Real Estate Conference (Sound)

Real Estate Conference

Danbury Preservation Trust

90 mins

Bill Devlin, Paulette Pepin and Jerry Lombardi are likely part of the conversation.

1986

Danbury (Conn.)--History

ms039_realEstateConference_001

00;00;00;04 - 00;00;06;22
Speaker 1
I bring it to the assessor's office. I have it right there. That would be great. Any real estate agent coming in to just look and see.

00;00;06;24 - 00;00;11;09
Unknown
If the building and then, you know, right away. All you need is a letter from us, by the way.

00;00;11;09 - 00;00;16;18
Speaker 3
But we made a list reminding you this was first class. This is going to be more than double.

00;00;16;23 - 00;00;24;07
Unknown
A lot of things. Now that none of the building is going to be eligible.

00;00;24;10 - 00;00;27;12
Unknown
Yes, yes. Well, we can do what it would be. We can make sure it was.

00;00;27;12 - 00;00;30;17
Speaker 1
Available by June 1st so you can start start.

00;00;30;18 - 00;00;33;00
Speaker 3
Looking in, coming in. I think it will be I think.

00;00;33;04 - 00;00;42;16
Unknown
Will fund that if any building is over 50 years old. I don't know if you want, but we don't. You don't.

00;00;42;18 - 00;00;42;23
Unknown
Yeah.

00;00;42;23 - 00;01;09;24
Speaker 3
We are open for that. I'm not that needed on the census part, but that should not let that not necessarily mean that other structures would not be eligible. in this book, it is a list of streets that have been serving and that that live in now and on maybe nine months old. And the trustee continually, update you on more, more streets.

00;01;09;26 - 00;01;16;01
Speaker 3
So yeah. So what even though the second part may be the but it doesn't mean that there aren't other structures.

00;01;16;02 - 00;01;23;12
Unknown
In the but the we just talked to the accessibility space that we could have that was put in.

00;01;23;14 - 00;01;31;13
Speaker 3
Yeah. I think it would be a simple thing. Would it. And on her cooperation.

00;01;31;16 - 00;01;43;18
Unknown
With them, like when you got foundation and other in the.

00;01;43;21 - 00;01;48;02
Unknown
Well, this program would only apply to you.

00;01;48;05 - 00;02;06;14
Speaker 3
If your assessment would increase. okay. So if you're doing something with your assessment, you will not increase that. Yeah. I mean, if you were doing a $25,000 kitchen remodeling job, you said we will increase. so it would apply.

00;02;06;17 - 00;02;26;20
Unknown
But if you are doing a minor improvement program, that would be a good. But, you know, you have to, there's no minimum amount of rehabilitation. It's just that the rule of thumb is if you have your staff member, county in your review by the council.

00;02;26;27 - 00;02;27;14
Speaker 3
what basis.

00;02;27;14 - 00;02;34;08
Unknown
Could they disapprove? And they overturn a decision by the group.

00;02;34;10 - 00;02;35;01
Speaker 3
Do they have looked.

00;02;35;01 - 00;02;40;24
Unknown
At the criteria to be proven or to be in a in. Well, we.

00;02;40;24 - 00;02;49;10
Speaker 3
We submit important to them and I think you have to.

00;02;49;10 - 00;02;58;29
Unknown
Assume that they're going to go by our report at this point.

00;02;59;01 - 00;03;10;26
Speaker 3
I think we recommended a few, two of them. The third one on White Street, we recommended that they approve it as long as the minimum siding.

00;03;10;26 - 00;03;15;23
Unknown
Was changed and a council ward and said.

00;03;15;23 - 00;03;16;14
Speaker 3
It was all right.

00;03;16;18 - 00;03;22;01
Unknown
To have them on the site. I think that's that's the way we,

00;03;22;04 - 00;03;48;28
Speaker 3
There are not any hard and fast criteria, in which council can, you know, really they can. When we say a report, they can either accept that, reject it or just send it back to us and ask for more information on what kind of modifications to the structure, need be made in order with all five.

00;03;49;00 - 00;03;52;13
Speaker 3
You know, at this point it hasn't been used enough to be abused.

00;03;52;15 - 00;03;59;19
Unknown
So the council is is is willing to go along with, with most anything.

00;03;59;28 - 00;04;24;21
Speaker 3
within reason. And I think the vice street, project is an example of that. And it certainly was, an improvement in the neighborhood. We would have preferred that a beside had not been, a warning sign, not because it's of the siding, but the, you know, the siding covered up a lot of it was not this great classic siding.

00;04;24;21 - 00;04;25;27
Speaker 3
There was a lot of,

00;04;26;00 - 00;04;32;14
Unknown
Scalping over there that, cover it up. So that was. You know, they they were.

00;04;32;17 - 00;04;44;16
Speaker 3
Very, flexible at this point, and they probably will continue to be, until it appeared to be getting out of hand. I don't see that happening.

00;04;44;18 - 00;04;56;15
Unknown
But when the problem was originated, you just didn't know.

00;04;56;18 - 00;05;14;23
Speaker 1
Thank you. Thank you. our final speaker is, gathering fire. Marshal Allen, can I speak to you briefly about fire safety and the vulnerability?

00;05;14;26 - 00;05;28;16
Speaker 3
From the get you the link for the last. I want to thank the preservation trust for asking me to speak here today. before I start, I want to correct something approaching to consider that I'm going to flood the building.

00;05;28;21 - 00;05;30;20
Speaker 1
For from the fire.

00;05;30;20 - 00;06;01;22
Speaker 3
Marshal. Like to come in and fire code. But, the building inspector, I have the agreement with each other. I don't think building will be the, But we do work together to ensure that all come through here to me. that is a safe environment for the occupants of the building. It's become very popular for people to buy all single family homes and then change them into offices for doctors, lawyers, multiple housing, maybe even, please do the same for this relief.

00;06;01;27 - 00;06;06;13
Speaker 3
It used to be the Armory Fire headquarters. We would treat these people would.

00;06;06;13 - 00;06;07;06
Speaker 1
Return to these.

00;06;07;06 - 00;06;21;09
Speaker 3
Buildings. The old architecture. And even though they're taking the occupancy of the building, they don't want to change it to the extent that they have to get rid of all of this architecture. You really the trying to cover everything up.

00;06;21;18 - 00;06;22;01
Speaker 1
to make the.

00;06;22;01 - 00;07;12;02
Speaker 3
Buildings. Excuse me, where all conflict starts and, the fire marshal sort of becomes the type of person that the owners are sometimes the architects as Mr. zero three. sprinkler heads, fire alarm stations, smoke detectors, hose stations, and people die through ugly objects that, really, they don't want there. And, they make the building look like, we want anything increased, and, but they're needed for the protection of the building, for the protection of the occupants, regardless of whether they change it for an office or multiple housing, place of assembly, there's certain requirements of the state fire code that must be met to maintain it.

00;07;12;02 - 00;07;33;12
Speaker 3
There are ways to meet the requirements of the building or require both to meet the requirements of the people that are, protecting the building and changing the occupancy to what they want. You can still maintain your fashion, beauty and still, keep the light safety of the building. And this is what, the fire marshal we had on, like, safety.

00;07;33;13 - 00;08;03;03
Speaker 3
Our state fire code is fashioned after the National life safety code. in other words, any language in the code, such as fire walls, requirements. Until we finish 15. These are, requirements that are meant to prevent a fire from spreading through the building and, keeping the occupants of the building from there to be safe. It's not to say the building.

00;08;03;06 - 00;08;24;17
Speaker 3
And, you might be startled with this. It's not that we don't care what happens to the building. We don't. We don't, we don't want a building improperly built so that the people in it, are in danger. we have firefighters who are not to go into the building if there is a fire, and we don't want anything happening to them.

00;08;24;19 - 00;08;51;06
Speaker 3
But our main consideration is, like I say, getting people out of the building. And the construction is meant to keep the fire. If there is one. Yeah. so that the people that try to get out, the rest of the considerations, for the building are reinforced first by the building code, and we have a very small building inspector in debris and that we're doing, we're doing to replace this.

00;08;51;07 - 00;09;20;17
Speaker 3
And, for example, the whole building, thing came from Danbury. from a single family residence through offices. The, single family home in Mary Brook section was recently came to my office. and this was very successful. A lot of single family homes. here. Glad you everybody did mention they're not having in the case of lawyers offices, that people offices right next to, many other professional people.

00;09;21;13 - 00;09;44;25
Speaker 3
so I think 280 people was transported to, this military restaurant. I still must say that at least the tannery looks in better shape than, when I was a rookie, firefighters and said, you know, it's a protected by sprinkler system, and it's, got a fire alarm system in the smoke detector system. We make it a very good job.

00;09;44;25 - 00;10;23;26
Speaker 3
We still keep the charm being, you know, the firemen. and that contractor, for example, wanted to convert simply residents a year ago into an office complex. We had an open stairway, beautiful office there. We cut the stairway. There was stained glass windows. the fire code specifically says that every floor must be separate from one another. We fire over enclosed stairway to, prevent smoke or fire from spreading from the floor to another and blocking off the exit from the occupants.

00;10;24;28 - 00;10;50;09
Speaker 3
if we went by the letter of the law in this case, they would have had to close the stairway trying to make the stairway. And so the stained glass windows would have been covered up. No I'm not. Application is available through the state fire marshal. situations such as this, we, the state fire marshal, can make a modification of the state bar code.

00;10;50;23 - 00;11;16;14
Speaker 3
there are, speculation that must be carried through to have such uses of the stairway. building must be protected by sprinkler. It must have been a fire alarm system for long people. And the central, smoke detector system, which would be an early warning system for people on the upper floors, that there's a fire on the first floor and that they would have to go to the exit.

00;11;16;16 - 00;11;51;23
Speaker 3
And, of course, we need a system to go through. It would be a 4 to 5 months before the marshal, the people who would want the work done would architect or the owner of the building would apply through the of the fire marshal. They would, write on the form what the type of building is, and why they don't when forms here might and specifically what equal forms of safety that they would provide the building to make it from the state.

00;11;51;29 - 00;12;25;21
Speaker 3
People inside in this case was that they were to sprinkler system, smoke detection, fire alarm and everything. And this was passed on to me, the local fire marshal main, puts down whether he approved it or he would like it. Tonight, he forwarded to the state fire marshal review of what was done in this situation. then the state fire marshal would go for it, and they will need to deny it and approve.

00;12;25;23 - 00;12;32;12
Speaker 3
In this case, we came back with a requirement. So being able to do atmosphere of the house.

00;12;32;14 - 00;12;37;19
Unknown
Would be one. So.

00;12;37;22 - 00;13;11;07
Speaker 3
This is the way that we get around wrecking an old the and making it look like like something that people didn't want. Another prime example of modifications. The parts mentioned, the first property that actually purchased by the city of Danbury is the grand old mansion. Beautiful open stairways, lot of beautiful rooms in it. And years of speculation of making this mansion include something like the December banquets, wedding, and possibly offices on the second and third floor.

00;13;11;07 - 00;13;48;13
Speaker 3
To really think same modification request would be followed through for this. There are entry requirements in this type of renovation. timber pointed out. Ultimate access must be provided from every floor of the building so that the primary actually was brought. Everybody has another way to go. It must be removed as possible from each other, so that if you had an incident happened, you could not go back to the team and you could do with the getting up some instances, more doors and stairways to provide some.

00;13;48;16 - 00;14;09;15
Speaker 3
You know, one way of doing this is an interior stairway that you carry through. And another one would be an exterior stairway, which would have to be covered and protected from another. A lot of people that don't want to go to the stairway to the cave to be outside the building. And, so they try to go from the inside exterior.

00;14;10;07 - 00;14;50;08
Speaker 3
also the reasoning, probably just because that's required part of there might be a couple ways out of the old house, but the travel distance might be too great for, people to go to get out of an open exit, challenges. Because for want this complex to give a vehicle would be no more than 200ft in a place of public assembly without sprinkler protection, 350ft with sprinklers could actually be 200ft in in some areas with your sprinkler, and the residential would be 100ft, you're going to the front of the house.

00;14;50;11 - 00;15;27;10
Speaker 3
So your occupancy of emergency lighting, the, these lights are capable of providing emergency lighting for a minimum of two hours, but they're not meant for the people to stay in and work when you're primarily meant to get the people out. And, they're run by battery packs. then again, in a year used for general storage, boiler room to furnace kitchens have to be separated from the rest of the building by a one hour separation, which is required when our fire resistance rating will be at the protective acceptable for fire.

00;15;27;12 - 00;15;55;17
Speaker 3
There's also an exception for this. if you hear me, is protected by sprinklers. 100% exit must be properly marked and illuminate to prevent confusion from people who smoke. And different people can. There's a fire, and it's just like taking them with their hands and leaving the food. It's. We get here. Yeah, thanks. It's nice. And every door may have to be lighted so that people can see them.

00;15;55;19 - 00;16;23;08
Speaker 3
The proper interior finish will have to be maintained so that, yeah, the fire can spread along the wall and, in terms of that, people can't get up again like they, smoke detectors are quite literally detection. And fire alarms may require one or so required. Again, from what I consider the. So you can see fire marshals were not against preserving the building.

00;16;23;10 - 00;16;37;27
Speaker 3
The only one that the people in and get them on is a fire. a reminder that the the problem is with, you know, building 20 can 2020.

00;16;37;29 - 00;16;43;21
Speaker 3
Thank you.

00;16;44;00 - 00;16;57;20
Speaker 1
thank you very much. Thank all of you for coming and shooting. I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about restoration. Okay. How help you market your house? if you have any questions before I leave for any of the speakers.

00;16;57;22 - 00;17;04;20
Speaker 1
Thank you very much for coming.

00;17;04;22 - 00;17;10;05
Speaker 1
And.

00;17;12;05 - 00;17;35;06
Speaker 3
if you have any questions about the survey, you can you can get into that at the end. we'd like to do now is move into the tax credit program. And the general purpose of the tax credit program is to encourage preservation of historic properties and provide tax incentives to make rehabilitation of older buildings competitive with reconstruction.

00;17;35;26 - 00;18;05;08
Speaker 3
what I'd like to do today is militarize real trees with preservation, tax credit program and requirements. And as I see on TV, what you guys don't try this at your own at home. what I what I want to say here is your plans should be private consulting tax attorneys and tax, attorneys and accountants, because the current IRS rules are constantly changing.

00;18;05;08 - 00;18;35;02
Speaker 3
IRS and, changed from an annual basis, if not more often. If you don't strictly follow the rules, you can lose your entire tax benefit package. and it's not simply observe the feasibility of whatever project you may be working on. Historic tax credits have been available since 1976. In 1981, there was a major change to the tax package, under the Economic Recovery Tax Act.

00;18;35;05 - 00;19;01;26
Speaker 3
And that 1981 act is improvised gambling. And what I'd like to do is go through what the tax package offers and how you get it, and also mention the changes that have taken place over the past few years. and also be very encouraging about the latest pending legislation, which, could change many aspects of the tax credit program.

00;19;02;11 - 00;19;30;02
Speaker 3
first of all, I'm talking about the income tax credits. I want to encourage deductions. As you all know, a tax deduction or any tax deduction you have reduces your taxable income. A tax credit reduces your tax obligation so that if you have a $20,000, tax deduction and your taxable income tax relief from is 50,000, that reduces to 30.

00;19;30;04 - 00;20;10;10
Speaker 3
If you have a $20,000 tax credit and you owe $20,000, taxes in that year, you don't pay any taxes. so that's the to your credit and a, and deduction under the program, there is a 25% tax credit for qualified rehabilitation of a certified historic home. And I'm sorry, a certified historic property. And that property must be an income producing type property and very, commercial, let's say for industrial or, residential rebuilding, rehab, residential rental.

00;20;10;12 - 00;20;46;15
Speaker 3
There is a 20% tax credit for rehabbing buildings 40 years old, for older, which are nonresidential income producing. And there is a 15% tax credit for rehabilitation of a 30 year old or older, building permit for nonresidential income producing, the only residential tax credit that is available for historic rehabilitation of, a historic building other than that, in tax credits are for commercial buildings.

00;20;46;17 - 00;20;51;14
Unknown
And non residential income producing buildings only.

00;20;51;17 - 00;21;20;20
Speaker 3
The thing really to emphasize here is there is no, tax credit for owner occupied homes, single family homes. And the only thing available to them is not easements. And you'll hear a little bit more about the side easement donations later. The as far as eligibility, there are three criteria used. And I'm going to use age and rehab price use.

00;21;20;22 - 00;21;48;25
Speaker 3
Again the use must be income producing and residential is only available under historic rental properties. As far as age, we're talking about the 30 year old or 40 year old or the certified historic and what we mean by, certified historic. You must either be on the National Register of Historic Places as an individual building, or you must be in a historic district that is on the National Register.

00;21;48;27 - 00;22;34;19
Speaker 3
And your building must be considered a contributing building to the historic district. In other words, you can't be, a Kmart listed and are located in the middle of the historic district and the third way to qualify as historic would be on a local historic register of some sort, which is then reviewed by the Department of Interior. The U.S. Department of Interior and approved as being eligible for the National Register stands where the third criteria then is the rehab, the type of rehab, the amount of rehab.

