No Takers For Red Hook Piece o' Crap
It was with little surprise that we noticed last week that this pair of super fugly houses at 41 and 43 Wolcott Street in Red Hook have not found buyers yet. When will the builders of shlock get a clue. The unfortunate aesthetics may only be part of the difficulty in selling these places. The…
It was with little surprise that we noticed last week that this pair of super fugly houses at 41 and 43 Wolcott Street in Red Hook have not found buyers yet. When will the builders of shlock get a clue. The unfortunate aesthetics may only be part of the difficulty in selling these places. The other? The front-porch views of the Red Hook Houses. GMAP
Somebody above proposed architect designed plans for Brlyn builders. A great idea but I bet they’re out there already and these developers are too inept or greedy to use them.
Come on, your standard 20×100 lot, there’s a limited number of configurations, many of them nice and cheap enough. It was done 100 years ago in Bklyn–those brownstones had a very predicitable layout and the exteriors, however repetitive, were soothing to the eye. It can’t be done now just because off-street parking must be added to it?
The case here is architectural sabotage. There’s no excuse for that small faux palladian window on the 2nd floor, as if that could distract an owner from the fact that there’s not enough light and air from the front of the house. If the builder had only put in more windows, larger and plainer the house would look significantly better.
My dad was an engineer who “designed” (really more like modifying existing plans) homes in the ’60’s when much of Staten Island was being developed. He’d tell me when I asked why all the trees were bulldozed, why so ticky-tack etc., that it was all about the demographic segment the homes were being marketed to. Staten Island is the land of civil servants, firemen, cops and working class and they couldn’t afford a better house.
It must be said in all fairness that what Hasids are to Brooklyn, Sicilians were to SI. There was also much corruption in the DOB and Highway Dept. which had to be paid for ultimately by the buyer and probably had a negative impact the quality of the houses although my dad always said it was minor. New construction then was tremendously profitable if you knew what you were doing and greased the right palms. A big profit was built in, every penny was squeezed out and yet my poor dad had to beg to get paid.
My question which he never could answer was why brownstones in Bklyn and the Tudors (built 20’s-30’s)here in NE Queens, that absolutely COVER these areas, were so solid and beautiful. They’ve maintained their looks much more than the 60’s era semidetached houses that blight SI. Didn’t the same economic constraints obtain then? Maybe it was the cheaper labor or they were built for a wealthier clintele. One thing I’m sure of is that builders were not any less greedy then, human nature being what it is.
Does anyone have any ideas why?
Bless you, CHP. Always the voice of reason. I would like to also point out that while you may not like the design of these buildings, some people may think they are wonderful. Not to everyone’s taste (certainly not mine), but to some people they are attractive. Certainly they are better than fedders buildings- there is some attempt at detail and design.
You don’t have to look under a rock to find racism or anti-semitism on this site. It’s right out in plain sight.
“why is it that Hasidic developers always put up shit design and housing, even for themselves? Is it always about saving a buck ?
Posted by: Anonymous at September 26, 2006 8:18 PM”
What would you call that? A plea for brotherhood and tolerance?
Ah, but Rascal, to be blamed for tomato sauce is a far cry from being blamed for crap buildings. And it isn’t even the crap building part that really bothers me, it’s the very stated insinuation that it’s the Hasidics, so it’s all about money. That old stereotype is older than Shakespeare’s Shylock, and I don’t like it any more than a stereotype about my people, or anyone else’s people. My mother always said if you speak badly of one group, you probably have plenty to say about other groups, and you’ll get around to mine, sooner or later. Instead of tomato sauce, what if you had said that Italians were responsible for all of the organized crime in this country? Patently untrue, of course, but that’s what stereotypes are – with just enough truth to resonate, and a whole lot of hot air, supposition, lies, and mass generalization guaranteed to negatively portray a group of people.
I might add a history lesson here to say that Jews were forced into the moneylending business in the Middle Ages by Christians, because it was seen as unchristian and unclean for a good Christian to be about the practice of lending money. Let the despised Jews do it. Anti-Semitism is the oldest form of racism on the planet, and is getting worse again, and I, for one, will not feed into it. If a builder of fugly housing happens to be Jewish, or black, or Asian, or Bangledeshi, it doesn’t matter to me, a fugly house is a fugly house, and that is all we need to comment on. The building is fair game, the race, creed and color of the builder is not.
As most of us have managed to keep this sight pretty clean, profanity wise, can we try to keep it free of prejudice as well? As I said before, you can think it, but try to stop yourself from writing it. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
I’m done.
the racism calls are just over-reactive…the point is that hasids live in an insulated world, and don’t seem to care much for interacting with others outside of their circle..fair enough…however this would support the idea that they do not have much concern for fitting their housing in with the aesthetic fabric of the city or neighborhood they happen to be living in..Plenty of these buildings probably look ok from the inside, but I really cant see them giving a damn what others think of the exterior or how it effects the urban landscape..If you need evidence of this stroll down bedford or franklin aves between myrtle and flushing where they are building housing for their community at an intense rate…look at these monstrosities of function popping up all over…easy to spot… the homes with BARS over every window…hasids are NOT the only ones who build ugly housing, but they’re not exactly setting a shining example..
Last week at the LIVE at NYPL “Design Like You Give a Damn” program, architect Cameron Sinclair noted that less than 2% of all new home construction in the US use an architect. THAT’S the problem – architect involvement may seem elitest, but there’s a reason to engage and involve an trained design professional in home building. Perhaps, as some others suggested on this post, a pool of architects would volunteer their services to create a small catalog of house plans (particularly for urban areas) for developers & builders that not only address the fugly factor, but that offered homes that addressed the issues of creative use of space (we city people all need better closet/storage!), energy usage and integration with the surroundings.
A girl can dream, can’t she?
Wow, talk about hyper-sensitivity. If someone didn’t like pasta with tomato sauce and they said, “yeah, it’s the Italians who are responsible for all that pasta and tomato sauce,” is that racist? No, it’s just a fact. Stop looking for racism under every rock for cryin’ out loud.
How about this…can someone point us to a beautiful building built by a Hasid?
how about some facts and figures?
Are a MAJORITY of these buildings build by hasidic developers, or not?
If not then sure, commenting thusly is rife with stereotyping and rascism. If yes, then it’s calling a…spade a spade.