The Peekskill Historic & Landmarks Preservation Board met on August 28, 2025, at 7:30 PM in the Common Council Chamber. The board approved minutes (with a date correction), reviewed two applications for work on the Paramount Theater (1008 Brown St) and a public art project at 950/970 Main St, and set the next meeting for September 25, 2025.
Paramount Theater (1008 Brown St) – Facade Renovations & Marquee Upgrades
Applicant Joseph Thompson, architect, presented two separate applications: 1) facade renovations (stucco repair, wood trim replacement with Boral composition, refinishing doors, new gates, courtyard improvements) and 2) repair/refinishing of the existing marquee including installation of digital displays on the east and west sides (the primary front face to remain analog). The project is part of a DRI initiative, previously approved in 2023 but expired.
950/970 Main St (Burd’s and Baxter’s buildings) – Vinyl art banners and concrete stain
Applicant Larry D’Amico (Peekskill Arts Alliance) proposed 17 vinyl banners (6x6 ft each) arranged in a quilt-like pattern on the Baxter’s wall, plus a matching stain (Ash Gray by Bell Spar) on the Burd’s wall to improve appearance of deteriorating stucco. The project is a continuation of the Pugsley Park “Day in Peekskill” series, using local artists.
Of the historic and landmark preservation board to order. First agenda item is the approval of minutes from the July 24th, 2024 meeting. Did anybody have any questions or concerns about the minutes from last month? Only that the date is wrong. It says 2024. 2025. Just saying. It says July 24th and the On the agenda it does. Oh. Oh. But the contents are we're good. Okay. Motion to approve minutes as drafted, say for the correction of the date. Make a motion. Second. Agreed. Agreed. All in favor, we're good to go. So Sam, do you want to stay in order or start with let's go back to our original order? Okay. So first application of the evening is gonna Joe Thompson for China Brown Street for the Paramount. Hey Joe. So good evening. Joseph Thompson, architect representing the Paramount Theater Renovations at 1008 Brown Street. This project was before the board at the end of 2003, which time the facade renovations were reviewed and approval was issued. It's since expired. So we're here to represent that work to the board as well as an addition to the application that was tabled at that time for some upgrades, renovations, and potential uh modernization and digitizing of the marquee. And so the renovations proposed are primarily on the street facing side. We'll go through that. Also some improvements on the sides of the building and then the courtyard. It's a DRI project. We've presented the scope to the council, which was approved earlier this year, and we're hoping to start construction this fall. Uh the work that's proposed for the front of the building is to refinish essentially all of the stucco and wood areas. Uh a number of pieces have become deformed and rotted. So the proposals to replace in kind using comparable colors. We posted a number of color samples on the building. We have some physical samples of those we can pass to to review. As part of the prior approval, we looked at a series of several shades of brown and and beigees, and the two that were selected on the prior approval were ferret brown and also the Grand Beige, I believe. On the marquee, we also have new colors proposed that are comparable to the marquee colors, um, but soften it a little bit. The uh the bright red and bright yellow are are a little harsh, and so we're proposing to mute those down a little bit. The project did also receive a review by Shippo through the DRI review, and so SHIPO actually imposed some regulations on the work and on the marquee renovations that were proposed, uh especially with regard to the digital displays. So we get to the point where we're looking at the sign drawings, certain things were taken into account for how those digital displays are allowed to operate. We're not allowed to have animated pictures, we're not allowed to have you know colors or graphics or anything like that. And so they cited an example of the Apollo Theater in Harlem where it was pretty successfully implemented. There's been a number of marquees that have turned over to some form of digital to help uh to better promote the shows to free up the storefronts, and to also alleviate what could be a safety concern with people getting up on down on ladders to change out the letters the traditional way. So those proposed displays would change no more than once per minute, and they would use the same black color letters that currently exist and also have the same grid lines with white background. So essentially it should appear very comparable to what's there. It's just a flattened digital face. Uh the front would be left alone, though. The front would be a traditional physical letter style insert, as it currently is.