Franklin

Franklin gives us two completely different kinds of job in the same ZIP code. Downtown and the surrounding historic district hold masonry and timber buildings that predate modern plumbing by a century, where materials are irreplaceable and drying has to be gentle and slow — plaster, old-growth trim and brick hold moisture in ways that punish a crew in a hurry. Then there is the Cool Springs corridor: office space, retail and newer residential where the losses are ordinary but the pressure is commercial, because a closed suite is lost revenue every day it stays closed. A historic property is not a bigger version of a new one. It needs a drying plan that accounts for materials of low porosity holding deeply bound moisture, and it needs someone who will say no to demolition that a newer house would shrug off. We would rather take longer on a plaster wall than replace it.