We proposed a color scheme with grey walls and a reddish roof. We believe it is complementary with the neighborhood and would not create any glare problems.
Please look at the juxtaposition above. Our grey siding ties directly across to the grey portico over the hotel driveway. Our red roof complements the reddish siding, directly across from it, shown on lower floors of the new, yet-to-be-built, hotel.
After the 2nd ARB hearing, we contacted Ms. Foley at the City Of Palo Alto and were given a link to updated Caterina Hotel documents. The siding seems to have changed to a yellowish artificial cedar and the trim to dark ornate metal work.
Our 4260 El Camino Real building is shown at the far left of the picture. The right side of our building is shown blocked by the hotel, with only the stairway wall visible, not the wall of our building. This is consistent with our understanding of the hotel’s position. However, the peaked portion of our building is covered by windows, not siding, and as shown is further back from the street. The stairway wall appears to be shown over 12 feet high, but it is only 8′ high with a short section running back towards the building that reaches 13′ high at the landing. The hotel is positioned right at the sidewalk, while 4260 El Camino Real is positioned 22′ back away from the sidewalk with the staircase landing and staircase extending out to the sidewalk. In summary, very little of our siding would be visible.
Warmer Color Scheme
During the 2nd ARB hearing one or more members, who weren’t necessarily opposed to our proposed grey siding plus red roof scheme, expressed that they wished our color scheme was “warmer”. We have a new scheme that would address this wish and we consider it to be equally desirable to us, as the color scheme we previously submitted.
We propose changing the roof color to a light grey, changing the upper half of the building to a dark terra cotta, while keeping the bottom half of the building the same light grey originally proposed. We would also keep the colonial red band separating the upper and lower halves of our building, the dark grey beams beneath the eaves, and the colonial red on the wall immediately beneath the eaves.
We believe this new color scheme is attractive, complements the existing buildings on El Camino Real, and complements the condominium complex directly behind our building.
As shown in the picture at the very top of this page, the existing motel (Palo Alto Inn) to the right of the new, yet-to-be-built hotel and separated by the long driveway to the condominium complex, is white with a reddish roof. The existing motel (Sky Ranch), to the right of the Palo Alto Inn, is tan-white with the same color of red roof we originally proposed before the 2nd ARB hearing. Grey is complementary to white. The original color scheme was designed to be complementary to the existing nearby buildings along El Camino Real and to the available proposal for the new hotel. The newly proposed scheme is also complementary to the existing buildings and the hotel proposal.
The large condominium complex immediately behind 4260 El Camino Real is mostly a dark terra cotta color but perhaps due to weathering or being installed at a different time, some of it is reddish. Our 4260 El Camino Real is partially visible behind the large tree at the right edge of the picture.
Both our originally proposed red roof and our newly proposed dark terra cotta upper building half, complement the adjacent condominium complex.
Although one ARB member claimed the Cabana Hotel shouldn’t be considered when judging if a red roof is appropriate for our 4260 El Camino Real building because it has a large parking lot in front of it, this is the only building on El Camino Real that currently exists and will exist in the future that is adjacent to our building.
We submitted a document (please look at it as it is still applicable) prior to the second ARB describing why we believed our red and grey color scheme was appropriate. One ARB member stated that buildings 1/2 block away weren’t appropriate guidance. However the existing building immediately to the right of our 4260 El Camino is a white building with the front painted a very dark grey, the next two buildings heading north on El Camino Real are white and tan-white with reddish roofs, one which we proposed to duplicate. A picture of the large condominium complex behind our building is shown above. We tried to be complementary to the existing colors, but both adjacent and nearby buildings have been arbitrarily declared inappropriate guidance. Early during the design, the uniform grey we first proposed, was felt to have “too much mass” so we changed to a two-tone grey separated by a red band. The only comment we can take action on now, is the comment made by an ARB member during the 2nd ARB hearing, that a warmer color would have been preferred. We respond to that wish below.
So that no one would have to guess what the buildings along El Camino look like, on Aug 15, 2020 we prepared a map with small pictures of the buildings for the ARB meeting, to remind everyone of what is nearby. The pictures are small so we’ve created 4 web pages showing larger pictures of the El Camino Real buildings.
- El Camino Real walking north of 4260 El Camino Real
- El Camino Real walking south of 4260 El Camino Real
- Opposite side of El Camino Real walking north of 4260 El Camino Real
- Opposite side of El Camino Real walking south of 4260 El Camino Real
Rendition of Warm Color Scheme
click on picture to enlarge
click on picture to enlarge
Update 2021-03-30
During a meeting with city staff (Ms. Gerhardt & Ms. Foley on 2021/03/29) the issue of cool roof was brought up. When we said: “To us a cool roof is a white roof, do you want us to have a white roof?” We were told no.
Searching for “cool roof shingles” returns Owens Corning as the most prominent supplier. Looking at their Cool Roofs Color Collection brochure. Lists the light grey color “Harbor Fog” as the most reflective. This color meets what we want to achieve with our warm color scheme.
The brochure lists cool roof solar reflectance index values ranging from 20 to 32. The Harbor Fog is the only one with an index of 32, while Sierra Gray and Cliffside Gray have an index of 20, Shasta White has an index of 29.
The colors chosen for the sides of the building are from the AEP Span color chart:
The top half of the building would be Terra-Cotta.
The bottom half of the building would be Silversmith.
Old Town Gray (or similar) would be used for the beams at the gables and for the slats on the stairway walls.
Colonial red would be used on the walls immediately below the eaves and for the red band separating the upper and lower halves of the building.
Please note that the light reflectance value of Regal White is 75 while it is 54 for the chosen Silversmith (“Paint colors 40-60 are considered a medium LRV. They will reflect an average amount of light and are very safe to use inside or outside” ). What is perhaps just as important is that little sunlight hits the walls of 4260 El Camino Real (they are heavily shaded by trees), and the walls are 22′ away from the sidewalk. Additionally, if the grey area extends 5′ above a person’s eyes the sun could be no higher than arctan(5/22)= 13 degrees above the horizon for that amount of light to be reflected towards their eyes from a smooth flat surface.
For some reason the words “grey metallic paint” raise incredible worries for some of the ARB members. We have talked about what our next option should be and decided that if the “grey metallic paint” is rejected then we would propose simply replacing it with plain white paint(?). We would be happy with that combination. Basically, we want to use a red, grey, white color palette and not have our building look black, like the soon-to-be-removed adjacent building. Our proposal would then become as shown for our desired warm color scheme but with the bottom grey replaced with white.