00;22;34;21 - 00;23;10;12
Speaker 3
The rehab costs must exceed the greater of $5,000 for the basis of the structure and basis is an accounting term, which is mostly used for depreciation. It's also used for, determining the capital gain after a sale. And when we talk about the basis of the building, we're talking about the building itself is the price you pay for the building minus the value of the property at the time you bought the building, minus any depreciation that you take.

00;23;10;15 - 00;23;21;15
Speaker 3
And then again, any improvements that you've made up to that point at the prior to the historic rehab.

00;23;21;17 - 00;23;55;24
Speaker 3
Because of this threshold, rehab level is required. It's it's often very difficult to make new acquisitions work under this program. You either need to have by building a new substantial rehabilitation or the other type of building that does work, whether a building purchased many years ago when prices were lower. And over the years the, depreciation has been taken to reduce the basis to a very low levels, rehabilitation activity, a substantial amount.

00;23;55;26 - 00;24;27;19
Speaker 3
If you're doing this whereas the rehab also in designing it, you must maintain at least 50% of the exterior walls. And after that they would remain as exterior walls and 75% of the before rehab exterior walls must be interior or exterior walls. In other words, you're allowed to do that. Expand and do an addition on a historic building just like you must retain at least two of the exterior walls.

00;24;27;24 - 00;24;31;13
Speaker 3
You may say 50%, and dealing with rectangular buildings.

00;24;31;15 - 00;24;36;06
Unknown
May not be more than 2015 to 40. Never.

00;24;36;08 - 00;25;08;26
Speaker 3
Previously, the program required 75% repaint each of the exterior walls. It wasn't that allowance, but some of the exterior walls after rehab could be retained as interior walls. if you're doing a historic rehab, that design must be approved by both the standards for Preservation Officer, which in Connecticut is the Connecticut Historical Commission, and then thereafter that's approved by the National Park Service.

00;25;08;28 - 00;25;37;24
Speaker 3
The National Park Service is a branch of the Department of Interior. The. They would review your design for compliance with the Department of Interior's Standards for rehabilitation of Historic Structures. And what I've included in your package is a listing of what their standards are, and I'm debating as to whether I read them. okay. I'll give it a shot.

00;25;37;26 - 00;26;09;04
Speaker 3
You've gotten every single effort shall be made to provide a compatible use for a property which requires minimal alteration of the building structure for a safe environment, or to the use of the property for its originally intended purpose. Number two distinguishing original properties for character and building structure for the site and its environment shall not be destroyed. The removal or alteration of any historic material or distinctive architectural features should be avoided when possible.

00;26;09;07 - 00;26;35;08
Speaker 3
Number three all buildings, structures and sites shall be recognized as products of their own time, alterations that have no destructive basis and which seek to create an earlier period appearance shall be discouraged. Changes. Number four, which have been made to have taken place in the course of time, are evidence of history and development of a building, structure or site and its environment.

00;26;35;11 - 00;27;06;15
Speaker 3
These changes may have a prior significance in your own right, and this significance shall be recognized and respected. Five distinctive stylistic features or examples of skilled craftsmanship which characterize a building, structure or site shall be treated with sensitivity. Number six deteriorated architectural features shall be repaired rather than replaced whenever possible in the event replacement. If necessary, new materials should match the material being replaced.

00;27;06;21 - 00;27;44;27
Speaker 3
A composition designed texture, and other visual qualities. Repair and replacement of missing architectural features should be based on accurate duplications of features substantiated by historic, physical or pictorial evidence, rather than on conjecture, designs or other availability of different architectural elements from other buildings or structures. Number seven the surface cleaning of structures shall be undertaken with the gentle, gentlest means possible sandblasting and other cleaning methods that will damage the historic building materials shall not be undertaken.

00;27;45;00 - 00;28;17;14
Speaker 3
Number eight every reasonable effort shall be made to protect and preserve architectural resource. I'm sorry. Archeological resources affected by or adjacent to any project. Number nine contemporary design for alterations and additions to existing property shall not be discouraged when the alterations and additions do not destroy significant historical, architectural or cultural material, and such design is compatible with the size, scale, color, material and character of the property, neighborhood or environment.

00;28;17;16 - 00;28;31;06
Speaker 3
And last ten. Whenever possible, new alterations or new additions or alterations to structures shall be done in a manner and in such.

00;28;31;09 - 00;28;33;21
Unknown
Efficient in a manner.

00;28;33;24 - 00;28;47;17
Speaker 3
That if such alterations were to be renovated in the future and removed in the future, the essential form and integrity of the structure would be and would not be impaired.

00;28;47;19 - 00;29;30;06
Speaker 3
So those are the criteria by which the design would be judged. in my experience, the and I could start the commission and the National Park Service are most concerned with exterior treatment, especially when you start talking about the windows, repair of new doors for replacement of front doors. very sensitive that you're looking for with sash windows like vinyl windows that are made to look the same, those windows with the purple things, with the fake money in between the panes of glass, you know, it gives you a great number of panes on the upper and lower is they wanted to see which sash window.

00;29;30;09 - 00;29;45;26
Speaker 3
Often the ones that were more difficult to get in from pain. When you're talking about, six to 12 or 12 windows. And in that case, you may be looking at the security of storm arrangement.

00;29;45;29 - 00;29;54;14
Speaker 3
And seeing what? Your there may have.

00;29;54;17 - 00;30;30;06
Speaker 3
As far as the use of preservation tax credits due to the rehabilitation threshold requirements, the tax credits are typically very large and not used by one person in a single tax year. IRS allows to carry over a surplus credit for five years. In fact, referring previously you were allowed to go forward 15 and in fact three. Another alternative to this is the developer could also sell the limited partnerships and distribute the tax credits and depreciation to investors.

00;30;30;09 - 00;30;52;24
Speaker 3
But again, in this case you're probably you're dealing with securities and you must follow federal regulations for the sale of securities. I guess the only exception to this is if you're doing a, a fairly limited offering, and that would be considered private. And I'm not exactly sure of the, the number, but I believe you're talking about 30.

00;30;52;26 - 00;31;13;16
Speaker 3
I think it's 30, investors. It's more than 30 investors then you you're looking at the securities. They are. But, that's something you're going to need to check on. just to take a stab at that. as far as depreciation and tax deductions are concerned, if you use tax credit, you must use straight line depreciation, not accelerated depreciation.

00;31;13;19 - 00;31;35;29
Speaker 3
And at this time we're talking about a 19 year depreciation period. Formerly of course 18 years. And prior to that it was 15 years. You also must reduce the basis in your building by one half of the tax credit. And that's a concern historically that if it's a non historic rehab you must reduce your basis by 100% of the credit.

00;31;36;01 - 00;32;04;12
Speaker 3
And in 1981, when they first started the program, you weren't required to reduce your basis of and what that amounted to is if you do a project, and let's say the project is $1,000, your tax credit is $20,000, but then you're allowed allowed to depreciate 400. Now you would only be allowed to depreciate 90. And there there are further draft amendments pending.

00;32;04;13 - 00;32;31;01
Speaker 3
I'll talk about that later. as far as recapture, you must hold on the property for five years. If you sell it prior to five years, there is a recapture of the tax credit. And in the first year, if you sell within the first year, there's 100% recapture. So the second year there's an 80% recapture. And in the third year it's a 60% recapture, stuffing down 20% a year.

00;32;31;07 - 00;33;07;22
Speaker 3
So that after five years you have, let's say, earned the full credit. Lease holds are also eligible for the rehab tax credit program. So if you had somebody like a long term lease on a property and that leaseholder, those leasehold improvements, the lease holder may qualify for the tax credit program. They must have at least a 15 year lease on the property and of course mean all the other requirements of the program as far as determining the rehabilitation threshold amount, if needed to be done.

00;33;09;20 - 00;33;39;20
Speaker 3
the IRS looks at the property on the basis in the building to determine that threshold. As far as the process, you apply for listing on, the first step is really applying for listing on the National Register as a building or as a contributing structure to a historic district. And that process was reviewed by the Dublin, I would say would be about a three month process, probably more.

00;33;40;13 - 00;34;06;04
Speaker 3
when you start talking about the research, that's necessary. But once you have the research done, it should take about three months with the fingers crossed. problem has come up as of September 85th. Previously, we are allowed to proceed. Once you have an initial determination that you're probably eligible for the register. but you're not under that.

00;34;06;04 - 00;34;35;11
Speaker 3
You can proceed submitting the application to have a design review, and you need to start construction. And you're given three months to get on the National Register in September, fire risk change, the rules say said that you must be on the register before you can even apply for the tax credit. Every project that I've been involved in is has been worked out so that you're doing a simultaneous review, you're getting on the register at the same time you're doing construction.

00;34;35;13 - 00;34;43;21
Speaker 3
So this is going to be a real problem that we're going to be watching it closely.

00;34;43;23 - 00;35;13;22
Speaker 3
As far as the the second step in is submitting your plans and specifications, and they're first submitted to the state. And I do that throughout the commission. And you do the first review again, reviewing the design plans as they relate to the Department of Interior's rehabilitation standards. This review at the time, 5 to 45 days. And that's what you'll find during this time period.

00;35;13;24 - 00;35;37;00
Speaker 3
There's a lot of negotiation. this state Historic Preservation officer, which, you know, during the commission will come back and ask for some changes in the design. And they may be commenting on the the way you clean the exterior of the structure, that may be commenting on doorways, windows. You'll never know what you looking for back at you.

00;35;37;18 - 00;36;08;19
Speaker 3
but if it's a 45 day period, it may end up getting stretched out because they within the 45 day period, they have to act on worship. and, and and actually by then it would be turning it down based on some comments they have on the site. Then you go back to the drawing board. you have to resubmit based on their, your comments, and then you're back into the review period again.

00;36;08;22 - 00;36;32;07
Speaker 3
After the historical commission approves the plans, they submit them, forward them to the National Park Service in Philadelphia for their final review. Again, that's a 45 day process. and chances are the Connecticut Historical Commission has future plans. There shouldn't be problems down in Philadelphia. But, you know, there's no guarantee there either.

00;36;32;09 - 00;36;33;28
Speaker 1
You are required to do.

00;36;33;28 - 00;37;10;24
Speaker 3
Your construction every 24 months, or no more than 24 month period, and no more than two taxpayer. In other words, you can't have a 24 month construction period straddled over three tax years. So 24 months is the outside period, unless you do a phased rehabilitation and they allow you to do have 60 month construction period. If you have a phase plan and those phase plans have been pre-approved by the state and, National Park Service.

00;37;10;26 - 00;37;41;22
Speaker 3
In the end, there's a final certification of the completion of the rehab done by the state and federal people. At that point, you you're a free and clear and ready to start using your tax credits. Prior to the National Park Service design approval, you can go ahead and proceed with your rehabilitation. But that's really done at the risk of the loss of, any kind of tax benefits.

00;37;41;24 - 00;38;04;20
Speaker 3
If the National Park Service later on in the review, they do not accept your plans, and you may even have to give up the tax credits, or you may end up having to rip down some of the things that you've done and, make the changes according to what the state and federal people are looking for. it's a successful program.

00;38;04;22 - 00;38;05;16
Speaker 1
Since 19.

00;38;05;16 - 00;38;49;13
Speaker 3
81, $7.7 billion worth of rehabilitation that's been done. That's across the country, $200,000, 200,000 jobs created, 57,926 housing units have been rehabilitated, of which 31,608 are considered new units. That is, units for industrial mills for creative and derelict abandoned buildings in Connecticut. The Connecticut State Historic Preservation Officer has certified $364 million worth historic rehab for the tax break program.

00;38;49;16 - 00;39;22;24
Speaker 3
The. What we're facing now at the federal level are budget cuts, which you've heard of. tax cuts and elimination of tax loopholes. On summer 17th, the House of Representatives passed a tax reform proposal that tax reform proposing eliminated all but two tax free programs. One is the historic tax credit program. The other is research and development. Everything else in government, in their proposal.

00;39;22;26 - 00;39;57;18
Speaker 3
They have taken a bit with the historic property tax credit program for historic tax credits. They're talking about reducing the credit from 25% down to 20%. And they're also talking about combining or proposing interventions, say, combining and reducing the 15 to 20% non historic commercial rehab credit, down to 10%. And instead of dealing with 30 and 40 year old plus buildings, we're talking about the 50 year old plus buildings.

00;39;57;20 - 00;40;17;05
Speaker 3
So there are they're going to be cutting some people out of the program by reducing the credits. Also, we're going to eliminate the 50%, 75% wall in rehab design, and we're going to give the National Park Service more judgment in what is appropriate or not appropriate.

00;40;17;07 - 00;40;46;07
Speaker 3
The next thing is going to affect all real estate investment. And that is a change from the 19 year depreciation period, the 30 year depreciation period did change. For the last item in there, and the House version is a 100% reduction in your tax basis, 5% reduction. And we say that you must reduce your basis by 100% of the tax credit if you're doing a historic rehab.

00;40;46;07 - 00;41;12;20
Speaker 3
So again, you're losing the ability to depreciate the amount that will be spent giving towards credit. and now last night I called, Preservation Action, a lobbyist group in Washington for play this group. What the Senate's up to, the Washington Post. They've done a pool and found that 85 out of 100 senators are against passing any tax bill.

00;41;12;23 - 00;41;35;06
Speaker 3
So it's an election year. And the 22 Republican senators are up for a pure election. But it looks like they're going to be forced into passing a bill. First of all, if the administration wants a tax bill this year and they've made a proposal in the House, it's past proposed. So the Senate is going to have to act one way or the other.

00;41;35;08 - 00;42;11;22
Speaker 3
I don't know if the rumor is from preservation action that the committee is right now writing up the the tax reform bill, and they're writing up the language for the tax credit program to retain it, but they're going to delete that from their proposal and from the later use it as a bargaining chip. when they start dealing with the house, because the house is very strong, this strike package, I should say, and announce that the barbecue Valley US congresswoman was very supportive in the House on this program.

00;42;11;24 - 00;42;50;13
Speaker 3
So if you ever see or have heard that, mention that we appreciate you for supporting that area. that basically wraps it up. I don't think I'm skipping pages here. I had some slides about a couple projects you've worked on, and one was $1 million project. We've got some even. We've got a project in Paris, new Jersey version of two 19th century industrial mill buildings to artist have of $250.

00;42;50;16 - 00;43;07;16
Speaker 3
The other, the other two were smaller projects. This one was $155,000. We have a six minute building. It's gone through, and there's nothing like a 12 year old building. We bring up level of about 150,000 year time. Could we.

00;43;07;16 - 00;43;17;26
Speaker 1
Wait? Let me just wait. It was just. You're not all that potentially ready to just do it. Oh, yes. Let me do a commercial.

00;43;17;29 - 00;43;44;19
Speaker 3
The other problem also. With the federal atmosphere right now is not only the tax cuts, but for the past six years, bringing integration is proposed zero funding for historic preservation. And each year the Congress of the Senate has restored that funding. So here we are, the six year program zero funding. In addition to that, Reagan is proposing a rescission.

00;43;45;05 - 00;44;23;01
Speaker 3
what is it, 181? But put the dollar figure estimate it's 18, 18 million, $18 million worth, funding intended for preservation, historic preservation. And that's really 85 money. We talked about taking away money that's already been authorized. and that's not only affecting this program, but it's also affecting many other programs. The student services, you know, it looks like we're not going to be doing any surveys that all next year using the state money 50.

00;44;23;04 - 00;44;24;01
Speaker 3
And that's again, that's.

00;44;24;01 - 00;44;28;08
Unknown
Federal pass through listening to industry. Funding.

00;44;28;11 - 00;44;55;04
Speaker 3
And you know if you start putting the the funds for historic preservation, you're also talking about putting the staff people that process these tax credit applications. So you start cutting the funding. You can imagine how long it's going to take to process your your reputation, tax credit history. so I guess I could take some questions if there are already right now, we may get to decide later.

00;44;55;04 - 00;45;02;21
Speaker 3
Yes we do. but the reason I put you on the move. Okay. You know, I think I think I only.

00;45;02;21 - 00;45;07;04
Unknown
Have about 14 slides.

00;45;07;06 - 00;45;13;21
Unknown
And you didn't like. No, 19, 20.

00;45;13;23 - 00;45;21;19
Unknown
One. Not even if. You could hear the money.

00;45;21;22 - 00;45;22;24
Unknown
If you had.

00;45;22;27 - 00;45;53;23
Speaker 3
To see new Jersey. It's located about 15 miles west of the George Washington Bridge. Over me. Patterson was discovered by, Jefferson and Hamilton when they were trying to get everything they found is 81 80ft waterfall and envisioned an industrial America, previously American, getting all of it. not just exporting raw materials and importing of finished goods.

00;45;53;25 - 00;46;18;23
Speaker 3
And the hope was that the American could become industrialized and they envisioned Patterson and being the place to set up the first industrial city. And that's what they did. Patterson has the largest. All right. I don't I don't know if that's up to date. As of 1980, let's say they had the largest historic district in the country. It's practically every 15 acres.

