Call me a treehugger if you will, but I have to admit it: the engineer for the Mahida group who presented the plans for the 95-room big-box hotel on the Searles School site in Great Barrington totally lost me when he insisted that the mature oak tree shading the southeast corner of the lot, by the bridge, “would have to go.”
This was at the packed Planning Board meeting I attended last week, dedicated to reviewing the proposed development plan in minute detail, down to the storm drains and the light fixtures along the walkways. As one irate citizen proclaimed, when finally, late in the meeting, she got a chance to get a word in edgewise, it was like focusing only on the lipstick, not the pig wearing it.
What use is it discussing the type of faux stone or the construction of the false chimneys when the design itself is so fundamentally out of alignment with the site?
Planning Board member Suzanne Fowle (who, along with Malcolm Fick, voted against a positive recommendation to the Selectboard) reminded the developers eloquently during the site review meeting that whatever one may think of the old Searles School building, it can’t be denied that the site itself is very special: on the banks of the Housatonic, by a historic 18th century ford, with majestic East Mountain rising over the far bank.
And yet, like so many conventional developers, the design team hired by the Mahidas prioritized expediency over aesthetics. The big oak tree would be cut down to make way for a straight driveway leading to a crowded parking lot right along the river. A narrow porch would face the steel-link fence of the old ballpark and the newer skate park across Bridge Street, which is also where public restrooms may eventually be located. The main entrance of the hotel would be at the back, off the parking lot.
And yet somehow the developers remain confident that the 95-room hotel, which would include a conference center and a 65-seat restaurant, will earn a AAA “four-diamond” rating. Such establishments, according to the AAA website, are “refined, stylish with upscale physical attributes, extensive amenities and a high degree of hospitality, service and attention to detail.”
Sounds nice, doesn’t it? I don’t think any of us who love Great Barrington would mind having a classy hotel like this right in town, in walking distance of attractions like the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center and all our shops and restaurants. If the Mahida plan conformed to the town’s 45-room limit, it could be designed in a much more tasteful way, with a lot less parking lot and a lot more gardens, patios and trees.
I can imagine a lovely hotel nestled into that site by the river, with a big veranda and a restaurant with patio seating facing the mountain. People would sit outdoors on a summer evening, bathed by the soothing sound of the river flowing by. All the parking would be on the School Street side, so that the entire front of this gem of a hotel would be oriented to what people love so much about the Berkshires: our natural beauty.
I know some townspeople are sentimental about the historic value of the Searles School itself. One concerned citizen, developer Bobby Houston, was so horrified at the prospect of the old brick building being replaced by an ugly, over-sized suburban-strip-mall-style hotel that he plunked down a half-million dollar competing offer to owners Jane Iredale and Robert Montgomery, promising to renovate the school and turn it into loft-style residential apartments.
That sounds like a good idea to me. But if it were to eventually be determined that the old building was too expensive or impractical to renovate, I would at least like to see its replacement designed with sensitivity to the surrounding architecture and natural landscape.
I’m disappointed that three of our five Planning Board members were so cavalier about the 45-room bylaw that they were easily persuaded it could be ignored just because a development team said so. Now it’s up to our Selectboard to decide whether or not to grant the special permit allowing the nonconforming use of the Searles site.
The Selectboard, already aware of the strong citizen resentment brewing in the wake of the Planning Board decision, will open the special permit hearing at the November 9 meeting, but will continue it for public comment on December 16, possibly in a larger venue than the small Town Hall meeting room.
The silver lining of this autumn of our discontent is that the streets and proverbial water coolers of Great Barrington are suddenly buzzing with neighbors newly engaged with the civic life of our town. Small groups of concerned citizens are forming, many letters are being written and emails exchanged, long threads of Facebook discussions are weaving their way through cyberspace. Through all this debate and discussion, rancorous though it may sometimes be, beats a profound and abiding love for this little town some of us call home, and others just love to visit.
It was not for nothing that Great Barrington earned its 2012 Smithsonian Magazine designation as the number one small town in America. We have something very special here, and we depend on our elected town officials to represent the interests of the townspeople at large — the ones who rightly know that our best economic asset, to paraphrase one concerned citizen, is our character and our charm.
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The weekly EDGE WISE column is curated by Jennifer Browdy, Ph.D., associate professor of comparative literature, gender studies and media studies at Bard College at Simon’s Rock and the Founding Director of the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers. Women writers interested in publishing in EDGE WISE can find writers’ guidelines on the Festival website, or may submit queries or columns to Jennifer@berkshirewomenwriters.org.
