My Letter to This Old House re: Window Placement

From an email sent earlier today - usually I wouldn’t bother to write a letter like this but the article was the top hit on google - meaning that many people are being exposed to this terrible advice:

Dear This Old House Editors:

Just found your ‘Planning Window Placement’ article on the website: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/windows/21015390/planning-window-placement

I was dismayed at how cavalier the author was in his suggestions for window placement, especially for a magazine theoretically devoted to Old Houses and Traditional Design. It provides no real useful information, and in fact provides several terrible suggestions to the unsuspecting and untrained person of honest intent. For example:

1. "Don't Be Bound by Tradition” The first suggestion essentially is to throw-out centuries of good design practice in favor of what ‘feels good’ - by committing the fallacy that all window design was based on a purely functional necessity, instead of based on a balance between beauty/aesthetics and function. Additionally, different architectural styles demand different window designs, sizes, alignments and rhythms in order to achieve the desired architectural effect. This ‘First Rule’ is not a rule at all, but a repudiation of all rules and a license to create the kind of kitch and hodge-pode ‘architecture’ we see all around us today.

2. "The Front Doesn't Have to Determine All the Other Sides” - perhaps not, but it should set the tone for the house - and since homes these days often stand apart from their neighbors, instead of closely packed as in the villages of old, the sides should be consistent - or at least coherent - with the patterns and tone set by the front. The author at least admits that things can be ‘wrong’ - though it is put in scare quotes and no visual examples are offered.

3. “Keep Comfort in Mind” - this is another seemingly reasonable suggestion, but presented in a reckless way which really offers no real practical guidelines.

I could go on about the shortcomings of this article but I’m already spending too much time on it. My suggestion is to revisit the topic with a whole series of articles, as window design and alignment is a very rich topic and is often badly botched. You can start with reviewing the information in Get Your House Right, an excellent book that will serve as a jumping off point. Follow-up with discussing the historical details as laid out by the oldhouseguy.com series on windows.

If I saw well-written articles like this I’d be happy to renew my membership. You have a large platform and you do great work - why not do some in-depth design articles discussing the characteristics of ‘old house’ elements? I’m sure your readers - and those who have to live with the houses they design - would greatly benefit from it.

Thank you!

Kyle J. Marsh