store in North Stamford. When will they stop looking at the likes of Darien, Stamford and Fairfield and start looking at Norwalk!? But I digress … the report from the Advocate:
The Lord & Taylor store in Bull’s Head is now on the state register of historic places.
But despite the designation, the building could be torn down and the site redeveloped.The State Historic Preservation Board voted this month to admit the late-1960s building to the register after hearing testimony on its architectural and historical importance.
“Lord and Taylor . . . were significant trendsetters and played a key role in retailing and retail architecture,” said Cynthia Reeder, a North Stamford resident who filed the application.
Reeder, who opposed a recent development plan for the site, said the application was a separate issue from the redevelopment.
“This is a building that in and of itself has merits from an architectural perspective,” she said “That was only something that heightened my awareness of the building’s significance and of the evolution of the city of Stamford.”
National Realty & Development Corp., a Westchester County-based development firm that owns the Lord & Taylor chain as well as the site, applied last year to tear down the current building and build a bigger one to house an expanded Lord & Taylor, a Whole Foods and other retail stores.
The application was withdrawn in May after the plan met with opposition from its neighbors and some land use board members, but John Orrico, the company’s president, has said the company is still working on a plan for the site.
“It’s an honor designation that to us points more to the significance that Lord & Taylor has had in the Stamford community for the past 40 years,” Orrico said. “But the designation in no way prohibitions us from redeveloping the site”The building, at 110 High Ridge Road, was designed by the Raymond Loewy/William Snaith, Inc., firm.
Loewy, a mid-century industrial designer responsible for the Studebaker and the 1955 Coca-Cola bottle, joined with architect William Snaith to create a subsidiary company devoted to store design for upscale retailers.
Richard Longstreth, director of the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation at George Washington University, said in a letter supporting the application that a case for the store’s importance was straightforward, not only because of the designers’ fame, but also because it was a good example of the type of design.
“Buildings such as this were landmarks of the postwar generation; they substantially redefined the order and complexion of the metropolitan landscape,” he wrote.
Renee Kahn, director of the Stamford-based Historic Neighborhood Preservation Program, Inc., said recent changes to the area, including the trees that have been cut down to build a CVS, helped show off the building’s artistic merit.
“It now appears as conceived, a citadel dominating the crest of the hill and overlooking downtown Stamford and Long Island Sound,” Kahn wrote in a supporting letter.
