The Beacon Hill Architectural Commission approved an application to make repairs to a fire escape at the Park Street Church during a virtual meeting on July 18.
The applicant intends to make repairs on the rear façade of 2 Park St. that exits from the first through fourth levels while a second means of egress exits the property through a swing-gate areaway with a retaining wall bordering the Granary Burying Ground.
Repairs would be made behind the fence area and include replacing angled brackets with a vertical support for the fire escape.
The matter was continued from the commission’s June 18 hearing.
In another matter, the commission approved as submitted an application for 7 Mount Vernon Place with proposed work at the front façade that includes replacing the front-door hardware; installing an intercom system at the rear door; installing a new copper exhaust cap on the sidewall; and installing a fire-alarm bell and beacon on front façade, as well as installing one chimney exhaust, an ERV (energy recovery ventilation) supply and an exhaust on the roof. Provisos for this application include staff approving cut-sheets for the proposed door hardware, as well as glass and cut-sheets for the skylights, while the applicant must produce historical documentation that proves that the existing white shade of the door wasn’t its original color in order to paint it black, as was also requested.
The commission also approved an application for 34 West Cedar St. to replace an existing roof-deck rail with a 42-inch-high metal railing that would be pushed back from the rail’s current location near the penthouse; to remove three existing HVAC condensers from the rear ell and replace them with three or four smaller, less-obtrusive units in the same location; and to replace an existing pendant light at the front vestibule and paint the entry white; and to replace existing wood siding with flat-seam copper on the rear side of the head-house. This application’s approval came with the provisos that cedar planks at the rear of the head-house remain in place, and that the new railing be black and made of metal.
Regarding a proposal to install a small boiler vent at the rear façade of 61 Mount Vernon St., the commission ruled that the application was exempt and wouldn’t require a vote because the work wouldn’t be visible from a public way.
Meanwhile, the commission didn’t hear an application to install piping on several windows at 116 Charles St. that was also listed on the agenda because the applicant didn’t appear at the virtual hearing.