Horror Show Friday
These two charmers hail from Bed Stuy and Canarsie, respectively, and can be yours for the low, low prices of $439,000 and $550,000. Any takers? BEAUTIFUL 2 FAMILY IN THE HEART OF BED STUY [Craigslist] Huge 2 Family Brand New [Craigslist]
These two charmers hail from Bed Stuy and Canarsie, respectively, and can be yours for the low, low prices of $439,000 and $550,000. Any takers?
BEAUTIFUL 2 FAMILY IN THE HEART OF BED STUY [Craigslist]
Huge 2 Family Brand New [Craigslist]
While I can certainly understand some of the sentiments expressed here with regard to Horror Show Fridays, and the taint of making fun of someone’s house – especially someone who might seem a lot like our own moms & pops – I disagree strongly with the premise that it has no value or can play no redeeming part in improving the quality of development.
Even if a relatively small audience as compared to the community as a whole, although getting larger given the New Yorker and Times articles of late, Brownstoner likely can and does influence real estate deals and tastes in general.
It starts with the small things, but tastes and druthers have to start somewhere. These are NEW properties. We could have been spared. If builders and their “architects” begin to see that they are skewered (i.e. Horror Show Friday on Brownstoner! Oh My God! How embarrassing…) when they develop and build schlock, and consequently can’t sell them for what they’d hoped, because community tastes and values have changed, even if slowly, then perhaps Horror Show Fridays can be said to have prevented even one or two of these things from going up on an otherwise beautiful or at least potentially beautiful block.
THAT, in my book, is a redeeming point.
Is really that hard to design a new townhouse that fits the character of a old neighborhood. Alexandria VA. Georgetown DC, Baltimore and Boston which seems to be the best in doing this. I thick the people that put these homes up are very lazy and cheap. No one is guying this mess. They always end up being rentals. I am glad that the investors that built these homes are stuck with them. Shame on them for building such a horrible building… This stuff always makes me see red…
MM….sorry to disagree with you but I think there are a lot of people all over the U.S. that don’t really care what their homes look like. On the other hand, many of them may only be able to afford up to a certain price point and, unfortunately, the exterior architecture takes a back seat in the decision process. That said, i still think there is no economic reason whatsoever that these places can’t be designed to fit into the look of the neighborhood. All you need to do ( as I laughed at you in the last HSF thread) is rearrange the bricks, the staircases, the windows and the doors. The actual upgrade in, say the windows, would be marginal.
There is one additional issue, although probably a very small subsegment of the population. And don’t everyone jump all over me on this and call me a racist because I’ve seen this again and again with parents of friends. Many Asians want to own a new home. They do not want to own a place previously occupied by anyone else. They especially do not want a hundred year home with many “ghosts” in it. This is not a prevalent view held by younger home buyers but it is certainly a factor with the parents/grandparents.
Many Asians will also not buy a home unless they can pay cash for it as they don’t want a bank to own a mortgage. this too however is changing and is largely something felt by oplder generations. Hence, a market for these new constructions at these price points no matter what they look like.
TD, I’m talking about what both johnife and bxgrl are saying. I don’t want to stifle creativity, only develop building standards that celebrate what is around these new builds. If that is a brownstone row house, then that new house should complement its neighbors. It doesn’t have to mirror it, or be built of the same materials. I understand the limits of budget. If infill housing is in a frame house community, then something contextural there, as well in a group of 20’s bungalow cottages, or whatever.
Then the new, houses are completing the community, not fighting it, or ignoring it. Pride of place helps build communities. I don’t believe that people don’t care what their homes look like.
But they are horror shows Blanche, they are.
What’s the “metal protuberance?”
Personally I think we should have room for creativity in contextural or innovate adaptation. But the rowhouse is no adaptation, nor is it creative.
I love brownstones and rowhouses, it breaks my heart to see their beautiful interiors gutted in a dumpster. And I wish we could come up with a better way of dealing with that- but we do live in the 21st. Century. Creative reuse can be a wonderful thing,and it should be fostered. Still, codes should set a basic standard- for brownstone neighborhoods, it could be making facade visually tie in with the neighboring buildings in terms of color and proportion. These neighborhoods are an asset to Brooklyn, not a liability. We should be working to support and maintain them in ways that won’t stifle property owners yet still be respectful of history.
TD,
In the UK decisions as to what can get built are made by the planning committee of the local council, not by a central government “czar”. If one assumes that there’s a democratic process at work in the selection of council members, it’s a pretty “close to the community ethos” way of regulating the local built environment. I don’t have the time to search the web for examples right now, but I’ve set eyes on plenty of examples there of bold but aesthetically pleasing structures that exist in harmony with their more traditional neighbors.
I so see your point, Montrose, but codes are just so cut and dry.
I am not sure if you are familiar with this particular house but let me give another example–
There’s a house on the corner of Hanson Pl & S. Portland in Fort Greene which is a heavily renovated brownstone with this funky metal addition protruding out one side of it. (it’s on a corner lot). To me, this an innovative and perfectly contextural adaptation of a classic brownstone. however, my fear would be that a code would strictly prohibit this kind of protuberance and the use of metal on the exterior.
how do you create a code which would allow for creativity such as this while maintaining the high standard we strive for?
I think what bothers me the most with the house on the right is that the doorways seem disproportionately small. But there are several cosmetic changes that could make a world of difference.
The other house – the small windows, the dollhouse sized door, the color of the brick- every choice they made was totally out of whack with the neighboring buildings ther didn’t seem to be a shred of thought put into it. Makes me wonder how much care they actually put into the interior.
I know I make too much of it, but to me it shows contempt for your potential customer (oh they’ll buy anything) to the community ( I don’t care about them). granted developers are there to make a buck- but considering the effects they have on a neighborhood, shouldn’t they be asked to have a little responsibility for the impact they make?