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Some of the ones from the Pittsburgh link don't look cookie cutter at all, many of the houses have indivualized exterior styling. Or, as you said in blocks of 2-6. Some of them are cookie-cutter, though.
Relax ... In 50 years, the modern cookie cutter houses all will be modified, too, and our grandkids will wax poetic about how cool they are.
Yes, I agree that by using 4 styles with random degrees that newer neighborhoods are often less cookie cutter than the cooke cutters you'll find it Baltimore which often have one style.
For example we have four basic designs in my subdivision that are mirrored meaning there's now eight. We also have two different options for the roof. The front of the house either has two large windows or four smaller windows. There were two options for roofline over the entry way as well as the amount of overhang out front to create various size "porches." Then you had the facade choices, those unique bits as you call them. You could have brick or stone accents in a few different styles. You also had the choice of wood fronting with stucco on the side and rear or all stucco.
A few streets were also left open for custom and spec houses. There are two additional floor plans available on those streets (again mirrored) with additional options available rooflines and window configurations on the standard four designs. Plus there's a few completely custom houses on those streets. All of them are spec houses, but aside from the few custom houses, it's still definitely cookie cutter. Doing Mr. Potato Head on the windows here, the roof here, some brick accent there doesn't really change much.
Sounds like the neighborhood where we first lived.
North/south border: S. Boulder Rd, Willow St. East/west border: Filmore/Kennedy
4 styles, numerous variations on roof line, cantilevers, brick fronts, garage size. Probably no two exactly alike, especially with different paint colors.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81
Relax ... In 50 years, the modern cookie cutter houses all will be modified, too, and our grandkids will wax poetic about how cool they are.
Exactly! There are streets in Denver that are one bungalow after another, but they all look a little different. Some have porches, there are different trim colors, different landscaping. I've been a visiting nurse in these houses. Same floor plan, never had to ask where the bathroom was to wash my hands.
I think one of the things that might make housing feel cookie cutter is if there's a lot of uniformity throughout the region. Going from one development to the next in the GTA, each development might have a several different models, but they look very similar to the models in all the other subdivisions going up at that time. Plus the layout of streets, retail, schools and parks is very similar from one subdivision to the next. That it's happening on a very large scale and the trees haven't grown up yet and the homes haven't been customized adds to the cookie cutter feel.
Still, you can tell that these are from the GTA. Even within Ontario, the other metro areas will have subtle differences (except maybe Barrie, Oshawa and Hamilton which would be considered part of the same CSA anyways). And even then, Oshawa tends to have more vinyl, Hamilton more bungalows. Elsewhere in Ontario, there's more vinyl and more bungalows. Quebec and Maritimes have larger lots. Prairies and BC have rather different architecture (mountains style vs neo-Victorian-ish).
I think that out of any newer suburban cookie cutter housing I've seen anywhere, Toronto's most resembles the styles seen in the metro where I grew up, the Dallas-Fort Worth area. There's something very Texan about Toronto suburbia—from the brown grass in the winter, to the clearing of all trees for new subdivisions and then the replanting of them, to the natural tree cover and height of the trees, to the warehouses and office buildings next to large freeways, to the use of high-mast lighting on those freeways, to the full visibility of the suburbia while driving on them, to the large boulevards with medians, to the ethnic diversity (mostly from East and South Asia in both cases), to the shapes of the new McMansions, to their choices of building materials, to the ratio of brick coverage on houses vs. stucco and stone, to their roof styles/shapes, and to the frequency of fence-building in subdivisions.
The main differences in the Toronto suburbs are the presence of decent transit and the steady use of the transit by residents, the frequent inclusion of porches on McMansions, and the presence of large apartment towers (apartments are usually built as lower-density garden apartments in Texas's suburbs).
I agree that there are many similarities between Toronto and the metroplex. Some differences though would be more single storey homes and a bit lower densities in DFW (for new development, 1920-1970 development in Toronto included lots of bungalows). Also DFW seems to have a lot concrete driveways and streets while in Toronto it's almost all asphalt. I think DFW also has more back alleys and a bit more leapfrog development too. The porches in the GTA and alleys in DFW are both something from the last decade or two, but otherwise I think the housing has been getting more alike.
I'd also add SW Ontario as being similar to DFW/Texas and New Orleans and maybe even Detroit.
Windsor http://goo.gl/maps/UNCCO http://goo.gl/maps/H8OrH
Seems very similar to DFW but with a different street network due to the small narrow farm plots that are a legacy of the French and smaller scale growth.
Sarnia too, although it only has a couple recent subdivisions http://goo.gl/maps/OiU0I
What? I am serious, those two cities are full of cookie cutter developments. I know because that is where I grew up. I grew up in one of the many cookie cutter subdevelopments that I got to watch spring up from an old pig farm.
You grew up in a small town outside of Pittsburgh. How is that tough for you to comprehend?
With how poorly many are constructed today, I am not sure that they'll make it fifty years to was poetic.
/yawn.
My neighborhood was built in the '70s, but there's '50s neighborhoods that are still standing intact. The only house in my neighborhood that's been demolished burnt down.
My neighborhood was built in the '70s, but there's '50s neighborhoods that are still standing intact. The only house in my neighborhood that's been demolished burnt down.
Many of the starter neighborhoods being built today really low grade construction that practically invites deterioration over time. Highly inexpensive materials and methods are being used across the country to maximize home size while minimizing costs. Upon the inspection for his sale, he found himself fixing a lot of things that should not have needed fixing after only 10 years. It doesn't bode well for his buyer. My brother bought one of these new homes in 2004 and thankfully sold it this past holiday season.
They don't generally get demolished just 'improved' they add additional rooms, porches, patios. They reside them or add dormers to the roof to make a second floor (not as common now that many houses used brebuilt trusses)
They add trees and bushes that individualize the property. Those were my observations in the older neighborhoods such as Middle River and the pictures of the Richmond area earlier in the thread.
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