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[pmcd9]

Thanks paul. I actually did see some interesting pictures of new houses being built in Houston. It was interesting because they looked like McMansions in style (windows and stuff) but were shaped like the houses being built in the midwest 100 years ago-- tall and skinny with narrow alleys between each house and its neighbor. The guy who posted them said "just wait for all the urbanists who claim all they care about is density to respond to this saying these houses are ugly."

The problem with the houses isn't their aesthetic appeal. I agree, many of them look like the kind of houses you find in places like Chicago from 100 years ago. For me the problem lies in the fact they tore down an actual 100 year old house to build it. A house that was half the size and twice as lovely.

[theinevitable]

Sounds about right! Typical.

[Carlos del Vaca]

I lived in Albuquerque many years ago and really enjoyed it. Of course, it could be completely different now.

Mmmmm... green chile.

[jaydub]

Chili verde is the best chili.

[Carlos del Vaca]

You live there you gotta learn how to spell it and who needs that hassle, man?

You can just use "ABQ" until you get it nailed down.

[wombat]

For me the problem lies in the fact they tore down an actual 100 year old house to build it. A house that was half the size and twice as lovely.

Noooo. All my life I have wondered, why does it seem like people who build buildings hate buildings? Why do people who go into the business of creating buildings seem to take such glee in destroying them?

[Carlos del Vaca]

Noooo. All my life I have wondered, why does it seem like people who build buildings hate buildings? Why do people who go into the business of creating buildings seem to take such glee in destroying them?

Because they want to make as much money as possible. The end.

[theinevitable]

This pro-market urban planner I follow on twitter is always posting clippings from the New York Times from earlier days, claiming all the charm of Manhattan and Brooklyn was being demolished for hideous rowhouses and brownstones that no one could ever love. All just to turn a profit on the schmucks who don't have any taste.

The other point he makes is that we complain about old buildings getting knocked down, but want someone else to foot the bill to keep them unprofitably standing.

[wombat]

So a new building is always profitable and an old building always isn't? I don't understand why that would be true. At least, there has to be a point of diminishing returns when everything has been destroyed that attracts people to a place and no one wants to come to your new building anymore.

[theinevitable]

So a new building is always profitable and an old building always isn't? I don't understand why that would be true.

Well, no. But when they knock down buildings, it is because they believe they can make more money with a new building. And legal cases about historic preservation have mostly been about buildings that were losing money.

[wombat]

I think of this every time I go past a building in our neighborhood where they did one of those things of keeping the old building and/or parts of its facade and building another building all tucked in around and over it. It looks so terrible that I almost wish they'd just torn the old one down. The people involved clearly had no sense of aesthetics, of making something that harmonized and fit in visually. I feel like this could only have been built by someone who actually dislikes buildings.

I think my problem with understanding the world is that I have a very impractical approach to life. I look at the world and say "What could I do that's interesting in order to make money?" But I guess some people say "What could I do to make tons of money?", period. So if I was going to try to make money out of buildings, it would be by doing something with a building that I thought was cool... like spending way too much time writing something about an old building for nowhere near enough money. Whereas a lot of other people would say "I could make a ton of money by knocking that old building down and building a big new one." There doesn't have to be another level of interestingness for them. It's not like or dislike, it's just not giving a fuck except about the numbers. I can't even imagine thinking that way, but I think life must be a lot easier for people like that.

[Carlos del Vaca]

There is evidence all around us that it's relatively easy to make a lot of money if you don't give a shit about other people or the environment.

[wombat]

But you know, I can almost understand being so evil that you don't care about people or the environment. What I can't understand is spending your life working on something that you don't find interesting. Apparently I find it easier to empathize with being evil than with being able to tolerate boredom.

[theinevitable]

But you know, I can almost understand being so evil that you don't care about people or the environment. What I can't understand is spending your life working on something that you don't find interesting. Apparently I find it easier to empathize with being evil than with being able to tolerate boredom.

Same.

[AugustWest]

I'll just leave this here.