Why America’s New Apartment Buildings All Look the Same (suburb, Pittsburgh)

[Dwatted Wabbit]

Originally Posted by ilovelondon

Yeah, I don't like candilevered balconies as well, but they're helpful for smokers and barbeques.




Well, if you live in a gorgeous city that has world-class green parks and garden squares, great outdoor public spaces designed for social interaction, very low crime rates where residents are not afraid to be in public, incredible number of events and cultural activities to keep one busy, then anything larger than a balcony is wasted space.

Smokers should be banished to enclaves downwind from non-smokers.

[DavePa]

Originally Posted by Ed Ferris

Brick facade is an insane choice for a high-rises. Sure, you don't have to paint it, but you will have to re-point it one of these days and that will not be cheap. Or you can just let the bricks drop out onto passers-by.

Bricks falling out ... no. Maybe shoddy developers allowed to cut corners in super growth cities ..
Do you know he back the earliest skyscrapers go? Many were birch and clad in terracotta.

Plenty. Held up well in well constructed as they were.

I've live in older cities with much brick thru every era. They hold up well. Lived even the 60-60s era f brick where they look as good today 60+ years later. Well constructed in cites with enforced codes for developers.

Plenty of modern High-rises us brick too. Even in a city's core and town-housing

Example in Chicago and colors I diverse areas around the crew and fringes.
Photos bit outdated ....

BRICK
on river canyon - Close-up river one- above another- south Loop has -River North in core town-housing

[Vincent_Adultman]

Seattle has so many of these buildings, it’s getting absurd. The vast majority of them are just ridiculously ugly too.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by Vincent_Adultman

Seattle has so many of these buildings, it’s getting absurd. The vast majority of them are just ridiculously ugly too.

When I first saw this picture I thought it was the exact corner a friend and I used to go to Applebee’s for lunch in Portland.

[Frihed89]

They look the same in Denmark as they do in London, only they are slightly less unfordable.

[IC_deLight]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

You're clearly not an urbanite, and that's okay.

But you seem to harbor disdain for urbanites in general. I'm not so cool with that.

Did you have anything productive or remotely related to the thread topic to add?

[Veritas Vincit]

You can't drive 5 minutes in NoVa without seeing one of those. They aren't really all that attractive or well-built and yet in spite of that they seem to get away with charging high end rents. The funny thing is that they're pulling these up in far-flung suburban locations as well and they paint it like this urbanist thing..when really it's a few of those apartment blocks, a couple restaurants and maybe a grocery store surrounded by very little otherwise. Do people think this is actually a better approach to residential living than the suburban houses of their parents?

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by IC_deLight

Did you have anything productive or remotely related to the thread topic to add?

I made some posts upthread that were on-topic.

Apartment buildings are an inherently urban building type, though they are found in suburbs too - but suburbs are urban places, not rural ones.

Garden apartment buildings are set in parklike settings, but their residents don't have their own yards - that's all shared space.

And this thread is about apartment buildings.

[insulator_king]

More power for those who want to live in the city. Me, I want an exurban rural type atmosphere.

[karen_in_nh_2012]

Originally Posted by KenFresno

God I hate cantilevered balconies. It ruins the whole profile of the building.

I was thinking the same thing when I looked at the pictures in post #3 by ilovelondon. I think they're ugly, but beyond that, they look unsafe to me sticking out like that. (I know that SOMEONE must have done the calculations as to how much they could "stick out" from the building safely, but I don't think I would want to stand on one.)

Originally Posted by Katarina Witt

^^They give the residents a little outdoor space.

Originally Posted by ilovelondon

Yeah, I don't like candilevered balconies as well, but they're helpful for smokers and barbeques.

I don't mind balconies -- just the CANTILEVERED ones. If I understand the term correctly, this picture from post #3 shows a building with cantilevered balconies (they jut out with no visible support underneath them):


And this one, also post #3 (thanks ilovelondon!), shows an apartment building with balconies but they're NOT cantilevered -- they don't jut out and hang over nothing:


I like the ones just above ^^^ but NOT the cantilevered ones.

But honestly, I would be more concerned about SOUNDPROOFING between apartments than about whether they have balconies or what they look like. I wish soundproofing standards were more stringent, although I hope I never have to live in an apartment again!