Architecture as "Service" - Remodels and Additions

Introduction -

Most architects with small offices that I know, assist people with remodels and additions. Many years ago, I had a conversation with an architect in San Francisco whose work I greatly respect - Jeremy Kotas.


I complained about the fact that as a two person office, my partner and I had a large share of additions and remodels between the new houses that came in. He told me that most small offices he knew did the same thing, and that in fact they never turned away a remodel or addition for a former client. In his thought, it was something architects did as a "service".

EXAMPLE #1

Santa Cruz Zen Center Priest's Residence -


The existing building had been badly treated over the years. Aluminum sliding windows replaced original wood, the porch had been allowed to crumble and the porch roof sagged.
The center wanted a minor, but sensitive upgrade and a new single car garage. The proposal was relatively simple: rebuild the porch and add capitals to the columns, replace the roof with a small gable pitched as the main roof, build a garage with doors that fit the period of the little cabin (c. 1870) and replace all windows with real wood windows that had real divided lites.

. . .