Facelift to include a small expansion
By: Kara Fitzpatrick
The Palmer Square kiosk is slated to get a facelift in coming months.
The kiosk will undergo a small expansion 86 square feet, project architect Jeremiah Ford of Ford 3 said and gain built-in magazine racks that can be shut down at night.
"It will be much cleaner visually that what you see now," Mr. Ford said.
Plans for the minor expansion and enhancements gained a unanimous recommendation recently from the Princeton Borough Historic Preservation Review Committee.
Borough Zoning and Planning Coordinator Frank Slimak said the historic committee’s recommendation came with three minor suggestions: to provide additional information about the storage and removal of refuse newspapers; to allow the engineer to determine if there is a need for additional trash receptacles; and to look into additional window or display box openings on the north side of the kiosk.
But overall, Mr. Slimak said, the historic committee was receptive to the plans, which will now go before the borough’s administrative management team. That team, which consists of Mr. Slimak, Planning Director Lee Solow and Borough Engineer Carl Peters, is expected to approve the plans.
"I suspect that we will be signing off on it today," Mr. Slimak said Thursday.
Palmer Square Vice President David Newton said the enhancements to the kiosk are necessary to sharpen the look of what is "really the first thing that most people see" when they enter Palmer Square.
"It is in need of a facelift as well as a general sprucing up," Mr. Newton said.
The improvements will provide for more display, Mr. Ford said.
"It is jam-packed full of stuff," Mr. Ford said of the kiosk. The proposed changes would see the removal of the temporary magazine racks which Mr. Ford said currently impose a "visual catastrophe" and the replacement of permanent magazine racks. The move will polish the kiosk’s look, Mr. Newton said.
In addition, Mr. Newton said, shutters will be placed over the racks when the kiosk closes at night.
All improvements will match the existing look and feel of the kiosk, Mr. Ford said.
If the project is signed off as planned by the administrative management team, work is slated to begin in August and is expected to take four to six weeks, Mr. Newton said. During construction, the kiosk operation will be moved temporarily to one of the empty stores on Palmer Square West, Mr. Newton said.
In addition, Palmer Square is proposing to place a liquid crystal display screen on the kiosk’s exterior, but that request was not part of the plans before the historic committee and the administrative team. Rather, the Borough Council will be asked to weigh in on whether the screen can be permitted, Mr. Newton said.