00;46;19;04 - 00;46;26;24
Speaker 3
this is one of the mills that we started working on in the early years.

00;46;26;26 - 00;46;54;13
Speaker 3
Because we were, he produced and he tried to count the number of paintings that you picked up when you maybe 20, over 20, something like that. They go with windows, you know, five sash windows they built right on the site that was built between two to the same with, single glazing and another sash windows. screening.

00;46;54;15 - 00;46;59;15
Speaker 3
And this right next door would be no conversion for a ceiling on the first floor.

00;46;59;15 - 00;47;04;20
Unknown
And then the other.

00;47;04;22 - 00;47;28;07
Speaker 3
This would be a project that would come about in the hundred and 45 minutes and leave all together. You know, the, you know, the 545 units. And understanding, very interesting housing, faith and so forth. They were a former silk mills. I probably should have made more.

00;47;28;10 - 00;47;31;28
Unknown
But used the building before you.

00;47;32;00 - 00;47;48;13
Speaker 3
The other two. I showed you all the Phoenixville. This is the Essex Mill and this is one of the rehab. after a long time, state historic preservation of it. And the National Park Service agreed that the windows in the.

00;47;48;13 - 00;48;08;29
Unknown
Front with sash and the windows on the side could be a minimum. And you see the, the children, the left on the side and, the know that's the paper and the darker side. If you know, looks back and we've got the next slide to show how we.

00;48;09;00 - 00;48;09;28
Speaker 3
Can your screen.

00;48;09;28 - 00;48;18;21
Unknown
Windows on the front is going to.

00;48;18;23 - 00;48;43;18
Speaker 3
The National Park Service in their review. And look at what you do with the interior of buildings. your main the main concern of this, the exterior. I don't like seeing, plaster removed from the interiors. And, and wreckage from that sort of thing, unless it was intended to be there from the beginning. It was an industrial building.

00;48;43;20 - 00;48;54;28
Speaker 3
Thank you. Look at the difference. It's getting really easy to see the fine that they had in the original structures. So we ended up doing a lot of what's.

00;48;55;00 - 00;49;01;21
Unknown
In that movie? the you're. Right here. You can barely see me here.

00;49;01;21 - 00;49;10;18
Speaker 3
Before we get to the left order and the structure exposed very nicely here. You see, this is a corner shot.

00;49;10;21 - 00;49;20;06
Unknown
And you can see here you have the blueprint of the building and period modification for the exterior and,

00;49;20;08 - 00;49;28;12
Speaker 3
Combination make in the period. But again the intention is retaining the appearance from the exterior.

00;49;28;12 - 00;49;36;00
Unknown
Was, not compromising energy efficiency in, in the height.

00;49;36;02 - 00;49;41;19
Speaker 3
Of the structure of the roof. And the ability to protect.

00;49;41;26 - 00;49;50;00
Unknown
Them from losing what they left here with minimal.

00;49;50;02 - 00;49;51;29
Unknown
And moderate and firm action.

00;49;51;29 - 00;50;21;17
Speaker 3
You've got to wait. meeting the fire code, and then you can. You believe you need a secondary need to egress, and you didn't want to get into to fire escapes. And after a thank you and briefly, the view of the building from the outside, do not we walk down a walkway along the parapet connecting to the building so that the secondary egress would be, and only permitted to have.

00;50;21;17 - 00;50;25;17
Unknown
The other building.

00;50;25;20 - 00;50;28;18
Unknown
In.

00;50;28;20 - 00;50;32;26
Speaker 3
This is, house we did in a like that.

00;50;32;26 - 00;50;37;07
Unknown
We tried to move it back to the,

00;50;37;10 - 00;51;16;18
Speaker 3
Madison project is $8 million. The developer got have 25% tax credit, $3 million. In addition to that, he was able to appreciate that $8 million over the 15 year period. 15 years at that time. that's a lot of a lot of tax credits, money tax value. And of course, the syndicate with limited partnerships that you you used the 25 to 20% tax break that essentially grants the grant money to begin to, through tax obligations.

00;51;17;03 - 00;51;35;29
Speaker 3
we need to understand that this is a 16 year project and, you can make a presentation very quickly. Styles I don't know if anyone can verify what style this method. Second Empire, very good community committee trying to reach an agreement.

00;51;36;12 - 00;52;02;04
Speaker 3
brings back an entirely new group. This property was purchased for $115,000. so the basis in the in the building is, that you take away the land value, and I don't think you didn't need to calculate it because we had create a purchase price. But I believe I would like to purchase in 2015. And the value of the land is maybe 50 to reflect that $65,000 basis.

00;52;02;04 - 00;52;36;00
Speaker 3
And building the rehab was $165,000. let's just read it to 160. And that would be the owner received a $40,000 tax credit. Since it was a small amount of tax credit, the owner was able to reduce the tax break. And so going back three years on, a five year. And the restoration included, originally the building had asphalt shingles, gas, well, vegetables, I should say.

00;52;36;00 - 00;52;49;05
Speaker 3
We've done several of these in Sanford and it worked out very well. The underneath the transportation was well preserved.

00;52;49;07 - 00;53;15;00
Speaker 3
We also notice that we got away with, I don't know, things like this was one of those projects for the application and actually after the fact and the owner nearly lost his tax credit. Right. after a lot of fighting, they agreed to go to the final windows reluctantly making a negative start to finish. and you can see they're a little tight window if they think what it means.

00;53;15;02 - 00;53;38;15
Speaker 3
Or at least you you captured the original one. You have to people that. this is the last project we worked on. It was intended to be a tax. That project, they have went ahead and after three buildings. So really great building. And then, in the rear.

00;53;38;17 - 00;53;41;25
Unknown
Which the people that.

00;53;42;10 - 00;54;11;23
Speaker 3
and that's the, the after we have a little bit too much different other than the replacement windows and the painting again, the building is going, well, what I wanted to say here is the $400,000 rehab. A little bit more than that, you know, product back, $100,000 tax credit. And he was unable to get the property. And the property is listed along with the surrounding buildings as a district.

00;54;11;26 - 00;54;31;16
Speaker 3
The neighbors wanted the neighbor to be so sure that if they go to the National Register of Historic Places, someone would tell them what color to make they're building and that they would be able to do whatever they want to do. And that's just not the case. But it's very difficult fighting, the same misperception were you not able to get the building listed?

00;54;31;18 - 00;54;57;13
Speaker 3
And because of that, what is required is a credit. So whenever you go ahead with one of these projects, you have to consider the tax credits as great. If going to go ahead and do the rehab, you have to just make sure it's feasible with or without those tax credits. Because if you're going through a district, you never know when you're going to have trouble from being from New.

00;54;57;16 - 00;55;28;11
Speaker 3
So that's that's about it. And then you can do what if you've done a rehab already. If you go in and what is that we have done a few. Thank you. Okay. You're to the 2014, 1881. So, you wouldn't be able to come under the tax credit program? so you have to wait. One is done. So if you're six years, you go still be provided.

00;55;28;11 - 00;55;51;21
Speaker 3
Okay. Okay, fine. And 81 this year. I did write, you know, again for years. I think it is it is possible, you have to connect, contact the Connecticut Historical Commission again. You have to be able to visit on the register if you're not on the register already, and you have to be, registered before you can apply for the tax credit.

00;55;51;23 - 00;56;00;22
Speaker 3
So if you weren't on the register then, then you couldn't. But you get this retroactive. You can check it overnight.

00;56;02;00 - 00;56;04;13
Speaker 1
yes yes yes yes.

00;56;04;16 - 00;56;30;05
Speaker 3
You know, that's one thing that people may be familiar with is, Nixon's restaurant. This this restaurant was restored and it was restored very well. And in the historical manor, but they didn't take advantage of the 25% tax credit. Do you understand why? But I can qualify for a 20% tax credit. And I don't have anyone tell me how my building should look, what the different looks like a hole in the upper right.

00;56;30;11 - 00;57;13;28
Speaker 3
Let be clear, concise, whatever and I can. I can still get a 20% credit in the end, I'll probably have more money in my pocket because 25% credit, once I take away the consulting fees and the extra cost of rehab, I probably don't have anything left over. And that's happening to a lot of people. I think the pending changes in House bill, although it reduces the credit, I think it's going to spur more historic rehab because the going with the 10% nine historic project credit versus the 20% historic project credit, is a double credit, you're much better off fiddling with that.

00;57;13;28 - 00;57;34;05
Speaker 3
And the larger you can match with its policy makers. so it fits well as a makers, I understand. I've also gone over the historic credit program in Lincoln, okay, for no other questions than by.

00;57;34;08 - 00;57;37;26
Speaker 1
Trying to.

00;57;37;28 - 00;57;58;29
Speaker 1
Okay. By the speaker is Anthony Imperial. Excuse me. And I know the attorney general's also serves on the Cambridge Preservation Trust for now, returning and maybe talking about you. And I don't want to.

00;57;59;01 - 00;58;00;14
Speaker 3
Answer you like that?

00;58;00;16 - 00;58;05;14
Speaker 1
Oh.

00;58;05;17 - 00;58;15;06
Speaker 1
We know what you're talking in the dark.

00;58;15;08 - 00;58;40;11
Speaker 3
I've never spoken to the person of the buildings before, but, you know, you you know, let's take our programs out. And reckless killing in my name. And, yes, I you think the second I have to, like, an hour, right? It's appropriate that. Tim, I showed you some slides of the renovations and rehab to be done. other projects, particularly the the mills.

00;58;40;13 - 00;59;05;21
Speaker 3
But because every preservation process and trying to accumulate some facade easements to date the only one been able to negotiate with the one on the old project and then for those of you who are familiar with that, that's a formal use of the mill. It's not been a well known road off of Lake Avenue. it was renovated and three years ago and rehabbed, into apartments.

00;59;05;23 - 00;59;28;19
Speaker 3
A declaration of condominiums subsequently subsequently was filed in the front office of the Commons. And every presentation for us to the from the society's move on that right now, I have to explain to you what the size of this, my descriptions, the table of the size and the best way that I can define that is the skin of a building.

00;59;28;21 - 00;59;50;20
Speaker 3
You can think a building, and you look at all of the exterior walls, foundations, the roofs, the windows. That's the facade, purposes as far as the easement goes. And we're all familiar with easements. you probably have many problems with these things, like the price of properties. for our purposes, the society society's in many different.

00;59;50;23 - 01;00;12;25
Speaker 3
In this case, the easement is a legal agreement between the property owner and the holder of the easement. The purpose of the easement is to govern the current and future treatment of the building. it's an interest. It falls short of full ownership. And the owner of the easement in the case of Lisa. So the ownership and the party is giving up the so it has to be done very carefully.

01;00;12;27 - 01;00;40;21
Speaker 3
Now, for our purposes, the reason we are interested in society is that it allows us to protect the outside appearances of buildings. It allows us to perform operations, the buildings, the exterior of the buildings. It requires proper maintenance of the buildings. it's a way for the Cambridge preservation for us and other life organizations to keep properties in conformance with certain districts, without having to worry about the burden of ownership of the property.

01;00;40;23 - 01;01;14;01
Speaker 3
Properties required. Purchase expensive to maintain. The easement program gives us a measure of control of the properties. Now, when a party gives a facade easement, they have responsibilities. It may be responsibilities are to refrain from certain activities on the property. There are other responsibilities are to provide certain services for the properties of the property. responsibilities that you're accepting when you give an easement, the refraining from activities, basically what you're saying you're not going to.

01;01;14;03 - 01;01;14;27
Speaker 1
Change because.

01;01;14;29 - 01;01;40;26
Speaker 3
You're not going to do anything to modify the activity that, you're very financially responsible out of the building to deteriorate the order of the easement. That's the right to come forward and to require you or compel you even when building back to repair, not for our purposes as realty of an easement. What it allows us to do is we accept the responsibility for enforcing our agreement.

01;01;40;28 - 01;02;09;27
Speaker 3
The officer with the Danbury Mill, we're responsible for a variety of basis, right? Every year, every three years. And we have to look at the exterior of the building and compare it against the original plans that we received. And to make sure that nothing has happened to change the character of the building. If we find that, something is different, then responsible to notify the owner and the owner, they have to come forward and make.

01;02;09;27 - 01;02;11;27
Speaker 1
The changes to make the repairs.

01;02;12;00 - 01;02;35;11
Speaker 3
Remove any alterations. Now, in order to do this, the contract requires that the ground floor has to be good access to be granted for periodic inspections. we're required to meet many other layers. If you look over the building and go to. The specifications are quite detailed. Our easement is the first year to two years ago, so we have to do that yet.

01;02;35;11 - 01;03;00;02
Speaker 3
But I'm sure that I'll let you build our keeping a close eye on it. In the event that the Grand Tour fails to, live up to its obligations and attempts to change the building, we decide to make that decision. We have powers in the terms of the easement to make them request for specific performance or make repairs.

01;03;00;05 - 01;03;23;21
Speaker 3
We also have the right to make them pay something to escrow in order to show that in the event that they've recently come in originally, contract may be fixed again. Now, the benefits to the trust, the benefits to us are that the easement program can reinforce for us historic district ordinances, it can maintain an environment, it can protect historically and architecturally significant buildings.

01;03;23;23 - 01;03;42;25
Speaker 3
And I say cost a lot less than buying new buildings and trying to sell for the Grand Tour. there's really two reasons why it for the market in this. Now, I'm sure at some point in time, during the course of you, you, people will want to see prices. They don't want their houses to be changed after the fact.

01;03;43;00 - 01;04;02;10
Speaker 3
They sell the houses. People from the old families might hear about that, but this is a way that they can control the exterior appearances of the building. If they give a easement to the Danbury Preservation Trust. The trust is responsible for saying that the building is kept the same exterior condition as it was going to be working. Party on it.

01;04;02;12 - 01;04;32;13
Speaker 3
Now, I think that your home. Theater qualifies you for assuming it qualifies. Previous owner of the property. Thank you from the exterior by putting it in the Game Preservation Trust meeting. The statement. More practical purposes. Why they might want to give an easement is that it qualifies them for various activities. Since 1964, the Internal Revenue Service is recognized as a charity deduction for the by.

01;04;32;13 - 01;05;02;07
Speaker 3
When we give them an easement, it's a charitable contribution. Deduction can be taken in subtle ways, can be taken in federal income tax purposes for federal state tax purposes and gift tax purposes. in that deduction is equivalent to the buyer's easement. Now, there are certain provisos that make its, easement deductible pretty great for first of all, it has to be donated to tax exempt charitable organization.

01;05;02;10 - 01;05;41;10
Speaker 3
And, we happen to be a tax exempt. And thank you so much for your consideration. The gift of the preservation agreement must be one of five real property interest. It must be for a qualified organization and a must be for exclusively conservation purposes. Now, to try to define those areas, to the qualified real property interest would include an easement specifically set forth in the Internal Revenue Code that an easement is included, and it has to be a restriction is granted in perpetuity to, to use it to restrict the usefulness of property that may be made up.

01;05;41;12 - 01;06;07;04
Speaker 3
So when you give an easement, you're giving it forever. you think you don't change your mind if you leave it open where easement is for 30 years and you're not going to qualify for federal tax purposes, but for conservation purposes. The other state Internal Revenue Code, the preservation of historically important minerals for conservation purposes, or more likely, for our purposes, it has to be a certified historic structure.

01;06;07;07 - 01;06;30;03
Speaker 3
Now, what certified historic structure is, is any building listed in the National Register. You can't just be eligible for listing in the National Register. They actually have to be listed or an alternative if it's located in a registered historic district, it's certified by the Secretary of Interior as being a historic of historic significance for the district. This is similar to what Tim said.

01;06;30;13 - 01;07;00;12
Speaker 3
if we have, the availability of credits for rehab, that basic criteria is the same. So you have to look through those two applications in order for it to be considered for tax benefits. Now, the value of these contributions, material charitable contribution, can be taken in the year that you, Eastman, is given. In all likelihood, the value of that system is going to exceed the terrible computational value in that particular year.

01;07;00;12 - 01;07;17;07
Speaker 3
So a replacement so you can carry forward and carry back to motivation. Also, you can reduce your estate for federal tax purposes while you're alive. By giving this easement, you're removing a certain value of your real property from.

01;07;17;07 - 01;07;18;13
Speaker 1
Your state.

01;07;18;16 - 01;07;45;13
Speaker 3
And giving them estate planning advice. Also, if you get an easement under the terms of your will, you're even getting a charitable contribution for your estate. Now, it's very important that when you draft easement or do you have an easement drafted? work inside it be done correctly. The Internal Revenue Code is very, very specific on what has to be done and what can be done.

01;07;45;15 - 01;08;21;27
Speaker 3
If you can find yourself in a situation. If it's incorrectly drafted in California Internal Revenue Service, where the deduction will not be allowed, and you might well be subject to gift taxes for the value of the gift that you gave. So it's important that it be done properly. And this part baffles me. You know, you go about valuing these I don't know, I can tell you that the process, but valuation should consider the Pacific terms of the easement, the location of the property and the zoning of the property.

