Sometimes people get it wrong in their eagerness to “get it right”. This small addition to a late Victorian-era house is a good example. Whoever designed the addition (which is made of wood) clearly wanted to “respect” the original brick house by emulating window details.
What was not considered, however, was that the arched wood headers of the original windows were arched only because of the shape of the surrounding brick. It makes no sense to place an arched wood header over a rectangular window in a frame wall. Had the wood addition been built prior to the last quarter of the 20th century, it would have had a straight, horizontal, header – with some sort of a cap to shed water. This is yet another example of how people today – even architects, builders and ostensible preservationists – do not understand the past and fail to see what is around them.
How is it possible to meaningfully honor that which is not understood?
At least their intentions were good…
I am amazed that you did not mention the other great sin.
The proportions of the new window. It should have matched the old window.
Two wrongs clearly don’t make a right. Yeah, they could have tried a little harder with the height and width of the new window! I also tactfully did not mention the concrete block of the foundation (oops). However, I have seen much, much, worse!
Yes, definitely inexpert. Recreating the masonry brow in wood (or is that vinyl?) is nonsense. Especially since they didn’t bother to recreate the sill or the window dimensions. The frank use of concrete block instead of stone on the foundation is not a sin, but the failure to carry on across the foundation line from the original structure is. The failure to choose an appropriate color to harmonize with the brick is also a major faux pas; they just thoughtlessly defaulted to white. I also see a bricked up window along the right edge of the picture that could profitably be reopened. They did get the roof and gutter and soffit right. And they aligned the tops of the windows correctly.