Historic Zoning Commission

Old North Knoxville H-1: Level III

1-D-18-HZ

Applicant Request

Level III. Construction of primary building - CONTINUED FROM JANUARY 18, 2018 HZC MEETING

The proposed building footprint is 24' wide and 64' long, including front and rear porches. A proposed in-ground pool at the rear of the house is to be surrounded by fencing/ gates and plantings. An opening in the existing stone retaining wall on Armstrong Avenue aligning with a new staircase in the existing stone wall will provide access from the sidewalk and on-street parking. Vehicular access is from Fremont Place with on-grade parking for two cars.

REVISIONS TO THE DESCRIPTION OF WORK 2/18/2018: WOOD-FRAMED DOORS AND WINDOWS AND STUCCOED FOUNDATION. The 1.5 story, wood framed house is sited within 11- and 13-foot side setbacks. Stylistically, the house alludes the shingle-style. The primary roof pitch is 9:12 and the front porch roof pitch is 5.5 :12. The exterior ridge elevation of the primary roof is +540' (+24' 6"above the main floor) and the main floor and front porch elevations are +514 (approx. 4' above finished grade in front yard). The material palette reflects the use of prefinished metal roofing (profile), metal gutters and downspouts, painted shingle siding (wood or composite), painted wood trim, wood windows, wood-framed full-light glass doors and stuccoed foundation. The front façade of the house features a recessed balcony under a clipped gable main roof. The integral porch on the rear southwest corner is screened-in.

REVISIONS TO THE JANUARY 18, 2018 PROPOSAL:
Addition of 6'-10"-long x ~ 5'-0" projecting covered entryway/porch toward the back of the south side
Enlargement of the 3 horizontal windows on the south side to become 4'x4'
Widening of the porch entrance and stairs by 1 foot to become 5 feet
Stucco (parge) the exposure (up to 6") of concrete block of the foundation
Wooden windows and door frames
Elimination of lowest window on south elevation
Enlarge window on south side to be 2'-6"x3'-6" and shift approx. 3' east
Increase screen wall height on south wall from 8'-0" to aprox. 13'-0"

Revision as of 7-31-2018
Add 8' wide x 1'-2" bump-out on north side, sheathed in shingles to match main body of house, and shingled roof. Install casement window, parged foundation.

Site Info

CONTEXT, SITING, AND BUILDING ENVELOPE
1) The deed indicating the current lot configuration has been traced by the applicant to 1919. The 1917 Sanborn Fire Insurance maps indicate that the lot had not been created as of 1917. There is no indication on early maps that there was ever a house on the lot.

2) The lot is 49.17 feet wide and ~320 feet long and is an anomaly in this streetscape on the north side of Armstrong because it is more narrow than the others. The narrowness of the lot does not preclude a house from being built on the lot. There are developed lots of this width that make up entire blocks in other areas of the district; however, these blocks exhibit more consistency in dimensions.

3) The proposed 1-.5-story house is designed to be 24' wide, 64' long, and ~28'-7" tall to the roof peak in the front and 24'-6" in the rear.

4) On the north side of Armstrong Avenue in this block, the façade widths of the houses range from ~40 feet to ~64 feet. The houses are 2- to 2-1/2-stories tall. The spacing between the houses on the north side of this block ranges from ~21 feet to ~ 27 feet.

5) On the south side of Armstrong Avenue in this block, the facade widths range from ~37 to ~53 feet. The houses are 1 to 11/2 stories tall. The typical spacing between houses on the south side of this block ranges from ~10 to ~15 feet.

6) Based on the zoning for the street and 1403 being a lot of record, the side setbacks may be as little as 5 feet on one side and 7 feet on the other, for a total of 12 feet of setback combined. The side setbacks for the house are proposed to be 11 and 13 feet.

7) If the width of the proposed house is increased to the available 37-foot width allowed by the zoning setbacks, then the width would fall within the range (~37 to ~53 feet) of that of the houses directly across Armstrong Avenue, to the south.

8) If the width of the proposed house is increased to the available 37-foot width allowed by the zoning setbacks, then the spacing between it and the houses adjacent to it would be reduced to be less than is typical for the north side of the street (~21 to~27 feet) on that block; however, the spacing would fall into the range of that on the south side of the street for that block (~10 to ~15 feet).

9) The proposed roof peak is ~ 6 feet below that of the house to the south, and ~12 feet below that of the house to the north. If the house were to be made taller to more closely approach the height of the houses on either side and within the total streetscape, then the width would need to increase to create historically compatible proportions for the house. However, the eaves of the first-level porch generally line up with those of the houses to the adjacent north and the south. The base of the clipped portion of the roof front roof peak approximately aligns with the eave line of the house to the north.

10) REVISED 2/15/18: The guidelines recommend to "break up uninteresting box-like forms into smaller varied masses like those found on existing buildings by the use of bays, extended front porches, and roof shapes." The form of the building is rectilinear with no complexity of roof form as found in other houses in the block, regardless of the interior massing which is shown in the submittal, but is not visible on the exterior of the house. The only variances in roof form are those created by the balconied front porch and the half-gabled covered entry porch (6'-10" long) on the south side toward the rear of the house which has been added with this 2/18/18 proposal to create some degree of relief from the atypical pure rectilinear form.

STYLE
1) The historic house styles on the street are variable.