01;08;21;29 - 01;08;48;01
Speaker 3
These are all taken into account. You reach your basic valuation. And the Maryland, Preservation Trust has been quite active in the easement programs. And they put out a bulletin that said that the valuations that were deducted from property, for the purposes of their easements, were anywhere from 31% of their mark, the market value of the property and 85% of the current market value.

01;08;48;03 - 01;09;12;22
Speaker 3
So these deductions can be quite significant. It's my recollection that we get the entire email to them to take a production in excess of $200,000 inside the easement that they gave us. You know, the principle that's used in appraising the easement, appraising the value is going to be owned beforehand by the principal. You need a real real estate appraiser.

01;09;12;24 - 01;09;34;24
Speaker 3
He has to take into account the fair market value of the property after he's going to be given, and subtract that from the fair market value of the property before the easement. The balance is the value of the easement. I can't imagine I want to break it down, but the way that, in my mind, it's like an appraiser saying that at a minimum like basis for $290,000.

01;09;34;24 - 01;09;42;09
Speaker 3
I don't know how to say that. He. And the people from real estate.

01;09;42;12 - 01;10;04;21
Speaker 3
Well, reason we're interested in, in his case is that it will enable us to protect buildings against adverse development or changes in particular areas. it's a significant concern for the Danbury Preservation Trust. That's why the implementation was brought with formulated. we're really not looking for the burden of owning owning a piece of the property. We just don't have the manpower.

01;10;04;23 - 01;10;15;05
Speaker 3
We don't have the staff. We can look to the management of properties. it benefits us. It also benefits the community, because property is on an individual.

01;10;15;05 - 01;10;18;05
Speaker 1
Name stays on the tax rolls.

01;10;18;07 - 01;10;47;03
Speaker 3
So it's still a tax paying, property. There have been many easement programs established in historic areas. if you're familiar with Annapolis, Maryland, Charleston, South Carolina, Philadelphia, San Francisco, they're all historically see areas. Each one of those is a very, very active program. we would like to have similar programs for applications to talk to people about easements.

01;10;47;06 - 01;11;11;17
Speaker 3
We look to you for your help in erecting people to us for this type of purpose. I have available for anyone who's interested in a sample easement or any single thing else if they want to give me their card. It happens to be on the property. If you have any questions, have to be a lawyer. You have a.

01;11;11;19 - 01;11;20;03
Unknown
With regard to your giving back to the for the site.

01;11;20;13 - 01;11;42;21
Speaker 3
well mill project, the terms of the easement provided that we will have to carry, casualty insurance for the full value of the property, including the easement for name, the insurance party and your insurance policy. as a condition, I'm sure the reason the reason for that. I'm sorry.

01;11;42;21 - 01;11;44;10
Speaker 1
For that reason, it's.

01;11;44;12 - 01;12;03;17
Speaker 3
Not particularly, you know, you know, the whole idea of needing us as an additional third party so that we can make sure that it was rebuilt to a certain standard. But once again, we're not giving up ownership of the property. So insurance companies aren't hesitating to insure that.

01;12;03;20 - 01;12;29;23
Speaker 3
Do not. Make it for them. yeah, I was wondering. Two things. Three. you having local appraisers, would you recommend to do that? The other thing is, people from the Connecticut Property Historic Preservation set the same time. Appraisers go out. They evaluate the difference, and they say it's very limited. Sometimes it doesn't make sense, but places where it seems to make no sense.

01;12;29;23 - 01;12;53;14
Speaker 3
If we're again looking at zoning, if you have an old house near the downtown that has a big setback, when you look at zoning, you would be allowed to build right to the sidewalk. You have a great deal of potential for expanding and expanding building so that when you start talking about some of these contamination, the evaluation and appraisal of the property before the meeting is given.

01;12;53;15 - 01;13;16;26
Speaker 3
After we've had that, we experience ends up being a great difference because of that potential expansion. Yeah. You're correct. as far as local appraisers from my this I really don't know. the original appraisals were done from real estate technology. But anyway, I'm afraid, I mean, that they used a lot of standard appraisals, and I just don't recall the phrasing.

01;13;16;28 - 01;13;26;10
Speaker 3
As far as I know, there are no other, the Saudis understand the language, particularly there. I haven't spoken.

01;13;26;12 - 01;13;33;16
Speaker 3
Thank you.

01;13;33;18 - 01;13;56;16
Speaker 1
Thank you. our next speaker is Lisa may, the executive director, Policy and Information for implementation. City of Emery was our former planning director. And where is going to talk to you about the city's role in preservation and local incentives that they have helped us with.

01;13;56;19 - 01;14;00;03
Speaker 3
Thank you for.

01;14;00;06 - 01;14;27;12
Speaker 3
Listening to the speakers this morning, especially the girls, I was kind of struck by the sheer number of projects that have been accomplished in November in the downtown area, usually driving down the street, you, get the feeling that not a whole lot is happening, but just in the in the five years Lou showed a few of the projects and I made a list by doing it.

01;14;29;12 - 01;14;55;18
Speaker 3
and it's actually quite impressive, you know, just kind of beside those, the old jail, the the old library, both of those numbers see a dam there? Fargo Forum, which is now a new building under construction. The idea of, becoming, the Vincent Project to the the Nolan, associates, pride cleaners. Benedict. It's Willie's zone of the whole building.

01;14;56;05 - 01;15;30;24
Speaker 3
the first national snow. Genovese drugs, the golf, bingo and music guild, the bowl insurance, and the in the whole building would be sold to Charlotte and a Salvation Army thrift store to night. It's actually quite impressive. And a lot of these projects have not used any of the financial incentives that are available. The most lucrative, without a doubt, is the the federal tax investment tax credit.

01;15;30;27 - 01;15;55;27
Speaker 3
The the evening donation obviously can be a lucrative but that's that's difficult process. And and to my knowledge also there is only one in in Danbury. the one I'm going to speak about a little bit today is the assessment, the filing program. This is available only in the city of Danbury, but there's no reason why it should not be available in any other town.

01;15;55;27 - 01;16;24;15
Speaker 3
And each time the captain passed their own ordinance to approve this. Danbury has done that. it's been in effect for a little over a year and a half, maybe two years now. At this point, there's been three buildings that have taken advantage of the, the Vincent project on Crosby Street, the office building on White Street, both of which these are the shown slides.

01;16;24;28 - 01;16;51;17
Speaker 3
and then the fifth relief project, on High Street. the the purpose of this program is to encourage preservation of buildings. It's not a give away program. city is not interested in just the saying you don't know the taxes on a building. You have to give the city something in return. If you live in a building and you.

01;16;51;23 - 01;17;20;27
Speaker 3
You're updating, you take a residential structure, updating, your kitchen, painting, a building that really is not to qualify for anything because your tax assessment is probably not going to change. This is a tax assessment. The filling program is not a tax deferral. It's just a slight difference. Program applies to the increase in your tax assessment as a result of the improvements you make.

01;17;21;00 - 01;17;56;19
Speaker 3
Now the end result of that is if you pay less taxes, but it's a deferral of the increase. It's available for any building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is in the District National Registry, or is certified as historic by the Danbury Preservation Trust. Now in Danbury, there's approximately 100 buildings, either on the National Register or within a district, most of those buildings being on Main Street in the Main Street Historic District.

01;17;56;21 - 01;18;20;23
Speaker 3
But, I've never heard say it is. Over 1000 structures that are have been surveyed by the Danbury Preservation Trust, the Vincent Project on Crosby Street, I don't believe is on the National Register. That was something that the Danbury Preservation Trust certify as historic. it's really is is on a national register in the office building on White Street.

01;18;21;01 - 01;18;49;20
Speaker 3
it's not on the National Register either. So, those on the National Register are in the minority. But the way the and also added it, it is available for both residential and commercial structures, unlike the the investment tax credit, the federal program, which is available only to commercial buildings and income producing program, income producing property.

01;18;49;22 - 01;19;19;08
Speaker 3
Now, the way the program works or the benefits that are available can let's say that you you do rehabilitate the structure. Obviously, the way it works in Danbury is that when you take out a building from a the value that permit is set, and when a certificate of occupancy is granted, that is forwarded on to the the tax assessor, tax assessor, then we'll increase your assessment and you will be taxed accordingly.

01;19;19;14 - 01;19;52;18
Speaker 3
So one way or improving your property according to some form is the city damper is established. you're penalized. You have to pay additional taxes. So the program will will basically take that penalty away for a period of time. The first year. The increase in that assessment is totally frozen. So if your assessment was current, assessment before the project started was 125,000 and it jumped to 250,000.

01;19;52;18 - 01;20;19;19
Speaker 3
After your rehabilitation, there would be no tax increase that first year. The second year there would be a 20% increase. So on for a five year period. So you are up to the full assessment. So it's actually a full six year program. every year anything a one year of an increase in your packet, there is a for sure it looks like this.

01;20;19;19 - 01;20;45;24
Speaker 3
And it gives an example and it's a is an example of, of a building in Danbury. It indicates that on a commercial building, I just use that example of 125,000 on assessment. It would save you over approximately $14,000 over the six year period. Now, obviously that's not going to be something that that'll make you spend, you know, 2 or $300,000.

01;20;45;26 - 01;21;18;28
Speaker 3
But it is just one more thing that might convince you to rehabilitate and store a building, save it, as opposed to tearing it down. One, will say one thing is different from the city of Danbury as opposed to the the the National Park Service. You're dealing with local people that are much more sympathetic to what you're trying to do, much more easy to deal with than, the National Park Service.

01;21;19;18 - 01;21;56;25
Speaker 3
you may recall in this village, the certification was originally denied. People from the city, the owner had to fly to Washington and argue in front of a public hearing and maybe get our congressman involved. I mean, it was a it was a big deal. this we do not take that attitude. But I also want to stress, again, not a get away from you have to give the city something in return for the city give you, this, for an assessment where you will proceed to get this assessment before you come into the planning department in the city hall in Danbury.

01;21;56;25 - 01;22;29;20
Speaker 3
You fill out an application and briefly, what you would have to provide us would be an A-2 survey of the property, which shouldn't be any problem. Three sets of architectural drawings, three sets of a site plan that have already been approved by the city, a set of specifications, what you were going to do in terms of the exterior, because that's really all we're concerned about, is the exterior and itemized rehabilitation cost estimate and evidence.

01;22;29;21 - 01;23;05;20
Speaker 3
The structure is historic. And again, on the on the Vincent project and the, the way she provides was simply a letter from the Danbury Preservation Trust that there was some historic value. We do not question that the the experts on this Danbury Preservation Trust. One thing that was a concern when this ordinance was passed is that the Danbury Preservation Trust has now 32,000 structures, and there's 100 structures that they could possibly be eligible in the National Register.

01;23;05;26 - 01;23;34;05
Speaker 3
And how much is this really going to to hurt the Grand List of Danbury? I mean, they the council thought there would be a flood of applications that that really has not happened. I'm not sure why that hasn't happened. There are, have been structures that are eligible. People are not taking advantage of it. But there are also structures that have been eligible for the, investment tax credit, which is much more substantial.

01;23;34;05 - 01;23;57;07
Speaker 3
They going to take advantage of that? I think part of it is some people just don't want to deal with the paperwork. Part of it on the investment tax credit is that you can't get a 20% credit for, and not go through the extra work is required, for the example that I think some of you may be familiar with is on Google Avenue, don't you read it?

01;23;57;09 - 01;24;32;05
Speaker 3
I believe he took the 20% credit as opposed to getting that listed on the National Register. With that information submitted to the the planning department. Then we review that information, and there's some criteria that we, go by. That criteria. Is the property in need of rehabilitation? Is there some imminent danger that the structure would be torn down, or that if it's not corrected, there might be some deterioration?

01;24;32;05 - 01;25;00;06
Speaker 3
Again, we were fairly, loose on that. we're not there. There aren't that many structures in Danbury that are in imminent danger of falling down. and certainly the White Street project was was not in danger of falling down, nor was it the Vincent project, if it certainly would help the area if it were rehabilitated. And that is the standard that we used.

01;25;00;09 - 01;25;24;21
Speaker 3
What improve the neighborhood? Would it be beneficial to the city? And that is the standard we use to apply to. Is the property need a rehabilitation? Is a structure certified as historic, and all of that is proposed use compatible. The surrounding uses. to give you a perfect example of this in the downtown area, some of you may be familiar with, big building.

01;25;24;23 - 01;25;46;22
Speaker 3
We have talked to some people at one time, wanted to put apartments in that building, and then we felt it was important to get that going rehabilitated. We do not feel that in that area from the ground floor should be apartments. So that was an example of their use. We did not feel was compatible with what the city is trying to do in that area.

01;25;46;22 - 01;26;08;28
Speaker 3
We had no objection to apartments on the second third floor. The ground floor. We wanted activity one night activity, so it could be an office or, some retail use. Had the plans were approved by the Design Review Board? there, I believe there's five members on the board myself. Who's there? 11. There's I think three other members.

01;26;09;08 - 01;26;20;20
Speaker 3
it's the same review board that reviews signage in the city that I'm going to mention a little bit about that at the end.

01;26;20;22 - 01;26;50;23
Speaker 3
The final criteria are the plans by the city and state regulations, such as the health code, the, the fire code, building codes, etc.. Now, when should you apply in all three examples, which really the white street and. No. And I think they were under construction after they applied. Actually, it's really well under construction. when the ordinance was passed, there was a provision to allow that.

01;26;51;03 - 01;27;22;03
Speaker 3
the original impetus for this was the oil mill project. I mean, they were trying to get, everything, assessment. So the freight, assessment deferral, the facade easement and the investment tax credit, the. The program was not approved. The well after oil project was, was functioning. So they did not qualify for it. But my suggestion is that you applied for this program prior to construction.

01;27;22;10 - 01;27;57;25
Speaker 3
There's nothing to prevent you from doing an active construction. But we may require some changes. Just like the National Park Service. And changes are going to cost money. So it's just advisable to submit your plans prior to construction so that that problem is not avoided. Once you submit the application to us with all the the information. I mean, you set up a design review board and in most cases we have turned this application around within two weeks.

01;27;57;27 - 01;28;21;15
Speaker 3
We do not make the final decision. We refer that to our Common Council 21 member elected board. They make the final decision. The way they typically work is that when we refer they refer to the committee and then it comes back within a month. The most recent one, the the known project, they accepted it the night it was submitted.

01;28;21;18 - 01;28;43;19
Speaker 3
So that project was turned around in 30 days. So it's not a long process after that is, approved by by our common council. They have it. They have accepted all three projects, that have come before and we have not nine any at this point. Then you need to enter into an official agreement, that is signed by the mayor.

01;28;43;19 - 01;29;09;00
Speaker 3
And that agreement basically says the plans, if you will, that you have submitted and have been approved. If you're going to live up to those plans and there is in the ordinance the possibility the city can recapture lost tax revenue if after a certain period of time, you make changes that are important to the plan. Now, of course, we haven't had to enforce that, so I don't know how that would actually be enforced.

01;29;09;14 - 01;29;27;00
Speaker 3
we said programs only been in effect for two years, but it would be those that are on the National Register because they have the same, same problem, that they're not likely to change, at least within a five year period.

01;29;27;02 - 01;29;49;28
Speaker 3
So to sum up, that that is the program. You want any more information on it? You can contact the family planning department. The phone number is on that for sure. And that is in the packet. And we're we're certainly, looking looking for applications in the say, I don't know why some people are not taking advantage of that.

01;29;49;28 - 01;30;23;26
Speaker 3
It's a minimum of red tape and encourage everybody to take advantage of it. Some of the what I just mentioned and what has been mentioned today in terms of the tax incentives, the facade easement, investment tax credit, they're all contained in this booklet. And it is a very good reference for, for not only the, a history of the historic movement in the United States, but has a glossary in it.

01;30;23;26 - 01;30;47;13
Speaker 3
For those of you who aren't totally familiar with some of the jargon thrown around, so advise you to to keep this handy. Also, if you few that like anything changes occur, especially in the federal tax law. So and there was some of those changes were outlined today. What is in this book right now is still valid.

01;30;47;16 - 01;31;18;03
Speaker 3
And I'm sure that, when the tax law laws changed, there still will be a investment tax credit percentages probably will change, but they still will be one and just one final word. on signs was already mentioned. but besides being critical, it doesn't mean the bill is certain for plug in, is there? There is money available within the city of Danbury for signage, and we are concentrating in the downtown area.

01;31;18;06 - 01;31;49;27
Speaker 3
It's not, a whole lot of money. $500 is available. You make that application to the Danbury Downtown Council. And, there's quite a few signs in downtown that have been, paid for a new design or the sign itself, through this grant program right now, I in addition to possibly innovative or concentrating on on High Street, and we have 4 or 5 signs in the works.

01;31;49;27 - 01;32;25;13
Speaker 3
And again, it's not a gateway program by design Review Board takes a look at it to make sure that the sign is is compatible with what we're trying to accomplish in downtown. Yeah, one year in and why, so many people have taken advantage of the, assessment of what they one of the reasons because we can save and investigate, you know, most, realtors when they make a listing on a piece of property, you know, go to the family business card that they get all the information.

