Renovation of the original Mediplex building, at left, built in the 1960s, has gone through several phases during review of plans to convert the building into a memory care facility. At center is an earlier plan that mimicked the design of the King’s Highway Elementary School across Burr Road, and at right, is a more modern design presented to the Architectural Review Board on Tuesday. / Graphics, Redniss & Mead

By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — A plan to turn an empty nursing home at Burr and Post roads into a memory care facility has encountered opposition at a series of board and commission meetings over the last 18 months.

The plan for the side of the building facing Burr Road is too complicated, ARB members said. 

After a text amendment was approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission last October allowing the general project at 1 Burr Road to move forward, the plan was back before the Architectural Review Board on Tuesday night for review of the proposed design.

At their Zoom meting, ARB members again complained about the most recent design for the building, which under the plans is being converted from a 120-bed skilled nursing home into a 68-bed memory care facility.

The plan for the side of the building facing Post Road West is too plain, with louvres for ventilation not well hidden, according to ARB members.

Previously known as Mediplex, the building has gone through several design phases, including a change from a style mimicking King’s Highway Elementary School across the street to a newer, more modern look that ARB members said Tuesday looks too uncoordinated on one side and too plain on the other.

The board sent the property owner’s representatives, Rick Redniss of Redniss & Mead, a Stamford land-use firm, and architect Dan King, back to the drawing board, telling them to come back to the ARB with a revised design. 

The side of the building facing Post Road West, which will be viewed by hundreds of drivers on the Post Road appears too simple and lacks architectural detail, ARB members said. 

“It seems so bland,” board member Manuel Castedo said of the Post Road side of the building.

While the other side of the building facing the quieter Burr Road, looks over-designed, the ARB members agreed.

Rick Redniss, of Redniss & Mead, a Stamford land-use firm, presented the newest plan for the former Mediplex facility to the Architectural Review Board.

“The design needs to be edited down. It’s too busy, too arbitrary and too decorative,” commented member Jon Halper.

Specifically, board members didn’t like how the architect dealt with mechanical equipment in the building by using decorative panels, a style board members said was not well integrated into the building’s design. 

They also disliked the look of the louvres for ventilation on the side of the building, which board chairman Ward French called “glaring. The mechanicals should not be as evident,” he said.

Board members were more critical of many aspects of what King had called “a more contemporary and less-conservative design,” than the previous design that had been patterned after the elementary school across the street.

The combination of wooden paneling on the corners of the building, paired with white brick in the more modern design plan, did not sit well with the ARB. The two materials don’t mesh visually and would be distracting, they said. The location of some gables planned for the renovated building also didn’t work, some board members commented.

The building, built in the 1960s, has been the target of neighbors’ complaints about traffic and noise caused by deliveries as well as poor maintenance of the building for years. 

Previous ideas for re-use of the building have included a boutique hotel and a larger medical facility.

After hearing ARB members’ comments Tuesday, Redniss thanked them for their ideas and said he will return with an updated design.

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist and journalism teacher for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman newspaper for 10 years and currently teaches journalism at Southern Connecticut State University.