Setbacks: Part IV

There are several ways to maximize an addition or renovation in ways that impact less the surrounding community. We can even go so far as to call these improvements because they were done in consideration of the tone of the neighborhood.

In this example a one story house received a second floor. It is next door, and slightly uphill, to a house that was already renovated and that has a 2nd floor bumping out of the roofline. The design solution was to step the roof of the renovated house down on the side. You can see the difference this makes in these pictures. There are probably variances involved as well, as that line is pretty close to the structure on the left.




In this example, in the same area and with the same zoning requirements, all effort was put into maximizing the size of the new home.



The result is not so pleasant for the original neighbor in the house on the right.



Remember, this streetscape looked like this for the past 60 plus years.



On the same street, an example of how you can bump out in the front without challenging the setback appearance. This house could legally have built into the front yard.



Like this one, and its twin up the street.



Problem solving is actually the mother of creativity. We have been fortunate to have so many builders working in the neighborhood, before the teardown era began, that created some fine solutions.

"Builder" only recently became a word met with mixed feelings. Maybe some things are just over the top.