01;32;25;16 - 01;32;49;25
Speaker 3
Would there be a way that the assessor would be able to, make some notation for the star or something and say it's, such and such a piece of property that is qualified for the assessment. But, because, you know, as a realtor, that would be very helpful in front of the house to, an investor after that, maybe.

01;32;49;27 - 01;32;50;26
Speaker 3
And the other thing.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tape 2

side a:

00;00;01;24 - 00;00;07;00
Bill Devlin
And therefore potentially all. Here in the northeast.

00;00;07;14 - 00;00;14;19
Bill Devlin
probably that percentage is a lot higher. What's been happening is, we thank you for.

00;00;14;21 - 00;00;15;20
Bill Devlin
Your.

00;00;15;22 - 00;00;25;19
Bill Devlin
Interest in, you know, the building revenue growth with preservation groups, the National Trust Historic District for various time.

00;00;25;21 - 00;00;26;20
Bill Devlin
Restoration efforts.

00;00;26;20 - 00;00;37;05
Bill Devlin
We thing for small town and magazine, like, for the people who are sort of older homes. People are becoming better.

00;00;37;05 - 00;00;38;00
Bill Devlin
Educated about.

00;00;38;01 - 00;00;47;01
Bill Devlin
Our buildings without the knowledge that the, you know, numbers are given to schools and that they, you know, they're that segment of the.

00;00;47;01 - 00;00;48;00
Bill Devlin
Market that they're.

00;00;48;03 - 00;01;14;22
Bill Devlin
The more important segment of the market. phrases like before you volunteer are going to, find a home on 1871 single because I'm going to put you as a realtor and the very, So knowledge is power. The people I'm going to go, I'm going to people go through American architectural prosecutor from and to press freedom from an example to the best represented in this area.

00;01;14;24 - 00;01;28;00
Bill Devlin
Number zero. And also basically talking with about residents through commercial example, from the from.

00;01;28;02 - 00;02;02;04
Bill Devlin
Many things going to the house is a function of the function of the house. Know how certain people are occupied. That's the kind of of an architect and builder. Houses are also an expression of the traditions and the technologies available for people to build them and be able to see through those, inside how the technology will shape a lot of the things that, the records available to the building, over the centuries.

00;02;02;06 - 00;02;02;26
Bill Devlin
We'll also see.

00;02;02;26 - 00;02;30;24
Bill Devlin
How they return over and over again to the same amount of information. basically, they bring back to Europe with their, style, with the classical antiquity, with the Middle Ages, with the Renaissance, or of its current, with,

00;02;30;27 - 00;02;37;11
Bill Devlin
I wanted to recommend this book here. there are a number of books identified from on the market.

00;02;37;20 - 00;02;38;07
Bill Devlin
this.

00;02;38;10 - 00;02;45;27
Bill Devlin
Is the best one it took for about a year. All. And,

00;02;45;29 - 00;02;50;17
Bill Devlin
It's got everything. If it goes through not only the Ministry of Buildings themselves.

00;02;50;19 - 00;02;59;00
Bill Devlin
Why they were built, the way they are performed. And one of the really nice things about it is if you were to,

00;02;59;02 - 00;03;19;00
Bill Devlin
The details of all the things that are detailed and see how they help you identify and of the directions for a section of the book, we also will go to a style, you know, for a, they give you all the different variations.

00;03;19;03 - 00;03;23;12
Bill Devlin
Of a particular. no, the I found they give you.

00;03;23;14 - 00;03;24;03
Bill Devlin
Kind of thing of.

00;03;24;03 - 00;03;29;20
Bill Devlin
A scroll from, on the one on the street to the north right corner.

00;03;29;22 - 00;03;50;08
Bill Devlin
It's, written by Virginia Lee McAllister. Is published. By your company. Thank you for your guide to American houses.

00;03;50;11 - 00;03;55;26
Bill Devlin
Very briefly, we can look at the demolition of styles in America as a kind of a a great circle.

00;03;56;05 - 00;04;01;05
Bill Devlin
beginning with very simple forms and great, use of organic during the period.

00;04;01;07 - 00;04;26;22
Bill Devlin
Going through a phase of bold and ornate use of of different kinds of modern shapes, the art of an era. And then a reaction to that during the 20th century was, returned to the colonial preference for the colonial forms as well as payment futuristic from the elimination of foreign and altogether. Today, the most popular style of housekeeping is today, as people have told me anyway, is to do because.

00;04;26;22 - 00;04;39;17
Bill Devlin
Of the four bedroom European colonial. if you don't have all of the different weather, and is interesting that happens all of the different styles. We come to America, we could build them from each other.

00;04;39;27 - 00;04;46;23
Bill Devlin
over time, from the period European settlement. this is the classic colonial here.

00;04;46;23 - 00;04;49;22
Bill Devlin
This is the house in Bridgewater, and it's got several of the.

00;04;51;28 - 00;04;59;20
Bill Devlin
features, of some of our earliest, you're not going to find in this area 17th century houses, but some of the early.

00;04;59;20 - 00;05;13;09
Bill Devlin
18th century houses do have some of the kind of older, features to this house. because, you know, it's the first of all, thank you for your first and second floor looks kind of carry over from the old photos of Europe. That is the.

00;05;13;09 - 00;05;41;08
Bill Devlin
Project in the second story, jumping over to the street, a little green from the jetty and 17th century in the roof ornaments. the transformation. this particular house has a softbox, shape with a long sloping roof and back, and it's got a central to the central doorway and very balanced here.

00;05;41;10 - 00;05;50;06
Bill Devlin
This is a house. It's actually Danbury. You can see that a little better.

00;05;50;08 - 00;06;08;29
Bill Devlin
It's got the center chimney in the lungs. You'll see here. This is a little bit more, the kind of house that was, that you'll see. it's really small scale. It's not very roomy. It's not very spacious. This one is out of range.

00;06;09;01 - 00;06;37;21
Bill Devlin
Not all of those older houses, have, like, these two stories. Most of the, really early houses in the 18th century. But you can really two, colonial, are one and a half stories. And basically the technology that resulted in this kind of a house was commissioned very old from England. the old thatched roof price, it this is a house in, you know, 1730s.

00;06;37;24 - 00;06;58;04
Bill Devlin
And this is probably as medieval as you're going to get in this area. I'm not sure exactly all the history of this house, but, correct. Crossing gable. So on the left hand side of the picture, is a very old see in the 17th century.

00;06;58;07 - 00;07;24;07
Bill Devlin
More common, in this area, throughout Connecticut is a sort of, variation of the Cape Cod style. this is kind of a three quarter cape in Brookfield. Three quarters means, well, let's say, okay, we have a central pantry, two windows on either side. That's a full cape. So it's 25 openings across the sun, a three quarter cape as well.

00;07;24;09 - 00;07;46;23
Bill Devlin
Square on one side. Only have 1 in 1 window and a half Cape only has, three of these two windows on the door. usually these houses have center chimneys like this one. this a this is a kind of a combination of those two forms where you see that cape or, or Cape Drive or a true cape.

00;07;46;23 - 00;08;11;02
Bill Devlin
We have the, right, is right over the door with a very sleek, very long, sloping, this kind of has a soft rock shape in back there that that shape all relates to the way the rooms were used. The, there are two rooms in front, and then along the back that leads you along the back, it reads.

00;08;11;02 - 00;08;17;16
Bill Devlin
That last slope is the kitchen.

00;08;17;18 - 00;08;41;04
Bill Devlin
And it all relates to the fact that the central heating plant in your home, which is the great center chimneys, this is a, kitchen continues taken down in 17 30,000, which, you know, it's a photograph. So it it was taken down and think you can see how sophisticated these, these chimneys were.

00;08;41;06 - 00;08;53;00
Bill Devlin
Give me an idea. At seven, if this was the central heating plant there, each of these three different room.

00;08;53;03 - 00;09;18;06
Bill Devlin
Here's another variation. during the colonial period. this is a store. this happens to be a reason. I, reason I was to show you the gamble room came in in the 18th century. So. So now we've just been talking about purely colonial style. They really don't have any Marconi forums. They really don't have a style per se.

00;09;18;08 - 00;09;39;10
Bill Devlin
We can hang them on their painted the forms of the buildings that were built all over America, depicting all of the positive areas of the eastern seaboard. I'm going to go on to the first real style. Can they, that's the Georgian.

00;09;39;13 - 00;10;03;05
Bill Devlin
Through the early 18th century in England, they discovered that, they could multiply the number of rooms in the house and make it a lot more usable by multiplying the chimneys. So instead of having the massive center chimney, they put a chimney on either side of the house, multiplying the number of rooms. And they created a great central part that went, through the intake.

00;10;03;08 - 00;10;27;27
Bill Devlin
And then there was also a center hall on the second floor and the rooms on either side. Even those two chimneys just happens to be a particularly high style Philadelphia. this is a late example in the number, the warming house. And you can see the double chimneys most of the time in this area. They had, gable rooms.

00;10;28;04 - 00;10;50;15
Bill Devlin
and sometimes they would have papers, sometimes they would have, some rather presentation, but it was fairly restricted, fairly restrained, and it was always derived from the briefing room. And, President Morris, which is, of course, is going to be right up on the up on the roof, has a row or column of buildings running across it.

00;10;50;18 - 00;11;04;18
Bill Devlin
The third column, and corners, those are points. Those are meant to simulate stumbling blocks, but they increase over into good, great construction to.

00;11;04;21 - 00;11;32;12
Bill Devlin
In the high style Georgian, you would sometimes see this projecting center pavilion that comes out in that window on the center of the second floor, leading the big central hall is, palladium. And, this is from an architect who inspired many of these, that inspired this style the great extent under the Palladio and Italian architect of the 17th century.

00;11;32;14 - 00;11;54;04
Bill Devlin
Now translated into the sort of the street version or vernacular version of the Georgian. Is that a very writer house which in Scotland Museum. Which is a very good example of that, of the Georgian applied to a certain angular structure. But the central idea that you want to remember about the Georgian is, is that it introduced the idea of balance.

00;11;54;16 - 00;12;20;13
Bill Devlin
it was developed during what historically was the age of Reason. Everything. These they admired, the reason they admired precision. The right balance was the age of Bach and the idea of God as the great watchmaker. And it shows up in architecture in very balanced forms, symmetry. And, this is when you get these really sort of nicely balanced facades with the two windows on either side in the center, all the features.

00;12;20;16 - 00;12;37;19
Bill Devlin
Of you really these, if you want to know more about the Georgian style, it's this is a really cool place to see it because all the buildings are, the work. The floor plan is original there, and you can really see how how that style works.

00;12;37;21 - 00;13;07;12
Bill Devlin
The next style appeared after the revolution. it's it's well, the, federal or Adams, it was inspired by, Robert Adam, who is English designer in the 1760s. And he do a lot of work in Roman and Roman archeology. And he's developed a whole style of fortification that people adopted. And why really, we applied it to basically what they already built.

00;13;07;14 - 00;13;24;21
Bill Devlin
So you see this house with its two chimneys and a lot of Georgian characteristics, but it has very light, very slender, light homes. And also there's a reference for the ellipse.

00;13;24;24 - 00;13;45;18
Bill Devlin
As well as a Roman forum. Well, it's one of the from here would be one, two, three, one. You can also look over the. Houses have the.

00;13;45;20 - 00;14;15;19
Bill Devlin
You don't want to see that here during this. this is where this is a kind of warm attention that you see a lot in this area. And this is, of course, after the revolution for about the 1780s to about the 1820s, the style was popular. It's also the period in which people started building a brick, and also the theory period in which people started painting houses like earlier is that they generally paint a lot of, sorry, earthy colors.

00;14;15;19 - 00;14;29;24
Bill Devlin
The things that were available there was, clear yellow. Over there was a red. We saw the lighter house. some other colors that could be made from materials were only available.

00;14;29;27 - 00;14;59;04
Bill Devlin
Sometimes what they did was just add some federal features on to the house. This house was built in 1750s. It's basically Georgian. Had some chimney, that they ended up sort of finding their living there. You can see in this house, up to the 1820s, the Moscow window for, the summer home to sash with small panes done by counting the number of days.

00;14;59;04 - 00;15;31;07
Bill Devlin
You sometimes get a general idea of the date of the house. this house has 12 sash on the top of the bottom. Sometimes on top. Things are about, that's usually most kind of important to about 1820. The reason for that is because the technology of making glass wasn't sophisticated enough to produce larger sheets. larger sheets became available in the 1820s, and they went to us for the larger sizes of paint.

00;15;31;09 - 00;15;55;22
Bill Devlin
And then they went into six over six by the 1860s Civil War period, they go to, four over four and two over two. And finally by the 13th century, or even maybe some. So they came up with a simple sash. It was one of the one. That's one kind of general rule of thumb. You can use.

00;15;56;06 - 00;16;23;23
Bill Devlin
the federal bedroom style is really sort of one of those, as much as it is a closet architecture. And this is just to give you an idea of some of the features you might see in a pattern, interior was derived from the classical English. From the Romans. We see that a spider web device up there to, to sort of sunburst.

00;16;23;26 - 00;16;31;02
Bill Devlin
It seems to be a preference for that. You see a lot of Spanish lights over doorways.

00;16;31;05 - 00;17;03;07
Bill Devlin
It's very plain with, forms a little bit like two prior to this. most houses, were built. Most buildings were built parallel to the street, during this period was especially interested in really classical antiquity. They started, becoming interested in imitating temples, and therefore they started building these buildings of colonnades. this is, an early commercial example.

00;17;03;28 - 00;17;26;19
Bill Devlin
back on the which field? You can see that ellipse form of the, the open the gable and that closed. triangular form of here. It's called pediment, which is supported by those columns. You see that parallel with the door, you.

00;17;26;21 - 00;17;58;15
Bill Devlin
Back on the street again, mapping that back of the century. you see a lot of, you see a couple of house forms. I think there's two here. there, fairly well represented in this area. this is called a tiny house. That's the letter. I mean, the reason for that is it's a very narrow house. This place is parallel to the parallel to the street, but it's only one way to, is a full sized house.

00;17;58;15 - 00;18;29;12
Bill Devlin
Would have to do that. Kudrow's. this is a form that runs all through, I've seen in Danbury there, looking they go all the way up, up the road, shows up to the Massachusetts. this is. No, it's only one room deep. how do they solve the space problem was by adding along what they call an L back, that took care of the kitchens and and, of course, the kitchen is a very important part of the farmhouse, because it's not only where they put their food, where it process the other things that they grew.

00;18;29;14 - 00;18;40;25
Bill Devlin
So they l was a really, working area. And the house part was a sort of more formal area.

00;18;40;27 - 00;18;58;24
Bill Devlin
And they started playing with points. The other way to do this is a shade House, you know, that was built in the 1830s, and it's certainly looked better on. Don't pay any attention to those those shingles that are on the facade there. Those are those were added later. But, yeah, this is sort of a half a house.

00;19;00;12 - 00;19;20;13
Bill Devlin
you see a two storey part of the house there on the left. if you extend this back over to the two more windows, you have what they considered for that time, a full house. So this is sort of like a you see, you've got.

00;19;20;15 - 00;19;48;10
Bill Devlin
The next tile to come in, there's another classically inspired style in the 1820s, where Byron was out playing, in the Greek War of Independence. And, America was very much, on the side of the Greeks. they admired their, their fight for democracy. They were the birthplace of democracy, archeological discoveries. And the dream is to bring Greece into the American consciousness.

00;19;48;12 - 00;20;11;28
Bill Devlin
One consequence of this was a new architectural style was developed from the Greek Revival. It's the first of a series of revivals that goes through the 19th century and takes us up into the 20th, to get to the more exotic and bizarre. But the Greek Revival is very restrained style, and, it can be considered as sort of the early American, American firm.

00;20;12;00 - 00;20;43;08
Bill Devlin
Again, the basic form of the Greek Revival, has the gable facing the street and is really, typical, really prototypical examples are both the invitation to the temple, to the colonnade, the columns in front of the full pediment there. And so there's some. Really more of the word invitation they use is different. from the center. The look was very bulky and, more robust then very light, very narrow.

00;20;44;16 - 00;21;13;28
Bill Devlin
but you can see it in the columns of this house, in the Doric mode. The street is, so different modes of architecture. The classical architecture was the, the Doric, which is the central thing with this part of it. And then there's the, the ionic, which is the one of the some previous, more in the early Corinthians group was a very flowery capital.

00;21;14;01 - 00;21;31;10
Bill Devlin
And here's the Greek Revival. snorkeled. it's a one facing the street, Main Street, Danbury. so getting into these young bookstore buildings and the stories is very similar to the houses at this point.

00;21;31;29 - 00;21;53;29
Bill Devlin
one thing you see throughout the race neighborhoods are small workmen's cottages, particularly the older neighborhoods. And these are sort of, they developed during part of the era in which the Greek Revival style was popular. So in their day, one is facing the street, the very small buildings, Cranbrook did not have any front entry. They had the entry over to one side.

