SANTA BARBARA STREET ADDITION

This project, located in Santa Barbara, California, consisted of a master suite addition to a "historically significant" home (built in 1910) and a new attached garage with with an apartment above.  The owners had begun with another architectural firm who did the preliminary design, then I took over and obtained approval from the Historical Landmarks Commission and the building permits.  While originally a single family home, the building had functioned as a day-care center for an adjacent church since the 1970's and had a commercial kitchen.  As part of this project, we restored the building and kitchen back to residential functions.  We removed an existing bootleg addition on the second floor.  The garage with an apartment atop was designed to complement the original house, while the master suite was designed to play a subordinate roll.  This site has a landmark morton bay fig tree that was preserved.  From a structural standpoint, the project was interesting: portions of the original house had substandrard foundations (including some sandstone footings), no perimeter footing, and there was no seismic resistance system.  These were rectified as part of the project, bringing a 1910 building up to 21st century standards.