TEPaul said 7:57am July 5:
“What is the ultimate goal of restoration architects today---to deliver a project that derives the greatest satisfaction from the club, its membership and those who use it and play it or to satisfy some architectural researcher in another state who's barely even been there and of whom Engineers is probably not even aware?”
Tom MacWood responds 8:55pm July 5:
TE
There you go again...shooting your architectural archive project in the foot again. You promote whatever makes the club feel good even in cases when they ignore or are ignorant of historic documentation and choose to redesign a landmark golf course. Nice job.
When needs an architectural archive and documentation if you advocate/excuse ignoring that information? To rephrase what you before:
"What is the ultimate goal of restoration architects today---to deliver a project that derives the greatest satisfaction from the club, its membership and those who use it and play it or to follow the information found in some architectural archive in another state that has no connection with Engineers and the club is probably not even aware? "
A lot of re-designs are the result of lack of information, and that is where historians and architectural archives can be helpful.
Tom MacW:
Is your “REPHRASING” (distorting) of what I said the same thing you do with historic research material or in critiquing restoration projects to serve some purpose of your own?
I’ve never once said on here, or anywhere else, that historic architectural information on a golf course is not extremely important. If a golf course becomes involved in planning a restoration project I believe that really comprehensive historical architectural research is the place to start, even before considering an architect. There is no substitute at all for it.
There is a big difference, however, between a golf club in New York doing good historic architectural research and using it to try to make decisions in their project that works well for the membership of the golf club and making decisions in their project that satisfies Tom MacWood from Ohio who’s been there perhaps once, and may never be there again.