By Tony Kukulich
An effort to obtain final approval from the City of Beaufort Design Review Board (DRB) for a new hotel fell short of its goal, but the project team still considered the appearance before the board a win.
The DRB deferred the vote on the project’s final approval, but resolved several key issues favorably for the project team headed by Beaufort-based SM7 Design.
The 116-room Desai Hotel is planned for 12 County Shed Road near the intersection with Parris Island Gateway. There are currently two other hotels, the Home2 Suites by Hilton and the Tru by Hilton, in the area that is bordered to the north by Trask Parkway, to the east by Parris Island Gateway and to the south by County Shed Road.
The new hotel will be positioned to the east of the Tru by Hilton in an empty lot, though a Refuel gas station and convenience store is under construction on a portion of that lot.
Preliminary approval for the Desai was issued with conditions in August 2020. Appearing before the DRB seeking final approval, project architect Tom Michaels of SM7 Design addressed the board’s previously documented issues, including the height of the building.
The building’s zoning limits its height to five stories. The Desai is a five-story tall building, but original plans to have an occupied space on the roof complete with bathrooms counted as the addition of another half story according to Beaufort’s zoning statutes. That design resulted in a five-and-a-half story building, which exceeded the five-story limit.
The new design presented to the board earlier this month eliminated the bathrooms on the roof. With no occupiable, enclosed space, the roof no longer counts as a half floor, and the overall design is now within allowed zoning limits. Removing the bathrooms does not, however, preclude use of the roof as a party space or rooftop bar.
David Hornsby, who represents the owner of the hotel, said he was “delighted” that the removal of the rooftop bathrooms easily resolved concerns over the building’s height.
“The height thing was a concern of ours,” he explained. “They went right through that. The rooftop space is going to be one of a kind for us. I think it’s great.”
While concerns over the building’s height were resolved without much controversy, the DRB did have a number of questions regarding the materials used on the building’s exterior, which is a combination of wood, brick and concrete panels in a contemporary design.
“We introduced some new materials that are not conventional to a lot of the Beaufort facades,” said David Sklar, lead designer with SM7 Design. “That wasn’t the intent – to create anything that was what we would call traditional. We wanted to respond to the environment and having things like the louvers that help provide shade to the building as opposed to the flat facade. It’s actually more conducive to the Lowcountry environment.
“With the technology that we have today, we’re not building like we were 200 years ago, or even 20 years ago. We wanted to employ some new techniques and show that Beaufort is a forward thinking city that also has a great history.”
The DRB provided the project design team several conditions to be met when the team next appears before the DRB, including providing samples of the wood material that will be used on the exterior and renderings that show how the Desai will look next to the two neighboring hotels.
“The intent of the form has carried through, and that’s where we feel really good,” Sklar said. “So, we got the form and all the structural elements in the building that we wanted. Really, they’re just asking us to re-study the composition of some of the materials. Overall, we feel it’s fairly minor. They’re giving us a little leniency to introduce some elements that traditionally wouldn’t be considered.”
Michaels said he expects the Desai project will once again seek final approval during the August or September DRB meeting.
“Based on the comments from today and what they’re asking for, I see no reason not to get final approval,” said Michaels. “There should be no reason not to.”
Tony Kukulich is a recent transplant to the Lowcountry. A native of Wilmington, Del., he comes to The Island News from the San Francisco Bay Area where he spent seven years as a reporter and photographer for several publications. He can be reached at tony.theislandnews@gmail.com.
