Virgin bricks were one of the topics of discussion for the Harlem Historic Preservation Commission during its meeting on Thursday, March 9.
The commissioners have been discussing what to do about painting virgin bricks and information was sent to the Harlem City Council, who discussed the topic at the quarterly meeting on Feb. 24. Community Development Director David Jenkins said there were some modifications the city council wanted, and the ordinance was being worked on.
Board chair Herbert Flick stated that was what started the whole discussion was a building in downtown that was painted overnight from tan brick to being “white washed.”
Harlem Mayor Roxanne Whitaker was present at the meeting and spoke to the commission about what the council was thinking, stating that every building except one in downtown has been painted.
“My concern is why are we limited to just the virgin brick,” Whitaker said. “Should this not be an at-wide thing? Not saying we restrict them, saying we have a palette for them to choose from, this is what we would like for them to use.”
Commission chairman Herbert Flick add that main concern would be someone painting the building something extreme, such as a white building with pink polka dots.
“I wouldn’t, that’s why we said we do need some boundaries and that’s where we need to come back and say okay, where do we need to take this from here?” Whitaker said. “Maybe that is in the language of if you are deciding to paint your building, you need to fill out an application for HPC, not because we want to stop you from painting your building, we just want to make sure you are aesthetically in-line with the rest of the buildings downtown.”
It was asked if the commission would send a written recommendation to the city council or if someone would go in-person. Whitaker suggested the commission send a representative to the city council when the ordinance comes up for discussion because there was no representative from the HPC at the quarterly meeting.
“I think that might have contributed too because nobody really understood what limitations there were going to be,” Whitaker said.
There was also a discussion about whether houses would be included in the ordinance, or just commercial properties. Vice Chairman Diane Holland said it’s become a big fad in some areas.
“If you go through some of these neighborhoods, especially down in Augusta, these homes get bought up, and when they flip them, they paint them and it looks like a street that has all white houses,” Holland said.
Holland added that for properties in the historic district, any changes to the exterior are supposed to go through the HPC and painting it is a significant change.
“I don’t want a pink building with purple polka dots, I really don’t,” Whitaker said. “I want us to maintain the quaint atmosphere that we have downtown, historical feeling downtown.”
City attorney Adam Nelson said when the state created the ordinances for the historic preservation district, they excluded the term “exterior paint alternations” from the material changes and appearances. This has been understood to mean a person can’t be told what color to paint a building, but a question does come up when it comes bricks.
“It’s the question of brick where, it’s not specifically spoken to you…but you have a much better argument that brick is not an exterior paint alternation because the virgin brick has not been painted,” Nelson said.
Nelson mentioned the commission might need to also consider that painting brick might be the only way to save it if it’s deteriorating.
“You’re putting the regulation in place, but you can allow a variance,” Nelson said.
Jenkins said they will take the questions from the HPC and city council and write an ordinance to bring back before both entities.
“I would hope we could get something to preserve the historic nature of it and the continuity of look is really important,” Speer said.
