BY PAUL GABA
One month after requesting some aesthetic adjustments to a proposed hotel near the Mall at Wellington Green, Wellington’s Architectural Review Board gave its blessing to a planned Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott.
The unanimous approval came Wednesday, July 19, after Wellington Senior Planner Damian Newell presented a brief overview of the changes.
Among the central issues that needed to be addressed out of the June ARB meeting: adjusting the color scheme of the front-facing façade, a landscaped “living wall” on the west end of the north façade and reducing the size of lettering along the front of the hotel.
The previous color scheme relied on the use of a dark blue color, which was deemed “too busy” at the board’s June meeting. The proposed colors have been adjusted to more earthy tones with a blue accent, which is more consistent with area businesses.
The brand standard for the “F” in “Fairfield” is 36 inches in height. In June, the ARB was informed that the signage exceeded the maximum allowable square footage by 100 square feet, and exceeded the height by 18 inches. Under the approved changes, the “F” has been reduced to 24 inches, and the signage now meets Wellington’s standard size allowance.
“The smaller sign looks good,” Board Member Roger Grave de Peralta said.
His view was endorsed by fellow Board Member Tom Wenham. “This looks much, much better, and is better for the community,” Wenham said.
The Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott will be a five-story, 107-room hotel located west of the Mall at Wellington Green. Located behind the Fresh Market store, it will be accessible from both the mall and from Forest Hill Blvd.
The Fairfield Inn & Suites was one of several projects given design approval by the ARB. The board also approved design standards to for a new veterinary clinic in the Binks Commercial Center and a new restaurant at the Mall at Wellington Green.
The veterinary clinic is to be located on Professional Way at the southeast corner of Binks Forest Drive and Bent Creek Road. The one-story, 3,600-square-foot clinic will be built on a parcel of nearly three-quarters of an acre.
The facility’s only major deviation request from Wellington standards is to have two signs on the front of the building — the name of the business and a veterinary symbol. Normally, only one sign is allowed on the front, and one on the side of the building. However, there are two proposed entrances on the front, and each entrance would have one of the proposed signs overhead.
Grave de Peralta said he liked the way the proposed signage looked, and the rest of the board agreed.
The new restaurant approved by the ARB is Beauty and the Beeeef Burger Bar, which will move into the location that formerly housed TooJay’s inside the Mall at Wellington Green.
The proposed changes to the location include adding a 1,462-square-foot covered and open-air outdoor seating area with a total of 94 seats. The outdoor seating area is currently a planter bed with two miniature oaks and one palm tree.
The palm will be relocated to another area on site, and staff recommended placing medium-sized trees and plants in a minimum of two planters on the south side of the outdoor seating area, near the entrance to the mall. This would replace the two trees that are not being moved.
The outdoor seating area will be enclosed by a 42-inch metal chain link black fence with a 6-inch planter box built on top. A large glass aluminum-framed window will be cut out on the east façade. It will be solar gray in color. The existing exit door will be removed and replaced with French-style doors with window panels on each end.
Walls under a 15-foot-wide awning will be covered with a brick veneer painted with graffiti murals. The murals will be set back 20 to 40 feet from the fence, and approximately 30 to 45 feet from the drive aisles. The murals will only be painted on walls underneath the stationary or retractable awning, while the exposed wall will remain with its existing stucco appearance.
This will be the first Beauty and the Beeeef location in the United States. Several other locations exist in Canada.
