Bill Miller Jr.,wanted to design something different for the Brighton Manor single-family homes.
It had to be different from the housing communities his SilverStar Communities LLC had built in the suburbs.After all, he felt the homes located at the corner of Moana Lane and Plumas Street in southwest Reno should have designs that evoke a feeling that the neighborhood is very much a part of the city.
Inspired by Reno's old cottage-style homes, he came up with the classical architecture for the houses facing the roads high-pitched roofs, front porches with handrails, inviting sidewalks, white picket fences and garages tucked out of view.
"We wouldn't have built this in the outskirts of the town in Damonte Ranch or Spanish Springs,"Miller says."The design suits an urban environment, an infill type of opportunity and that really was the stimulus behind the creation of this architecture."
And this is a trend going back to the traditional style noticeable more and more in most U.S.
cities, says Ric Lacata, president of the northern Nevada chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
"We have been subject to urban sprawl and now there's been a desire to go back to the city," Lacata says."The traditional design instills some historical character in regard to the image it creates and also has a lot of humanist sort of context like the porches, the way they face the street,window patterns, roof styles, the whole sort of overall texture of the neighborhood.
It's more than a style.
It's more of a desire to create a sense of a community."
Scattered throughout downtown Reno, classical cottages have a special warmth about them,Miller says.
The architecture, he adds, reminds him of the home of television's "Ozzie and Harriet" in the 1950s.
SilverStar Communities set the tone of the project at the outset when applying to the city for approval.
It promised classical style homes to the Planning Commission and the City Council.
The company spent six months in product development trying to create that feeling of old world charm.
Miller expects the buyers to be a mix of baby boomers and young newly wed professionals with and without children.
"We don't expect a significant market from the seniors," he adds.
The model homes of Brighton Manor opened last week.
The 106 units, which range from 1,635 square feet to 2,380 square feet, are priced from the mid-$300,000s to mid- $400,000.
The houses come in nine colors: three of them vibrant and the rest more subtle combinations.
With the models,Miller says the response has been on expected lines.
"I'd say 80 percent of the response has been extremely positive and the other 20 percent negative," Miller says."Either you like it or you don't.
There's no in between."
