Wednesday, December 14, 2005

SPANISH OAKS DESIGN GUIDELINES #3

More random notes from the design guidelines:

"To design buildings that seem to "grow out" of the site by responding to the climate, landforms, and native landscape."

"To create buildings that have a strong indoor/outdoor relationship."

General guide (heated and air conditioned footage)
Less than .50 acres: 4000 sf
.50 to .75: 5000 sf
.75 to 1 acre: 5500 sf
1 to 1.5 acres: 7000 sf
1.5 to 2 acres and up: case by case

I find that interesting, as our 4200 sf home sits on 1.5 acres. To imagine it 75% bigger just seems huge.

More guidelines:
Max building height (two story): 35 feet from natural grade to highest point on roof

Basic roof lines should not extend more than 5 feet beyond the tree canopy on lots with major trees (8 inch diameter base or more) Feature elements (towers) may exceed height restrictions with written approval of DRC.

One story home height limit: 24 feet

White limestone or very light stone as predominant stone for exterior walls prohibited.

Gutters and downspouts must be made of copper or lead coated copper.

No oversized or two story entries such as triumphant arches or enormous front door assemblies are allowed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is total misinformation. A typical "building Envelope" is 10,000/SF to 15,000/SF. An acre lot is 43,560/SF. The only "site clearing" or construction can be done within the building envelope which represents usually LESS than one third of any site. "Lot line to lot line" and "big boxes" is total hyperbole and misinformation. I suggest that before you make a comment on something you should be armed with the smallest bit of factual information.

Bob Wood said...

Ah, flame to warm us all on cool days!

I present the guidelines as clearly as possible. As in many things, INTERPRETATION is key. I can point to at least one home which looks like they darn near cleared the whole lot, but that was then and this is apparently now.

I can also point to several homes that - to me - beautifully meld the home and developed area with the natural look of the rest of their site.