When The Music's Over, Turn Out the Lights
While existing homeowners have received most of the attention in the media’s coverage of the sub-prime mortgage fallout, there’s another effect that’s going to haunt neighborhoods like Bed Stuy and Bushwick for years: The spectacularly ugly and cheaply built spec homes that short-sighted developers slapped up on in-fill lots. Take this pair of three-family homes,…
While existing homeowners have received most of the attention in the media’s coverage of the sub-prime mortgage fallout, there’s another effect that’s going to haunt neighborhoods like Bed Stuy and Bushwick for years: The spectacularly ugly and cheaply built spec homes that short-sighted developers slapped up on in-fill lots. Take this pair of three-family homes, one for $739,000 and one for $629,000. Who’s gonna buy this crap? No one. They’ll just sit there and atrophy, gradually attracting trash, loiterers and probably worse. Huge bummer.
$739000 Gordeous 3 Family Bldg in Bushwick [Craigslist]
$629000 Great New Construction 3 Family in Bed Stuy [Craigslist]
What is wrong with Dryvit?? And which Dryvit product??
Dryvit is one of the easiest facing products to install properly and really doesnt need skilled craftsman to do it correctly- what would you suggest be used instead???
2.30 PM;
Thanks! I think we’ve reached a point of agreement. Don’t get me wrong – I think these buildings look hideous too, and wish that some enlightened developer could make a breakthrough that would optimize design, cost and aesthestics for lower price point housing. However, as Zach pointed out, it is not as easy as folks are making it out to be. A case in point are those who just call for pulling out the old brownstone plans, and reconstructing them.
I have a question for those folks: what would you do about the A/C? I can assure you that the market today insists on A/C. Most folks would sooner live in a barrack than go through a NY summer without A/C. Given that fact, how would you handle the A/C in a classic brownstone design? The cost-effective solution is to slap on the hated wall-through duct – anathema to most of the folks in Brownstoner. The alternative is central A/C, which would drive up the cost. Even in the case of central A/C, I would like folks to tell me where they would locate the intake and out-take vents.
That’s it for me today. Great debate!
Benson
Benson~
Thanks for the answers. I’m glad to know more about the codes. But I still don’t think New York can compare to Santa Barbara, and I know that in Berkeley, most designs go through four tough public hearings before an approval.
My “middle class” comment wasn’t specifically directed at you. It is more geared towards comments like “All new buildings suck. Landmark everything. I love vacant lots. Buck Fush. Free Mumia.”
But I still think these buildings look ugly, and that aesthetics are an element of good public planning. There may be a market for such homes, but that doesn’t mean that even the buyers would have preferred a more aesthetically pleasing home.
Food fight! I’m tossing the first cupcake!
“Creating a nice looking building does not require any more money.”
If building one of these cost the same as building an attractive house, the market wouldn’t provide for them. Making these ridiculous statements about “lazy builders” is just silly. These are *much* cheaper than comparable attractive buildings throughout the city.
I can agree that these are quite repulsive, but big whoop. Demanding that the city’s enormous middle and lower class live in “replica 1890s brownstones” is a pipe dream. That Dryvit point is a more interestng one, but bad construction habits don’t really have to do with psf costs. There’s incompetent contractors in every price range.
Don’t get me wrong… if you make a replica brownstone plan that you can build for $200 psf or something, you’ll sell a billion of them and put these jerks out of business. I’ll buy one. But you can’t do it.
FYI – to build this crap….it costs about $100-$150 a square foot…by the looks of it, they cost less.
1.41 PM;
You want specifics regarding the building code? Here goes. First of all, the building code is concerned with safety, not aesthetics, and in this regard NYC’s is known to be the toughest. Examples: NYC is the only locality in the country that still insists on BX electrical cable, rather than Romex used by everyone else. NYC also, until recently, did not allow PVC piping in the sewer lines, also widely used elsewhere. NYC also required individual taps into the sewer main from each house, something that most localities allow in lower-income area. NYC also has the toughest fire code in the country, including requiring fire sprinklers in all new multi-family construction. If you buy any chemical, you will often see that they list compliance to NYC’s fire code separately, as it is more stringent than other codes.
Is that good enough?
As for your accusation that I deemed myself the arbiter of middle-class tastes, I would like to know exactly where I did that. Don’t just throw general accusations at me, cite a specific phrase. I speak for NO ONE except myself. My statement was that there IS a market for these homes, not found on the Browstoner posts, and the evidence is the fact that 1000’s have been built, sold, and resold well over the past 30 years.
Do you want to engage in a debate, or a food fight?
Benson
Benson–
NYC may have tough building codes, but we all know what a great job the DOB does of enforcement.
I worked in Bushwick regularly for the the last three years, and if you saw what I saw, I don’t think you’d agree that these were quality homes.
Particularly scary were the houses faced with Dryvit, which can cause extremely serious mold problems if installed incorrectly. You think these cheap developers used licensed, well-trained contractors for this work? Of course not. So down the line the house gets mold and kids living there develop serious health problems like asthma–in a neighborhood with one of the highest asthma rates in the city already.
The problems with these places are much worse than the average new house punch list.
Benson, you lost me when you said “NYC has one of the toughest building codes in the country”
Ever been to San Francisco? What’s your comparison?
Also, I love the people who say that they are defending the middle class by giving them ugly homes. I guess middle-income people don’t know any better, huh?