ARTICLES AND ADVICE

Please Don't Paint Beautiful Natural Woodwork

I was once hired to restore the interior of a historic Tudor-style home in Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood. Previous owners had made some drastic changes that were entirely inappropriate for the architectural style of the house, and my clients wanted to restore as much of the original character as possible.I was fortunate to find the original architect’s drawings at the Denver Public Library. Using those drawings as a guide, I prepared a complete and highly detailed set of plans ...

PDF's Are No Substitute for Full-Size Paper Prints

A while back I received an email containing the words no architect ever wants to hear during construction:“We didn’t know it was going to be like that!”My first reaction was, “What do you mean? It’s been on the drawings for over a year!”Then it hit me.I had never provided my clients with a full-size printed set of the drawings. They had been trying to understand the design by viewing PDF files on their cell phones.That experience taught me an important ...