10.10 - 4901 Ridge Oak Dr - Owner's Statement — original pdf

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Dear Historical Review Committee, My husband Reagan and I own the home in question so we appreciate the volunteered time and expertise that has gone into the review of the property. We have presented to the Architectural/Historical Review Board in another community and it was a much different experience so we can appreciate and revere the process for Austin and those that are active participants in it. That being said, I am no architectural expert, I am a family medicine doctor and like most docs when we are trying to understand or face an issue what we know how to do is research it so that is what I have done here. Thank you in advance for reading this packet as truly this decision in regard to 4901 affects no one more than my husband and myself. In the packet provided by your staff it mentions this house is thought to be designed by Barton Riley. He graduated from UT in 1950 and initially worked for several large firms before joining Emil Niggli and later going on his own in 1963. This home would have been in the works and built when he was basically fresh out of school and working for someone else. I would question his specific stamp on the design. I searched for Barton Riley online and there is a website which features his works and even has homes listed for sale. Mentioned specifically on the website with available pictures were 4515 Balcones, 4610 Crestway, and 5405 Western Hills. See thumbnail photos below – these homes exhibit exposed beams, unique fireplaces, floor to ceiling windows, asymmetry, short choppy staircases, beautiful wood paneling, exposed natural stone walls. In short, they are well kept, subjectively attractive, inhabitable, nearby in location and what I would say classify as excellent examples of MCM.    As above, I am no expert, so what constitutes midcentury modern design? According to Architectural Digest: clean lines, floor to ceiling windows, open floor plans, indoor-outdoor living, built-ins, functionality. According to Wikipedia: wide homes with partially brick/glass walls, low footprint with floor to ceiling windows, exposed ceilings and beams, open floor plans, ergonomically designed furniture, short staircases connecting rooms throughout the house. Ironically our home in Corpus Christi is a 1970 Midcentury Modern home so we have no negative bias against the design in whole, I would just contend that 4901 Ridge Oak is not an ‘excellent example’ as remains a criteria for landmark designation. 4901 is low lying. It is a long and low home with limited windows. The windows that exist are similar to ones we had in an old 1940’s ranch style home. Steel structure which have rust and do not open appropriately and would not pass current code so would necessitate replacement. The only floor to ceiling windows are the sliding doors that lead from the den to the deck and these do not function. In December, I came to the home and the back slider was ajar and there were signs that someone had been in the home. The heater was full blast and lights were on. I was unable to slide the door more open or fully closed using all my force. There was no obvious barrier in the tract and I am unsure if the issue was rust or a bend in the frame or what but it left the house unsecured and frankly it was disconcerting to be there solo with these findings. The home on 4901 has a chopped floor plan with inadequate number of bedrooms for our needs with our family size. Definitely not an open plan. It has a low ceiling line with no features such as exposed beams or roof line windows for visual appeal. It is a low flat ceiling topped with a leaking flat roof and certain areas you can see daylight through the ceiling. The staffers packet mentions white stone – it is sandstone with lead paint. We had several consultants give us ideal methods of removal of lead paint for the purposes of this committee and they stated the most effective way would be sandblasting which would compromise the sandstone and would necessitate replacement. The flooring materials, the cabinets, the doors and windows – none of which are of any high-end material or hold any visual appeal. I argue that the home was a starter home for the young family it was built for and it was made with builder grade materials. It has had no repair permits pulled since 1998 according to my online records search so it has not been adequately maintained. I welcome each of you who have additional questions on any of these findings of our consultants to come over and see the home in person – I have included a few photos at the end of the note. I would be happy to meet anyone there in the daylight to walk around. And especially before the 4/2 meeting. Moving on to the second criteria which we flagged on, the historical association. The property appears to have been built for former City Council member Edgar Perry III. Mr Perry and his first wife lived there for a few years early in their marriage. It was not their first home. According to their wedding announcement their first residence was 4005 Maplewood Ave. Google street view of that property shows it also looking abandoned and unkept. Mr Perry III was a City Councilmen from 1959-1962. I searched Austin