Remodeling a historic home in Pasadena: what needs design review?

Is your house in a landmark district, and how do you check?

Ask the planning counter at the city's Planning & Community Development Department, and ask before anyone draws plans. Some houses are designated landmarks on their own, some sit inside a landmark district like Bungalow Heaven, and others carry no designation at all; the category decides what review applies. Get the answer for your exact parcel, and for a house inside a district, ask how it is classified there.

Do not judge it by looks. A newer house can sit inside a district and a fine old Craftsman just outside one, because the boundaries follow maps, not impressions. We confirm the status before pricing exterior work on any older home, and if you are buying one with exterior plans in mind, ask before you close, since the designation stays with the property.

What work usually needs design review?

Exterior changes the street can see. Under Pasadena landmark district rules, that work needs design approval before a building permit can be issued, and designated historic properties go through a similar approval. Review weighs fit as well as size, so a change of material or proportion can matter as much as a change of footprint.

What counts is what can be seen from the public street, not which side of the house is called the front. On a corner lot, two sides face a street. A side wall visible down the driveway, a rear addition tall enough to show over the roof, or a new front fence or pergola can all be in view, so ask about anything the sidewalk can see.

• Replacing street-facing windows or front doors, or changing their openings.
• Rebuilding, enclosing, or altering a front porch, its columns, or its railings.
• Replacing siding or stucco, or covering one material with another.
• Changing the roofing material or the shape of the roof.
• Adding rooms or a second story where the street can see them.

What can you remodel in a historic home without design review?

Most work the street cannot see. A kitchen or bathroom remodel inside the house typically skips review, and so does most rear yard landscaping. Review exists to protect how the district looks from the public street, so a Bungalow Heaven remodel that stays inside the walls can usually go straight to plan check at Building & Safety.

Being exempt from review does not make a project exempt from permits. Moving a drain, adding a circuit, rerouting gas, or changing framing still takes a building permit, which your contractor should pull under their own license, with the usual inspections.

• Kitchen and bathroom remodels inside the house.
• Most other interior work, such as flooring, lighting, and finishes.
• Plumbing and electrical upgrades that stay inside the walls.
• Most landscaping behind the house, such as planting, irrigation, and turf.

What about replacing windows in a historic district?

Expect street-facing window replacement to need review, and treat it as a design decision rather than maintenance. On a Craftsman, the original wood double-hung windows, often with divided panes in the upper sash, set the face of the house. Vinyl replacements usually have wider frames and flat grids, and the difference shows from across the street.

We look at repair first, and on many old windows it is the better choice anyway. Wood sashes can be reglazed, their cords and weights restored, and weatherstripping added, so they open easily and close tight. Where drafts or noise are the worry, interior storm panels help without changing anything the street sees.

If a window is past saving, give the reviewer the evidence: photos of its condition, and a replacement that matches the original in material, in the way it opens, in the pattern of its panes, and in the depth of its frame. Order nothing until the approval is in hand. Windows are often a long-lead item, and an order that does not match the approval is money spent twice.

Which original features matter most on a Craftsman or Spanish home?

The features that make the house read as its style from the sidewalk. Preservation review is built around those character-defining features, and a remodel that keeps them intact tends to have an easier path than one that trades them away. Knowing which parts of your house carry its style tells you where to spend care and where you have room to change things.

For a Craftsman home renovation in Pasadena, those features are usually the front porch with its tapered columns on piers, the low-pitched roof, the wood windows, and the wood siding. Many of these houses also carry river rock or clinker brick on the porch piers and chimney. If a porch column rots at the base, we rebuild it to the same taper and size instead of swapping in a stock straight post.

A Spanish Colonial Revival remodel turns on the clay tile roof, the arched openings, the deep-set windows, and the plain wall surfaces between them. Replacing clay tile with a lookalike in another material, squaring off an arch, or trading wood or steel casement windows for sliders are the kinds of changes review exists to weigh.

How should an addition to a historic house be designed?

Smaller than the original, set back from it, and recognizably newer up close. An addition to a historic house usually has the easiest path when it sits at the rear or steps back from the front wall, stays below the original roofline, and leaves the old house as the main event from the street.

The widely used preservation principle is compatible but distinguishable. Match the scale, roof pitch, window proportions, and materials closely enough that the addition belongs, then simplify the trim or change a detail so nobody mistakes new work for original. Copying the old house exactly can raise as many questions in review as ignoring it, so ask the planning counter what guidance applies before drawings start.

Second stories tend to draw the closest look, because they change the house's outline against the sky, which everyone on the street sees. A second story set well back from the front, over the rear of the house, keeps the street view closer to what it was. The engineering of going up is a separate question; for review, the outline is what counts.

What does design review do to your schedule?

It adds a step at the front, before the building permit, so plan it in rather than treating it as a risk. The order is: confirm the property's status, design, submit for review, receive the approval, clear plan check at Building & Safety, then build. The review happens while the house is still intact and nothing is on hold, which makes it the cheapest place in a project to spend time.

In Pasadena, the approval itself usually goes by the name Certificate of Appropriateness. Planning staff often sign off on smaller items themselves, while larger changes can be sent to the Historic Preservation Commission, which adds a meeting to the calendar and the chance of conditions that change the drawings. Ask early which route your project is likely to take.

We do not predict review times, because they depend on the project, the route it takes, and how complete the submittal is. What we control is the sequence: review goes first in our plan, and trades for the reviewed work are not booked until the approval is in hand. Changes to approved items during construction can need another look from planning, so settle the details on paper.

What do you need to submit for design review?

Enough for planning staff to understand the house as it stands and the change as proposed, without guessing. For Pasadena's historic preservation design review, ask the counter for the current requirements for your scope, since a porch repair and a second story need very different packages. A submittal that leaves questions open tends to come back for more information, and that round trip is the most avoidable delay in the process.

When we put a submittal together, we note which features are original and which came from later owners, because replacing a 1970s aluminum window is a different conversation from replacing an original wood one. Photos taken before any work starts also settle later questions about what was there.

• Photos of every side of the house, with close-ups of the features involved.
• Drawings of the existing house and the proposed change, side by side.
• Product details for anything new, showing materials, profiles, and dimensions.
• Samples or specifications for siding, trim, stucco finish, or roofing.
• Historic photos, if you are restoring a feature a past owner removed.
• A short description of what changes, what stays, and why.

Is there any upside to owning a historic house?

Yes, and the largest can be a lower property tax bill. The Mills Act is a California program that lets a city contract with the owner of a qualifying historic property: the owner commits to preserving and maintaining it, and in return the property is assessed in a way that can reduce the tax. Ask the planning counter whether Pasadena is accepting Mills Act applications and whether your house qualifies.

Read the terms before you count the savings. The contract is a long commitment that typically stays with the property when it sells, and it can include maintenance or restoration work you agree to carry out. Run the numbers with a tax professional, and check the program's present terms with the city, before you apply.

There is a building code upside too. California has a historical building code that can allow alternatives to some modern requirements on qualified historic buildings, which helps when an original stair, railing, or window does not match current code. Whether it applies to your project is something to raise with the city's building staff, and it is worth asking before you design around a requirement.