Beach Hotel Design Study - April 20, 2010CITY OF CLEARWATER
PLANNING DEPARTMENT
BEACH HOTEL DESIGN STUDY
The Design Exercise
The focus of this study was to take four specific sites on Clearwater Beach and design two building options
for each site as a hotel examining how incorporating step backs into the design of the building would
impact the number of hotel rooms that may otherwise have been possible to construct. However, in
order to compare the impacts of buildings with step backs and buildings without step backs, a third
building option was designed for two of the sites. While preliminary design work was done for all the
options, the study did not include detailed floor plans or building
aesthetics. It is noted that this study was conducted over a
relatively short period of time where typically design work occurs
over months as opposed to a few weeks.
Sites
Four sites located along Coronado Drive were considered for this
design exercise, as can be seen in the adjoining image. All four
sites vary in size, shape and location along Coronado Drive. Sites
1, 2 and 3 are on the east side and site 4 is on the west. All of the
sites differ in area and have different configurations. Due to
small parcel sizes on the beach, all sites would require parcel
consolidation in order to have a parcel large enough to be
practical for hotel use. The largest site considered is 0.92 acres
(after consolidating 3 parcels); the rest are 0.82 acres (after
consolidating 2 parcels), 0.78 acres (after consolidating 2 parcels)
and 0.76 acres (after consolidating 5 parcels).
Hotel Design with Steo Backs - Design Parameters
Sites considered for Design Exercise
Two hotel buildings with step backs were designed for each of the above sites. While two options were
used for this exercise, many other design options exist, given the same circumstances. The following are
the design parameters used to design these building options:
¦ Option One designs should have 15-foot front and 10-foot side setbacks (The maximum setbacks
specified for the Tourist District by the Community Development Code). Looking at the newly built
and currently approved hotels and also considering the potential loss of units, the rear setback used
should be 15 feet (Specified in the flexibility criteria for the Tourist District by the Community
Development Code).
¦ Option Two designs should have a 15-foot front and 15-foot rear setbacks, but should have a side
setback of 15 feet instead of 10 feet.
¦ Maximum building height cannot exceed 100 feet on the east side of Coronado Drive and 150 feet on
the west side pursuant to Beach by Design.
¦ All parking should be located within a structure with a ramp slope of not more than 6%.
¦ Up to 10% of the floor area may be used for accessory uses.
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¦ At least one significant building step back should be incorporated into design along the Coronado
Drive frontage.
¦ Maximum development potential cannot exceed 150 units per acre.
¦ Typical room sizes should be no less than 490 square feet.
¦ All rentable rooms of the hotel should be designed with a water view.
¦ Structural building requirements were considered while designing.
Site Specific Results of the Design Study
Below are the resulting design options for each of the four sites.
Site 1:
Site 1, which is the largest parcel used in this study, is 0.92 acres. Through
the Hotel Density Reserve a 138 room hotel could potentially be constructed
on this site. Design Option One resulted in a 118 room hotel (128 rooms per
acre) with each room at 510 square feet. Option Two accommodated 113
rooms (122 rooms per acre) with each room at 500 square feet. Both
options were designed with a height of 94 feet.
Even though this is a fairly large site for beach standards and the largest used
in the study, it is difficult to reach maximum density due to several factors
including site location, configuration and the need to provide rooms along
the periphery of the building to ensure each guest a water view.
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Site 1
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Site 1- Option One
Site 1- Option Two
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Site 2:
Site 2 is a triple frontage lot with an area of 0.82 acres. The maximum
development potential of this site is 123 units. Design Option One resulted
in a 116 room hotel (141 rooms per acre) with each room at 500 square feet. p
Option Two resulted in 111 rooms (135 rooms per acre) with each room at a.
495 square feet. Both options were designed with an overall building height
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of 94 feet.
It is noted that, if any rooms were to be located along the side setback of the
site, then the only view these rooms would have would be of the walls of the
adjacent hotel on Site 1.
Site 2
Site 2- Option One
Site 3:
Site 2- Option Two
Site 3 is the smallest parcel used in the study and also the narrowest. It
measures 304 feet in width and 111 feet in depth with an area of 0.76 acres.
The maximum allowable density for the site is 114 rooms. Design Option
One resulted in a 108 room hotel (142 rooms per acre) with each room at
500 square feet. Option Two resulted in 86 rooms (113 rooms per acre) with
each room at 495 square feet. Both options were designed with an overall
building height of 94 feet.
It is noted that the five-foot increase in the side setback for Option Two
made it extremely difficult to accommodate the required parking and thus
resulted in a substantial reduction in the number of rooms from Option One.
