Preservation Alert: Return of Oversized Addition, 118 West Harris Street

This project is back for the fourth time in a row. The HDBR voted for continuance in August and October 2025. The applicant withdrew his petition in the middle of the meeting in September to prevent a possible denial. It is on the tentative November agenda for the Savannah Historic District Board of Review: Petition of Rose Architects, Kevin Rose | 25-003528-COA | 118 West Harris Street | Addition. Regular Agenda No. 2

 

The meeting is to be held at the Arthur A. Mendonsa Hearing Room, 112 East State Street, Savannah, GA on November 8, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. The full agenda can be viewed at

https://www.thempc.org/eagenda/x/hrb/2025/november-12-2025-historic-district-board-of-review-meeting/6107_38779.pdf

 

The full submittal can be viewed at:

https://www.thempc.org/eagenda/x/hrb/2025/november-12-2025-historic-district-board-of-review-meeting/submittal-packet-118-w-harris-st_1.pdf

 

If you object to this re-submission, you will have to write a new letter or attend the meeting in person and speak. This is the case even if your objections remain the same. Please send your letters to Caitlin Chamberlain, Director – Historic Preservation & Urban Design, Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission, at historic@thempc.org. Please cc opc.preservation@gmail.com.

 

The Board’s decision in October was “The Savannah Downtown Historic District Board of Review does hereby continue the request for a rear addition for the property located at 118 West Harris Street until the November 12th, 2025, HDBR to give the applicant time to redesign the proposal to bring the lot coverage down to 75%. And Recommends denial to the Savannah Zoning Board of Appeals for the variance recommendation request from the standard that reads D-R Building Coverage (max). 75% To allow for the lot coverage to be 80% because the variances criteria standards are not met."

 

As this was such a basic problem, the HDBR did not address other critical issues with this design, which, now that lot coverage is decided, will come to the forefront at the November meeting.

 

OVERBUILDING OF THE GARDEN SPACE

 

As stated in our comments regarding the three earlier iterations, this proposal has negative implications for the district’s historic integrity. The status of the Savannah National Historic Landmark (NHL) District is now “threatened.” The next category is “emergency” and after that, the loss of NHL status. Currently all NHLs are in a non-status category while the requirements are under review. There is no guarantee that, after several years of overscale and inappropriate development, Savannah can return to being a NHL.

 

In 2018, when the National Park Service (NPS) downgraded Savannah’s NHL to threatened status, it issued a detailed report addressing the entire downtown and listing the overriding threats. One threat was overbuilding of the garden space between the main houses and lane buildings.

 

In the new submission for this project, despite a new kink in the west wall and the insertion of a section of floor to ceiling glass panels, two-story walls still run the full depth of the lot. This is a dangerous precedent, cutting off the openness and continuity of the rear gardens of historic properties. This feature flies in the face of the NPS guidance.

 

INTRODUCTION OF BIZARRE AND OVERSIZED DESIGN ELEMENTS

 

The proposed two-story addition is disguised as a “carriage house.” It is in fact a catering-sized kitchen attached to the parlor floor of the main house. It includes a party porch over the “courtyard” that was once the historic garden, and an extensive party deck on the new roofs.

View of East and North Elevations from Liberty Lane and Liberty Street

Note the oversize north windows facing the lane, the protruding elevator shaft on the back of the main house, and the non-conforming cornice of the “carriage house,” all of which break the unity of this historic pair of houses (118 and 120).

 

The east elevation overlooks the formal historic garden of 116 West Harris.

It is of course impossible to ignore the bizarre highly visible giant “light well” / “interior atrium” on the east elevation. This opening is 13’6” wide and two stories tall. Inside this, and set back three feet for fire code reasons, are three giant windows overlooking 116 West Harris. It is also open-roofed in order to be excluded from the building coverage calculation (as is the “bridge light well” on the west elevation). The porch is also excluded from the applicant’s calculation on the grounds of the floorboards being spaced apart an unspecified distance.

 

Not only will rain flood the garage, but should the neighbor decide to build his own carriage house, this opening would be blocked off.

 

If you are opposed, please send an email to historic@thempc.org with the subject line “Opposition to 118 W. Harris Street” and copy opc.preservation@gmail.com. A sample letter is below:

 

Dear HDBR,

 

I oppose the proposed addition at 118 West Harris Street. It is not visually compatible in height and mass with the contributing buildings in view and is inconsistent with the Design Standards. This proposal flies in the face of guidance from the National Park Service. Its two-story wall across the full extent of the historic garden is not visually compatible with the prevailing walls and fences that separate lots of nearby contributing buildings.

 

[Signature]

[Address]

The Oglethorpe Plan Coalition asks that we be patient with an imperfect process. Although it is tedious for the public to have to re-write letters of objection to the MPC on the same issues, please appreciate that they are having an effect.

 

The historic housing stock of the NHL must be protected from enormous destructive additions.