RAPID CITY - The new look of the Rushmont Building is miles away from the preliminary diagram unveiled in February, so much so that the president of Dream Design International hopes it's much more palatable for the public.

"I love it," said Hani Shafai, whose firm developed the concept. "We've come a long way from, let's say, the 'preliminary diagram'. I don't even want to call it a design."

The $48 million project to increase parking, add office and retail shops and create condominiums downtown on the city-owned lot on St. Joseph Street between Fifth and Sixth streets was chosen out of four proposals the end of 2006.

Shafai said the first drawing of the project released in February was only meant to illustrate the proposed uses of the building. It was never meant to represent the final design, something critics of the project seemed to not understand, he said.

Shafai briefly pulled the plug on the project in May due to frustration with what he felt was unfair criticism of the project, his company and himself during the spring's mayoral election season.

But after having some time to cool off, Shafai decided to allow the design to continue with an eye toward public informational meetings after the election to fully explain the goals of the project, how it is being funded and to address any questions.

Much more detail has gone into this design. Dream Design hired RNL, an international firm with expertise in mixed-use buildings to be the project's architect.

"I really like it. I really do," Shafai said. "We've come a long way, but we've still got a long way to go."

With its headquarters in Denver, RNL is an architecture, interior design, engineering and planning firm that was founded in 1956 with offices in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Dubai. A large part of the practice is focused on urban redevelopment projects.

Thomas Wuertz, project architect with RNL, said the firm's passion about making great cities drew them to the project. In preparing its initial design, RNL conducted extensive research of Rapid City, including its history, culture, climate and downtown architecture.

"Hani set out a goal for this project to revitalize downtown, energize downtown and extend the fabric of downtown toward Fifth Street," Wuertz said. "Our approach from a design perspective has really been founded in research. We've done a significant amount of research that is really about creating a building that is of this time and this place, but honors the spirit of the historic context."

Rapid City's downtown shows an eclectic mix of buildings that are representative of the times each was built, Wuertz said, and they are as diverse as the highly ornate Byzantine domes of the Buell building, the art deco facades of the Hall Building and the Chicago style of the Duhamel Building.

His research pointed out the strong design characteristics common across all the buildings, such as the retail base and canopy line, fairly consistent cornice lines and fairly consistent building heights, all of which became important in creating the Rushmont design.

Downtown buildings are built to the property line creating a strong street face, though it's not a 400-foot wall, he said. The Rushmont design mimics that composition of smaller, discrete buildings. Instead of looking like one big building, the design creates a regular rhythm that breaks up the building's mass at regular intervals.

"We've created a design that we believe very strongly responds to all of the design principles. It's a composition of smaller elements, discrete elements, repeating elements that all combine to create the larger element," he said.

To respect the Hotel Alex Johnson, the upper levels of the 17-story residential tower are set back to reduce its presence at street level and to reduce the overall implied height relative to the hotel.

Almost half the building consists of parking. Nearly 600 new parking spaces would be built, about 300 of them designated for public parking, more than double the 140 public spaces currently available on the lot.

But people won't be able to tell looking at the building's exterior that five levels of parking are contained within, Wuertz said, because the parking is wrapped with retail shops, office space and living units.

Wuertz said the building's proposed exterior finishes build upon the existing urban fabric with local materials that complement and blend in with the color and texture of historic downtown. RNL has identified three predominant materials: a light limestone, a slightly darker limestone and a local granite, Rushmore mahogany.

A study of traffic patterns found heavier vehicle traffic on Fifth Street and heavier pedestrian traffic at the Sixth Street intersection. Lots of vehicle traffic promotes commercial office and retail uses, and pedestrian traffic lends itself more to residential and retail. That's why the office space is on the Fifth Street side and most of the residential areas are on the Sixth Street side.

"We've been very careful with repeating the retail canopy and creating that line here at the cornice that really reacts to the historic context," he said. "It's not a glass tower. It's got a lot of solid surface."

Private investors are funding the vast majority of the project. The city has earmarked $2.8 million in 2012 funds toward the project for the parking portion of the cost, and has also discussed selling the land to Shafai.

The city approved a tax increment financing district in May to fund nearly $12 million in public improvements at the project site, including burying power lines in the alley, removing soil contaminated by underground fuel tanks and the construction of public parking spaces.

The design has been presented to the city's historic preservation commission for review. Within 30 to 45 days, he anticipates having the first of at least two public meetings coordinated with the Rapid City downtown association and Chamber of Commerce to provide information to the public, gather input and answer any questions.

Shafai hopes to get constructive comments from the public meetings that can be incorporated into the design.

"This is a lot closer to the final design than any previous models, but by no means is this the final design. We still have to really gather information and input from historic preservation and the public," he said.

Contact Scott Aust at 394-8415, or scott.aust@rapidcityjournal.com