From the article: "Despite its unique design and its association with America's most famous architect, the house is deteriorating and urgently in need of repairs. Exposure to hurricanes and wind storms has led to water intrusion, and the damage is visible throughout the interior of the house. In addition, tall cypress columns have deteriorated at their bases, and insect and woodpecker damage is apparent on the cypress siding."
First, what is the cost of purchasing the property? Second, have you received actual estimates for restoring it to its original condition? Judging from photos available on the web this property has been long neglected - it appears to have been abandoned for many years, if not decades - including the structure itself and the surrounding sitework. The house was built 60 years ago and will require all new 'systems', and complete re-construction of the exterior envelope, waterproofing, and fenestration, and upgrading to current codes (all the while hidden cosmetically, which is difficult and costly). That is in addition to entirely refitting the interior, and matching historic materials. Replacing the originally ill-conceived (and now wood-peckered) cypress siding and its now-deteriorated waterproofing alone will be a six-figure number if done faithfully by high quality craftspersons. Using prior FLW restoration attempts nationally as examples/models, I would expect the physical restoration work alone to be well into the multi-million dollar range. Add to that the purchase of the property and ??????, and you could be looking at 8 figures initially. That must be supplemented by a perpetual maintenance fund (to ensure the same issues of neglect do not repeat).
A number of similar projects in past were started only to be cancelled/abandoned later due to shortfalls in estimating, fundraising and cost estimating by well-meaning parties.
Your statement that $1/Architect will satisfy the fundraising need suggests this is not a well-planned effort. There are only about 100,000 registered Architects in the country. At $1 each it is possible you are understating the need by a multiple of 100.
While preserving historic structures can be a worthwhile endeavor, it can also be a fools' errand. I imagine that in the state of Florida alone there would be many 'angels' that could fund the entire project if it were shown to be viable. Before asking for donations from any of the readers here, perhaps you could provide more information (i.e. 'facts') about the total scope of the project, the total estimated costs (purchase, initial hard and soft costs and ongoing requirements), funds already raised, nature of the non-profit and its long term management prospects, etc... so that potential donors can better evaluate whether this project is likely to succeed or just be another black hole. People are more likely to take a project seriously if it is presented 'entire' rather than with only a typical PR piece.
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Howard Littman
Forensic Architect, Expert Witness
Howard I. Littman
Agoura Hills CA
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