00;21;54;02 - 00;22;25;03
Bill Devlin
So those are very sort of the icons, the very, very narrow. This was the era in which workers were starting to settle down. And Danbury particularly has has previously produced in the 1850s were really migrants from place to place in search of work and fruit after the hat freezes, mechanized many of them, some of them and, you see these kind of, steamboat, all of the Danbury.

00;22;25;06 - 00;22;52;25
Bill Devlin
Next revival to come along, which we've got. And this is a really prototypical example of a Gothic style, a of great adversity. Gable and along is what we call a barge or some sort of temporary accommodation. And, at this point, technology is beginning to improve. It's of all things versus the scrolls. with jigsaw, they're able to cut out all the patterns and they just we can't really, exploit that.

00;22;53;27 - 00;23;30;09
Bill Devlin
they're also becoming less and less, less and less. dependent on the English, fashions. And so they they began striking out, searching for forms of inspiration. The Gothic was one of, it was also a development technology, called a wooden frame. Previous to this, the frames and houses with us posting heavy hardware opposed to being frames and, in which, corner posts were falling off and, sheeting was laid along, well, between the post.

00;23;30;11 - 00;24;02;17
Bill Devlin
So the little frame was the ancestor, the mind frame stuff. The spots ran all the way up to the, to the ceiling in this case. But, Mr. Shankland didn't want to build a house anymore. but one thing that allowed was, variation from the old forms. They didn't have to build just birdhouses and, so the close up of the Gothic here, one of the new works of the Gothic two was the sort of automatic instructions, that of clever.

00;24;02;19 - 00;24;07;28
Bill Devlin
It's another thing we're able to do with the technology.

00;24;08;00 - 00;24;23;02
Bill Devlin
And another example, this is the sort of behind the flooring Gothic. This is really, the high style examples of, the Gothic. Gothic is a polychrome, trim.

00;24;23;04 - 00;24;39;27
Bill Devlin
Lower here. Mark of the Gothic style, if you want to watch out for his kind of arch that's used for the Gothic uses the pointed arch, you know, you can see that it's a it's a curved case. The point.

00;24;40;00 - 00;25;03;17
Bill Devlin
Next up, the line is almost the same as the Gothic is now before the civil war is the Italian. but this is this was inspired by the rulers of Italy. Again, they're reaching for different forms of inspiration. this this house used to be in these days for the 30s. but it's the Italian, the heat and some of the earmarks.

00;25;05;06 - 00;25;39;13
Bill Devlin
the interior is one of the to show you this is this particular kind of very narrow rolls window. It's very practical. They start getting the Victorian, associated with Victorian, kinds of, interior decoration. And also that staircase, that really typical Monte staircase would be early. Rufus. There on the streets, that Italian villa was translated down into this by one of the buildings.

00;25;39;16 - 00;26;08;18
Bill Devlin
And, it's usually got a square for. So a front porch in front sometimes has a cupola, almost always has brackets. And there's all kinds of, variations of shapes and forms. They used, this big windows, and this, this style was popular from the of the 1850s up to the 1880s. There's another variation of it, this time without brackets.

00;26;08;21 - 00;26;35;16
Bill Devlin
Here, you see, it's got the brackets. this style was popularized by, Andrew Jackson Bell. He wrote a book called The Architecture of Country Homes. And this particular house came right out of that book, because this is almost the third. It even shows up in volumes and paragraphs. There's the cupola that sends a peak, just like in the previous.

00;26;35;28 - 00;27;02;12
Bill Devlin
it's also used as a worker housing built by manufacturers and workers. It was very little of that debris. But there were a few examples. Rose Liberty Street and, down the street and, previously proposed to be the streets that was going to be starting the. another later, feature of the Italianate style is the use of these ornamental window fronts over the top of the window.

00;27;02;16 - 00;27;13;06
Bill Devlin
The original reason for this was three a lot, that allowed this to do a lot with decoration.

00;27;13;08 - 00;27;40;04
Bill Devlin
And here's an example of the state of play with forms they've got, they've got instead of just the, the game on the street here, they've got a gable crossing back. So same play with shapes here, but this big wide veranda in the front. That's that's another common feature. And the element of playing with shapes is the octagon house became popular in the 1850s when it was the power on the block.

00;27;40;25 - 00;28;07;28
Bill Devlin
you consider this to be especially helpful? within the house. Like, this is a whole system of living. We've developed this kind thing. What? Let me think. They started playing materials for to. This house was built out of or included for the country. Yeah. I believe so, yeah. they may have had other members of the family, but, it could be a large family, but it wasn't like the civil rights movement.

00;28;09;12 - 00;28;12;20
Bill Devlin
that's, what I was looking for will tell you exactly what it up on.

00;28;12;20 - 00;28;19;03
Bill Devlin
But, in the grand, putting on a whole property.

00;28;19;08 - 00;28;31;06
Bill Devlin
You know, I pick up the book and look at something. He's got a whole system of how you can collect rainwater from this thing in the basement. You know, it's a whole system of looking at actually.

00;28;31;08 - 00;28;59;04
Bill Devlin
In the commercial, districts of America detailing these tiles, it's just really one of the basic forms, instead of building, floors, they look like houses. They're starting to build blocks of stores or maybe apartments above offices and rooms for small, crazy little store on the ground floor. Can you tell you that was the first, style that was really, a popular, popular place for good memories.

00;28;59;04 - 00;29;26;04
Bill Devlin
A lot of us on Main Street. If this is a very basic, commercial block that was restored very, very nicely. by those or by the builders, so you get a good idea of what you look like. It's got those windows. It's got a recessed storefront, a big plate glass display window on your side. it's got a lot of points.

00;29;26;07 - 00;29;50;07
Bill Devlin
The essential items. Next. Now to go along is, is kind of a very, almost a variation of the Italian style. The Second Empire style. Louis. It's just the mansard group. is perfect example of that. This was actually the dealer's residence in front, and it was, you can see it looks pretty much like an Italian. The house is square.

00;29;50;28 - 00;29;57;24
Bill Devlin
it's got brackets and quarters. The in the front porch. that means our roof.

00;29;57;27 - 00;30;01;29
Bill Devlin
This is another example of a small house.

00;30;02;02 - 00;30;30;21
Bill Devlin
Many of them were slate. this one, the roofs. And often they had Bresnahan running along route one. So essentially, this is the classical haunted house. Okay. We think of the white House. There's another version of the haunted house looking along a little bit later in the 1870s, the Queen Anne style. And this is where they really started to play, with forms and textures and all kinds of influences in one style.

00;30;30;24 - 00;30;55;04
Bill Devlin
This is a sort of, collecting, what it started out as was, a desire in England, the Normans who got interested in the Tudor houses and, English Renaissance, but from there evolved into all kinds of things. we got to America in 1876, and the society was in this position. People were starting to get interested in colonial architecture.

00;30;55;04 - 00;31;18;09
Bill Devlin
They expressed interest in Japanese architecture, and they put a whole lot of influences into the style. They called it. Cool. Yeah. your marks on it are very, irregular roofline, use of power. like this, gradient hand side here. the different textures in the same building, many things you see. Very elaborate work on the porch.

00;31;18;18 - 00;31;37;18
Bill Devlin
this is kind of, seminal work that you see in the PowerPoint porches is the, inspiration of another English designer and furniture lady. he's like and sometimes see this described. Is this, like, like going through elaborate school work and the woodwork.

00;31;37;20 - 00;32;06;11
Bill Devlin
And cleaning shows up in all kinds of quantity. When you see the tower, you can usually like probably thinking about the and regionally. But there are many whole neighborhoods. we have never seen a very impressive, one of the things that we did with these things is paint the many colors. And, today you brought back you really see the woodwork.

00;32;06;13 - 00;32;37;25
Bill Devlin
It's not. Yeah. This is a sort of a, vernacular example of the things that she was up with able to collaborate with the, and then this crossing gable, or it is very common throughout the whole great, movie sort of inspiration of it was this sort of, not a failing us. this is great, but the films of this very.

00;32;37;27 - 00;33;08;27
Bill Devlin
Next thing, the film a in the 19th century was coming up, Sheila style, which features a very long gable. she would payment and it was a pretty good example of that. Pulled in some sort of colonial, motifs to in the floating window area in the gable. Also, it was an interesting, a rough stone texture to see a lot of these stone porches in the house in the zero well continue up into the 1920s.

00;33;08;29 - 00;33;28;16
Bill Devlin
There's a lot of variation on the Tudor style. Fortunately, you can't really tell on the slide, but this is gable and projects out front. It's all shoot all different patterns of wood shingles. that's these are really the two basic forms of that style, it seems, really, but I think it comes in as this is the eyebrow window up there in the background.

00;33;28;19 - 00;33;59;22
Bill Devlin
Yeah. got to see that. She was kind. And there's a sort of a subtype that runs all through that, this era, the 19th century. That's the castle. usually they were built of the stone. hammer is one of the few. It's built of, really rough build. So was this is from 1887. And, it pulls in all kinds of, designs from castles that date back to the late 19th century.

00;34;02;07 - 00;34;32;23
Bill Devlin
This is, of course, is another property. See? there's one of other I it, we were of the 19th century, started by this man, Henry Hobson. Richardson was an architect, considered the first very original American architect. They do most of the inspiration from the medieval, Romanesque style. he really looked this his inspiration to like to get dressed up as a mother.

00;34;32;26 - 00;35;03;18
Bill Devlin
Is style. He got, was very much drawn from the monastery. So, 11th and 10th century Europe. And the big characteristic is this. Using a very wide gravel mark. Not like the before. You make these a very narrow road arches. This is very wide. You see the entry for this building, which is the building's library. You see the light, see the same thing in the rest of the Saint Peter's, you know, find this to make your residences acceptable to the institution.

00;35;03;21 - 00;35;36;14
Bill Devlin
Institutional settings. This. Let me see how it came in. Was, derived from the French chateaux. And, this is way to feel the parting of the ways between the, design emphasis of the illustration versus the French tradition. In the English tradition, you remember all the slides. And so before it's a big emphasis on doorways as the focus of the of the house for the families and the very elaborate treatment rooms there in French and the French tradition, the emphasis on the roof.

00;35;36;17 - 00;35;50;05
Bill Devlin
So there's all kinds of different roof shapes. And so it's got a very steep roof resting on top. It's got a, you know, a very, purple power. maybe it was nice to draw your attention to.

00;35;50;07 - 00;36;01;18
Bill Devlin
Another style of humans, right. To the Spanish missions. there's also all kinds of military influences from this time. This is the 23rd century.

00;36;01;20 - 00;36;27;22
Bill Devlin
This thing that came in, during the turn of the century, and it continues to this today is a reaction to those very elaborate styles. and returns a whole new idea of the Colonial Revival, as it's called, architects that we're looking at forms borrowed from the Colonial Revival, built beautiful colonial houses that look of the great and they.

00;36;27;24 - 00;36;45;03
Bill Devlin
They look more like a colonial house telephone of us that were built. So you can find all kinds of Georgian features and memorable features, all of those early American, motifs in this house. This is that family to find a way to kind of balance with the sun. It's got everything, you know.

00;36;45;08 - 00;36;50;13
Bill Devlin
There's everything, you'd be finding for any one building.

00;36;50;16 - 00;37;12;15
Bill Devlin
They're also built on a grander scale than the real thing, because this was borrowed from the Georgian. the dormers, those are the same things. So that I stopped looking at. First General Avenue was the Russian place for, for the Colonial Revival. So some of the other stuff, the Colonial Revival, even shows up in an apartment.

00;37;12;15 - 00;37;18;24
Bill Devlin
Building with,

00;37;18;27 - 00;37;21;05
Bill Devlin
And there's all sorts of variations. This is.

00;37;21;21 - 00;37;26;24
Bill Devlin
it uses the give rooms or.

00;37;26;27 - 00;37;30;00
Bill Devlin
For example, you know.

00;37;30;03 - 00;37;41;06
Bill Devlin
And, some of these were also derived from the Dutch colonial, you can see on the left, because on the left has a very learned let's directly the Dutch form.

00;37;41;08 - 00;38;07;01
Bill Devlin
And then the bungalow comes along around the world all the after this a little bit larger example of it. you stone course work is still in evidence. usually the bungalows are smaller than this, but, of course, in our common examples around here, I think that's like, this is a house that sort of built on the.

00;38;07;03 - 00;38;29;19
Bill Devlin
Other house is very common during this period. The early 20th century is the, what one called the American Force Square. This is a new designation because architectural historians never pay much attention to it. For recent years. it's really basic. The return to the box. The basic box. And this guy usually got him through the front porch.

00;38;29;26 - 00;38;44;21
Bill Devlin
Maybe a big window on the side. some of them are really, very nicely balanced. And this is truly a revival. The places in this example, the seller.

00;38;44;24 - 00;39;05;03
Bill Devlin
Vendor during the 20s that comes in like that, or, the English country house and that also is expressed to me here, Tudor style is characterized by the grace the people use the stonework, in a sort of a motif or category that you actually see the structural.

00;39;05;05 - 00;39;10;14
Bill Devlin
Framing in the.

00;39;10;16 - 00;39;36;04
Bill Devlin
Now, one style that doesn't really appear in the residences, came in during the 20s and 30s. Well, we, Art Deco style see it sometimes of, in commercial buildings. This is a prime example of the membrane. All right. Great looking, very futuristic. This is different kinds of textures. It's got sort of jagged edges and sort of, because the ziggurat shape is sort of a stealth, that's what it is.

00;39;36;04 - 00;39;38;17
Bill Devlin
But that futuristic look piece even.

00;39;38;18 - 00;39;43;15
Bill Devlin
Remotely use this decoration.

00;39;43;17 - 00;40;09;11
Bill Devlin
And interesting example of standing above, North Main Street. This is, that all right? Queen is. But, it's what it looked like now, taken off the cross side. You can see that pile. Yeah. So it's a sort of it was sort inspired by a streamlining idea they wanted for sleek surfaces and sleek lines and, the technology, this was a tower that made it up.

00;40;09;11 - 00;40;14;04
Bill Devlin
It's always one. And these surfaces smooth as tile.

00;40;14;13 - 00;40;22;07
Bill Devlin
just like the wall was built for the porcelain. there was no finished exterior.

00;40;22;09 - 00;40;50;25
Bill Devlin
When you get into the international style, this is, this is a house that was, something which you feel like you can start this group in which feel included for two reasons. One is to prove, to show an example of the style, which basically a glass door in the patient imitation to speak of at all. It's the idea of profile as function grew out of the children downtown school and, very simple lines besides structure a lot of glass.

00;40;52;17 - 00;41;13;06
Bill Devlin
all those ornamental motifs they considered, backwards. And so it's very familiar to us, so wanted something great. I wanted to focus on the second reason I could just close to show you all that, you don't have to build something wholly or just because the building is in the story. This.

00;41;13;08 - 00;41;43;19
Bill Devlin
Okay, well, I'm getting a little bit too designations, and I see these, signs. the houses, I guess what I'm driving at here is, what makes a building historic? Besides, what are buildings smart? What does all this mean? We've all seen these. These have marks on houses updating them or, saying one thing or another about, what they really mean.

00;41;44;01 - 00;42;20;01
Bill Devlin
to begin with, let me give you a little background about the story of preservation of the great, great, great, great during the Colonial Revival Europe, a lot of sort of colonial oriented, organizations like the Dr. Colonial Dames, get interested in seeing old houses, local historical society followed suit. and, they often go around and one of the ways of drawing attention to people, the old houses for people was to give advice, many times some of them did actually very professional servants.

00;42;20;04 - 00;42;42;14
Bill Devlin
All of the things that really shocked. But more often the local historical society and local Da came up with dates for these houses based on what somebody said. sometimes they did some research and maybe even quite, you know, was accurate. you can't really depend on, you to kind of, this is a prestige item.

00;42;42;14 - 00;42;47;23
Bill Devlin
Or a, something basic. Interesting.

00;42;49;22 - 00;43;18;02
Bill Devlin
recently. Well, recently, preservation groups have grown up and different purposes. And that's not just to recognize the past, but to actively try to do something to help people preserve, there's a number of different towns and cities in Connecticut. their objectives are basically with public policy, the preservation to assist homeowners of various ways, right, to save specific buildings.

00;43;18;04 - 00;43;50;02
Bill Devlin
And many times they collect information, through surveys of areas, which means they get funds from the state, from government, from people in the country. More about service. Other we don't have, research houses. We really research them particular records and through, you know, knowledge architecture. And we're able to do it, we can print a form of each house that we do know that we do.

00;43;50;04 - 00;43;55;28
Bill Devlin
And we take photographs up through these slides. And these are from one of these surveys.

00;43;57;16 - 00;44;01;19
Bill Devlin
to be can an example for.

00;44;01;22 - 00;44;37;20
Bill Devlin
Yes. but this is mentioned in those examples to make one report. a couple of other things, that you should be aware of. There's also this local historic district, but in 1961, the state passed a law allowing communities to establish districts, in which this was districts in which buildings, of historic, educational, architectural value, could be preserved, through a review process.

