I don't see a difference between 1 and 3?

#2 is pretty awful roof wise.

I would try one that was more inclusive of the garage as a part of the central mass rather than a dependency.

"I don't see a difference between 1 and 3?"

Sorry. And it can't be edited out as it's the first post.

Here's the third version:

"more inclusive of the garage as a part of the central mass rather than a dependency."

Like this, I expect.

This is a sloppy cut and paste but I was thinking more like this:

But it may make more sense to make right and left projecting portions narrower, the middle of the wings wider, and have the left most garage door occupy one the right middle wing and two garage doors occupy the far right section.

Burgie house has a clean balanced façade but the elevations and the pictured house are awfully complex in comparison.

Integrating the garages as in your cut and paste would work well on a standard 70'-80' wide lot.

The problem I face is two-fold:

1) this strictly-zoned irregular city lot is 200 feet wide at the front building line. So the house would look tiny, lost and out of place. (Otherwise, I could use one of the six plans I've previously built for more standard 60'-90' lots.)

2) To build a house that mirrors the front curve of the street it would seem more appropriate to "fold "the elevation at some point.

Widening the house and integrating the garages, as in the photo I posted above, would work. As would separate garages, as in the pic below of a custom on a similar lot just behind ours. But I'd hate to copycat so close...and my budget is more restricted because this will be on the market when complete.

"Burgie house has a clean balanced façade but the elevations and the pictured house are awfully complex in comparison."

Agreed! Time for a new designer.

Thanks for your comments! (I avoid these threads because unless you confirm the good taste of the poster, backs are arched and the hissing begins!)

Burgie House was built over a period of 112 years from 1800-1912, the central element using stones from the ruined Burgie Castle built in about 1600. I'd love to mix up the masonry a bit on my homage. And I'm not sure how I could pull off the fascinating roofs at either end. My reach probably exceeds the thickness of my chequebook!

But couldn't the whole thing conform to the curve? This is a very crude and out of scale drawing, but why not an equal and symmetrical curving shape to the entire thing?

This is too angled, close to ninety degree but this is sort of what I mean because it's symmetrical

That's certainly an interesting idea that I will show the new designer. Of course, every "solution" with a garage compromises the inspiration.

Thanks.

The fortified battlements on the wings appear to have been added for defense. If the war is over I would remove them. IMO narrowing the center building ruins the rather fine proportions of the original. If the width is reduced the height should be reduced too.

I wouldn't worry about copying the "look" of the house on the lot behind your lot. As long as the houses aren't right next to or across the road from each other. You would use different materials and colors, right?

"fortified battlements on the wings appear to have been added for defense. If the war is over I would remove them."

Ah, the educated eye of an architect.

Make love, not war, eh?

The wings were added in 1912, so they were clearly an homage to the original castle built in 1600.

But I take the point: Not one in a hundred buyers will pay for a costly and arcane reference.

BTW, before the bane of modernism, stately Canadian residences and government buildings here used to frequently reference castles. The most famous Toronto home is probably Casa Loma.

Casa Loma

And then there was Government House, Rosedale, home of the Lt. Governor of Ontario, completed in 1915 and demolished in 1961 as part of a concerted effort to wipe away history in a pretense of democracy. Now it's parkland.

I wander.

The central mass alone would look lonely and forlorn on this lot.

So any thoughts on integrating the garage or building it detached as in the nearby homes pictured in previous posts?

If the central mass were big enough it wouldn't.

This is limited by a lot of cut and paste.

A central mass can really go on forever:

This had to be shot from outer space, but it's more French than above:

You're right on the central mass.

But I should have explained before that if the house doesn't adjust for the curve in the front property line, it will far exceed the rear property line maximum setback. IOW, this will be a wide house on a large lot but only two rooms deep.

You can bend the central mass. I've seen this with Hollywood regency versions of traditional architecture. It could be symmetrically bent and situated however it needed to to conform to the lot, I'd think.

That still leaves the question of the garage.

Two garages, one on either side.

You could do a garage on either end and that would be balanced.

But also on a house of this scale, I dunno, it seems a little "cheap" to have garage doors on the front. Surely the house could be sited on the lot so that the garage could be side entry.

Garage on each end. Like this not unusual combination of Mid-East villa/ English manor home? (Note the separate entrances beside the garages.)

I personally find side entry garages are harder to manoeuvre in and out of.

There is ample room for a porte-coch'ere, as suggested by a previous designer I spoke with. Enough room on the lot. But I'd then be intruding on yard space that would inevitably be used for pools and tennis courts.

Well you could just line up a row of garage doors front and center and make the front door secondary like a Los Angeles Dingbat if you're concerned about a straight shot into the garage, but I don't think that would be doing the house or neighborhood any favors. :)

I think you have the opportunity to get some discrete side entry garages in a house this size and still have reasonable maneuverability in and out.

What if you did elevation 1 (garage as an angled smaller secondary mass, almost detached) but used the trapezoid/hip roof profile throughout instead of incorporating those pointy triangles?

Yep, a version dropping my beloved battlement homage probably makes the most sense economically. Similarly, the challenge of the secondary massing is budgetary, i.e., all that foundation and elaborate roofing for a garage.

It's already extending off to the side and separately roofed in the plot plan...right? Am I completely reading that wrong?

I'm speaking as an uneducated mass here, I wonder if it could highlight the estate size of the lot to have (seemingly) two buildings on the frontage, more so than one big rectangle which is what most of the plebs have to have in Toronto.

In the first elevation I posted, the garage is essentially a detached structure. While I prefer that, the extra cost doesn't seem productive as far as resale.

For those who find any garage grating, consider this ultimate camouflage.

I think the big issue is that your inspiration demands symmetry and the garage solutions tend to preclude it.

Mount Pleasant has two completely separate dependencies--they look smaller here because this is the other side of the house. The house shot by helicopter above has symmetrical dependencies joined by hyphens. Maybe your solution would be to have the garage on one side and a smaller, symmetrical wing on the opposite side each joined by hyphens to the main block

Can you get the garage out of the front, or otherwise less conspicuous?

Making "dependencies" connected by an arcade (hyphen?) could put the garage in one and the kitchen or the master suite in the other for balance. Central block would be LR/DR with bedrooms upstairs.

Simplify the dependencies compared to the main block - keep the general feel with marterials, but less of everything on the exterior.

Like this one, Nether Lypiatt Manor in England

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d1/e0/6e/d1e06e37ee776c157d33d10f37b73c63.jpg

And rear - http://www.princessmichael.org.uk/assets/images/gallery/princess-michael-and-benys-gold-at-their-country-house-nether-lypiatt-manor-1312385045.jpg

"your inspiration demands symmetry and the garage solutions tend to preclude it."

Sigh. So maybe back to a variation of a French Manor with a porte cochere if necessary, as in the pic below. The first technologist I spoke with said it will work. (Though the tech details of that roofline scare me.) Soon I will have financing and will have to decide. Or start with a new lot elsewhere.

Thanks to all your commentary and conceptualizations!

What if instead of hiding your garage you mimicked it? I'm not entirely sure how you'd do so, but maybe the section of the garage could be a board and batten look, then the opposite side could have similar Windows to the garage door and board and batten?