What we build · Historic Restoration
Historic Work — Review Before Design
In a historic district the approval process governs the design, and it operates on a timescale that has nothing to do with construction.
Bring the drawings at whatever stage they are. An honest range and the decisions that move it, before anyone quotes.
Licensed
General contractor, licensed in the state of Florida
Self-perform
Dewatering, SOE and deep foundations in house
Leadership
Delivered Fifth Avenue and Central Park West interiors
Open book
Where the contract is cost-plus, the books open
Approvals are the program
Design review boards meet on fixed schedules, often monthly. A rejected submission is not a week's delay, it is a cycle. Owners routinely plan a project as though approval were a formality, discover it is not, and lose a season to something that could have been managed by engaging earlier.
What historic work actually involves
- Design review before drawings are developed, not after.
- Original material matching — stucco, tile, window profiles, ironwork.
- Repair-over-replace expectations, which cost more and take longer.
- Modern systems threaded through a building that never anticipated them.
- Trades who have done this before, which is a genuinely short list.
How we handle it
- 01Engage the review board early and understand what it will and will not accept.
- 02Document existing conditions thoroughly before anything is touched.
- 03Source or fabricate matching materials, which has long lead times.
- 04Repair rather than replace where the guidelines require it.
- 05Integrate modern systems without compromising protected fabric.
Repair costs more than replacement on almost every element, and on historic work it is frequently not optional. Budget for the repair figure from the start rather than discovering it when the replacement is refused.
Said plainly
Where we stop
If the guidelines and your program genuinely cannot both be met, we will say so early. There are projects where the honest advice is to find a different house, and we would rather give it than take you into a two-year approval fight.
FAQ
Common questions
- How long does design review take?
- Boards meet on a fixed schedule, often monthly. A rejection costs a full cycle, so the first submission matters enormously.
- Can we replace the windows?
- Often only with matching profiles, and often repair is required instead. That is a design review question before it is a product one.
- Is historic work more expensive?
- Materially, yes. Repair over replacement and specialist trades both cost more, and the lead times are longer.
- Can we add modern systems?
- Usually, threaded carefully. The constraint is the protected fabric, not the technology.
The decisions
Fixed Price or Cost-Plus
The contract type decides who carries the risk of the unknown, and both answers are legitimate. What is not legitimate is a fixed price on drawings that cannot support one.
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Choosing a Builder
Three builders will show you three beautiful portfolios and three numbers that differ by a lot. The portfolio tells you what they photograph, not what they are like to build with.
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Allowances & Selections
An allowance is a placeholder for a decision you have not made. A contract full of them is a contract whose final number has not been decided.
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The Program
Every owner is told a number at the start and most projects take longer. The gap is usually permitting, long-lead items and decisions — rarely the building itself.
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Change Orders
Change orders are normal. Designs evolve, owners change their minds, and buildings reveal things. What is not normal is finding out about them at the end.
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More what we build
Custom Homes
A custom home is the only project where every decision is still open, which is exactly why it is the easiest one to lose control of financially.
Read more →
Waterfront Construction
On a waterfront lot the building is often the straightforward part. The water table, the seawall, the flood elevation and the permitting are what decide the program and a large share of the cost.
Read more →
Whole-House Renovation
Renovating an existing house is harder to price than building a new one, because a meaningful part of the scope is behind finishes nobody has opened.
Read more →
Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.