> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 1:14 PM
> 
> 
> In a message dated 2/1/2007 12:51:48 PM Eastern Standard 
> Time, [log in to unmask] writes:

>> But: How long do we realistically expect these poor 
>> flooded-out people to wait for custom milled to match the 
>> originals according to approved shop drawings, and fabricated 
>> from organically-grown renewable Honduran mahogany? I'd 
>> be willing to bet there were plenty of shitty replacement 
>> doors on these houses before the hurricane, too.

> I'm on Ralph's side.  

Me too. Furthermore, Ralph continued on:

>> Best we can hope for is that the more preservationally-
>> attuned homeowners will get Certified Histo Presto Doors 
>> made when things calm down. 

I've always contended that if they aren't "preservationally-attuned," it
is our fault that we haven't gotten the word
out/educated/whatever-you-want-to-call-it that it's better for the
building, the community, and them personally to apply appropriate
preservation design and technology to the solution of their issues. 

Problem is, the preservation community doesn't have the advertising
budget of Home Depot. As it stands now, the entire federal appropriation
for historic preservation to all of the state historic preservation
offices ($36.25 million in 2006 dollars) is the equivalent of less than
a mile and three-quarters of interstate highway (In 1996 dollars, the
Federal Highway Administration calculated the "weighted rural and urban
combined" costs per mile of interstate highway to be $20.6 million.
["Typical Interstate System Cost per Mile," Document Route Symbol HNG-13
(March 21, 1997), U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway
Administration, Federal - Aid & Design Division.]) How's that for
priorities? 

You're never going to get certified histo presto doors "made" for these
houses. But you can certainly make a better choice among the standard
offerings in terms of the design qualities of the door.

We as a movement need to get Home Depot to offer more diversity in
choice, and work with the property owners to make and demand better
choices.

_______________________________________________________
Dan Becker,  Exec. Dir.      "The thing that destroyed 
Raleigh Historic               Babylon and Nineveh was 
Districts Commission        too much Waldorf Astoria."
[log in to unmask]                    -- Elbert Hubbard,
919/516-2632                 The Philistine, Feb. 1909


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