07.0 - 212 W 33rd St — original pdf

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HISTORIC LANDMARK COMMISSION Application for a Certificate of Appropriateness November 5, 2025 HR-2025-131488; C14H-1996-0001 Simms House 212 West 33rd Street 7 – 1 Proposal Repair and rehabilitate a guesthouse at a City of Austin landmark. Project Specifications 1) Manufacture and install new entry doors at existing openings, as well as replacing existing nonhistoric garage doors. 2) Install three custom windows in an existing opening, to match the historic appearance. 3) Repair existing historic winsdows and patch/repair masonry where necessary. Architecture The guesthouse of the Simms House is located to the north of the main house, at the rear of the property. Like the main house, it is built in the Tudor Revival style and is clad on all sides by brick, with the exception of second floor gable ends, which are finished with wood board and batten emblematic to the style. The roof pitch is steep to accommodate a second floor, with numerous dormer windows appearing on the front and rear elevations. The property was listed as an Austin landmark in 1996, and both buildings on the site also contribute to the Aldridge Place local historic district. Design Standards The City of Austin’s Historic Design Standards (March 2021) are based on the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and are used to evaluate projects at historic landmarks. The following standards apply to the proposed project: Repair and alterations 1. General standards The majority of the work proposed in this application is to repair, rather than replace. Where replacement is being proposed, it is in locations where original or historic material is no longer present, such as the garage door. 4. Exterior walls and trim General cleaning and repair is proposed at exterior masonry. The equipment yard is to be more visually well defined and closed off, with the installation of a 4 foot tall screening fence at the east elevation, which does not face a street or right-of-way. This may slightly obscure one window of the ground floor, but this is not a main elevation and can be considered the least visible area of the guesthouse. 5. Windows, doors, and screens Most existing windows are proposed to be repaired where needed. At the south elevation, one prominent opening is proposed to receive replacement double-hung mulled windows, in place of a nonhistoric fixture. Materials are to match the other existing window frames on the guesthouse. On the same elevation, the front entry door is to be replaced in the same way, with a historically appropriate design. Finally, the two garage bays, which face the center of the property and once served as automobile storage (now impossible due to the pool addition directly in front), are to be replaced with fixtures that read as garage doors. All these interventions appear deferential to the whole of the guesthouse and are a good fit with the property’s period of significance. Staff Recommendation Approve the Certificate of Appropriateness. Location Map 7 – 2 Property Information Photos 7 – 3 Application, 2025. View of south elevation. Note the ground floor windows at far left, two garage door bays, and doorway at the same wall, all to be replaced with historically appropriate fixtures.