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I want to have more discussion on here about midwest cities. Of the 10 cities in this poll, choose the ones that you think have the best residential architecture in terms of style, variety and esthetic appeal. Include the metropolitan areas as well.
Personally speaking, I prefer brick attached housing. It's much more urban and aesthetically appealing to me than detached wood-frame housing, which simply does not not age or hold up nearly as well as masonry does, and has a bit of a small-townish vibe to me for some reason.
Old walk-ups have a mysterious coolness to them, while an abandoned frame cottage just looks depressing.
Strictly speaking of the pre-war neighborhoods, here is how I'd rank the cities, from best to worst residential architecture:
Cincinnati: The Victorian styles are amazing.
St. Louis: Some great German influenced architecture.
Chicago: More variety, practically everything to choose from.
Columbus: Columbus has a good selection of dense, all-brick neighborhoods.
Milwaukee: Nice mix of apartment buildings interspersed with the houses.
Minneapolis/St. Paul: See Milwaukee. Interesting Queen Anne styles.
Kansas City: Occasional brick houses mixed among the frame houses.
Detroit: Surprisingly limited selection for such a large city.
Cleveland: Very heavily wood-frame, reminds me of Buffalo.
Indianapolis: Somewhat non-descript housing stock, although very nice on the Northside.
Location: Pittsburgh (via Chicago, via Pittsburgh)
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Easily Chicago...from Frank Lloyd Wright homes to Rowhouses to 3 flats to the best highrise living anywhere in the US outside of NYC and more. The other cities don't offer the variety, quantity or quality.
The Chicago homers are going to say Chicago but I think St Louis is the real answer. The architecture in the city is amazing.
Yes. When adjusted for size, both Cincinnati and St. Louis are superior to Chicago, IMO in terms of residential architecture pound for pound.
It just pains me to see so many blocks of burned out, abandoned buildings in those cities--other cities would kill for that type of housing stock.
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