Housing Diversity

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 | posted by dan bertolet | 7 comments

Three neighbors, on the ridge somewhere between Leschi and Mount Baker.

Posted by dan bertolet on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 9:49 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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7 Responses to “Housing Diversity”

  1. holz April 29th, 2009 at 7:18 am

    the top one is @ jackson & 30th

  2. Joshua Daniel Franklin April 29th, 2009 at 7:49 am

    How about the McMansion to the right of the blue one?

  3. B Frank April 29th, 2009 at 9:28 am

    Ha! We almost bought the house to the right of the one in the top photo — though this one was on the market at the same time, too. Acc. to the Realtor, the garage-door in the middle of the front wall is designed to enable residents to watch their kids’ whiffleball games in the yard.

    You should post a photo of the house on the double lot immediately behind this one, as well.

  4. Sir Learnsalot April 29th, 2009 at 11:17 am

    There is a doppleganger of the last house on 25th and Madison.

  5. dan cortland April 29th, 2009 at 8:27 pm

    Love the agricultural tradition evoked by the simple tilting of one wall and bit of roof in the mostly metal house. Changes the whole interaction of this side of the house with the viewer.

    OT: (Department of Unintended Consequences) Now that the white drapes have been installed on the lower floors with the etched glass trompe l’oeil white structural tubes, Olive 8 appears to be wearing a multi-pleated cotton undergarment–a girdle? granny panties? Or is it a tennis skirt? I wonder what it’s like to live under there.

  6. David in Burien May 1st, 2009 at 8:17 am

    I really like modern residential architecture and the top one caught my eye when I drove by it once upon a time. That said, it completely departs the ‘vernacular’ of the neighborhood (brick tudors and craftsmen galore). Considering the value placed in Seattle neighborhoods on the 19-teens and 19-twenties shaker/craftsmen, I am not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

  7. Kathryn May 1st, 2009 at 8:50 am

    I think evolutionary building that reflects the style of a given time is great. As I’ve said before I love the fact that Seattle has variety, that it sometimes looks like a hodge pddge, even thought the quality of the architecture can be bad to mediocre. It means it’s a real continuously life filled city. It also means that we develop well with infill. We have moved beyond the subdivision neighborhood and some neighborhoods never were built as subdivisions. As well, not ALL neighborhoods are craftsmany.

    Validly, there might be reason for historic overlays in places. There is also valid concerns regarding size, mass and scale — that mini mansion is offensive in many places no matter how pretty.

    Some of what seems appalling, some of what makes people want design review for single family homes, ends up aging in place and complementing a neighborhood really nicely.

    We can develop well with infill strategies. In the past few years, the cookie cutter townhouses have really been built based on a scorched earth policy without a good plan and without good design guidelines.

    The challenge is for areas that are up zoned and subject to massive redevelopment to get a land use design in place, figuring everything there could get torn down, deciding what should be preserved, and make sure that the end result will be pleasing.

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