Why are “hip” Houston condos so butt ugly? (Spring: apartment complex, townhomes)

[gwarnecke]

I will give credit to the developers of big infill communities like Somerset Green - they usually lay out the lots and streets so that the homes can have their garage around back and the opportunity for a pleasant "face" and a front porch.

Unfortunately, individual builders squander this opportunity with terrible detailing and ridiculously out-of-scale designs (for example, monolithic porch-free 4-story stucco towers capped by a mansard roof).

[gwarnecke]

Originally Posted by lotophage

4909 Graustark Street, Houston, TX 77006 - HAR.com


1975, and arguably much shoddier than the townhouses built today. Still worth more than the typical house in the suburbs.

Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but this unit is attached to its neighbors.

It seems like attached townhomes/condos (other than highrises) fell out of favor in Houston sometime in the 80s or 90s. Tons of attached-wall townhomes were built around Houston, even in suburban areas, in the 70s and early 80s, but nowadays everything has to have 2 feet of air space around it.

[lotophage]

Originally Posted by gwarnecke

Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but this unit is attached to its neighbors.

It seems like attached townhomes/condos (other than highrises) fell out of favor in Houston sometime in the 80s or 90s. Tons of attached-wall townhomes were built around Houston, even in suburban areas, in the 70s and early 80s, but nowadays everything has to have 2 feet of air space around it.

I think these are actually detached, just with a brick wall between then instead of a fence.

But isn't that even more to the point? Even though this design fell way out of favor and the address so desirable, it's still economical to keep these dumpy townhouses standing. I mean people LOVE San Francisco and it's like 70% really, really crappy townhouses. Like 3rd-world crappy. And they cost a million dollars.

[Houston parent]

Originally Posted by Hopelesscause

What’s a “wrap” and “podium”?

A wrap project is one where they build a multistory concrete parking garage, then "wrap" it with 3-6 story wood framed apartment units on 3-4 sides.





A podium project is one where they stack the apartment units on top of a multi-level parking garage.





You have many instances of both types being built in infill locations.

[fbf2006]

Originally Posted by Texyn

The answer, by the way, can be chalked up to the classic case of an old-timer hating everything that is new. Your attitudes towards The Core was a dead giveaway.

The new infill aesthetic is okay, the real issues are more from the car-centric standards that they are forced to conform to thanks to worthless city codes. For instance, there are set-back requirements, which force these homes to be built back from the sidewalk, producing those wide garage driveway designs that kill urban street presence. Parking mandates force infill to provide parking (either surface lots or parking garage wraps), which waste valuable redevelopment space. Not to mention that many of them are springing up in areas that used to be poor shot-gun shack communities, which can cause scales to be off initially.

I think I agree with you. None of the townhouses or apartments that I've seen based on this thread (including the wrap and podium) seem ugly to me. They might be new and a little different from what some are used to though.

I doubt their life span is 10-15 years.

[Ghost Town]

Wrap and podium are not bad, but most other units from this thread are ugly as hell.
1975 townhouse in Rice area is super ugly, but what else you can buy in that area for under 500K? At this price point it is still desirable.

[fbf2006]

The 1975 townhouse was indeed ugly. The detached townhouses in one of the links posted seemed fine to me.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by jerbear30

I like some of them, and some of them I don't. I think it depends on the area, really. If you have a sidewalk in front of the condo and a little front porch area, and you can walk to some "hip" stuff then I can totally see it. These condos take up less space and they give more opportunity to own inside the loop for folks who otherwise could not afford it.

Where I don't like these structures is outside the loop in places like Spring Branch, where I live. Here, there is little walkability, and yet you're stuck with the downsides of the condo all the same. In a suburban space, these condos look strange and I do wonder a little bit about their long term viability.

I also don't like the rhetoric of many of the condos--they seem to be very shut off from the experience of the front porch and any kind of social interaction with the world around them. They're like tiny fortresses that tell people walking by, "get away". That's what's the most ugly to me about them.

That's fine, you don't have to buy one. If someone else is happy to buy a Spring Branch townhome (what's being discussed here are mostly SINGLE FAMILY TOWNHOMES, not condos), I can't imagine someone else having an issue with it.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by gwarnecke

Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but this unit is attached to its neighbors.

It seems like attached townhomes/condos (other than highrises) fell out of favor in Houston sometime in the 80s or 90s. Tons of attached-wall townhomes were built around Houston, even in suburban areas, in the 70s and early 80s, but nowadays everything has to have 2 feet of air space around it.

Many attached / shared wall townhomes are being built in Houston, especially near the urban core.

[Texyn]

Originally Posted by Houston parent

A wrap project is one where they build a multistory concrete parking garage, then "wrap" it with 3-6 story wood framed apartment units on 3-4 sides.

A podium project is one where they stack the apartment units on top of a multi-level parking garage.

You have many instances of both types being built in infill locations.

Poor buildings. You don't deserve to have your urbanity marred by Houston's regulations.

Originally Posted by fbf2006

I think I agree with you. None of the townhouses or apartments that I've seen based on this thread (including the wrap and podium) seem ugly to me. They might be new and a little different from what some are used to though.

I doubt their life span is 10-15 years.

I feel the ideal scenario for modern Houston development regards executing cool high-end aesthetics, while incorporating the local character of the city's historic housing stock (i.e. shotgun, Art Deco, Victorian, etc). Could really make 3rd Ward look interesting.

But yeah, none of these buildings shown so far are ugly in and of themselves. But conformance to the city's car centric codes winds up taking away a lot of charm that could have been exuded.