00;44;37;23 - 00;45;07;27
Bill Devlin
The commission. Many times, these are some of our concerns also. And there's the National Register of Historic Register that's basically that was set up in 1866 by an act of Congress in which basically a list of the buildings that, considers worth preserving. originally it was set up as a means by which the federal government could avoid carrying down anything.

00;45;08;21 - 00;45;12;16
Bill Devlin
there was a historic significance.

00;45;13;06 - 00;45;22;25
Bill Devlin
today it's gotten a little bit bigger. It's now, buildings that are on the National Register or in companies. And now that's a first class.

00;45;22;27 - 00;45;28;06
Bill Devlin
Well, I want to get into a little bit about.

00;45;28;07 - 00;45;49;16
Bill Devlin
What makes a building. It's like when there was a time in our history, in our culture, that we thought that only battlefields, an important part of it was going to be was through Washington. So the fact that it wasn't closely for the state to bring that, was for many, so that we have nothing historic at all and ever.

00;45;49;19 - 00;46;15;00
Bill Devlin
Well, I'll be the definition of history and that's, that's a record of events subject to interpretation. And as you continue, it really stops. the question of, buildings. is really significance. And I think there are two ways to approach significance to architecture. What you're building is a valuable example of style.

00;46;15;24 - 00;46;18;05
Bill Devlin
there's history in history. A certain amount of,

------------------------------------

side b:

00;00;01;01 - 00;00;43;13
Bill Devlin
Our district is significant because of its quality of the visibility. You can, it has to be visible. You have to be able to make it feel like somehow in association with the building. That's what criteria are associated with that history of, state, national and local level. for example, a factory complex, a commercial district, school battlefield, you know, to make those connections pretty easy to get those kinds of, association with an individual or, significance to the history of the state is county and nation.

00;00;43;15 - 00;01;15;28
Bill Devlin
And then that's the sort of historical significance and, criteria of architectural significance, specifically, a good example of a particular style period construction method. worked with the master builder, craftsman, the architect, and they have the fourth criteria of occupancy here. But the, the see how that this criteria work in operation. so you can speed up or the esthetic.

00;01;16;01 - 00;01;41;27
Bill Devlin
Architecturally is a good example. Style is well preserved. You can you can see right off it's it's a building of its period hasn't gone off to a great extent. it's associated with William Goodspeed of great significance to extend the building. Well. And it's part of the history of gallery is important because it is it is one of its things.

00;01;41;27 - 00;02;08;16
Bill Devlin
The thing it was also probably significant because it was the last gasp of the steamboat people owner had to compete against the railroad to government. So this, this upper house was supposed to draw traffic back to the steamboat. some example of a building that has multiple significance is, only because it was either it was listed individually in the National Register.

00;02;08;18 - 00;02;36;15
Bill Devlin
It's a it's a visible link to the past. It's not a great building. Right. Actually, it's a good example of the style. Commercial architecture is from the turn of the century. It's perfectly preserved. It's got a connection to the town's history because it was not only was it a store, but it was a preschool playground. He, along with Cherry things are still connected.

00;02;36;18 - 00;02;59;04
Bill Devlin
so it's connected to the history of agriculture. Remember? those are some of the kind of things that go into deciding whether a building is right now, who does this? when you talk about the National Register of when a nomination is made in the National Register, it's reviewed first by a staff of three people up in Hartford, Connecticut.

00;02;59;08 - 00;03;38;21
Bill Devlin
Historical Commission consists of architects, architectural historians, historians, archeologists. And then if they approve it, it goes to a board, review board, who works with people from the people from these, colleges and professions who are also skilled in making recognition, history and various forms of history. So you've got sort of experts making that determination. It's important to remember to mention it, because it's example, something that is significant local history.

00;03;38;24 - 00;04;05;26
Bill Devlin
It's relative. A local history is relevant because it has to do with because you have to work with only the history of the community in Danbury. You say Hartford is by definition city and the Milford, it may not be in the military a tobacco warehouse. If you look at this episode, there must tobacco warehouse is pretty significant in Danbury.

00;04;05;28 - 00;04;35;17
Bill Devlin
And what you. So, you really have to ground historical significance in the, the history of the community, the people who are going about this, who, when you get to the local historic district level, people who make that determination are local. People recognize their expertise themselves. If their material has to be reviewed by the people at these locations, societies know.

00;04;35;20 - 00;05;00;24
Bill Devlin
we need to do a little bit to give you a definitions of what historic districts are in Connecticut, throughout the country, the two different types of historic districts. I talked about the National Register, which is going done with the financial Register. Right. That was set up in 1966. Right. the first is a list of buildings the federal government considers worthy preservation.

00;05;00;27 - 00;05;30;17
Bill Devlin
one of the things that was also set up by the act was a new body called the Advisory Council. Of this preservation. And what they do is you need federally funded or federally licensed projects that involve a National Register of Historic Property. The district, you know, that's a that's the best means of protection for historic buildings against destruction or other important redevelopment practices and that kind of thing.

00;05;30;19 - 00;06;15;09
Bill Devlin
The reason for this is in the 60s, as you probably recalls, the heyday of urban renewal, things were going through, neighborhoods were just being few that were no new highways. Redevelopment. Was a means of protecting itself. And across the state now, since 1976, when we kept producing things out on the National Register, you are eligible for tax exempt for relocation and also for grants available to northern France for unfortunately, it doesn't do much for residential property unless it got a you can't live in your house.

00;06;15;11 - 00;06;37;25
Bill Devlin
but it is a it is a really kind of prestige that it might still be today. And again, it's only 50 years old. Any of the insurance, I know people that have sought to get their buildings on National Register so they could take the same place. You somebody which your credit. so, you know, it is a factor.

00;06;37;28 - 00;07;17;09
Bill Devlin
The, district, the National Register district is really just a collection of buildings. There's not any of us need to register. They can exist not only of buildings that are a part of that contributed to this great investment, but also Minnesota since 1936 is 50 your property and, because there's no direct control over what it does with building, into the National Register, but the federal government could possibly force in order to,

00;07;17;11 - 00;07;39;23
Bill Devlin
The only kind of control when it comes into effect is if there's a family license running the property. That or the only those those taxes. Process the things that tell you about them. The employment district, which is going to probably affect everybody in one way or another. Here is the local historic district. And, this is an example of our things.

00;07;39;29 - 00;08;13;12
Bill Devlin
That's this is mainly, the local historic district, which I mentioned before. it's set up by the community, to cover areas, in which areas of significance in terms of history or architecture get to the town. in Connecticut, 75% of property owners and the state have to do that as well. because it's very it's the only state that has a 20 year period time.

00;08;13;13 - 00;08;40;15
Bill Devlin
The office revised in 1863. That, maybe the control that they had over this, the telescope is maybe unconstitutional was taking or it might be an extra ordinary. beyond that, it's only about, since that time, they're in lower court decisions at state federal level, which at the moment historic districts are continuing to exercise the communities police power and, taking.

00;08;40;18 - 00;09;14;26
Bill Devlin
And, here's a new book out, the law that is 74 to 60%. Make it look a little bit more equitable, giving for that. That's 140 initial. a condition that set up in a lot of historic district. it's not designed to, freeze the area in time. it has certain controls in terms of the one that people exterior appearance.

00;09;14;28 - 00;09;43;08
Bill Devlin
it has jurisdiction over changes to the exterior architectural features of building one of the property, like these. So all, faces the way of fixtures includes things like bridges, anything. It's visible from the street in a public way, from a place not of a waterway to the public place. it doesn't have any control over the interior of the building.

00;09;43;11 - 00;10;00;26
Bill Devlin
There is no control over the use of the building and no control over the color of paint. Often in local school districts, a form that you get somebody out there shouts out, I don't want anybody telling me I want to paint my house, but nobody ever has any.

00;10;00;28 - 00;10;26;18
Bill Devlin
Provision that allows permission to draw public paint. what the commission is charged to do is very tricky task. They have to decide. Do they change? it's proposed to the property owner. It has nothing to do with the historic and architectural aspects of the district. That's a pretty, pretty. It could be a proposition. What? People are looking for permission building.

00;10;26;21 - 00;10;57;21
Bill Devlin
frequently, they tell folks it's somebody who's got a great sense of design or knowledge of architecture. but sometimes you hear about building blocks, about things like this decision. But it's important to remember that exactly what their powers are, exactly what they trying to do, their decisions are enforceable by clients, and, they can be a killing spree report, which is usually so much trouble that most people.

00;10;57;23 - 00;11;00;27
Bill Devlin


00;11;00;29 - 00;11;25;21
Bill Devlin
One of the most important things about a local historic district is an easy. So to that, in terms of preservation, to the protection, because, they can prevent the demolition of something, the intentional demolition. And the trick, you want to get into some of these such things right now, but, and they're also established by the local community.

00;11;25;28 - 00;11;56;11
Bill Devlin
And so they're not subject to the changes. The federal provisions are, there are 77 of Connecticut and 52 towns and, over 5000 buildings. And this is one of the the western part of the state as well as concentration of those districts, within Danbury. But there are the articles which being repealed, Roxbury refurbished.

00;11;56;14 - 00;12;19;17
Bill Devlin
You know, particularly over the course of the, the president thank you very many historic districts, very. So they're a force to be reckoned with. And, you know, my I've been working with local historic districts for the last few years. And, I went to a lot of meetings, this study about these great districts and directly handbook for their use.

00;12;19;20 - 00;12;44;14
Bill Devlin
And, I went through a lot of meetings and, my vice, I think I probably also noticed finding somebody who is anybody else in the room experiences many, many meetings for is not going to be the idea that they're going to have to build something that looks like everything else, the things that they normally see whenever they do this work is going to be there.

00;12;44;14 - 00;13;16;22
Bill Devlin
It shouldn't have a negative effect. But the thing that they should really do is make sure that they meet with the commission. So before you really get into some more research, first, some commissions have handbooks and some commissions and guidelines and, they should try to consult us, find out what their obligations are, looking at commissions, thinking some commissions that strict policies, for inciting someone to go once each commission is this is different.

00;13;16;25 - 00;13;41;26
Bill Devlin
It's not really hard to test for all subject to meet the conditions that are subject to the people who are on the commission. You know, one thing that's really happened changes a lot. so the important thing is really to get in touch with the commission when it comes to thinking about, you know, the policies that I showed you earlier, the international style house, that's the district example.

00;13;41;28 - 00;14;10;18
Bill Devlin
And this is also in which we can make things, which is a subset of the country. But, they really have a pretty smart historical advisory board. this is a, a very different kind of houses designed by a local architect. Steve was asking all kinds of shapes and forms in it. it's it's great contemporary, but because of where he is, doesn't look the anything else.

00;14;10;19 - 00;14;35;04
Bill Devlin
I mean, the end of the sites we relies heavily surrounded by trees that house many things. You know, it's not it's the nearest neighbors or that international style house we saw earlier that the place that, you know. So the farm bill, if you want to build this up next to one of the great mansions that represents that trouble.

00;14;35;07 - 00;14;40;11
Bill Devlin
But there's a lot of factors into making decisions about commissioners and, you know, it's just important.

00;14;40;11 - 00;14;41;15
Lou Zurlo
To.

00;14;41;17 - 00;14;53;26
Bill Devlin
Do some homework. You don't need to think about the subject. that's all I see in the final presentation. If anybody has any questions.

00;14;53;29 - 00;15;02;08
Unknown
But.

00;15;02;11 - 00;15;05;09
Unknown
Is a still to.

00;15;05;11 - 00;15;28;14
Bill Devlin
File that. Let me bring to your attention. If there are any opponents of a sheet with various files of architectural. if you want to get more into think this is just kind of basic styles, more if you have dense details, you'll notice that this is a nice little reason. Use. I'm not getting permission for the subject.

00;15;28;16 - 00;15;39;04
Lou Zurlo
Thank you very much.

00;15;39;07 - 00;15;54;17
Speaker 4
And it's because you also have a local architect in here. So he's going to talk about, the design for the building as an architect point of view, who's got a lot of capacity for design work and restoration on Main Street in the.

00;15;54;18 - 00;16;18;15
Lou Zurlo
In the building. Thank you. Thank you. Set up for today. Okay. He's starting to present this whole. I think I believe that I'm very sensitive.

00;16;18;17 - 00;17;22;03
Speaker 4
You don't need to take into.

00;17;22;05 - 00;17;40;12
Lou Zurlo
perspective that I'm gonna try to give you some quite a bit different than what Bill was. Was trying to instill on you. I think, my perspective is going to be more from the point of view of an architect, and we're typical situation.

00;17;40;12 - 00;17;40;22
Bill Devlin
Is.

00;17;40;22 - 00;18;19;10
Lou Zurlo
An implant company. And this is the problem. So I look at this building that, again, is as a problem. And, and what's the solution for this? Today I'm going to show you primarily what you believe. But, residential and commercial. But I approach every building really the same way of any contemporary building in. I try to, you know, really repeatedly, I try to observe, features like, still remain, even if they're covered up to make a guess what might be there to try to restore what I feel.

00;18;19;12 - 00;18;40;08
Lou Zurlo
once you get to features of the building and details and then when I try to solve the problems with the plan, which is the original space, I try to respect, the older building and with the new details, I try to relate to them as best I can. So,

00;18;40;10 - 00;18;43;06
Unknown
See?

00;18;43;09 - 00;18;55;12
Unknown
This is.

00;18;55;14 - 00;19;08;02
Unknown
From the.

00;19;08;04 - 00;19;40;24
Lou Zurlo
Okay. they start with very simple buildings. This was a, colonial house, and my guess would be would be built around 1800. You know, these small gray stone wall foundations. but these are the basement. Don't work. as you can see, we on the left hand corner, we started to put the addition on the top. Heating on the house from here was to add a many more bedroom to do entryway and a, laundry room.

00;19;40;27 - 00;20;04;14
Lou Zurlo
what I wanted not to do was to disturb the proportions of the existing house. I tried to, set back the additions from the existing house in such a way that the quality of the existing house would remain. And here is the basic result. it's often a difficult problem, but nonetheless, people have needs to be resolved.

00;20;04;14 - 00;20;06;16
Lou Zurlo
They need more space and more children.

00;20;06;18 - 00;20;09;08
Bill Devlin
Are, and so,

00;20;09;10 - 00;20;33;01
Lou Zurlo
It can be done. And, and this is an example of a very simple one on the back of the house look like this. We also have the added on deck. and then within the fireplace on the inside, the fixing exposed beams like the existing house had. And we know we can move very quickly.

00;20;33;04 - 00;20;58;14
Lou Zurlo
this is a building up on North Street that can be very minor here in town. If you want me to do what we want, we obviously. Well, it was obvious to me that, first of all, the. It wasn't the original siding. That's this, shingle siding and the main window. I suspected that there might be panels underneath those, especially the shingles on the entryway.

00;20;58;16 - 00;21;18;17
Lou Zurlo
I assume that at one time you must be a porch there. And the, And the doorway started colonial and need to go with this house with flooring. So we had to just make a lot of guesses and start. So the first thing we did was we pulled off, and the first thing you want to do is to change in the way in which you.

00;21;18;19 - 00;21;19;11
Bill Devlin
Would see the heat.

00;21;19;11 - 00;21;44;03
Lou Zurlo
Period. People keep adding layers and layers of things. I can't understand that because you need a destroying the beauty to make your house. So the more we pulled off, in my opinion, the better in this house beginning. Okay, why did we clean it up? And we put in the windows the painted panels and just, you know, this, we can probably the, on the other side is the same story.

00;21;44;03 - 00;21;45;01
Bill Devlin
And is the.

00;21;45;04 - 00;22;11;10
Lou Zurlo
Bay window decided to change the color panels underneath without any need to even do too much work on just a be guaranteed. the entry way was totally wrong with the building. we started putting on again just, I guess what might have been, I don't know what was there. I really, in most cases, do not have the time.

00;22;11;12 - 00;22;35;15
Lou Zurlo
No one is willing to take the time to learn and research the building totally and try to find a solution where it's something I would like to do that most of the time I use my imagination to try to just compliment the house as I think it could be. We knew it was going to result. We never did get very to take the next shingles off for a week.

00;22;35;18 - 00;22;59;23
Lou Zurlo
We painted it and cleaned it up in such a way that I think it's going to be painted. Now, the interior of this house was again totally destroyed. This family I personally can't stand greatly. Some people like it being threatened with my ridiculous, but as we just looking back at the favorite places, we found some remaining detail under the window.

00;22;59;25 - 00;23;28;25
Lou Zurlo
It was you. And, I where Denise Barry was willing to. Not the whole interior full on the classroom. And she pulled everything out because of my insulation. There were very few features left except these panels on the window seat. there was the existing entryway and for half a year, we we actually made up, new doors again to make to make them up.

00;23;28;25 - 00;23;53;15
Lou Zurlo
Because we couldn't find anything we really liked. And one, again, something that we felt might have been, here's the same interior that you saw five minutes ago. We just put up new walls on the ceiling and used a very simple trick, which is, a pure rail and, just a thicker molding. And you see the sheer amount.

