AUDIO SLIDESHOW: Preserving Watt & Shand facade

Tom Smithgall, representing the developer, talks about the lengths the project backers went to save the façade of the Watt & Shand Building.

Updated Jun 18, 2009 11:19

Lancaster

Preserving Watt & Shand facade

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Showing 5 most recent comments out of 6 total TalkBack comments about this article
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QUOTE (Artie See @ Jun 18 2009, 08:18 PM)

Rewriting history.

Mr. Smithgall doesn't mention that the real reason the Historical Commission rejected the PSP's plans was because the (then 12-story) hotel tower "on top of the historic building is grossly out of scale and character with the historic building", among other serious issues.

You can read the letter to Tom Smithgall from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission at the following link:

http://www.lancasterfirst.org/files/Histor...rvation2003.pdf

At the risk of sounding like a "nattering naybob of negativism," it still looks like they stuck a giant shoe box behind the facade of the old Watt and Shand building.
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reese

Do they think this (new) building is some kind of architectural masterpiece? I think it looks like an extremely boring eyesore that will most likely play out the same way Lancaster square did.
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Sprawl

I think it looks like a tumor growing out the old Watt & Shand building.
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Nick Danger

To take a page from the Naysayer's Notebook:

If preserving the W&S building intact was such a good idea, in all that time shouldn't some private enterprise done something about it?

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runutz

QUOTE (runutz @ Jun 18 2009, 10:35 PM)

If preserving the W&S building intact was such a good idea, in all that time shouldn't some private enterprise done something about it?

No private enterprise ever had a chance.

In 1992, the families that owned Watt & Shand sold the building to the Bon-Ton.

In 1995, the Bon-Ton closed, and the building was put up for sale.

In 1998, the Bon-Ton sold the Watt & Shand building to the Penn Square Partners, in a deal brokered by former mayor Charlie Smithgall (a competing bid from local developer Rob Ecklin was ignored).

At no other time was the building available for purchase.
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Artie See

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