walnut house: certificate of appropriateness application and IKEA
Today we’d like to share the Certificate of Appropriateness application for the Walnut House that was turned in to the Historic Preservation office yesterday. As we mentioned on August 18th, we had a very productive meeting with HPC staff. The preliminary meeting was asked for to see how HPC felt about the house and to see if we were following the guidelines for new construction. We felt pretty good leaving that meeting, but did want to make a few revisions to the design based on staff’s recommendations, before we submitted the application.
A few of the revisions are: lowered the solid railing around the front porch 8” to better match existing railing heights in the area, placed the vertical board wood fence along the sides and rear of the property only while re-using the wrought iron fence for areas facing the street, added three windows towards the front of the house on the side of the home facing south on the second floor, and we now show the rain catchment system where the blank wall was previously shown in the earlier design.
If you would like to learn more about the preservation guidelines please click the link below:
Historic Preservation Guidelines for New Construction for Springfield
Click on an image to view larger.
We are always reading your comments, so we welcome comments, questions, and even criticisms as well. If, after reading the guidelines for new construction, you still feel that this home doesn’t belong in Springfield and would like to comment, please keep it constructive so we can all see why you think that is the case.
Also on this day we had a trip to IKEA Orlando planed with our clients to confirm some of the items we have chosen for them for the interior of the Walnut house. This trip comes after a trip in early June to Atlanta for the Modern Atlanta Home Tour and a similar shopping trip to Room & Board for inspiration and furnishing selections. We are using IKEA to stay in budget, but our goal will be to change it up and be creative so that the house does not feel like “The IKEA House”. This was our first time at IKEA with clients and only their second time visiting one of these massive stores. We have to confess that we have spent many an hour scouring IKEA for our personal homes and office. Because of our knowledge of the store layout we were able to stay on task and get through the choices in a timely manor. It was really fun to see our clients start visualizing the interior of their future space.
Here are a few images from the trip and as usual, click on an image to view larger:
love, love, love it! way to go guys!
Love this house AND that it’s in Springfield. If you guys start doing more of these, put me on the list. I’d love to live here! Good luck!
A welcome addition to the neighborhood!
Awesome job!
Saw a link to this on jacksonville.com and was interested because you all are working on a project with my husband, James.
For years I thought it would be great to have some well designed, modern homes mixed into the neighborhood. Love it. Great work and good luck!
I would love to see this in Springfield and many more. What’s the probability that this will actually get built?
I have lived in Springfield for 8 years. Jason Fisher, who designed this house, is my neighbor. In the time we have lived in Springfield, we have seen a lot of improvements, but not near enough. We can’t rely on a handful of developers and those interested in historic preservation to bring our neighborhood to fruition.
Jason lives in this neighborhood, so he and Greg were extremely thoughtful about their approach to the design of this house. Clearly inspired by Henry Klutho and his architecture, they have created a design that exemplifies how modern design can not just fit into a historic context, but enhance it. The house is beautiful and functional for the owners, and most of all unique – which to me, embodies Springfield completely.
It is my hope that the Historic Preservation Committee will approve their Certificate of Appropriateness to build the house on Walnut Street.
It will satisfy the owners, bring much-needed growth and improvements to the area and most importantly, generate some new enthusiasm and a new wave of excitement to the neighborhood. Jason and Greg are finding new ways to bring our neighborhood to life. They may just be our newest pioneers.
Thanks guys for taking care to find a new way to make our neighborhood thrive.
Tab Collins
1536 N. Laura Street
I would gladly welcome this very cool home in Springfield!
What a fantastic house. While I am not a resident of Springfield, I am completely in love with this design – but even more so with all the “GREEN” aspects of the home.
What a wonderful way to begin setting some amazing forward thinking standards for such a hot growth area in Jacksonville.
THANK YOU for challenging us to think about ways new homes can be incorporated into such a historical area.
Why haven’t you guys posted the good news? *stamp* APPROVED. Congrats!
@Jeremiah: Thanks! We’re working on a post now, should be up in a bit…
While this is amazing and very welcome to the neighborhood, I am asking why those of us that have either re-built our houses or have had new houses built have been under strict regimes on what we build, meaning that colors, screen enclosures, certain types of fencing, even to the extreme of getting an OK to put a water fountain in. My neighbor couldn’t even get new double glazed windows because it was an historic renovation and yet we can see a house of this type being built – it doesn’t make sense, obviouly this is going to open up the kettle for us folks to do what we deem appropriate, forget about trying to keep the place as it was 70 years ago. I’m all for forward thinking and going green but this cannot be a double standard for the folks who already have paid the price.
Carol, thanks for your comment.
New construction guidelines are different than those of renovation or additions. You’re comparing apples and oranges. We followed the guidelines for new construction in Springfield, and met over 90% of them. The quidelines and regulations for the historic district, in my opinion are not there to make the neighborhood look like it was 70 years ago as you suggest, but to protect the old, cherish it, and make any new construction that happens different from earlier periods of architecture.
Also, if you’re being told something has to be a certain color, HPC has no way of regulating that…
Hopefully this clears things up a bit.