Historic Zoning Commission

Fourth and Gill H-1: Level III

8-J-16-HZ

Applicant Request

Level III. Construction of new primary building (REVISED FROM 8-18-16 HZC MEETING)

Narrative revised for 9/15/16 HZC meeting: Construction of a one-and-one-half story, 40'x66' side-gabled Craftsman-style house as per submitted drawings. The house will be constructed on a crawl-space foundation faced with a distressed and tumbled brick. It will be sheathed in fiber cement board lap siding with a six-inch exposure with a smooth finish, and terminated into corner boards. Windows will be wooden 3/1double-hung.

The front porch will be supported by battered columns on paneled pedestals. The porch floor will be of 3-inch wood tongue-and-groove. The front door will be a wooden three-quarter-light door, with a transom light. The rear and side doors are proposed to be full-light and a half-light respectively, of painted fiber-glass. The bank of five windows in the front-gabled dormer are each 3x2 in size. The 3/4-façade front porch roof pitch is engaged within the main house roof.

The porte cochere on the southeast side will extend southeast from the front porch and is supported on one side by three battered columns on paneled pedestals. The front and rear porches, the roof dormers, and the porte cochere eaves will feature exposed rafter tails and gables will have eave brackets. The rear porch is to have a 2x2 wooden balustrade and Fiberon composite flooring. A driveway with two concrete aggregate wheel strips separated by a grass strip will be constructed from Deery Street to the porte-cochere.

The project is approved with the following conditions: 1) that the column base panels are made of wood and not fiberglass; 2) that the front porch have a minimum clearance of 6 feet beyond the columns; 3) that the applicant will match the concrete of the public sidewalk for the driveway; 4) that a faux chimney stack on the northwest side is not approved until the HZC is presented with more specific information to consider; and 5) that the final size of the northwest elevation windows is to be determined and dependent on the addition of a chimney stack.

Site Info

REVISED for 9-15-16 Meeting
Width of Houses and Lots
1. The submitted site map with housing footprints demonstrates that the front and side setbacks for the proposed house do not differ from those of several existing houses on the block. The proposed front setback of 7.5 feet to the porch is compatble with that of the immediately adjacent houses.

Scale and Massing
1. The massing of the proposed house does not relate to that of the adjacent south Queen Ann and others on the street. The main block is wider than the projecting front-gabled portions. However, there is no consistent pattern of massing on either side of this block of Deery Street.

2.The main roof pitch (6/12) of the proposed house is not as high as that of the Queen Anne houses on each side which are 10/12 and 12/12. However, both sides of Deery Street exhibit a variety of roof pitches.

Height of Foundations and Stories
1. The proposed height to the peak, although lower than that of the houses on either side (34'), is within the height range of houses on the street.
2. The height of the foundation is similar to those of nearby houses.

Materials
1. The proposed construction materials, including wood windows, asphalt shingle roof, tumbled brick foundation, and smooth painted fiber cement board siding, are compatible with those on nearby earlier houses. However, the proposed 6-inch siding exposure is wider than the typical 4-inch exposure on houses in the district.
2.The front door is to be of mahogany wood which is appropriate. Painted fiberglass has been approved in the district for side and rear doors.
3. The wood balustrade with 2x2 pickets on the rear porch is appropriate.

Features
1. Although the front entry door is not a typical Craftsman style, it is not incompatible with the house design or that of nearby houses.
2. The double-hung wood windows are appropriate for the style with a three-over-one configuration.
3. The exposed rafters and open eaves contribute to the Craftsman styling of the house.
4. The six-foot-deep porch is atypically narrow for this type of Craftsman house. Moving the house façade back by at least 1 foot would allow the porch to be a more appropriate 7 feet deep.
5. "Historically, porches were an outside room where residents could find a sheltered transition into their homes, exterior living space, and a place to meet and converse with neighbors. The social role of porches as a transition space between indoors and outdoors and as a link between private and public realms has been evolving since the 1800s.Porches were . . added to private homes to serve many of these same functions (Figure 2). As the country began to thrive and expand, porches became more than just covered entrances or ceremonial features; they became an integral part of domestic social life." NPS PRESERVATION BRIEF 45-Wooden Porches.

Style and Form
1) There are no other Craftsman houses on this block of Deery Street.
2) There are no original porte cocheres in the district.
3) There are streetscapes throughout the district which exhibit variation in style, era, and house form. There are also blocks within the district that exhibit consistency of form and style.
4) This block of Deery is consistent in exhibiting the Queen Ann style, although in varying forms. If the proposed style and form are to be found as appropriate, approval would need be based on this house being an example that alludes to the existing anomalies in other streetscapes of Fourth and Gill.