By Mark Ferenchik and Lucas Sullivan
A national advocacy group for people with AIDS is modifying plans for its clinic and thrift store in the University District, hoping to convince community leaders that the building’s new look fits the neighborhood.
The Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation will present its new plans before the University Area Review Board on Thursday.
The board objected to the original design of Out of the Closet, to be built at the northeast corner of N. High Street and E. 5th Avenue, which is considered a gateway to the Short North, Italian Village, Victorian Village and Weinland Park.
“It’s such an important corner, it needed to fit in well with the neighborhood streetscape,” said Fredric Goodman, the board’s chairman and an architect.
The original concept featured a one-story building with light-colored bricks and a cylindrical glass element atop a corner. Three-story red-brick buildings occupy the other three corners.
On May 22, the Harrison West Society wrote to the Columbus City Council that the building’s single-story design and suburban-style parking layout would be “grossly out of place in the High Street corridor.”
Michael Weinstein, the foundation’s president, said the review board is forcing him to adhere to design features that aren’t in the zoning code.
“We want an up-and-down vote on if they are going to approve this plan,” he said. “If there are any more delays, we will lose a whole building season, and that is very costly.”
The foundation is adding more details that fit with the neighborhood and make it look more urban, said Adam Ouderkirk, the group’s regional director. The height of the building would range from 30 to 45 feet, he said.
Most of the building would be oyster-gray brick, with magenta stucco insets and some teal stucco on a corner, according to the city.
“We’re trying our best within reason to respond to concerns,” Ouderkirk said.
Last month, Weinstein said he thought that some city officials were delaying the project because they didn’t agree with the group’s mission.
Community leaders say they welcome the clinic and store.
In the May 22 letter, Harrison West President Kristen Easterday wrote, “The Harrison West Society’s objection is totally unrelated to the intended use of the property by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and any claim otherwise is contrary to the long history Harrison West and the other Short North neighborhoods have had in supporting GLBT businesses and residents.”
The neighborhood is close to the intersection.
“We want to make sure the aesthetics of the building blend in with the neighborhood,” Easterday said last week.
John Angelo, the executive director of the new Short North Alliance, said, “There’s no opposition based on what their mission is.”
The nonprofit foundation operates more than 20 clinics, mostly in California and Florida. Columbus would be the group’s first Midwestern location.
“We are not going to be run off,” Weinstein said, “and I expected since we were bringing jobs and a much-needed service to the area that the red carpet would have been rolled out.”
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