In a message dated 99-04-29 19:25:24 EDT, you write:

> > Chubb was the insurer on the reconstruction project out in Long Island
> that I
>  > visited for the Victorian Society's Stanford White seminar (historic
house
>  > burned, Chubb insured to reconstruct the building)
>  >
>
>  Is this the case where they decided that a reconstruction was "physically
>  impossible" regardless how much money was available?

Yes and no. The house happens to be Dick Cavett's house, who is the
spokesperson for Chubb, so it is not, under any circumstances a normal
situation. On the flip side, the house was one of 6 (I think) designed by
Stanford White out on Long Island for a recreational club, and they are a
*very* important set of houses.

In this case, there were no drawings or documentation on the house at all.
When the architect first looked at the project he didn't think they'd be able
to do it, because there was so little left of the house. Luckily the team was
able to extrapolate measurements on the building from a set of photos for a
House Beautiful article. That, combined with the bits and pieces left over
from the fire and measurements from the extant foundation, they were able to
redraw plans, and reconstruct the building exactly, in terms of building
scale, room arrangement, finishes, etc.

However, there were problems in the reconstruction process. Certain woods
that were used to create the large room spans are no longer commercially
available, and replacement materials can't carry the same loads, so they were
forced to fiddle with the structural design. Other modern code requirements
forced them to modify the internal design of the building as well.

In the end they decided to spend the most care and money on replicating the
finish materials (flooring, trim details, doors, etc) which they went to
great lengths to research, and replicate as exactly as possible. I remember
one story in particular, I think it was for a wainscot or flooring, where the
original southern yellow pine is no longer commerically cut, so they acquired
some from a company that recycles wood from swamps, where the trees have
fallen underwater and have been preserved. The grain of the wood was so
distinctive that they felt it was very important to replicate exactly.

I was enthralled by the presentation. I thought it was such a great
experiment in comparison. For example, when they specified the brickwork for
the foundation, they had to ask the masons to do "sloppy" work, because the
original was quite rustic looking. Apparently the masons were rather agahst
at the suggestion, and the architect still thinks the foundation looks too
neat.

FWIW,
Heidi