Progress & Preservation...Together

Comments by Doug Walter 8-11-99

Mar 17, 2000

Doug, an architect and owner of Doug Walter Architects, presented slides that showed how homes - of all different styles - can be expanded so that they are sensitive to the prevailing character of the house itself and the neighborhood. (See 725 S. High & 875 S. Williams). He also showed the don'ts; renovations that do not fit which he called "re-muddles". He assured us that these too can be fixed. For remodels to be sympathetic to the existing structure the remodeling needs to match existing materials where feasible, respect the existing house's roof lines, and respect the house's mass, proportions. Do not shoot yourself in the foot - remember the big role of roof, mass and materials.

Doug stated it is not necessarily harder for him to do an expansion in a historic district than in a non-historic district, nor does the construction process take any longer. He also said it is no more costly to do the expansion in a historically designated area than one that is not. The difference in cost is dependent on the materials used and the attention to detail. The advantage Doug sees in historic designation is having professional design review which prevents most "re-muddles".