My City Talk column today covers the proposed Christ Church Anglican parish house and sanctuary at the northeast corner of Drayton and 37th streets in Savannah.
Many of you know the corner — much of that entire block has been for sale for years. Originally seven parcels, there’s now just a single building there — the old Merriwicke House, which would seem likely to be demolished rather than moved if Christ Church Anglican’s plans move ahead.
I talk about the biggest issues in my column, but don’t mention some of the design questions about the south facade of the church along 37th Street. If this were almost any sort of development besides a church, we would expect to see active entrances along that facade. The conceptual designs for the church treat that street frontage as more decorative than anything, at least until one nears the corner of Drayton.
As I note in the column, the maximum footprint for any building in the TC-1 zoning district is 5500 square feet, but this proposal includes two buildings that abut each other and both have larger footprints than what is allowable.
It’s problematic.
At the same time, as you look below at the overhead shot of the block in question (just above TC-1 at the bottom of the map), you can see the mass of several other large institutions and their ugly adjacent parking lots. The Bull Street Library is to the left. Sisters Court Apartments is to the right. The Georgia Infirmary is just north.
The second graphic is the conceptual drawing from Sottile & Sottile that was submitted as part of the packet proposing Christ Church Anglican’s new campus. Here you can see how the two buildings attach — or virtually attach — to each other.
By the way, Christ Church Anglican currently meets at Independent Presbyterian Church after being forced by court rulings to move out of Christ Church Episcopal on Johnson Square. Click here for a timeline of the controversy on the Christ Church Anglican website.
Click to enlarge.
