Four construction and renovation projects were officially recognized as recipients of Old Saybrook’s Architectural Review Board (ARB) Design Excellence Awards at its Feb. 8 Zoom meeting. The awards, which were presented by First Selectman Carl P. Fortuna, Jr., commend developers for preserving and cultivating the existing and long-standing character of the town, according to an ARB press release.

The board reviewed roughly 100 applications and decided on four that “displayed unique qualities that set them apart,” it said.

Three awards were presented for small shopping centers: Max’s Place, on Spencer Plain Road, where Kohl’s and Big Y are located; the North Cove Shops on Main Street, the former location of Denali; and the Shops at Oyster River, home of Smithland Supply and Dunkin’. The fourth was awarded to Little Pub for renovation of the property at 1231 Boston Post Road.

The ARB aims to present the awards every five years, but had not done so for approximately 10 years, according ARB Chair Emily Grochowski.

Max’s Place, developed by Ron Lyman, was constructed between 2010 and 2014 and “transform[ed] the western end of town,” Fortuna said. While Kohl’s tends to build large, boxy stores, its architects were persuaded to create something more suited to the character of the town, he said.

In 2018 Doug and Daneen Grabe opened in Old Saybrook their fifth Little Pub restaurant and the first located outside Fairfield County. The endeavor transformed a run-of the-mill building into a Tudor-esque cottage, complete with dormer windows with grids, exposed wooden beams, and a telephone box out in front.

Fortuna pointed out that the site, home to several restaurants previously, was beginning to seem like an inauspicious one. But the Grabes have made a success of it. He called the project an “absolutely remarkable renovation” and “transformative.”

Grochowski and Fortuna applauded the building for its “whimsical design features,” quality of materials, and attention to detail.

“We wonder, does the building have something to do with” Little Pub’s success? Grochowski said later in a phone interview. “Maybe it does.”

Two award-winning projects were developed by Tony Izzo, a Fairfield County developer who said he had noticed a building on Main Street for sale during a visit with his daughter. That led to the renovation and creation of the North Cove Shops at 75 Main Street between 2010 and 2014.

The 20,000 square foot building required splitting up to be viable, Izzo said. Denali went out of business in 2019, but Izzo said he is discussing the location with prospective non-retail tenants.

The Denali building used “nice materials and has a beautiful design,” Grochowski said at the ARB meeting. “The building really doesn’t have a bad side.”

The other North Cove tenants are Charles Schwab and Sip Wine Bar.

Izzo’s second Saybrook project, The Shops at Oyster River at 923 Boston Post Road, presented some unique challenges. The plan involved two very different buildings on the site of the former bowling alley: what was expected to be an Agway (now Smithfield Supply) at more than 22,000 square feet, and a separate drive-through Dunkin’, planned at just over 2,500 square feet. The site also involved environmental considerations, requiring a buffer zone between the Oyster River and the rear of the building as well the installation of benches for public viewing.

The project was complicated somewhat by the two “big companies that are national companies [both of which] have their own architecture team,” Grochowski explained. The town “hadn’t really had an application [before with] two different architects that weren’t used to working with each other.”

This led to some back-and-forth negotiations between the two teams, with one occasionally addressing one aspect of the town’s building regulations while the other team focused on another.

“Everybody was very professional about the process,” especially Izzo, who told the town, “‘Whatever you need us to do to get us through the process in this town, we will do it,’” according to Grochowski. “The architects from both were also very nice to work with.

“It just took a little massaging to get everybody on the same page,” she continued. “It was definitely, from when I was on the board, it was the longest number of meetings.”

The process has resulted in a reconsideration of some of the zoning regulations that might be made clearer, or even amended, to help facilitate similar projects in the future, she said. In particular is regulation 68.2.4, titled “Façade,” which specifies that walls longer than 40 feet and visible to the public must be “articulated” into smaller sections. While the regulation seeks to avoid the look of big-box stores, in the case of the rear of the Smithfield Supply building, it resulted in changes that had no functional or aesthetic need, according to Grochowski.

“In the amendment, what we’re seeking to do is to make [the regulation] clear so that the ARB and the architect [of the specific project] and the Zoning Board” are in agreement, she said. Making a wall “30 feet wide rather than 40 feet isn’t necessarily making it more attractive. We’re trying to redraft” to ensure designs are “nicely composed and have a bit more variation” than having “just a big, flat wall.”

Looking Ahead

“[T]here are different areas of town that sort of have different feels to them,” Grochowski said, describing her thinking about her work on the ARB. “The feel of Main Street is so nice that it’s sometimes tempting to replicate those building patterns in other locations, but that’s not ideal because then Main Street wouldn’t be so special.”

For each area, the goal is “finding the language of that section of town and slowly...building it into a stronger vocabulary architecturally,” she continued. “It’s always a balance between things being consistent and things being interesting.

“All together, I was really pleased with the projects that got selected,” she said. “I thought that they each brought their own sort of unique challenges and solutions and they’ve all had a great impact.”