Courtesy Photo
The Snowmass Center is a place for random community interactions, where you bump into a neighbor while getting your mail; where brief, unexpected conversations turn into coffee or lunch at the Daly Diner.
Snowmass Council members raised this point in a Monday regarding proposed Snowmass Center renovations.
“The thing I am concerned about us standing to lose, is what already exists: that happenstantial opportunity to engage with our community,” Snowmass Council member Britta Gustafson told the members of The Design Workshop Inc., who designed the remodel.
But the town must approve a remodel design to purchase land for workforce housing.
Snowmass Center owners Eastwood Snowmass Investors must remodel the Snowmass Center partly to restructure land parcels to fit with local restrictions, separating residential and commercial use parcels, so they can sell four acres of land behind the center to the town of Snowmass, General Partner of Eastwood Snowmass Investors Jordan Sarick told The Aspen Times in November.
The town of Snowmass hopes to purchase the land behind the center in 2025 for $12.5 million to build up to 130 workforce housing units. Without approving the remodel, the town can’t buy the land.
But council members worry about its future purpose as a community hub.
Gustafson said the remodel design lacks opportunity for random interactions, such as the indoor space between Clark’s market and the post office in the existing center.
The design of the new center enlarges both Clark’s and the post office, but separates them by 110 feet, according to the Design Workshop.
The council, however, thinks Eastwood and The Design Workshop need to prioritize the space as a community hub.
“Losing that I think would be more detrimental than all of the improvements put together for our community,” Gustafson said.
In a Nov. 4 meeting the Snowmass Planning Commission recommended the design incorporate a covered awning to shelter the 110 foot walk between Clark’s and the post office, hoping to inspire more community building opportunity in the design.
Design Workshop Board member Jessica Garrow said an awning is not possible because it comes into conflict with stair access.
“There cannot be a fully covered connection from Clark’s to the post office because that is the access up to the second floor, so you can’t have a covering into those stairs,” Garrow said.
As it stands, Clark’s, the Post Office, the hardware store, and the liquor store would be on the ground floor, with space for restaurants reserved on the top. Council member Susan Marolt said she thinks restaurants on the ground floor could foster community.
But Design Workshop said it did include various community-centric designs in the remodel proposal, such as a two-floor atrium on the corner of Clark’s Market for community gathering, a rooftop outdoor gathering space, an updated transit center, and sidewalk connections from the center to Base Village.
The atrium would combine indoor and outdoor space to create a community area with chairs and bulletin boards, and space for the community to circulate, according to Design Workshop.
Council member Tom Fridstein, however, said he worries the atrium is lacking, and that it should be a destination space to have a cup of coffee with a neighbor and to inspire the community.
“To me that atrium structure and that space is the heart of the project and it needs to be more than it is now,” Fridstein said.
Council requested that the Design Workshop and Eastwood expand on the atrium potential in their next design discussion on Jan. 6.
“I do believe that tonight we can take away your comments about the importance of the atrium and we can probably improve that circumstance,” Principle with Design Workshop Richard Shaw said.
Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.