Design Review Board Recommends Color, Materials Changes for Stow Road Art Studio Sign

Design Review Board · Meeting of June 8, 2026

Boxborough Design Review Board flags colors and materials concerns for a Stow Road art studio sign, advising the Zoning Board of Appeals ahead of a June 16 public hearing. The board, meeting via Zoom with Chair Rebecca Verner and members Richard Hilton, Kimberly Musto, and Wes Fowlks present, reviewed a sign application from Barbara Shapokas Taglier for her second-floor studio at 25A Stow Road, a historic 1832 brick building at the town's central four-corners intersection. Members found the proposal's roughly five-color scheme too bright for the building's character and called for simplification — Hilton said he wanted "something a little more historic looking" — and asked that the applicant confirm dimensions, specify wood as the sign material, and clarify the configuration of a proposed hanging arm sign.

The board scheduled a follow-up meeting for June 11 to finalize its advisory memo and separately voted 4-0 to approve meeting minutes from April 5, 2022. Staff member Alec Mosley disclosed that three grant attempts to fund a business-district design guidelines update had failed, but that an unpaid Trinity College design intern, pending a background check, would support a roughly 200-hour staff-led process to develop the guidelines this summer.

In the full story:

• Background and stakes
• The question before the body
• Substantive content
• The deliberation
• Procedural steps and outcome
• Implications and what is next
• The complete report — 2,180 words

Source: the Design Review Board meeting of June 8, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.