Commission agrees on plan for Beeline’s location and design

The historic Larry Zarian Transportation Center could be getting a new neighbor: an administration building for the Glendale Beeline bus system and storage space for its 37-vehicle fleet.

Initial plans for a two-story, 10,000-square-foot office structure and a maintenance facility about 40 feet from the train depot won approval Thursday from the Historic Preservation Commission.

There was unanimous agreement that the new facility wouldn’t negatively impact the depot’s historical significance.

Commissioner Michael Morgan said the depot serves as a welcome to Glendale and would be improved by juxtaposing the landmark with a newer, modern building.

“It just kind of makes a good transition,” he said. “It’s in the right place. People coming in [by train from Los Angeles] will see a modern Glendale and a historic Glendale.”

Beeline riders will be able to buy bus passes from the new office building, Patrick McKelvey, a principal at RNL, which drafted the design.

Operations that oversee the Beeline system will also be moved to the structure, he said.

The only thing Morgan recommended changing was the height of the office building, lowering it by a couple feet to decrease its impact on the train depot.

That sentiment was expressed by the sole public speaker on the item, Glendale Historical Society Vice President Catherine Jurca.

“We would like to reiterate bringing the height down would do a great deal to reduce the obvious massiveness in relation to the depot,” she said.

RNL designed several iterations of what the new administration building could like. The one that won support from all four commissioners had a canopy above the second-floor windows aimed at reducing its mass.

Commissioner Desiree Shier liked the fact plans included landscaping around the building.

“The landscaping will soften the separation between the two buildings, which I think is very nice,” she said.

The city maintains its Beeline buses at a facility at Los Angeles Street and Palmer Avenue.

Some of the fleet’s vehicles are parked on the street overnight when they’re not in service, said city spokesman Tom Lorenz.

In addition to the administration building, the new bus facility will have enough storage room to park all of the buses without having to store them on local streets, he said.

Alan Loomis, deputy director of urban design and mobility, told commissioners the current facility is too small for ongoing maintenance.

“If you’ve ever been in the building, you’re basically squeezing buses in … it’s like a game of Tetris trying to get the buses in and out,” he said.

The final plans for the new Beeline bus facility will head to the City Council for final approval by July, Loomis said.

The Larry Zarian Transportation Center was built in 1923 and renovated in 1999.

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Arin Mikailian, arin.mikailian@latimes.com

Twitter: @ArinMikailian