Madison’s Apex Property Management returned to the city’s Landmarks Commission this week with revised plans for a four-story apartment building in the Mansion Hill Historic District, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
The building would be situated on the 100 block of East Gorham Street, near James Madison Park, next to the 160-year-old Timothy Brown House — a designated city landmark — and in front of the Brown House’s original carriage house.
While commissioners and city staff voiced several concerns about the plans when Apex presented them earlier this year, Monday’s discussion was generally positive, and the commission unanimously advanced the project that evening.
The developer made changes including:
-
A reduction in the size of the apartment building so it would be farther from the street and the carriage house; and
-
The replacement of multiple balconies and bay windows with a single, large porch, with the rightmost portion of the facade set slightly back.
Heather Bailey, Madison’s preservation planner, said the project uses a “similar architectural vocabulary” to the 1860s house next door, but is still “going to read as a product of its time.”
Bailey recommended a few additional changes to the building, such as changing out the metal railings for wood or a similar material, to help it blend better with the surrounding area.
The apartment building would offer 18 residential units, and the carriage house would undergo a renovation to add another four units. Two levels of underground parking built beneath both structures would provide around 32 total spaces.
