It's all about the Eave

When building historically authentic homes there are many important elements to get right, including the details.  Modern construction techniques and fabricators have really dropped the ball in this arena, which is unfortunate since the details are where you sink or swim. Construction techniques are not universal and there are many regional differences that hinder certain details from being built.  One detail that consistently gets messed up is the eave.   

The highlighted areas in the image above are the main points of discussion for our purposes here. Most homes and buildings today use aluminum, metal, or plastic soffit and fascia.  It's the cheapest, easiest, and most convenient installation for an eave.  It's also the ugliest, requires no design thought, and betrays any sort of authenticity you were trying to achieve. It's interesting that we will spend millions on a home, clad the whole thing in stone, have the highest grade windows and yet install a characterless aluminum soffit and fascia.  It's like going out on the town with your Armani jacket, Rolex, and all your finest, but you never bothered to do your hair and makeup.

Then there's the house of colonial times--a very simple box.  A dignified example of order and simplicity that elaborates on variations on a theme when it comes to the eave.  It's the eave (and other details) the distinguished the home.  It's the details that made it unique.  Kind of like people.  We all generally look like everyone one else with head, arms, legs, torso, etc. in the same place as everyone else.  We all have the same general proportions, but the details are unique and there is infinite variety and variations on the theme.  The small nuances in the details explain how you can sit in a crowd and pick out your friend by looking at the backside of a bunch of heads.  It's remarkable, but it's the variety in details that generate character and uniqueness in people and in homes. 

The universality of aluminum soffit and fascia would be like if we all had the exact same shaped eyes, ears, mouth, and nose....and the only thing that changes was the color of our hair. That would be a strange and confusing world.

Let's  look at some historical eave conditions and the homes they're on.

Example of a very simple home in New Zealand during the 19th century.  It's a box with simple roof lines and a very ordered facade.

The eave of this home is one of the significant contributors to it's character.  

This is the Stebbins house in Deerfield, MA.  Built in 1799.  Once again a very simple box defined by the details.

This is the Stebbins house eave.  Fairly simple, yet refined.  In order to make sure the moldings didn't interrupt the jack arch above the window, the frieze was omitted in this design.

This Arts and Crafts turn of the century home in Santa Barbara, CA is still a simple box whose details make it unique.

Notice the thickened bracket where the corbels are.  

This historic home in Richmond, VA has so much creativity in the Classical detailing that it would take a few more blog posts to point them all out.  It's beautiful, simple in form, and the eaves contribute to its character.

This close up gives a sample of 4 different eave conditions.  There was a great amount of consideration in designing these eaves.

This gothic revival in Salem, MA is simple in form and elaborate in detail.

This eave in Florence, Italy shows a vernacular exposed rafter tails in what would be considered more vernacular architecture.  The small molding details added to each rafter illustrate the importance of character and variety in detail.

Now for some samples of present day eaves with aluminum soffit and fascia.

No matter how many eave conditions I post of present day construction, they all look the same.  There is very little variety and very little detail.  It's a sure fire way to make a home look cheap.

So why doesn't anyone build decent eaves today?

The short answer is - Cost and Values.

There are some specialty builders that can build pretty great eaves, but in a world where most of us look at the "value" of a home on a price per square foot basis where we try to maximize size and minimize cost we cut off the possibility to achieve any sense of character.  Details cost a lot of money.   I hope that's not too harsh.  But it's true.  

The long answer is a bit more complex.  First off, you need to find an architect who understands classical architecture and what parts and pieces go into the eave and why. Historically in western building culture, ornamentation and moldings were added to eaves as a representation of the ancient classical entablature.  The most ornamented part of the entablature was the cornice.  The cornice equivalent today would be the eave.  

This drawing shows the classical Corinthian Order with its associated Capital and Entablature.  The entablature consists of the architrave, frieze, and cornice.  You can see the divisions of the parts on the very left of the drawing where it shows the proportional numbers.

If you analyze this a bit and review the images above, you can begin to pick out many similar elements and relationships.  

There were many how to books in the 1800's including Owen Biddle's Young Carpenters Assistant.  The image above was very clear instructions on how to compose the eave based on the classical cornice.  Proportions and scale were paramount.   There were general principles to follow and then the options were endless.  Designing the eaves and eave details takes a lot of time which means more in architecture fees too.  If you get someone to be able to design a great eave, now you need someone to build it.  I have issues over and over again with subcontractors not following the details.  This happens because they select a manufactured product that have be be used in a particular way that won't accommodate the detail.  There is a lot of oversight that needs to happen to stay on top of subcontractors who likely have never done anything like this before and don't understand the guiding principles that inform decision making on site.  One major issue we have is that we don't use wood any more.  We use manufactured fiber cement panels.  They don't come in molding profiles you need and creativity is essential.

The two images above are from one of my projects where the owner was committed to authenticity.  If these eaves were made of aluminum soffit and fascia, it would be just another cheap looking house.  

To achieve great character in architecture, the eave is critically important to get right.   If beauty and authenticity are your goals, be committed to finding an architect who can design the right eave for the house, a contractor who can build it, and the funding to make it happen. Achieving timeless homes isn't an accident and every aspect needs to be considered.