Tallmadgeexpress.com - Dunkin' Donuts building colors approved for Circle

by Amanda Harnocz

Reporter

Tallmadge -- The fourth side of the building, the awning colors, the creme color for the "Sintra cup" and the bright pink and orange colors for the Dunkin' Donuts building on the Circle was approved by a 3-2 Heritage Commission vote April 29.

Now, with all aspects of the project approved by the Board of Zoning Appeals and the Heritage Commission, construction is expected to start by late spring.

Jim Evans, of James D. Evans Architect, said the building will be an improvement to the former Wally Waffle site, 196 Tallmadge Circle.

"Look at what is not happening around the Circle," Evans said. "I'm very excited about this project."

All of the commission members agreed the building is a definite improvement, but Commission President Fred Wybenga and Commission member Darrel Ayers felt the colors were not appropriate for the historic district. Wybenga and Ayers were the two votes against the colors for the project.

Wybenga stressed the importance of following the commission's guidebook with acceptable colors for the historic district, and is worried the approval of this project will bring others in to bend the rules. Acceptable colors include a burnt orange color and no pinks, according to Wybenga.

"We've wiped out 15 years of progress since we approved this," Wybenga said.

Evans said during the meeting that he helped do the research and write the commission's guidebook but stressed the importance of branding the national chain.

"We're not here to do something bad for this community," Evans said.

Wybenga said he is in strong disagreement with the project moving forward and is looking into ways to possibly appeal the decision by the commission.

Mayor Christopher Grimm mentioned the commission has the option to change all of the color elements to the building, as well as shingle size and color, brick color and any of the aesthetic options to the building.

However, the commission voted for the project as it was presented by the architect, without altering any of the colors.

E-mail: aharnocz@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-686-3911

Posted by Chad May 5, 2008

So the commission is willing to allow a color scheme that would not otherwise be allowed to let a large chain enter the circle, but when the old Library was renovated, the windowed front doors had to be replaced with solid doors because they were not "appropriate"? The large billboard signs on the Bumpas Drug building had to be altered after being a local landmark for nearly 50 years, because the design was not archetypical "Western Reserve" architecture?

It seems more that the Heritage Commission is more interested in making Tallmadge a cookie-cutter "historical" town than preserving the things that make Tallmadge what it has become today. Perhaps if a few of the board members had shopped at Bumpas rather than CVS or Walgreen's, we would still have a local independent drugstore? Or if they had eaten at the local Wally's instead of the chain restaurants like Applebee's, more than two dozen groups could enjoy a waffle at once on Sunday morning instead of the closet that Wally's now calls home?

I grew up in, went to school in, and continue to consider myself a Tallmadge-ite, even if my legal residence is in Akron. However, the Historical Commission continues to remove the small things that make the circle unique in the quest of finding the magical Western Reserve cookie-cutter. Eventually, my hometown will be so unrecognizable from any other suburban town that I may as well follow the jobs where they take me instead of trying to cultivate and improve the job market here. After all, I could find dozens of places that have "Western Reserve" architecture anywhere the Western Reserve once fell.

Chad Vincent
Akron, OH

Posted by lindalee582 May 4, 2008

Re. May 4, 2008 Tallmadge Express
"Dunkin' Donuts building colors approved for Circle"
Amanda Harnocz, reporter

Sounds like the circus is coming to town.

My family has lived in Tallmadge for decades. Several generations of our ancestors lived on the same family homestead dating back to the mid 1860s. I will probably live there again one day. The historic Tallmadge that I grew up in the 1950s and '60s had character and a charm that felt like Mayberry RFD. People were proud to live here then, away from the tawdriness that sometimes comes along with industry and big business usually found in larger cities. The citizens of Tallmadge must have been proud when Time Magazine put a beautiful photograph of the church on its cover sometime in 1944. While it seems the church has been faithfully maintained, the rest of the circle's historical importance has lost all meaning because, somehow, from what I understand, a committee actually decided that it's a good idea to install a pink and orange carnival-colored awning right on the historic Tallmadge circle. Incredible!

Didn't there used to be a city department, or maybe it was a Historical Society committee, devoted to the preservation of historic Tallmadge? What happened to the gatekeepers? Someone needs to present a reasonably sane perspective to whoever has decided that anything goes in the name of bringing revenue into the city.

Circus carnival-colors are not only inappropriate in Tallmadge; they are demeaning to its character. Please, someone, reconsider this issue. I doubt that Time magazine, or any other group that's interested in charming, historical towns, will want to photograph Tallmadge again. At least not for positive reasons.

Linda Lawrence Anderson
462 Ida May
Sierra Madre, CA 91024
(626) 355-4324