City history and Austin has had aldermen since 1840. Initially there were 8 councilmen and a mayor and later the yearly count was 10 aldermen plus a mayor. Over the history of Austin, that would give us a LOT of council persons homes we need to get very busy evaluating for designation. It is a slippery slope if we start looking at politicians, athletes, professors, social media influencers, people of different levels of fame – what is the marker of relevance? What threshold must be met and how far does that carry down into a lineage? The Perry family is obviously well known. They are wealthy, charitable citizens but much of the significance comes from his grandfather which has already been stated and multiple properties around town are historically designated for his grandfather. The significance of the starter home of Mr Perry III and his first wife seems like a stretch. Ironically when I was searching Mr Perry III and his city council issues he faced during his term, I found that he was a lone dissenting vote over a zoning change issue. I wonder what he would think of this designation change? On Wikipedia they have a list of notable past Austin City Councilmen and Mr Perry III did not make that list. After reading his news articles and his obituary he seemed like a wonderful Christian man and entrepreneur and I am sure he was great but his entanglement with this home was small so where do we set the bar for historical significance to start designating a slew of home? The longest resident of the home Mr Roy Olsen lived in the home from 1971-2020 and described the home to a neighbor as like “living in a dormitory”. Sadly he has passed away so we are unable to confirm with him or seek his opinion. There are images from the MLS listing in the packet initially presented by your staff. The staff member states that the home has ‘optimal downtown views’. The MLS photo that shows a full downtown view was taken from the roof of the home. We have had drone studies done to show the view from different elevations and from the structure as it stands there is no downtown view. As previously mentioned by Mr. McHone our property value is listed as land value $1.218m and House value $182k. The MLS listed the home as a ‘what could be’ listing. Most of the photos on the listing were of a rendering done by the seller and not of the home itself. The 3 indoor photos were from years back and do not reflect the current state of the inside of the home. And I want to dispel any concern that those rendering photos are what we plan to put on this lot. I took note of the voiced concerns from neighbors at the last meeting and from their notes and their comments were: that we would split the lot and put more than one home, multiple comments of concern over us removing trees, concern about the driveway and potential traffic flow changes, site lines and that they just basically ‘like’ the current structure. The home has been abandoned for four years. It was for sale for some time before we purchased and anyone in the neighborhood had equal opportunity to purchase it and redo to their liking. The owners before us also planned to tear the house down and just found a lot they liked more. I want to be a good neighbor. Thus far our intro to the neighborhood has not been warm. As I type this note, I hear mutterings from the neighborhood app of vigilante neighbors wanting to come protest our building plans. This all is very depressing and anxiety provoking. I want an attractive, safe and functional home. I would never rally support to dictate what my neighbors could legally do to their home. We have no desire to split the lot or tear down the trees or kill bluebonnets or add new driveways or do anything suggested in those notes. But to be frank, none of those concerns have any bearing on this committee. The long and short of it is that 4901 Ridge Oak is not a special or excellent example of midcentury modern design and the past residents of the home, while wonderful people, do not necessitate a historical designation. This all honestly just continues to add time, financial impedance and unnecessary constraint to our plans which are very thoughtful and beautiful. We have hired an Austin architect, local builder, local designer and created a plan for a home that meets the needs of our family and basically stays in same foundational footprint but captures the view and improves the flow of the property. Even if it was financially feasible, I would not care to spend any amount of money to redo the home which currently sits on the property. And any thought of redoing that property would simply be a reproduction of the original home and that in and of itself would not be historically relevant. So I beg you, at this April meeting please make your decision and allow this project to move forward by allowing us to tear down the current structure at 4901 Ridge Oak Drive. Thank you for your time and consideration. Most sincerely, Mary Margaret Ara, MD, FAAFP, DABOM Please see below for some current photos and proposed new build rendering. Again, it has no relevance but hopefully will be aesthetically appealing to our neighbors who might calm down upon seeing. Thank you.   Trying to see glimpse of view from different elevation Proposed new build Thank you for your time.