Historic Resources Committee

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Renaissance Schallaburg Figures in a facade

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The mission of the Historic Resources Committee (HRC) is to identify, understand, and preserve architectural heritage, both nationally and internationally. HRC is engaged in promoting the role of the historic architect within the profession through the development of information and knowledge among members, allied professional organizations, and the public.

  • 1.  Speculative question from author wants to set in home in 1910 in NW Mass

    Posted 01-31-2020 12:29 PM
    Hopefully a question of interest to some members. I received a call from a fiction writer who has no knowledge of architecture or construction and the protagonist will be spending time working on a 1910 house located generally in NW Massachusetts.

    For sake of argument I might use Adams or North Adams, MA near border with NY and VT.

    Can anyone suggest some details about the style and materials of such a fictional yet reasonably true archetype of a single-family dwelling in this setting ?? I have my own thoughts would be great to hear how well I do on this.

    Thank you for your thoughts,
    Brad Guy

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    Brad Guy, Architect, NCARB, AIA
    dba Material Reuse
    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 2.  RE: Speculative question from author wants to set in home in 1910 in NW Mass

    Posted 02-04-2020 09:26 AM
    Two ideas: One, engage an architectural historian. Two, contact the Massachusetts Historical Commission for advice.

    David Hart, AIA



    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 3.  RE: Speculative question from author wants to set in home in 1910 in NW Mass

    Posted 02-05-2020 07:41 PM
    Or consult a “historic architect,” qualified per 36CFR61 Secretary of the Interior’s Standards.


    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 4.  RE: Speculative question from author wants to set in home in 1910 in NW Mass

    Posted 02-06-2020 02:46 AM
    My wife and I completed our renovation of a 1904 gardener's cottage in Lenox, MA, about two years ago, acting as DIY project managers to a talented but intermittently available posse of Berkshire County craftspeople.  Despite its Beaux-Arts lines (the overall estate had been the work of Guy Lowell), the place as we found it resembled any small farmhouse one might see 35 minutes away in Adams. It included a porous fieldstone basement, oil-fired steam heat, sagging floors despite only 14 foot spans to the big center chimney, single-glazed double-hung windows in completely uninsulated balloon frame exterior walls, and handsomely weathered cedar shingles (some original) of which we were able to keep about 10 per cent. (Despite loving Vincent Scully's lectures featuring Shingle Style houses, It didn't immediately dawn on me that hardly any normal Lenox homeowner has natural wood shingles.)  We also gave away one of the clawfoot bathtubs, which had spent many years submerged in the adjacent stream bed and needed work. Renovation costs roughly equaled purchase price. Now under the re-insulated dormer and gable roof shapes my wife calls "icebergs," we sleep warm and soundly.

    For a combination of architectural and social history with a literary perspective I strongly recommend your looking up Cornelia Brooke Gilder, co-author of Houses of the Berkshires. While there are plenty of fancy houses and families in her writings, she is a Tyringham native with a good sense of how all kinds of people live throughout Berkshire County and the surrounding region.


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    Robert Miller FAIA
    President
    Robert L. Miller Associates
    Washington DC
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    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 5.  RE: Speculative question from author wants to set in home in 1910 in NW Mass

    Posted 02-06-2020 12:35 PM
    Thank you for the suggestions. Made me realize best strategy is always to go as local as possible and so asked around there. Both Adams and Springfield, MA local historical societies sending great information and MA has a very nice historic building survey archive.

    --
    Brad Guy, Architect, NCARB, AIA
    dba Material Reuse



    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 6.  RE: Speculative question from author wants to set in home in 1910 in NW Mass

    Posted 02-07-2020 02:00 AM
    Brad,

    For hands on renovation experience with circa 1910 houses, let me also suggest Thomas M. Spencer, a young second-generation freelance builder working all over Berkshire County, and someone we like working with.  Look him up in Pittsfield or send me an email.

    ------------------------------
    Robert Miller FAIA
    President
    Robert L. Miller Associates
    Washington DC
    ------------------------------

    2024 HRC Taliesin West