I used to call it the “Hysterical” Board of Commissioners before I was asked to be on the Landmarks Commission in Kirkwood.I’m in my fourth year and that opinion has changed dramatically.RIGGS Company & Design is a remodeling company after all; we change the appearance of our client’s homes!How dare the “hysterical” board tell me or my client that they couldn’t add an addition on their house that is exactly what we designed and what our clients love?
I’ve come to appreciate the value of the historical buildings here in Kirkwood.They are a link to our past and each building has a story of the people and/or businesses that lived, loved and worked in them.Many aren’t beautiful or classic designs that are pleasing to the eye.In fact, some of them are downright ugly but they are symbolic of certain periods in the development of our town and therefore, hold a great deal of significance.
We at RIGGS used to be proud of the fact that when we finished an addition or renovation of a house, you wouldn’t know that we had been there.Our favorite story was the client who said, “It looked like it grew there it matches the house so well.I can’t tell where the old house used to be!”You can imagine how I felt when I first joined the Landmarks Commission and learned that the number one rule of adding to an historical building was to preserve the outline of the original structure!That way people could still see the old building as it was and know that it was added on to after it was originally built.
Now, if the home is older (as most are in the Kirkwood/Webster area) we inform our clients that we need to not align exterior walls and roofs but offset them a little so that the original home is not compromised.
Learn something new every day.
