What in the world are the planning commissions thinking when they allow these horribly ugly monstrosities?
We have the exact same problem here, although they are tearing down post-war bungalow or ranch-style homes here, not the nice, historical buildings you have. Nice neighborhoods with simple, comfortable, single-story homes and tree-lined streets are giving way to tiny lots devoid of any established vegetation and ugly, intrusive, boxy structures. I wish they’d do something about this trend. Maybe the end of the bubble can mean the end of destroying old neighborhoods for the benefit of spec builders. We can hope![/quote]
You’re assuming that the people on the planning commissions are not only folks of aesthetic taste and refinement, but are incapable of taking bribes. And I think there was a bit of that going on during the housing boom.
As for your post-war bungalows vs. our nice historical buildings, I think we’re probably on the same page in believing that there can be beauty in any structure, regardless of the cost, just as we’ve learned how much bad taste money can buy. Some of my favorite neighborhoods here are in the small peninsulas that line the Chesapeake Bay. You can drive thru the streets, and see these delightful cottages from the 30s, bungalows from the 40s, and ranchers from the 50s. They’re anywhere from 650 to 1100 square feet, and the 50s and early 60s houses are sometimes painted in their original hues of aqua blue or salmon pink. They were built as homes for some of the workmen in the fishing and boating industries in these parts, or as modest summer weekend getaways for harried DC lawyers and white-collar government workers. They’re not going to be featured on the pages of Architectural Digest, but many of them have simple lines that, paired with the mature landscaping and the rock jettys, driftwood, and beaches of the Bay hearken back to a time when a house was shelter for your family, and not an exercise in trying to impress your family and outspend your friends.
There were so many of these charming little communities in these parts prior to the boom, before everybody and his brother decided they just had to have a beach house. Planning commissions stood by idly (or else they were counting their money) while horrendous oversized McMansions went up on teeny little beach lots beside the jury-rigged do-it-yourself structures that were erected by guys who fancied themselves weekend home construction warriors.
I’m with you in feeling that the one blessing of the housing bust was the cessation of this indiscriminate building in some of our most naturally beautiful areas.
