Even The Slope Not Immune to Bad New-Builds
Down the block from the Methodist Church is this rather unfortunate contribution to the neighborhood’s landscape at 310 8th Street. Guess this block isn’t landmarked, huh? Looks to us from the records like this was built in 1999. GMAP P*Shark
sorry linus. i’ve just really been itching to bust out that george bush quote.
I remember when it went up. Local kids would punch holes in the insulation sheets. The builder simply put the facing over it – no repairs. I doubt it will stand another 20 years.
The bldg. is between a parking lot and the dumpsters for the Soviet area apts.
That side of the block is mind-bendingly ugly except for a few small bldgs just above 5th.
adn,
I was just asking what the real reason was people put the siding up. Someone suggested it was because the owners just liked how it looked better. Maybe they did. But I think it’s reasonable to ask whether, instead, some people instead did it because it was cheaper to maintain.
I think you’re reading in more rationalization than I intended. Call me crazy, but I’m not especially interested in debating the ethics of putting up aluminum siding 50 years ago, one way or another.
linus,
boy do i hate to quote a george w. bush speech, but whenever i see bstoner commenters defending these piece o crap renovations or saying, you know, this is just how poorer people have to have it done, it sounds to me like “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” i’m sure we can do a lot better.
ok, now i’m going to go shoot myself.
yes, faux stone! add the flintstone to the fedders’ school!
On my block (Putnam Avenue at Classon) we have a lot of the brownstone equivalent of aluminum siding – faux stone. Mine brick house escaped it, but I sometimes wonder what I woud do it I had it. Perhaps paint it a funky color…
Linus, I think you are right (about siding being cheaper to maintain) but I’m thinking the South Slope was probably more solidly middle-class in the 50s and 60s than it was in the 70s and 80s. I’m just basing this on my neighbors who are old-timers on the block. I really think many people put up the siding because they thought it was the cool, modern thing to do. And ripped out the details because they didn’t like the look of them. In my house, we found nice paneling under some of the windows that was in perfectly good condition but had been covered up. Someone just thought it was ugly.
5:01 p.m.: Yes, you read me right.
4:47: I’m not aware of many cases of siding being put on brownstones, if that’s even possible. As far as I know, the siding in the south slope is mainly or entirely on frame houses. I’m sure those houses could have been had cheap, but the whole point of a price plunge, such as happened during the suburban flight of the era, is that few people are buying. And clearly at the time, in general, the people staying in the frame houses of the south slope — by choice or because they couldn’t afford to leave — were not generally people with deep pockets.
I think the point being made by the 4.34pm poster is that brownstones for the most part were not originally built for those with “modest means” and now the cycle is coming full circle.