(a) The amount of detail associated with those windows in the upper facade can vary. The most simple form would be double-hung windows in plain, lightly decorated walls. A more ornate form would involve arched windows with heavily decorated hoodmolds over the windows and decorated sills below the windows.
Past alterations to windows in upper facades included covering them with plywood, filling them in with brick or glass block, or installing new windows which were the wrong size for the opening or wrong style for the building. Some upper facades have been completely obscured by metal panels.
(b) Recommendations for Decorative Features.
(1) Preserve and maintain decorative brickwork, stone treatments, brackets, and wood or metal cornices that exist on downtown buildings. Maintain existing stone or concrete lintels, hoodmolds, and sills, or replace in-kind.
(2) Decorative building parapets should not be removed. If a parapet appears to be deteriorated, first evaluate what steps may be taken to secure and preserve it. Its removal would not only damage the building's architectural character, but could also cause serious problems for the roof's drainage system.
(3) If an upper facade has been covered over, consider removing the covering to expose the original architecture underneath. Damage which may have been done to the upper facade should be repaired to the greatest extent possible.
(4) Avoid adding cornices, brackets, hoodmolds, balconies, or bay windows to buildings which never had them. Any reconstruction of decorative features should be based on physical evidence or historic photographs of the building. (Ord. 96-115. Passed 8-26-96.)
COMMERCIAL BUILDING
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Commercial Building
built circa 1865, in the
Boneyfiddle Historic
District in Portsmouth, Ohio
1. Chimney 10. Mullion 2. Chimney Pot 11. Storefront 3. Facade 12. Lintel 4. Cornice 13. Storefront Post 5. Paired Brackets 14. Transom Window 6. Paneled Frieze 15. Display Window 7. Hoodmold 16. Panel 8. Sill 17. Base 9. Two-over-two Round-arched Double Hung Window |
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Old Ohio Power Company
Building Built in 1929
in Zanesville, Ohio
1. Terra-cotta parapet 2. Coping 3. Three-over-three Segmental-arched Double Hung Window 4. Spandrel 5. Three-over-three Trabeated Double Hung Window 6. Blind Balustrade 7. Pier 8. Fixed Plate Glass Window 9. Decorative Metal Window Frame
10. Base |
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