more great 50's modern houses getting the 'dozer

<font color="blue"> Um..well...yeah, some would think so.
I guess that's the joy/curse of a new job and the prerequisite of creating sales and a good impression to all and sundry.
Working somewhere between 12-14 hour days approx. and 500k's + on the road each week then getting home to do more admin...
Thing's should settle down soon.
Will be at the Swapmeet on Sunday, poking fun at Alfster and the usual rat pack who will be there.
There must be a new CKD shortly if I am not mistaken...??
At least I am meeting Rodders and other cool people in my new job and of course, tools are a hard thing to go past....
Catcha Sunday.
Cruisin'
</font>

 

Man this really SUCKS! That shit happens every month in my neighborhood. Yuppies from up north come down and tear down these really kool ranch houses and if that weren't enough they are still tearing down the kool stuff and the beach and putting up condos. I'll try and get some pics this weekend.

 

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Yuppies from up north come down and tear down these really kool ranch houses and if that weren't enough they are still tearing down the kool stuff and the beach and putting up condos.

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Well we can't just blame the northerners here. A lot of it is southerners trying to keep up with the Jones'. Tearing down teh cool old buildings downtown. Just your basic BS developers.

 

Nads buddy, I really gotta see your place someday.

Not to make this into a political rant, but...

I'm generally libertarian and believe a man's home is his castle; if it's your land in principle it ought to be up to you what you want to do with it. That said, the whole house destruction thing demonstrates that somebody's right to throw their fist ends at the tip of my nose.

Case in point: a couple of years ago a developer bought the rambling 50's ranch next door to me, bulldozed it, split the lot and erected two hideous starter castles. Where once I had an unobstructed view of woods, I now see the slab walls of two 35' high brick barns. I'm all for live-and-let-live, but it materially affected the value of my place. Not to mention how it goosed my property taxes. In some respects I think I have the basis for a lawsuit, but just don't want the aggravation.

Of course this wouldn't be a problem if we could buy our neighbor's properties, or if medicine came up with a miracle cure for ostentatious assholes. Sometimes you have to resort to more formal means. That's why I support efforts for zoning restrictions and historical preservation. It's a way to ensure that individual property rights are balanced against collective/community good.

BTW - my town recently enacted teardown rules that limit the size of replacement McMansions - for example, you can't build a house more than 10' taller than those on any adjoining lot. Under the new rules, my neighbor's house is illegal.

 

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I did read here in Dallas they are building a new subdivision in the Oakcliff area which will be new midcentury style houses. They start in the $400's.

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Dang, that is very cool... do you have any more info on that?

 

A landmark Richard Neutra house in So Cal was leveled earlier this year. Motherfuckers bought it and tore it down 30 days later. It was a major outrage in the architectural world. Neutra's modern homes are incredible, this one even had all the origianl furnishings. Go here:

http://www.architectureweek.com/2002/0424/news_1-1.html

 

Nice to see that folks here appreciate Eichler and other mid-century modern home preservation!

For Eichler Fans, the following site provides some great information including pictures, neighborhood information, restoration ideas and photo galleryetc. Check it out at:

California Eichler Homes

 

All it takes is someone to buy it to save it. My town is full of houses from the late 1800's up to the late 1920's. Mine was built in '27. The house 2 doors down from me is in need of repair it is just in need of a buyer and the sellers to drop the price some. I think it is a goo thing that there are shows on HGTV now like Generation Renovation that showcase what other people have dome and what can be done to these houses that normally others wouldn't even know about.

 

It's a changing of the guard. I love older homes. Not all are great or even good looking. To remove significant architecture is just plain wrong though. Those original north shores are cool to say the least. And the only way to keep them is to "sell" the idea to new home owners or potential buyers. To make it cool and a status symbol to own one. Sadly old sometimes means mildew and rot, but that's what restoration is all about. I can see something renovated with the latest mat'ls being way more attractive than these newer designs. Kinda like a 30s Ford with a 289 hipo or a hot flatty.

My dump is a 1969 model but I have no idea what the thing is or it's significance. I like this time period. Those oppulent looking broad fronts. Still have the original cabinets and a built in BBQ on the patio. They're the reasons that I had to have it. If I had a dollar for everyone that has told me to convert the grille to gas...

 

Nads, I must say, your pad is very Ultra Lounge ! No-one would know you have kids. The pink color is so 50;s. Best thing about hangin' at your place is how funny it is that you and your Hot-Rods (not to mention us misfits) stick out like a sore thumb. Right on! Still watin' to hear that juke box someday.
Amen to everything you said about Orlando.
JT

 

It you played the game MONOPOLY,
the object was to buy property,
then build a house,
then another
then a motel,
then another.

that is how you win.
it may suck but its the american way!

tp aka zibo

 

The old falls for the new.

