Thinking outside the ‘big box’

Neighbors buy and renovate the house next door to ensure it stays in keeping with their Greenwich Forest neighborhood

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette Nancy Chasen and her husband, Don Spero, partnered with their neighbor and architect Mark Kramer to take on the big houses trend in Greenwich Forest. They bought the house next door, renovated it themselves and put it on the market. Click here to enlarge this photo Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette Architect Mark Kramer and his neighbors Don Spero and Nancy Chasen designed the newly renovated house at 7824 Overhill Road to preserve the neighborhood character and prevent a ‘‘big box” from being built in its place.

They bought it.

Taking on the tear-down trend with an if-you-can’t-beat-them-join-them approach, Don Spero and his wife, Nancy Chasen, partnered with neighbor and architect Mark Kramer to purchase and renovate a 1,500-square-foot home in the Greenwich Forest neighborhood of Bethesda.

‘‘A lot of people might say, ‘Who would do this, why would you do this?’” Chasen said. ‘‘It seems to me that if you’re in the position that we felt we were in....the payback on it is so enormous in terms of saving the value of the properties that are already there, and the aesthetics and the emotional value.”

Just last week, a group of Greenwich Forest residents gathered near the neighborhood’s entrance to lobby the Montgomery County Council for a six-month demolition moratorium in older communities where at least half the homes were built before 1950. The group submitted a draft of a moratorium and is waiting to hear back from the council on its request.

Spero, Chasen and Kramer share many of their neighbors’ concerns about the trend of tearing down the community’s older homes and replacing them with giant new houses. So it might come as a surprise to learn that they purchased, renovated and expanded the house at 7824 Overhill Road from 1,500 square feet to a whopping 6,100 square feet.

The difference here is that everyone seems to love this house.

‘‘Bigger houses are going to be built,” Chasen said. ‘‘People are buying bigger houses, people want a beautiful kitchen. There is a market for these large houses. To me, the mark of success for this project is that we are now living next to such a large house and are perfectly delighted with it.”

Brent Weingardt, a spokesman for the group of Greenwich Forest neighbors calling for the demolition moratorium, said the house fits perfectly on its lot. A house similar to the ‘‘big box” homes he and his neighbors are protesting would have been disastrous, he said.

‘‘It’s on one of the highest pieces of property,” Weingardt said. ‘‘It would’ve dominated all the homes on that hill. It would’ve said, ‘I’m the castle and you all are my serfs.’ That’s the signal that would send.”

Spero said he had no interest in owning two houses, so as a practical matter, it had to be expanded large enough to prevent it from being a tear-down candidate.

Most of the additional size of the house is on the back or below in an expanded basement, designed to maintain the streetscape. Kramer also used staggered architecture to minimize its bulkiness. It went on the market last week with an asking price of just under $2.5 million.

Kramer said he’s heard from people in other parts of the downcounty who are interested in doing similar projects.

‘‘It’s self-protection,” Kramer said. ‘‘If they can do this and they make it so that the architecture works better and doesn’t diminish their house, it’s a win-win.”

Spero, a managing director for New Markets Growth Fund in College Park, comes at the big houses trend from a business standpoint.

‘‘It’s kind of a market-based approach,” he said. ‘‘Attempts to legislate restrictions further are kind of market interferences, which can work in some marginal way, but I don’t think they can be as effective.”

Spero said he and others in the neighborhood are looking at ways to improve communication when someone is thinking of selling a house. He sees 7824 Overhill as a new economic model in the fight against big houses by keeping profits in the neighborhood and preserving the distinct character of Greenwich Forest.

While they have yet to sell the house, Chasen said their primary goal has been accomplished.

‘‘I believe we wouldn’t have stayed in this house if we’d gotten a box next door,” she said. ‘‘It would’ve blocked what little light we have. It would’ve been right on us.... They truly get you where you live. That’s very tough. And I think we would’ve been forced out of here if that had happened.”