Powerful Councilman Philip Goldstein, whose family is one of the biggest private property owners in downtown Marietta, has announced plans to demolish the empty, nearly century-old Cuthbertson Building on the north side of Marietta Square and replace it with a five-story building. The Cuthbertson Building, and all of the other buildings on that side of the Square other than the Strand Theatre, is two-story buildings.

Not surprisingly, Goldstein’s proposal has many people alarmed, and not just preservationists. They see it as the first step toward a Square ringed with much taller buildings, which would utterly change the character of downtown — and not for the better.

Based on the architectural drawing that appeared in the MDJ of the new building, it seems to have been designed with sensitivity in a style very similar to the building it is replacing. In my opinion, its façade would complement its surroundings — except, of course, for its height.

Leaving aside for the moment such issues as parking, zoning, etc., there is the undeniable possibility that erecting a five-story building there would bring us a big step closer to the day when Goldstein or someone else proposes, and gets approval, for a seven- or eight- or nine-story building facing the Square. Or several such buildings, if the economics would support them. One five-story building on that side of the Square might be tolerable, but not what would likely follow.

My personal opinion, again, is that Marietta’s human-scale Square is what gives it so much of its unique ambience, and that we should think long and hard before eagerly embracing the kind of radical departure that Goldstein is proposing.

What do you think?