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Site 3- Option One
Site 4:
Site 3- Option Two
Site 4 is also a triple frontage lot like Site 2 with an area of 0.78 acres. A total
of 117 rooms could be constructed on this site if maximum development
potential is reached. Both Option One and Option Two resulted in 111
rooms (142 rooms per acre); however this was accomplished by reducing the
room size in Option One from 510 square feet to 490 square feet for Option
Two.
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The height of the building on this particular site is 114 feet as this site is
located between Coronado Drive and Gulfview Boulevard, in "The Beach
Walk District".
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Site 4- Option One
Site 4- Option Two
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Hotel Design without Step Backs - Design Parameters
A third building design option was created for Sites 2 and 3. This option was designed without step backs
in order to see what difference would be seen in density when compared with the above design options.
All the design parameters used to create this design option were consistent with those used for design
options one and two except for those parameters associated with step backs, as there are none in this
option.
Site Specific Results of the Design Study
Below are the results of Site 2 and Site 3 design option where the building design is without the step
backs.
Site 2:
Site 2 is a triple frontage lot with an area of 0.82 acres. The maximum development potential of this site
is 123 units. Design Option Three resulted in a 116-room hotel (141 rooms per acre) with each room at
500 square feet. The building design, as seen in the image below, meets the current requirements of
Beach by Design. However, this design results in an immense fagade along Coronado Drive as well as the
two other frontages, creating a significant building mass.
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Site 2
Site 3:
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Site 2 - Option Three
Site 3 is the smallest parcel used in the study and also the narrowest. It measures 304 feet in width and
111 feet in depth with an area of 0.76 acres. The maximum allowable density for the site is 114 rooms.
Design Option Three resulted in a 108-room hotel (142 rooms per acre) with each room at 500 square
feet. The building design, as seen in the image below, meets the current requirements of Beach by
Design. However, this design results in an immense fagade along Coronado Drive, creating a significant
building mass. Even when this 279 foot long fagade is segmented by vertical design elements, very little
difference is seen in the bulkiness of the fagade.
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Conclusions
Based on the sites selected and the design parameters used, the following conclusions can be made:
¦ Increasing the side setback from 10 feet to 15 feet (the difference between Option One and Option
Two) does not create any meaningful or significant open space around the buildings because the ratio
of open space to the height of the building is very small.
¦ Meaningful view corridors cannot be created in this area of Clearwater Beach because of the way the
majority of the parcels are configured. Few parcels are laid out in a traditional rectangular pattern
where buildings are typically sited in a parallel manner and have view corridors between buildings
such as on Sand Key. The following graphics illustrate this situation.
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Building
Road
Water
Typical parcel configuration on Clearwater Beach Typical parcel configuration on Sand Key
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Hypothetical buildings designed on real parcels, where it can be seen that view corridors
are not possible in this area of Clearwater Beach due to parcel configuration.
¦ Constructing at the maximum building setback and incorporating step backs in the building design
does appear to require buildings to be constructed near 100 feet in height, but does not appear to
increase the need to construct at 150 feet in height.
¦ Constructing at the maximum front and side setbacks and incorporating step backs in the building
design may not decrease the amount of density that could actually be constructed on a site.
Building mass as per current
Beach by Design Regulations
step backs
:1o
step backs
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Building mass with
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¦ Property depth and/or configuration have more impact on the amount of density that can be
achieved on the site.
Design Recommendations
Creating new criteria within Beach by Design to provide building step backs along Coronado Drive would
result in improvements to architectural design as well as helping to reduce the massing of buildings along
the Coronado Drive frontage and alleviate the concerns associated with such massing.
¦ Building step backs should occur between 30 feet and 40 feet in height along the Coronado Drive
frontage.
Coronado Drive.
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Public right
of way
Buildings with step backs along both sides of
Coronado Drive. (More desirable)
¦ The building step back should have a minimum distance that is meaningful (ex. 15 feet).
¦ If flexibility in the building setback is requested, then the step back being provided should be
increased in a manner that is directly proportionate to the flexibility being requested.
Buildings with step backs along both sides of Coronado Drive. (More desirable)
¦ Required step backs should span the majority of the building width (ex. no less than 75%). This will
prevent the buildings along Coronado Drive from looking the same and will give developers some
design flexibility.
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Buildings without step backs along both sides of
Entire facade stepped back horizontally
75% of the facade stepped back
horizontally
Making some minor changes to Beach by Design as recommended above will help to improve building
design, thereby making the streetscape along Coronado Drive more attractive. These changes would keep
the achievable density the same, meaning the step backs would not have a negative impact on the
density; and the changes would also help avoid the future occurrence of new developments similar to
Holiday Inn Express.
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