Almost eleven years ago, an effort to designate Robinson Street as a historic district went down in flames. Since then, development on this historic, once nearly intact working class enclave, a notable survivor of urban renewal in Hudson, which devastated most of the surrounding neighborhood in the 1970s, has proceeded untempered by the review of the Historic Preservation Commission. The latest example is this house, now under construction at the western end of the street, with fenestration that challenges some of the basic principles of compatibility.
How is this not compatible with Bliss ?
ReplyDeleteWhoever designed that must have spent a lot of time in the laundromat.
ReplyDelete" that challenges some of the basic principles of compatibility."
ReplyDelete????
a great opportunity to use language like fenestration and compatibility should never be missed
DeleteAnd will it be painted a fashionably dark and depressing color? Talk about compatibility!
ReplyDeleteOh dear.
ReplyDeleteJust another example of the erosion of what is left of Hudson's character. It's like a wife who marries a guy, and then tries to change everything about him. Why do people come here for the great architecture, and then insert disasters like this?
ReplyDeleteTic-tac-toe, three in a row. Hudson loses!
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't challenge compatibility. It ignores it, and I'm not sure there's a good reason a blank canvas on an empty lot should slavishly adhere to a design language so long as the building size remains generally in proportion to the surrounding buildings.
ReplyDeleteIt's round windows, not the sculpture garden from Beetlejuice.
True, and after permitting the construction of Bliss Towers, Providence Hall, etc, etc, it's hard to find grounds for a complaint about a few round windows, even if they look like the laundry dryers out at Wash Rite!
DeleteI'm OK with that building, depending on what kind of siding they use. A bit of architectural quirkiness is a Hudson tradition. At least the design isn't cold, bleak modernism. I don't need for us to be a WASPY, perfect little New England town.
ReplyDeleteRound windows like this always make the think of those tacky beach McMansions at the Jersey Shore where I spent summers as a child.
DeleteIt certainly doesn't seem to my taste, though how much the taste of someone who spent a good portion of their childhood at the Jersey Shore actually matters is debatable. For what it's worth, new construction that tries to emulate old design principles usually presents as kind of cheap, so I'd rather they took it in a new direction.
At any rate, this dish isn't cooked yet, and whether it will pass muster to the (many) eager critics once complete is perhaps less important than whether or not the person living inside it enjoys their space. Perhaps when they move in we can finagle an invitation to come over for a session in their tanning bed and them about their design choices over a few frozen daiquiris and some caprese salad.
for what it is worth, images of my 1885 house show a cylindrical window which was removed in the early 20's. It was just one cylindrical window, but some of my neighbors still have theirs. I wish my house's round window was still intact.
ReplyDeleteThere are more than one of these houses popping up in Hudson, all similar in size and building materials. there is one on Worth Ave between Union and Warren, and one past the hospital on Columbia. the developer is using a simple inexpensive formula for housing but asking a very high price for these post modern cartoon houses -- all designed using CAD. Its a tech generated product for the new Hudson.
ReplyDeleteNot my style, but i might be out of date and not on the new band wagon.
REPETITION COMPULSION or just overcooked ...
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