After withholding judgement for months, the preservation group Historic Athens announced Thursday that it is “unable to endorse” a proposed hotel on the grounds of the former UGA President’s House “in its current form.”
The Historic Athens Board of Trustees voted unanimously not to endorse the 116-room, 88,000 square-foot hotel behind the 1856 Greek Revival mansion and adjacent to the Boulevard and Cobbham historic districts. Many of its members, as well as other nearby residents, have argued that the project is out of scale with the house and the neighborhood, as well.
The full statement is below:
After months of careful review, townhalls, and community comment, the Board of Trustees and staff of Historic Athens have come to a unanimous decision: we are unable to endorse the UGA President’s House Adaptive Reuse Project in its current form. The proposal is larger in scale than the site and the surrounding historic district can sustain within preservation standards. Without adjustments, it risks compromising both the landmark and the surrounding historic neighborhoods.
Our goal is not to block the reuse of the property. We believe this project can succeed if key changes are made. In this statement, we explain why the plan does not yet meet preservation standards and identify the areas where meaningful adjustments would allow Historic Athens to consider an updated and improved adaptive reuse plan.
Understanding the Stakes & Context
The UGA President’s House is one of our community’s most important landmarks, but its future is uncertain. The property carries more than $2 million in deferred maintenance, has lacked sustained use, and was listed by the Board of Regents for $5 million. At five acres on Prince Avenue with an 8,700 square foot home, that price is consistent with market conditions for a property of this size and location. These factors limit the likelihood of low-intensity, single-occupant uses and mean that the site’s long-term future will involve significant change.
The stakes extend well beyond the house itself. The property lies within Boulevard, one of our community’s most historically significant and intact neighborhoods, where scale, density, and greenspace define both character and quality of life. Without a plan that is properly scaled and preservation-minded, the site could either deteriorate further through neglect or be redeveloped in ways that overwhelm both the landmark and its surroundings. Demolition by neglect would weaken property values and neighborhood stability. Redevelopment under existing zoning could allow larger-scale development – such as a medical office facility or, in some cases, a project covering 75 percent of the lot – all without binding preservation commitments. Any of these outcomes would diminish the landmark, erase greenspace, and compromise the character of the surrounding historic neighborhood.
Preservation Concerns in the Current Proposal
We recognize that the developer and design team have invested significant time, resources, and attention into shaping a plan that incorporates preservation values. Those efforts are commendable, yet the proposal remains out of scale for both the landmark and the neighborhood. At 116 rooms and 88,000 square feet, it is nearly twice the national average hotel size, significantly larger than comparable regional hotels, and far larger than the size permitted for a single use in C-N zoning without a waiver.
The proposed underground parking preserves neighborhood-facing greenspace and avoids surface lots along Prince Avenue. However, its cost appears to have driven overall massing beyond what the setting can absorb. Even excluding the 8,700 square foot house itself, the new construction is too large for the historic context. A project of this size will reshape not just the house but the lived experience of its neighbors.
Beyond scale, the current proposal also leaves other critical preservation and neighborhood concerns unresolved. There are no binding protections for the house, gardens, and historic outbuildings, no clear safeguards against blasting or construction impacts, no codified limits on noise, lighting, or traffic, no clarity on limiting parking impacts, and no commitment to archaeological study or public interpretation. These omissions raise significant risks for both the landmark and the surrounding historic neighborhood.
Key Areas for Consideration in Any Revised Proposal
As preservationists, our role is not only to identify risks but to help chart a preservation-forward path. To paraphrase former National Trust for Historic Preservation president Stephanie Meeks, preservationists today must be more than the people who say no; we must be the people who say how.
With that in mind, Historic Athens would like to be clear that we could endorse and advocate for this project if it included binding commitments to address the following six areas, with the understanding that we would be best equipped to endorse a project that incorporates as much as possible of the following:
- Scale and Context: Significant, measurable reductions in footprint, height, and room count to fit the historic neighborhood and preserve key viewsheds. We are not setting a fixed number because scale must be judged by balance: preservation of the President’s House and gardens, the hotel’s operational viability, and the capacity of the five-acre site. Any new construction should remain visually subordinate in the Prince Avenue viewshed. If surface parking is used, it must be carefully located and screened to limit neighborhood impact. Off-site parking and shuttles should also be considered.
- Construction Safeguards: A no-blasting commitment with excavation used where feasible, monitoring of vibration, stormwater, and tree health, and the strongest possible tree protections to prevent collateral damage to adjacent homes and streetscapes.
- Permanent Protections: A preservation easement on the house’s façade and significant interiors, and conservation easements on the formal front lawn and rear gardens. These protections would prevent future development pressures from erasing key historic features.
- Neighborhood Protections: Operational limits reflected in the Planned Development and project plan, including valet and shuttle routing to prevent cut-throughs, on-site rideshare drop-off, downward-shielded lighting, enforceable noise management with set hours and acoustic buffering, and a neighborhood construction liaison selected with input from the Boulevard Neighborhood Association.
- Archaeology: A complete archaeological study prior to site work, including survey, excavation where warranted, monitoring during earth-moving, and public reporting, with preservation of significant findings in place or through thorough documentation.
- Interpretation: Visible interpretation of the site’s full history integrated into public-facing areas such as the gardens, historic outbuildings, hotel, restaurant, and bar.
Our Approach & Process
We have listened carefully to neighbors, our members, and the project team in good faith. That feedback, provided through written correspondence, one-on-one meetings, community surveys, public townhalls, and phone calls, has informed our approach. Key details and concerns about traffic, stormwater, and construction have been raised frequently, but scale has been the defining issue.
Throughout, our deliberations have followed strict governance in accordance with our by-laws, with recusals and conflict-of-interest safeguards. As the developer chose to recruit project members from the local preservation community, some trustees shared board and project responsibilities. To ensure a fair and proper process, trustees with a direct stake in the project recused themselves from deliberations, votes, and decision-making. Historic Athens has no financial ties to the project or developer and no direct stake in the outcome, allowing us to approach the project independently and appropriately.
The Preservation Path Forward
Saving vulnerable sites properly requires vision, design, skill, financial resources, and consideration of preservation standards. The President’s House project can still be poised to meet those standards if adjustments are made to improve the adaptive reuse plan, particularly with the design team including Arcollab and Koons Environmental Design, both trusted local preservation-oriented firms.
While this version of the proposal cannot earn our endorsement, a revised plan that addresses the areas outlined above could deliver preservation gains that alternative uses are unlikely to match. Those could include enforceable easements, rehabilitation of the house and interiors, retention of greenspace, public interpretation, and stronger environmental safeguards for the neighborhood.
Preservation is rarely a choice between perfect and nothing; it is a choice among the futures actually available. With the right adjustments, this project could become the most preservation-forward path possible for the President’s House, its historic gardens and outbuildings, and the surrounding historic neighborhood. Historic Athens stands ready to work with all parties to realize that outcome.
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