2) Modern, stylized designs are encouraged in the district as long as the massing, scale, fenestration, material and design of the façade are compatible with that existing in the streetscape. Modern designs are not to stand out so as to make a statement that competes with the historic houses in the streetscape.

3) The style of the proposed house alludes to the shingle-style cottage which was popular at the turn-of-the-century. The shingled, integral porch columns and clipped gable draws from the features of the house to the adjacent south and is stylistically compatible with it. The recessed balcony is a typical shingle-style feature.

ROOF AND FOUNDATION
1) The primary roof pitch at 9:12 and the porch hipped roof pitch at 5.5:12 is compatible with that of other structures in the streetscape.

2) Basements and raised foundations are common in the district, and the texture of the masonry foundations adds richness to the neighborhood's architecture. The foundation of the proposed house is exposed at a maximum of 6 inches which is less than typical in the district.

3) ADDED 2/15/18: The clipped gable over the front façade is borrowed from the house to the neighboring south, which was altered at some point to include this characteristic.

PORCH
1) The level of the porch floor aligns with those of the adjacent houses, although the porch floor will be only barely visible from the street.

2) The porch is a full-façade porch at 24-feet long and 12-feet deep which is appropriate for the style.

3) REVISED 2/15/18: Most front porches in the district have wider stairs and entry openings of 8 to 10 feet between porch supports. The smaller cottage-type houses in the district have more narrow porch entry openings of 6 to 8 feet, but the proposed opening and stairway, which has been revised from 4 to 5 feet, is more narrow than existing historic examples.

4) The front entrance to the proposed house aligns with the northern-most edge of the porch. Front entrances in the district are typically more centralized in the façade. However, there are at least four other houses in the district that have front entrances clearly offset to the side, but none aligning with the outermost edge of the porch.

5) REVISED 2/15/18: The porch balustrade will be somewhat visible from the street on the north side. Balusters in the district are set into the top and bottom rails. The previously proposed overlapping balusters have been revised to be set into the top and bottom rails.

6) ADDED 2/15/18: The shingled wall enclosing the north side of the porch stairs is counter to the concept and intent of historic porches and their entryways which were designed with openess. Porches and their entryways historically contributed to supporting social interaction in the neighborhood and were not blocked off with solid walls.


WINDOWS AND DOORS
1) REVISED 2/15/18: The variety of sizes and shapes of windows on the side elevations, to include 4 different types in the same wall plane on the south side are out of character with the predominantly vertical orientation of historic windows utlized in the district. Regarding the pattern of the windows, although there are examples of free-form window patterns on the side elevations of historic houses within the district, the proposed free-form pattern on the south elevation, especially, stands out due to the lack of relief in the wall plane. The variation in pattern, size and placement of windows on the historic houses is not as visually impactful as on the proposed flat wall planes since wall planes on historic houses are delineated by recesses and projections.The placement of the lowest window on the south elevation is particularly atypical incongruent with window placement in the district. The windows on the upper facade of the north side elevation are out of character with those in the district due to their horizontality, and will be visible from the street, but not as noticeable as those on the south elevation of the house.

2) REVISED 2/15/18: The ratio of solids to voids (walls to window ratio) is appropriate on the front façade of the house. However, the side facades of the house appear more opaque than those of historic houses. Although the applicant has shown some wall planes of historic houses have a similar solid-to- void-ratio, the lack of window opening is more visually impactful on the proposed because the side elevations do not change planes and are flat, which is not typical of historic hosues in the district.

3) REVISED 2/15/18: The front and south-side entrances are simple wood-framed full-light glass doors. The south side door is toward the back of the house, so it is sufficiently subservient to the front entrance.

4) REVISED 2/15/18: The group of 3 windows on the south side have been revised from horizontal rectangles to square windows, but are still our of character fact that they are still out of character with the block and the district as a whole because they are not vertically oriented.

MATERIALS
1) REVISED 2/15/18: The proposed materials of composite shingle siding, wood trim, wood-framed windows,and wood-framed full-light doors are compatible with the historic materials used in the district.

2) REVISED 2/15/18: The previously proposed block foundation, of which a maximum of 6 inches in height will be visible, is not typical of historic materials. The applicants have offered to stucco the foundation although only 6 inches of exposure is proposed.

3) REVISED 2/15/18: Front porches in the district have materials that differ from each other above and below the floor level, with masonry piers or foundation, either brick or stucco, typically found below. The extension of the shingle sheathing proposed to cover the porch façade to inches above the ground creates a monolithic appearance that is out of character for porches in the district.

4) ADDED 2/15/2018: There is precedent for the proposed material of a galvalume metal roof on new construction in the district, as long as the profile of the interlock component is of a size that is appropriate for residential architecture.

5) ADDED 2/15/18: There is no precedent in the district for the proposed metal stove pipe visible from the front and south sides of the house. The type of housing, including rustic miners cabins and shanties, in which these stove pipes were typically utilized is not present in the Old North Knoxville Historic District. The district context features architecture predominently Victorian and Craftsman era during which stove pipes were enclosed with masonry. With the intent of setting the house apart from its historic neighbors, the metal stove pipe, as an example of functionalism gives a nod to modernist architecture. However, the gesture is such a definitive departure from the masonry chimneys of the district, that it is incongruent with the context of the district.