Somethings just shouldn't be done. I'm glad that this 1920's Craftsman Style house is being renovated rather than torn down. However, the revised roof line in the rear of the house is a crime. It's an obvious addition/renovation which is why I don't like it.
The devil is in the details. Asymmetric roof pitches, out of proportion dormers, mismatched brick, and bad additions/renovations are just a few of the things that make me cringe. Somewhere along the way I've become an architecture snob.
Unless Tennessee has much worse architects than Texas, I would bet you lunch that no architect had anything to do with that bastardized monstrosity.
Old house Journal used to (and may still) have a photo feature at the end of each issue called Remuddleing
BTW - if you don't already have a copy, this is a pretty cool book:
Perhaps a better subject line would've been "Crimes against Architecture" for the picture I posted.
That's a whole lot of remodeled ugly.
kent, how do you feel about our infill of the last 5-6 years, where the architects seem to think that something resembling a swiss public restroom facility fits appropriately in, say, hyde park?
In Norman, Ok., down here around the University of Oklahoma campus there are a lot of wonderful and beautiful old houses. And then there are a few that the curb appeal was utterly destroyed by an "architectural upgrade".
Beauty, of course, does truly lie within the eye of the beholder. But ugly is ugly..
Here's a remodel just down the street from me where the roof lines were totally destroyed. I'm sure the fella that thunked it up thunked he was doin' good. I drive by it everyday and I respectfully disagree with his concept:
Keep in mind this is in a "preservation district" where you have to apply to the City Council for color-approval if you paint. One of the neighboring houses had two huge double-hung paned windows replaced with plate-glass. The same Council that approved this "hack" job made that guy take his plate-glass out and put paned hung windows back...at considerable expense. But they "liked" this...
go figger...o.O
Our local version: "shipping containers? How eco-cool, innovative, and design conscious that is! Sure, you can stack 6 of those on your 45x100 lot wedged between old man smith's 1902 cottage and granny Johnson's 1918 ranch-style."
This monstrosity is on International Drive in Orlando...
:'(
uh, international drive is like the tiara in the architectural nightmare that is orlando. i woulda stuck around after high school, but i developed some kind of sight allergy to teal and pink...
james
james, those could easily be in bethesda or chevy chase
> kent, how do you feel about our infill of the last 5-6 years, where the architects seem to think that something resembling a swiss public restroom facility fits appropriately in, say, hyde park?
I can't recall seeing anything as offensive in Hyde Park as the large non-residential structures on Speedway (and I don't mean the old Post Office or Fire Station).
Generally, the most offensive stuff is the California model of building a new house in an older neighborhood where people with annual incomes of less than $1,000,000 live, and being sure to raise the actual house at least a full storey above street level with a security fence on the perimeter.
> Perhaps a better subject line would've been "Crimes against Architecture" for the picture I posted.
Yes, your mileage may vary in Tennessee, but usually in Texas there is a "building designer" who should be prosecuted when such things occur.
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> A Field Guide to American Houses
These are exceptionally clever arguments in favor of a colony on Mars where certain architects will be needed.
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That is actually pretty cool. I mean, the basic house is intact. What had been an attic is now habitable space and the room that probably is a bedroom now has a semi-private deck. It's not as if the house was some actual English heirloom, right?
I'd say "works". Now, there will always be the purists, I'm sure, who want to insist that an attic must remain an attic and a Harley must always leak oil. But thankfully other sensibilities will prevail when the cost/benefit ratio becomes untenable.
That's EXACTLY what went up next door to me 3 years ago. 10.1 feet from my bedroom window. The "developer" even came to me all shucks and buddy and asked if I'd go in halves on the fence. I told him if he could find a single privacy fence anywhere else in the neighborhood he had a deal, otherwise he could go try urinating up a rope. He got a little wet.
But hey- my 1000 s.f. home of 15 years now appraises over 300k!
I wonder how that works!
😛
@28.433291,-81.471785,3a,51.5y,24.63h,94.32t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sIqfV-RLTa2zlC96oZdGFWA!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x88e77e2d9afd3d77:0xc57ea53b1e126359">Ugly Upside Down House
