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photographer: Chad Lawhorn/World Magazine
Stan Hernly understands the potential of old homes. After all, he started his Lawrence architectural practice in an old house on Tennessee Street.
He founded his architectural practice, Hernly Associates, in this 1907 house more than 35 years ago, and since then the firm has grown and completed projects of all types—from 200 square feet to 200,000 square feet ft., with price tags between $1,000 and $10 million.
But projects involving old homes — even if they’re not currently on his drawing board — are never far from Hearnley’s mind. His office is now located in the historic Delahunty Complex on Rhode Island Street in East Lawrence. The property, located at the corner of 11th and Rhode Island Streets, was home to one of the city’s earliest shipping companies – a company that used horses and wagons to transport goods and later switched to trucks.
His firm’s architect’s office is in a restored and remodeled truck shed built in the early 1900s, a complex that also includes an 1871 home. Hernly designed an addition and restoration project for the old home and is now renting it out for short-term rentals.
For this year’s edition of World Homes Magazine, we caught up with Hernley, asking him primarily for his thoughts on older homes, but we also delved into the topic of new home trends and how to make homes more comfortable. Affordable.
The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
photographer: Chad Lawhorn/World Magazine
Q: How would you describe old homes as so attractive that you make them an important part of your career?
Hernly: They have a lot of unique characteristics, a lot of unique personalities. As we walked through the house (next door), I don’t know if you felt the natural light coming into the space. Most older homes tend to have more and larger windows so you get better light. Older homes tend to be located in walkable neighborhoods, so you live in a place where you can walk down the street and be a few blocks into the city center.
Q: If someone is trying to decide if living in an older home is right for them, what should they consider? What trade-offs should they consider?
Hernly: It depends on the condition of the house. Whether they are older homes or newer, they can have a lot of maintenance issues. If you move into a brand new house, you’ll be pretty good at maintenance in 20 years. If you move into an older house that has been completely restored, you should be in relatively good shape for 20 years. But if you buy an older home and buy it as-is, there will be repairs to make. It can provide you with many great opportunities for DIY projects. If you are good with your hands, an old house is a good choice for someone who likes to take on some things. . . You’ll end up with features you won’t find in a brand new house. But many of the projects we work on tend to include adding some of these features, such as extending a closet into a loft or a larger bathroom or adding a bathroom. . . If someone wants to move into a house without having to do anything, they should either move into a house that has been completely restored and comes with everything they want, or into a brand new house. In addition, you will also work on some projects.
Q: What is the most difficult part of renovating or restoring an old house?
Hernly: Sometimes it’s just being able to see what’s possible. Many times, if you see a very dilapidated house, it may be difficult for you to have the vision to look at those things. Physically, the hardest part is when you have underlying issues. If you need to redo everything like foundation and waterproofing because old basements were not built to be waterproof. Because no one would use the basement except for practical purposes.
Q: How would you describe the resources available to senior housing—whether it’s grants, tax credits or other such programs? Are they widely used or only for special projects?
Hernly: Funding is really difficult because they are always competitive. Obtaining grants for residential projects is difficult. Tax credits, tax credits are easy if you have a listed property or are located in a historic district. You just need to complete these processes. It’s not competitive. In Kansas, homeowners can use state reconstruction tax credits. In Lawrence, which has a population of more than 50,000 people, the tax credit is 25%. If located within the county, the City of Baldwin or Eudora, the tax credit is 40%. This is a very generous tax credit. The point is, if you’re interested in rehabbing your home, finding something that you can use tax credits on can really help the project go further.
Q: Can residential property owners use tax credits in the same way that commercial developers use tax credits? They typically don’t use the tax credit on their own tax return, but rather sell the tax credit to others who will use it on their tax return. Developers then receive immediate funding for their projects.
Hernly: State credits are transferable, and they’ve always been priced at 90 cents on the dollar. (Example: Selling a tax credit worth $10,000 would result in $9,000 worth of income to the person selling the credit.) . . The key is you have to spend (money) first. You have to pay that fee and then you can get a tax credit and sell it and replenish your capital.
photographer: Chad Lawhorn/World Magazine
Q: What trends in new construction excite you? Are there any examples of old things becoming new again?
Hearnley: A trend I like in Lawrence is the infill housing being built in older neighborhoods. A lot of people don’t like the modern style houses that are being built, but I think they’re not bad. They tend to be better integrated into the community than new homes from 20 or 30 years ago. They include things like front porches, they make the garage somewhat secondary, and they tend to be more compatible in scale.
Q: As an architect, do you have any ideas on how to make housing affordable for more people?
Hearnley: It’s really hard. Fortunately, Tenants to Homeowners is a great organization in Lawrence that can really help in these areas. The thing I generally think about is that we’ve really moved away from the starter home idea. The houses built after World War II were rudimentary and small. Two bedrooms and a bathroom, maybe a garage, maybe not. But they are designed to be small to keep costs down. You don’t see tiny houses being built very often. The cost of a house will be proportional to its area. . . Building a tiny house in an already established neighborhood can reduce infrastructure costs that are often added to a new home built in a new subdivision. So, in my opinion, one way to reduce costs is to build tiny houses in older neighborhoods. . . But it’s hard for large developers to do that because it’s harder to do those one-off, two-time type projects. It is often smaller builders who handle these types of projects.
Q: This of course raises the question: How much of this can you really do in a year to make progress in a town the size of Lawrence?
Hearnley: Yes. There are many houses to build.
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