Gregory Stiverson, past president of the nonprofit Historic Annapolis Foundation, said 21st-century issues such as energy consumption might color the way these issues are debated. For example, Stiverson said, historic single-pane glass windows are not energy-efficient, and more modern wooden windows could be a "very good substitution."
"Annapolis has a very conservative approach," Stiverson said. "We want authentic, original, real [and] genuine materials to be used as much as possible in our Historic District. ... We are going to need to look at this very carefully."
Wayne L. Good, an Annapolis architect, said: "I don't totally agree with the argument that plastic is less maintenance than wood either. It's true that if you go out and buy a $200 column from Home Depot that's finger-jointed, fast-growth pine and it's not properly ventilated, ... it will rot out. But you can go out and get a thousand-dollar wood column that will last as long as any plastic column."
