Bay Area Historical Renovations

In the field of historic preservation, building restoration can refer to the action or process of accurately revealing, recovering or representing the state of a historic building, as it appeared at a particular period in its history, while protecting its heritage value. Work is often performed to reverse decay, or alterations made to the building after its initial construction. A part of heritage restoration can involve the replacement of outdated heating and cooling systems with newer ones, or the installation of climate controls that never existed at the time of building. Physical materials of an earlier time, that might have been state of the art at the time of construction, might have failed and now need replacement with contemporary better functioning, but aesthetically similar materials.

At Michael Meyer Fine Woodworking we have completed several historical renovations over the years. Michael has been living and building on the Peninsula for the last 25 years. Some notable projects among the hundreds of remodels and woodworking pieces he has completed include the renovation of Frank Lloyd Wright's Hanna Honeycomb house at Stanford and the construction of the Voussier Arch Bridge on display at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Another notable renovation was the Waverley project in Palo Alto where we supported the home with I-beams, dug out a new 9 foot ceiling basement with a family room, bathroom, workshop, storage room and laundry room and then added a second story with two more bedrooms, a master bathroom, walk-in closet and a second laundry room. From the street, this home looks just as it did when it was originally built.

The entire project was done in a period correct Arts and Crafts style and is available for viewing on our YouTube Channel at   http://www.youtube.com/user/MMFWW  it is listed as "Part 1 and Part 2 Construction Renovation" and is truly worth watching.