Will the black granite facade of the former Boxer building on the Downtown Mall last through the construction of the nine-story Landmark Hotel that is going up on the site? Several weeks ago, city preservation planner Mary Joy Scala received a request from developer Lee Danielson to tear it down.
“Lee Danielson has expressed the opinion that the existing facade may fall down,” says Scala. She told Danielson that the city Board of Architectural Review (BAR) would have to approve the demolition and that he should submit a request. He hasn’t made a request to date and couldn’t be reached for comment because of international travel.
“As far as I know, until I hear differently from him, he intends to preserve the wall,” says Scala.
 Landmark Hotel developer Lee Danielson, who has a history of conflict with the BAR, told city staff that the existing facade may fall down. |
The city’s building code official, Tom Elliott, has talked to the contractor about the issue. “The contractor had a structural engineer inspect the Mall-level concrete floor, and the engineer suggested reinforcing it or removing it,” Elliott says. “The contractor is concerned that if the floor is removed, then the façade could be compromised.” Yet the floor is still in place and concrete was poured August 1, according to the Landmark Hotel construction blog—suggesting that the contractor decided to reinforce the floor and therefore preserve the facade.
There’s not much evidence to suggest it’s some clever ploy to sneak around the desires of the BAR. When it was originally proposed, “there was a discussion whether the wall should be saved or not,” says Scala. She doesn’t remember Danielson or the architects being particularly upset about it, and the facade was incorporated into the design.
 An engineer told the Landmark Hotel contractor that this facade could be compromised if the Mall-level concrete floor was removed, according to city building code official Tom Elliott. |
Depending on the circumstances, the city can be forgiving or furious. When the building with Himalayan Fusion on the east end of the Mall was being remodeled, the facade, which the BAR had said should be preserved, started to buckle part way through the project. Elliott ruled that it was unsafe, developers rebuilt a similar wall, and no one raised a fuss. But members of the city Planning Commission wanted to throw the book at developer David Turner after he took down a 150-year-old tree that they had wanted preserved on University Circle. Turner said that the tree was a safety hazard, but he took it down without the permission of city staff.
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