Restoration - part 1 - shades of grey

I deal with a lot of renovation work – and as time has progressed – more and more of the work is restorative in nature. I’m grateful to be in this position and have made a lot of effort to learn about each of the courses I work with and about their respective architects. The one thing I find about this line of work is that it is occasionally very humbling since you can never assume that you know enough and must keep searching for more clarity on each architect – knowing that nothing will ever be completely black or white.




1939 St. George's aerial






A few courses such as Cataraqui and St. George’s turned out to be very well documented and the courses were pretty accurate restorations – but most have limited information leaving me with shades of grey to deal with in order to do my job. This is where you combine all the clues you have – from photos through to aerials – with some of your experience with that particular architect. You occasionally end up in the position of having to make an educated guess. You rely on what is still intact and combine that with what you know about the architect and try to make any renovations match the work and strategies f the existing course – this is called a sympathetic renovation.

Often while the desire was for a restoration – so you restore what you can and then fill in the remaining blanks the best you can through experience. As a close friend said about his work on a Thompson course recently – and he did a great job – how can I call it restorative when I didn’t know what was originally there. That’s the reality of some of the work you get involved with.

The Thompson Plan for Kawarth Golf & Country Club

The only part of this job that can become frustrating is when a crucial piece shows up right after you finish the work - like the Thompson plan did at Kawartha Golf & Country Club. The other side of the this is when fortune gives you what you need right before you start – Craig Moore from the Cutten Club located an old aerial from which I revised the Master Plan and tender to insure it was more accurate.

Today I was at Cherry Hill Club looking at an old Master Plan – I have more than five years of additional insight into Travis and I knew a few areas could use a tweak to be more accurate and interesting. After meeting with the club, I slogged my way through the rain to review the greens and reassess the grassing lines. I knew so much more about his work and understood a few of the features that left had previously left me perplexed – it was the perfect opportunity to bring a little more accuracy to the plan.




The Working drawings for Travis's Cherry Hill Club







I wish it were all black and white, but its not, it’s almost shades of grey. I find it’s the way that you handle those shades of grey that separate the work from being inappropriate or hard to distinguish from the original work.

To Part 2