Horror Show Friday: Mutant Facade Repair
We were biking through Wallabout earlier this week and were struck by the rather odd design choice at 33 Vanderbilt Avenue. For some reason, someone decided to put a layer of screamingly new brick on the lower half of the facade. What possible reason—other than pure bad taste—could account for this decision? Is it cheaper…
We were biking through Wallabout earlier this week and were struck by the rather odd design choice at 33 Vanderbilt Avenue. For some reason, someone decided to put a layer of screamingly new brick on the lower half of the facade. What possible reason—other than pure bad taste—could account for this decision? Is it cheaper than repairing the existing facade? GMAP
yeah there is a lot of uppity better than thou comments here.
The facade ain’t your taste, don’t do it to your building.
Navy yard location diss – nasty guess you live is some better place making you smarter prettier and better educated than those in Wallabout… I have my studio in the Navy Yard and really like parts of the hood.
I personally like it when people upgrade buildings and side step the normal. People like this that post judgments most likely stick to recipes and are spending all their time in others business.
“The sad thing is he gets away with crap and no one calls him out on it!”
BRG rewrite:
The sad thing is the owner of this house gets away with this crap but at least Mr. B is calling him out on it.
Bxgrl
Understood but you missed my point. It is an subjective thing. I understand the LOCAL concern. But that is a local issue. How many here are actual neighbors of this house?
If not, then it goes back to trashing the owner without knowing anything except the picture taken.
If this was a historic district then that would be legal issue and fair game.
“Why shouldn’t we all care about decisions that make our neighborhoods uglier and destroy the borough’s architectural heritage?”
oh, come on. the rest of the block is a random mishmash of styles and chopjobs and chainlink fence, so this isn’t destroying any of the area’s cultural heritage. it’s an ugly facade job. nothing more than that.
Seriously, SERIOUSLY offensive. Granted, taste is a personal matter and all… but this is just nasty. I would bet a new buyer wouldn’t do this, so the “peak comp purchase” theory doesn’t fly here. Makes you wanna hurt someone and I’m not a big brownstone person (not big enough to live in one anyway).
“Why shouldn’t we all care about decisions that make our neighborhoods uglier and destroy the borough’s architectural heritage?”
Now thats bait! Look stupid when they was building all the “architectural heritage” Condos, you know the one with the Chinese drywall and shoddy construction you said nothing!!
Maybe you will have plenty to write about when these projects go unfinished. Hey Jackass start with Citypoint first!
The What
Someday this war is gonna end…
The front facade of a townhouse is not a load bearing wall. This is an aesthetic choice I would guess.
It is not merely a question of taste. This indicates a lack of informed judgement. It is possibly a result of bad advise to a homeowner from a contractor or masonry supplier. It is also a poor financial decision in that it will detract rather than enhance the homeowner’s investment.
The good news is that it looks like it could be undone in the future and that they stopped (for the time being) half way up.
crimsonson- this is a sad example of how to destroy the beauty and value of your house- not a commentary on taste. I don’t know if the job is finished or not (if it’s not, where’s the scaffolding?) but it can’t be a good idea to leave it this way. I’d be wondering about water collecting and sinking in behind the new brick since it doesn’t look like there is anything topping off the new brick. That could cause some serious damage over time.
Why shouldn’t we all care about decisions that make our neighborhoods uglier and destroy the borough’s architectural heritage?