I just finished moving out of my warehouse. It sold earlier this year to a developer. It's being torn down for some cardboard condos. While Houston is seeing a rash of knockdowns, Dallas seems to be preserving the old 'n cool stuff and building lots of new Modern styled houses.

 

It sucks to see history like this getting 'dozed. Right now I live in an eichler. Its a glass house pretty much. Radiant heat, no AC, cold in the winter, hot in the summer. Thats one of the reasons they get demolished, that and people arent happy unless they can get lost in their own house.

 

I think that mid-century modern houses are sort of the traditional hot rod of the real estate world.

Yes, fortunately that is true for the most part. Dallas has embraced the "mid-century modern" style of home, and the market for these types of houses has skyrocketed in the past few years.

My g/f and I just bought a "modern ranch" house built in 1952. We looked pretty hard to find a house that was still mostly original, and had the mid-mod feel that we wanted. A lot of the homes of this style in Dallas have been the victims of unfortunate 'updates', and it can be hard to find one that still has original details.

Here's a couple pics of our house we just bought. It's actually in Irving, but just barely...the Dallas city limit marker is just a few hundred yards away. We need to fix a few things and do some painting, but we are going to try to keep as much of the original funky-ness as we can.

PS...modernbeat...is that house you posted way back at the start of this thread in the Plano Rd. & Northwest Hwy. area? There are a lot of killer houses over there.

 

Yep, that's my long haired pal Jeff Keller's house. That's probally the worst photo of it. He keeps improving it little by little. It's been in a few fashion shoots and at least one commercial.

 

Yeah he's British - and he performs in drag. I don't care about that, hes' funny as hell. He does have a point, we Americans sometimes view everything and everyone as disposable.

 

I can't stand when great architecture gets torn down for crap houses to get built. It kills me.....For as long as I own it it isn't going anywhere. Here some pictures of my mid century modern.. 1956 Edward Fickett

 

This kind of thing is going on all over the Seattle area, too. If you know where Kerry Park on Queen Anne hill is and haven't been there in a while, you won't believe it. Some asshole tore down one of the most beautiful houses in Seattle, a Frank LLoyd Wright 1914 prairie style house, to make room for a 5 story condo that will block the views from about 10 houses behind it. Now the same developer has bought the Parkview Apartments next door, a beautiful 1920's brick and terra-cotta building with landscaped gardens. They're planning to put in another condo building that looks like a concrete cellblock. What the hell is wrong with people that want to build developemnts that are completely out of scale and character with their neighborhoods?? Makes me hope the big real estate collapse comes soon.

 

They do that with hotels here in Vegas; The Tropicana will be next.

 

Me and my wife are restoring and preserving a 1956 ranch house back to its glory with furnishings and also some Hot Rod heritage out back and I think you guys would love this place. So keep restoring and fuck the destroyers.

 

Lortondale is a great Mid-Century Modern neighborhood in Tulsa, Ok. Most of it is still there. There's some great pictures on the web site. Check it out. http://www.lortondale.com/
They just recently tore down the Mayo Meadow Shopping center that was across the street from Lortondale for a Wal-Mart neighborhood market.
It was built in 1955 and was a great example of a Mid-Century building. It was a very sad day.

 

AAAaaaarrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhh.

 

They just tore down a whole block of 40's - 50's hotels (with the cool animated rocket ship/amoeba/atom inspired neon signs) on Clearwater Beach to put up, you guessed it, Condos... Short sighted city managers don't see that they are effectively killing tourism by selling off the places that tourists can stay when they are here.

The property taxes on stacked housing will be a great windfall for a few years, but a limit on county property taxes on how much they increase each year will limit what they make off of the condos in the future. If they lift that limit, Most people won't be able to stay here...

 

May I, on behalf of British HAMBers, apologise for Eddie Izzard - sorry, I don't think he's funny, and I don't think he ever will be!

Your houses all look superb guys - sadly, following my posting a couple of months ago, our rip-off builder has suggested we bankrupt him. So our lovely '30s gaff still can't be moved into.

 

We think Eddie is funny, it's Benny Hill we don't get.

 

Exact same shit is happening here in Canberra, developers knocking down classic homes to buld multi storey unit complexes . and usually the developer will more than the property is worth, putting the price out of the reach of most who want to save the place.

 

There is a great 50's house in LaGrange Il. that is for sale. I'm sure that it will most likely be torn down, to build some stupid looking box that fills the hole lot. Its happening all over the western burbs of Chicago.