00;23;53;15 - 00;24;20;25
Lou Zurlo
And if you move to a different color, you want to give the effect the hue. It really wasn't that difficult to do with the character of the room to change the thickness. As you mentioned, this was the exception area on the opposite end of the stick Mary's desk, which was on even though we had this complex moving light, the candle use period furniture and we selected everything with a great need to update the furniture.

00;24;20;25 - 00;24;27;24
Lou Zurlo
And I think you think you could place.

00;24;27;27 - 00;24;57;00
Lou Zurlo
sometimes you are truly surprised by what you find even in the neighborhood. this is a house with no surprises. What about ten years ago? You got it for a very good price. No, I, it had some beautiful features on the exterior. Almost. Even today, it still wasn't independent to take on the exterior brown color. But when I went into this room where you see the front door, I couldn't believe what I saw.

00;24;57;02 - 00;25;29;00
Lou Zurlo
Because the ceilings were probably ceilings. wood paneling and layers. I couldn't photograph the room properly because, I mean, I had to photograph it. Place, that's all. Stained glass windows in there. Even first thing last week is in that room. Now, you see, straight ahead. there's looking into the rooms. Are the floorboards in turn. I mean, just to reproduce this one room with plus twice as much as they take from the house.

00;25;29;03 - 00;25;59;19
Lou Zurlo
And it all was during that evening. And this was about an empty house. these are hard to find now, but ten years ago, an engraving on this is probably the best thing I've ever seen. And then, yeah, it was. My place. Everything intact. You can see in the in the walls. And even cast bronze plaques. Pathway to the left, to the fireplace to find these were all around the room.

00;25;59;22 - 00;26;29;23
Lou Zurlo
So this became an efficiency apartment. Believe it or not, we didn't do anything to this space for too long. We just had a kitchen all the back of it and it's still intact today. But this is an example where you come into a building and, you have to do practically nothing to clean it up. this is a house that I bought for myself, and we probably rarely, and it had a lot of the sins that I see around town, like home.

00;26;29;23 - 00;26;51;06
Lou Zurlo
But there's an old joke about what's the difference between an architect and a doctor. And the answer is a doctor varies in the state. An architect makes three. Well, this was very offensive to me right off, though, because there was no mistake here. The mistake was that they planted trees and they didn't have. The first thing I did was take down the trees.

00;26;51;06 - 00;27;17;02
Lou Zurlo
If you start to see the house, I put on a new, took down the finials, the roof on the tower and clean them up. They them put them back up on the roof, started making the house. This is not the home. You understand that there is the same house. Removing the trees, cleaning and cleaning on the exterior, on the on the inside.

00;27;17;02 - 00;27;39;00
Lou Zurlo
And this is something you should all be looking for. You know, obvious thing their home is to me. I don't know how they happened, but just for instance, this fireplace was there and hundreds of coats of paint them, right? I started stripping the paint off and I got to put new floors in there, one apart, and stripping it down.

00;27;39;02 - 00;28;05;06
Lou Zurlo
And finally I found that underneath there was a slate fireplace, supposedly, it had, a design pattern in the been lines which you couldn't see. It was painted. I quit, and so it just got some gold leaf to fit into those joints by hand to emphasize the detail. And that's what it was there all the time. What then for $9, a tag sale?

00;28;05;08 - 00;28;33;18
Lou Zurlo
And, there was, you know, must be very neat to do that. A lot of the, that was the bedroom again, paneling or black walls that the light fixtures broken and, here, a big opening. It didn't filled in with the wall regular. There was an infrared. here we started and a friend of mine was in the street.

00;28;33;20 - 00;28;59;25
Lou Zurlo
Take all. Can, sit down with the basic wall. We covered that. He did that stained glass window and was all covered up high and dirty old, blind, and slid down. I didn't even know it was there. A beautiful window? Well, today I'm still working on the walls, but you can see it. Little better now is the dining room area of the fact that you didn't know the floor was going to be destroyed when the,

00;28;59;28 - 00;29;28;01
Lou Zurlo
There it is today. to the left, I got that piece of, inside work of the lady. Healthy walking, not interfere. It's very long in the house, but as you can see, I really like contemporary furniture. And I find that it seems very modern. Old home with its like the terribly, personality had some of it. So I had I have built a lot of holes for myself on The lady on the wall.

00;29;28;03 - 00;29;55;14
Lou Zurlo
When I do feel that you can use within the area, that you're very nice to people who, know already the impact of my Music Guild building here. But this is the way the music is left on Main Street. some of you newcomers, may not remember. Some of Main Street was, like, in 5 to 10 years ago, but there was the music on the lower level.

00;29;55;16 - 00;30;23;19
Lou Zurlo
The upper level was pretty much intact. The lower level, was totally wrong because we were, you know, squashed down. You can see on the right when you get walking, riding with a motor and uncovered, during the ride with some of the brickwork and I talked him into continuing and I could see underneath there, there probably was a storefront underneath that about the 89th floor.

00;30;23;22 - 00;30;51;06
Lou Zurlo
This is how you do the version of the building. Now, the owner did this, picking up the brick on the door himself. He which sounds like an easy task. It's not always so easy unless you are familiar with the property was with me. I wanted the money to get the right solution. So at some point along the line, we finally got into our professional contract with, the midfield, the scaffold, the whole building.

00;30;51;08 - 00;31;19;21
Lou Zurlo
Cleaned it up here. You see, the results now of what I think is one of the most curious example examples of the preservation. I mean, it's very new to this building except to clean it hand and we did add new make the door. The only thing we were really only missing everything else was there making, cleaning, scraping and painting and all mobility issues.

00;31;19;24 - 00;31;22;19
Lou Zurlo
Other.

00;31;22;21 - 00;31;53;27
Lou Zurlo
And the signs are also a pet peeve of mine, where you tend to the stage when you can see the one on the left. The you know, I think the fountain is but signs and so are we going to show you now this showing differences. If you look closely you get down there not as a disappointment because it is all these little things that have to make you a certain ambiance on Main Street, which most recently owners down here still have not facing up to even this owner.

00;31;53;29 - 00;32;20;26
Lou Zurlo
Even though the building is fully restored, is showing you now what it should be, and you need lighting and a little bit of, even briefly and proper arrangement. when you are right there at street level, looking into the killing of this merchandise would look like, you know, field, the same kind of problem with, with, you know, the church building on the lower level totally destroyed.

00;32;20;27 - 00;32;47;27
Lou Zurlo
And I think, you know, we went to 20, 20, put up a front nine, a building where you can see the upper level, the proportions, that whole thing down the lower was down again. we've got the owner again. the owner who was very, very cooperative and wanted to do everything that he was necessary to bring him in, that he wanted.

00;32;47;27 - 00;33;18;18
Lou Zurlo
It might have been one time, he started by paying the rent, with up the start time and again, we didn't know exactly what the deal would look like. Literally, the storm had been destroyed, and we started using our imagination again. And you bring it back to something like what it might have been doing? Yeah. Yeah, it's it's not quite, you know, there's.

00;33;18;20 - 00;33;45;15
Lou Zurlo
again, you see me in 1980 and here's, here's this case where the owner went inside. So you did a lot of work, including any staircase which forms the middle ceilings and painted them the 20th, 2022. It's really a very successful building. I think one of the most successful. And Phil Neville is pointing out the windows on the upper levels are probably incorrect.

00;33;45;22 - 00;34;15;00
Lou Zurlo
Know they were by that period. You probably were using two over 2 or 1 over one. But, the he really couldn't face up to get to new windows in the next door. 1931. This was one of the first renovations we did, I think it's not enterprising. Again, the building was totally empty except for pigeons and, a few, ones up there.

00;34;15;04 - 00;34;37;04
Lou Zurlo
we we had trouble getting out, but, and you can see the windows here and on the front. This is great, but, we cleaned it and put it in windows just before and after we quickly was looking up at what it was before we cleaned the brick. Before we think the window has reached those points. The filters drive.

00;34;37;06 - 00;34;51;06
Lou Zurlo
our beloved, in this particular case, on galvanized steel, maybe even the. We have the top, the corners and the brackets on have a galvanized steel. So they are well preserved and they will mess around with that. And somebody.

00;34;51;08 - 00;34;52;05
Bill Devlin
That just.

00;34;52;07 - 00;35;10;07
Lou Zurlo
Keeps hanging. here, you see, after we painted that, we think that the brick the same the paint we, the doorway, this was the only way we can had a door made up.

00;35;10;09 - 00;35;36;19
Lou Zurlo
There was a side with all the broken windows. I mean, the lower brick was created on the side of pencil and came in with the furnace. And then, by the way. Now, this is a house on White Street that the owner wanted to add. office space in, in the back. In addition, this is the first building I believe went to Sunday.

00;35;36;19 - 00;36;10;09
Lou Zurlo
We'll have to maybe to discuss this a little. The first building in January to receive the local tax, city tax abatement. we put an addition on the back, try to use elements similar to what they were one, and we believe that disappointed the owner here because he didn't already make an extensive. There were some very nice shingle work in siding here that would have been restored, but he elected to use an Indian sign that.

00;36;10;12 - 00;36;36;08
Lou Zurlo
And, I'm sure Roger took on those. well, we don't always take your advice. That's another problem. here, for instance, where Benedict now is, before I. So the guy tried to get it to take this rifle TV screen off the top and expose the windows up there and to get the building scale. If we can't believe that we, cleaned up the gray matter, Mac.

00;36;36;08 - 00;36;53;11
Lou Zurlo
That he said that he was going to do that. And I think in time, even with the sun, I would have to take that screen off. this is what the side of Benedict looked like. We were involved with this building with 24 family homes here. but, you know, it's not.

00;36;53;11 - 00;36;54;10
Bill Devlin
A good.

00;36;54;13 - 00;37;08;21
Lou Zurlo
Thing to when the windows and then, we, the owners of the building, rented the space, leased the space to go down the road between the restaurant.

00;37;08;24 - 00;37;29;11
Lou Zurlo
And then next, I talked to the owners at length about getting a doorway inside here, because I my guess was that this was the original entrance to the Greenwood Hotel. Or at least the sign in. Because of what I saw at the top of the building, the of physical boarded. Well, fortunately they didn't take my advice and insight entry there.

00;37;29;11 - 00;37;50;02
Lou Zurlo
And one of the interesting things is and walking to bedrooms on the side, the stairs, if you look down before you wanted to go away, you see really white tile on the floor and one inch square you. So we pulled up the old flooring. you covered the entryway. We found metal tiling and that was the entrance exit from the building.

00;37;50;02 - 00;37;58;18
Lou Zurlo
And that is the original tile is very handsome. He is advanced that.

00;37;58;21 - 00;38;38;13
Lou Zurlo
one of my pet projects and memories been the whole building, if you remember, in main, which I've walking attention wherever it seems. way back when the signed the Michael Signer got a little bit more on the building. I started talking him about cleaning up the building. I was fascinated by the building because I've been editing and, within walking feet inside these floors, we found, apparently, when this building burned down in 1907, the owner was determined that it would never burn down again.

00;38;38;16 - 00;39;00;12
Lou Zurlo
And, believe he built the first reinforced concrete block that we building on Main Street in Denver. As a matter of fact, it may not be in modern materials. This is probably the first one. you can see the side of it is a total disaster because there wasn't fire in the building next to the Jason Kenney building.

00;39;00;15 - 00;39;30;10
Lou Zurlo
And after the fire, they started building down the fort. You may not have heard this is what is the result of that? the redevelopment agency was anxious to tear this building down because they felt it wasn't. Well, I thought I might for quite a while because because of the construction of the building and because of the size of the building and the words, if they did tear this building down, they would only be left with the side of the building, which is a lot smaller building and a much less distinguished building.

00;39;30;12 - 00;39;56;21
Lou Zurlo
So they finally, wanted, over the years, first of all, I started by again, just looking at the little things. I had talked to the Salvation Army. And by the way, this kind of work, I don't know why you do it. I don't think I can do it anymore. I'm running out of energy. It doesn't take financially, but, you know, I knew that first thing I'm going to do is get these signs off, get the brick exposed, see what's under there.

00;39;56;27 - 00;40;16;19
Lou Zurlo
And we, as you can see on the right, on the left. Now, we see right down there before we had a problem with the lead. And, we've going to put up a very simple sign. It's not a very expensive kind of fancy, but it's much better than what it was. And architecturally it did. The first thing I wanted to do with that is to get the big piers exposed.

00;40;16;21 - 00;40;31;21
Lou Zurlo
Now, if you notice on the on the left hand corner, the bottom of the brick here has been busted off because they nailed it. the aluminum strips underneath the surface, all the features have been destroyed. We had to repair them.

00;40;31;21 - 00;40;32;13
Bill Devlin
Because he has.

00;40;32;13 - 00;40;54;23
Lou Zurlo
No crown jewels. Next door also had a sign in the offensive, and some of the brick was on, was covered up. And we did also get him to cover the brick. And now we had all the piers installed and he put up a better sign in, and we had the first two stories. at least the brick one was exposed.

00;40;54;23 - 00;41;17;02
Lou Zurlo
And I did think about what's going on with the rest of the building. You can see Zonas restaurant to the right with magnetic lines. Just, a few years ago, unfortunately, he claimed to believe that the better sign. But you know, these signs are very important to me. We want to make it. They can be done with care, and we would rather they sell them.

00;41;17;04 - 00;41;36;19
Lou Zurlo
And then and then the other thing is, you know, maintaining and maintenance is a very, very important thing. Move. Now at the top of the column, looking up, you can see the top of that brick column there. When we got up there, we found that there was some sort of wood jammed in there. Something was wrong. We didn't know quite.

00;41;36;19 - 00;41;58;09
Lou Zurlo
What do we got up there when we pulled the wood up, what we found was that column capital that you see there in Rockland County. Ronnie Steel, capital. And there's three those brackets on the top of each brick home. Again, I had never seen anything like it, in Danbury. And in fact, I haven't seen it.

00;41;58;09 - 00;42;23;11
Lou Zurlo
No capital like that. Any place in all my town. So, they were quite unique. And then. So they only had to come. Now the equipment has been cleaned. you can see now the articulation on the column capital from the sides is all the brackets. You walk down the look up, you notice the little bit there, and then and, now you can see we're working now to the left.

00;42;23;11 - 00;42;56;17
Lou Zurlo
And the third or the third side, on the building, which if there's terracotta, if you see that, information material to the right of the brick, that's terracotta. Your column is fully missing to the left, unfortunately, again, you know, broken out by somebody haphazardly, nailing it with strips and with the woman in mind that the committed suicide attempt, you know, so as we peel it off, we find, some destruction.

00;42;56;17 - 00;43;22;00
Lou Zurlo
Now we just. As a matter of fact, we rather than trying to get dark matter, which is quite a difficult, material to you, it's not difficult to place in there if you have enough of it or enough. And we just did it with, with wood. here, you see, we're repairing the broken out from Macy's, which was destroyed by, the system nearly.

00;43;22;01 - 00;43;47;12
Lou Zurlo
We get the wood lighting and all the time you put one of the problems we had, it was getting around the corner. The corners are also the problem. The architects have always, faced with you hear things. I know I worked with Harold Samuels, a famous architect. He always said that he could tell the difference between architects, between the men and the boys behind it, how they go around the corner.

00;43;47;14 - 00;44;19;26
Lou Zurlo
Well, anyway, here we had the problem of a new bridge coming along the side, and we didn't want to destroy the existing community because you have to the side just to make the transition to get a new brick on the site. next, the condition of the site start. Well, one of the things we wanted to do now that anybody get their families that might be into the site of the building, it was a huge building, almost 10,000ft² more, with no windows on the side.

00;44;20;00 - 00;44;21;03
Bill Devlin
So you can.

00;44;21;03 - 00;44;59;11
Lou Zurlo
See here in the concrete walls. you see that pattern of the window we had to get, diamond size, which we like to put a dam to work through in time. a up to these, these walls. we can get into the concrete, plus 12in of, brick. That building from the, any building that went down to the 29 to 20, 24in of masonry, each slightly cost, like the $10,000 just to the something it clamped on the wall and cut these these openings.

00;44;59;13 - 00;45;24;21
Lou Zurlo
here, you see, after the company then had to figure out how to get them out. And this be a nerve racking it out that they tied a, back wall to the one of the windows with and bolted through the the masonry and pull them out, and it came crashing down on the ground. And here you can see that the concrete and that the Indians cut off the window.

00;45;24;23 - 00;45;47;18
Lou Zurlo
Here you can see now we're starting to get, openings on the side of the building. All of a sudden, it was a totally different perspective inside of this building. And walk in there, we will start building. But as soon as we pull those windows out, perspective finally came here. You can see now we're we did that new brick on the side of the windows.

00;45;47;18 - 00;46;16;25
Lou Zurlo
We had completed the first stage of the mandates for the building. but as you can see, we left, large, square rectangle. We did not with no break because the redevelopment agency, had been working with us and they wanted us to build a three story addition to, on the side of the building, trying to piece of land left over after they took the Liberty.

00;46;16;28 - 00;46;20;06
Lou Zurlo
Now there, the one who saw.