Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

The jury's still out on whether the Byer Center is a thing of beauty or an eyesore.

Byer Center draws criticism

By Clarence Cromwell

When they approved the domed building now under construction at Blossom Hill Road and Los Gatos Boulevard, planning commissioners thought it would be an improvement on plain-looking strip malls that recline behind acres of monotonous parking lot.

But a handful of area residents have complained to the Planning Department that Byer Center is too close to the street, too large and blocks their view of the hills.

The building is the first to reflect the basic design principles spelled out by a design charrette attended by more than 200 residents, business owners and local design professionals in November 1994 and shaped further at a follow-up meeting.

A high priority that came from those meetings was that a revamped boulevard should be more pedestrian-friendly and that the previous emphasis of the boulevard on automobiles should be minimized.

The General Plan Committee is now in the final stages of developing the Boulevard Streetscape Plan, and the Architectural Standards Committee is hammering out guidelines for architectural standards.

Although the specifics are still being finalized, the general principles that have been guiding the Planning Commission call for buildings to stand close to the curb, to face the street and to offer parking in the rear.

These were the guiding principles the Planning Commission used with the Byer Center, a 23,740-square-foot, single-story retail center that stands on a two-acre plot formerly used to store a nearby auto dealer's cars.

The center is situated a few yards from the curb and features a conspicuous tower topped with a copper-sheathed dome at the corner nearest Blossom Hill Road and Los Gatos Boulevard. It is the creation of Kenneth Rodrigues and Partners, the firm that designed Cornerstone Shopping Center, across Blossom Hill Road.

But the new standards have proved unpopular with some.

Evelyn Lecznar-Checke, a 25-year resident of Los Gatos, said she passes Byer Center every day and she dislikes it.

"I find that new building objectionable," Lecznar-Checke said. "It's too big, it's too close to the road and it blocks the view of the hills. I think a lot of the good stores downtown have been taken out, all replaced by restaurants and bars geared to tourists, not the residents."

Muffet Brown, who lives on Los Gatos Boulevard three blocks from Byer Center, prefers shopping centers farther from the street.

"If the building had been set back off the street and lowered in total height, then the sight lines would have been preserved to the mountains," she said. "I don't think we want another downtown."

Brown said centers placed back from the road, like Cornerstone, give a more suburban feel to the area, which she prefers.

"That has been the beauty of having car lots; they have allowed a lot of open space," Brown said.

Elizabeth Cilker Smith, who with her brother Carl Cilker owns Cornerstone Shopping Center, said the family misses the view they used to have across the street from their center.

"We're disappointed and sad that it's blocking the view of the hills," Smith said, "but we're taking a wait-and-see attitude. We think that its going to be more attractive than it looks now."

Smith emphasized that she thinks there's a need to formulate a vision for Los Gatos Boulevard that preserves the view of the hills but also improves the town. Smith has been active with the Los Gatos Boulevard Community Alliance, recently completing a term as its chairwoman.

Steve Boersma, executive pastor for administration at Calvary Church and new chairman of the BCA, conceded that the placement of the building close to the street takes some getting used to.

"It gives a much larger impression of the building," Boersma said.

"But the building fits into the architectural plan, which the BCA helped to draw up for the area," he added.

Planning Commissioner Michael Abkin said he drove by the center from all four approaches and didn't think it looked bad.

"Its just a change in what people are used to seeing. I think it always looks worse when there's a change."

Los Gatos Planning Director Lee Bowman agreed that the flap can be partly attributed to residents' resistance to change.

"I think one of the problems--what people are reading into this--is they're not used to a building on the site," Bowman said. "I think with a building, people need to see it finished, so they can see what the finished product is."

Bowman said the building will look better after it receives exterior trim work and landscaping designed to break up its imposing facade.