At yesterday's meeting, several of the commissioners expressed concern about the proposed size of the addition and the proposed materials, including a stucco wall surface and a slate roof with six gables.
The original house has two gables, panel member Michael Murphy said to architect Walter Schamu. "The structure that you have has six gables. It just looks complex to me. I just have a feeling that Fowler would have designed it in a simpler manner."
Schamu said he is trying to work "in the spirit of and in the character of" the original building, rather than create a conspicuously modern, flat-roofed addition. He said he will take the panel's comments into consideration as he continues to make revisions.
"This is not an easy building to add on to," he said. "I thought if we were Laurence Hall Fowler, how would he do this?"
Dr. James Harris, a Johns Hopkins professor who lived in the house for 27 years with his wife, Cathy DeAngelis, before they sold it to Calvert School in 2005, said they would prefer to see the building have a "residential element" rather than be used solely for classrooms and offices.
But if conversion for academic use will prevent it from standing vacant and get young people on the property again, he said, that's what they want. He said he thought the architect has been sensitive to the building.
"My wife and I always wanted children on the property, and this is a way to get them there," Harris said. "We would hope that the history of the house would be respected."
ed.gunts@baltsun.com
