The worlds of architecture and baking collided as Cupcake Kitchen tried again but failed to secure full approval from the downtown Chattanooga zoning panel for an expansion to its Broad Street shop.
Cupcake Kitchen presented a design for a one-story, 761-square-foot addition to the back of its bakery on the corner of Broad and Fifth streets. Architects and designers rejected the design Thursday, saying it didn’t include enough windows to maintain the ideal pedestrian experience at the city’s center.
The bakery initially sought approval in August for an entirely new building, but the panel completely denied its requests for exemptions from the downtown code.
In both attempts, Cupcake Kitchen asked for modifications to the special guidelines for downtown storefronts, which dictate that new construction must be at least three stories tall and the ground floor must be covered at least 70% by windows.
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While the panel approved the reduction to one story for the smaller addition, the board members denied the bakery’s design, which included 7% windows. The bakery must return with a revised design after arguing twice that windows pose a threat to its products and process.
“Already in our front, we have a big problem,” Lauren Grzybowski, daughter of Cupcake Kitchen owner Helene Grzybowski, told the panel. “The sun comes through and it hits those cases, and even though things are refrigerated in them, it puts so much strain on that refrigeration.”
The heat from windows could melt chocolate the bakery plans to store in its addition, Grzybowski said. Her mother has operated the popular bakery since 2011 in a 1,300-square-foot brick building dating back to 1910.
The bakery is already using storage containers behind the building because of a lack of storage, Helene Grzybowski previously told the panel.
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Any business trying to be exempt from the rules must go through the guardians of the downtown code, nine members of a city panel that includes architects, urban designers and developers.
The Chattanooga City Council adopted the downtown zoning in 2016. Members of the zoning panel are appointed by the Chattanooga mayor and approved by the City Council. Several members have joined the panel since Cupcake Kitchen presented its original plans.
The addition to Cupcake Kitchen needs to be built for the next 100 years, said Lindsey Willke, a senior urban designer at HKS Architects and a new face on the panel. Adding windows along Fifth Street could give passersby a glimpse into the kitchen, she said.
“I think it would be kind of cool to look in the Cupcake Kitchen kitchen and be able to see what’s going on,” Willke said. “That could be really interesting for people to be able to have a little peek.”
But the bakery’s plans show the outer wall of the addition would be covered in storage or refrigerators. The code does not allow for businesses to black out windows but doesn’t dictate was businesses put in front of windows.
“If you put a refrigerator up against the window, it’s blocked anyway,” Lauren Grzybowski told the panel.
There is precedent for allowing one-story additions to buildings in Chattanooga, but the lack of windows held up what would be a highly visible but mostly blank new brick wall.
“If this was off the back of a building that wasn’t facing the street, I don’t think this would be much of a conversation,” said Thomas Palmer, principal at Chattanooga-based architect Tinker Ma and the panel’s new chair. “Beyond your business, the lifetime of the building and the lifetime of the city is what we need to be concerned with.”
Contact business reporter Daniel Dassow at ddassow@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.