Proposed university building gets brief review before Planning Board

Glass walls to characterize three-story structure on Charleton Street

By: Hilary Parker
   Just as those standing outside the Operations Research and Financial Engineering building proposed by the Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science will be able to view portions of the interior through its glass walls, the Site Plan Review Advisory Board on Wednesday caught a glimpse of the planned facility.
   Given just 15 minutes to make an abbreviated presentation to the board, university architect Jon Hlafter introduced the plans for the three-story, 46,700-square-foot building to be located on Charleton Street, adjacent to a recently approved substation and the university’s Seeley G. Mudd Library.
   The building’s glass walls — which will feature panels of clear, translucent and opaque glass — will look similar to some facades on the nearby Friend Center for Engineering Education, Mr. Hlafter said, and are intended to impart a somewhat "mysterious quality" to the structure.
   "This building is intended to, in effect, reflect the buildings around it, the trees around it and the sky," he said.
   With the university’s presentation cut short by a meeting that ran long, the advisory board scheduled a special meeting to continue the hearing at 5 p.m. Sept. 25.
   The majority of the lengthy meeting was consumed by an application from the Tenacre Foundation, the Christian Science nursing and retreat center off The Great Road. The proposal includes an addition to Tenacre’s existing North Wing building, along with two new cottages.
   While the new construction would increase the current capacity of the campus by about 20 residents, architect Jeremiah Ford noted that Tenacre’s historic capacity will not be increased.
   In the 1990s, Tenacre eliminated 43 residential units and in 2002 received major site plan approval to add 30 units. The current proposal is in lieu of that approval for 30 units, Mr. Ford said, which were never constructed. Even future plans for two more cottages, each adding five bedrooms to the campus, would not herald a return to the campus population in the 1990s, he added.
   The board lauded a number of Tenacre’s green building proposals for the site, including a proposed bioretention basin. While the original plans submitted to the board included a solar panel array on the addition to North Wing, Mr. Ford presented alternate plans at the meeting that did not include photovoltaic cells on the roof. The applicants said Tenacre is considering instead the installation of a field-mounted array. Regardless, Chairman William Wolfe strongly encouraged Tenacre to reconsider the installation of roof-mounted solar panels.
   The board unanimously approved the plans, contingent on compliance with recommendations from officials, including the provision of a fire access route that would not necessitate the removal of trees located in a conservation easement.
   Prior to the Tenacre application, the board granted a minor site plan approval to The Hun School of Princeton for a structure that will house four students and one faculty member.