Fans of The Drawing Room were sad to see the business close recently. It featured a boutique, art gallery, design service and a café.
Today an interesting pre-application is pending at Greenwich Planning & Zoning for a change of use from retail to school use in about 1500 sq ft in the single-story portion of the front building.
The tenant, Make-Modern would offer craft class instruction. The website for their Darien location says, “We offer weekly classes and evening workshops for kids and adults. On weekends we throw crafting birthday parties. We’re open for retail if you need a fun gift or a kit to craft at home.”
The owners of the Cos Cob property at 216 to 220 East Putnam Ave in Cos Cob are Jonathan and Karen Schmitz.
School use is permitted in these buildings, which are in the LBR-2 zone. However, classes that involve drop-offs as proposed for children and teens do require a special permit, which is why this will go before the P&Z commission.
The applicant proposes to change the use of about 1500 sq ft consisting of the single-story portion of the Front Building from retail to school use for craft class instruction.
The applicant does not propose to use the rear building which the Drawing Room used to operate a cafe.
There are eight parking spaces – five in front and three at the rear.
Make-Modern conducts classes for traditional handcrafts with a focus on children’s classes and camps, but they also offer craft classes for teens and adults.
Typical children’s class and camp sizes are 12 students. Typical teen and adult classes are 8 students.
Typically there will be at most 3 instructors on site at any time. Classes will be staggered by at least 30 minutes, according to the applicant’s narrative, who said that would allow sufficient time for flow of people to and from the site.
Per the applicant’s narrative, the owners / managers of Make-Modern are four women from Fairfield County. They have successfully operated a location in Darien for three years, and seek to replicate that operation in Cos Cob.
In Cos Cob the application says they would offer classes including needlepoint, machine sew, crochet, and knitting.
Per the narrative, in addition to a weekday class schedule, “we might have a few parties or workshops on the weekend.”
They also seek to offer camps when public school is not in session including summer break, and both February and April vacations.