The city’s Design Review Board hopes to figure that out.

You wouldn’t be seeing the Harbor Square of today if the city’s Design Review Board had anything to say about it.

It’s not that the board doesn’t like condos, or big projects or new construction.

“It’s that it’s all very similar – eight to 10 buildings that have the same design,” review board co-chair Mack Pearl said, referring to downtown’s largest condominium development. “Harbor Square never would have got approved the way it is now.”

The Opus Corporation development, he said, probably wouldn’t have passed the board’s design guidelines – a set of aesthetic principles that frame the look of new developments.

The 180-unit commercial complex, which spans an east Winslow Way block, was approved two or three years before the board’s formation in 2003.

Harbor Square and other prominent new buildings taking shape in downtown Winslow reached the city’s approval finish line before the board was up and running. It was partly due to the recent rush of new retail space and condos that the board was established, Pearl said.

“We’re trying to maintain the unique character of Bainbridge Island,” he said. “We don’t want Bainbridge to look like Silverdale.”

Starting this month, the board will take on a wider array of buildings to ensure the island isn’t strip-malled or big boxed.

“I thought their role should expand into more projects because they bring a lot of expertise that is a great benefit to the city,” said Councilman Bob Scales, who joined his council colleagues in voting on Feb. 28 to both broaden the board’s scope and decrease the numbers of members serving on it.

The board will now review design plans on multi-family, industrial, cultural, educational, religious and government proposals, in addition to commercial and mixed-use projects.

At the board’s request, membership was reduced from 10 to seven. The board reasoned that a smaller number of representatives would result in higher board member attendance, consistency in review comments and added predictability in the public review process.

“The new additional items we’ll review will bring more consistency and a better product,” said board member John Green.

What goes up

The volunteer Design Review Board is composed of artists, architects, landscape specialists and a developers. The board advises the Planning Commission and the Department of Planning and Community Development on land use applications, making recommendations on amendments and additions.

In 2006, the board reviewed eight commercial and mixed-use proposals. Their review comments were incorporated into a staff report that generally serves as a basis for design approval by the planning director.

While a passing grade from the board is not required, Pearl believes bucking their recommendation is unlikely

“I think the director would be hard pressed to go against the Design Review Board,” Pearl said. “That’s suicide.”

According to Winslow Tomorrow project director Sandy Fischer, the board is the “aesthetic conscience of the island.” That’s why she’s enlisted their help in crafting new design guidelines for the downtown core.

As Fischer looks for ways to focus development density in Winslow, the board can monitor “the character and form as Winslow (grows) taller,” she said.

“If we’re going to have bigger buildings, we also want to have better buildings,” said Pearl.

The board completed a draft of new downtown guidelines Monday that encourage design diversity and a “richness of activities, details, furnishings and materials at the street level.”

Wide setbacks at designated street intersections, public space protocols and pedestrian corridors are a few of the more significant changes to the downtown guidelines.

The board is aiming for design “on a human scale,” said board member Kristin Tollefson.

She and others want to avoid some recent development designs that added density but failed to adequately address the ground-level ‘feel’ and aesthetics of the structure.

“Some felt the Best Western was overly-massed,” Tollefson said of the new hotel on High School Road. “We want a feel of not looming.”

The Best Western is another development that likely wouldn’t have passed the board’s muster, said Pearl.

“One of the things we were against was the big entrance to the parking lot,” he said. “It’s a great big hole.”

Like Harbor Square, the hotel was approved by the city shortly before the board was formed.

While the board has provided valuable input in some of his projects, island architect Sean Parker “isn’t a big fan.”

The designer of the the Seabreeze mixed-use project and other developments taking shape on Ericksen Avenue, Parker said the board “tends to be backward-looking.”

The board’s guidelines can hold back innovations that match modern demands and desires, he said. In particular, Parker has been at odds with the design guidelines in the Ericksen Avenue area.

“On Ericksen, I disagree completely,” he said. “There’s a historical bent…that makes it so you can’t make anything look different than a little lumberman’s shack.”

Board member Tim Goss said the restrictions governing design in various parts of the Winslow area ensures “some moderation and creates some flow between smaller scale (areas) and the larger (buildings of) Winslow Way.”

While one islander’s “shack” may be another islander’s “human scale” neighbor, the board’s highly subjective work is borne out of a collective desire to maintain some measure of the island’s character, according to board member Maggie Smith.

“We work with the values of Bainbridge Island,” she said.

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Dept. of Taste

The city’s Design Review Board has drafted an update of the design principles governing development in the Winslow core. The array of new principles include provisions for:

• Pedestrian walkways: new development and redevelopment shall include passageways that cut through sites and connect to other neighboring properties.

• Public plazas: Density bonuses can come with requirements for open space, such as courtyards, small parks and other gathering areas. These public spaces must face south when possible and include landscape conducive to pedestrian use, such as public art, benches or accent lighting.

• Designated intersections: Main intersections with Winslow Way should include areas for public use, with buildings set back to make way for plazas, gardens and other facets that “welcome the public.”

• Parking: vehicle lots must be tucked behind, beside or under street-front buildings. Lots must be screened with plants, decorative panels or other features. Garage entrances should be minimized and integrated into the overall architecture of the building.