Horror Show Friday

megunsky…your photos are beautiful but that site is priceless.

THL check it out.

I think there is a good question lurking in the benson/DIBS/montrose “debate”. Are there a few simple rules that could be adopted that would not significantly raise the cost of construction (so as to maintain affordability) that would help avoid monstrosities that would reflect a fairly common view of not too ugly and sufficiently contextual?

For example, I often find that some of the the worst offenders disrupt the facade line of the block. An ugly facade nestled into a smooth line doesn’t rankle so much. Perhaps that’s just personal taste. Any thoughts?

Aw, Benson, lighten up. You and I are never going to agree on this one.

You know what? I’m going to take the plunge here and say “yes”. I am proposing a taste czar, and a committee to oversee what gets built. It has nothing to do with gated communities, but has everything to do with the long term future of that community. Why shouldn’t someone, or a group of someones, set up guidelines that insure that poorly designed, poorly built crap calling itself “affordable”, built by people whose only interest in the community is financial (for them, anyway), is curtailed? Just as there are codes on the books for safety and habitability, there should be code for contextural facades and materials. Just because the community is not rich, or well connected, just because the higher end tastemakers do not come here to build gazillion dollar townhouses does not mean that we are so desperate that we have to swallow lot after lot of pure crap.

I want people to want to move here. I want them to want to stay in their homes and pass them on to the next generation. I am well aware that not everyone wants a traditional brownstone, but the 20′ footprint is what we have here, and within that perameter is a wealth of decent design, little of which shows up, especially as in-fill. You can’t tell me these houses, usually with large pipes and utility meters plastered next to the front doors, and a large parking lot out front, do anything for the streetscape, for the look of an historic brownstone community at large.

Yeah, someone may eventually buy these, not the point. I bet more attractive homes, more contextural homes would sell faster, and could be built for the same money, and could be homes that advance the community. If it takes a Commissioner of Taste and Standards to get that done, I’ll send in my resume, because I really think it’s necessary for the short and long term health of Bed Stuy and other communities like it. If that makes me an elitist, then let me just add that to my title. I’m quite fine with that.

As to your other attack, I don’t know what you are talking about. There are actually days I don’t post here, because I do try to earn a living, and sometimes, even I get tired of rehashing the same thing, to no avail. If you point me to the topic, I’ll be glad to pontificate. It’s what we saints occasionally do.

Montrose Morris, EPBA

Baltimore also did low income in the prime downtown area that looks great. The redbrick townhouses match the neighborhood well.