Which neighborhoods/areas do you think look most distinct to NYC? (New York: how much, living in)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
She's thinking just rowhouses in general more than the kind of brownstones you posted where the street-facing facade is clad in brownstone. Vast majority of the street-facing exterior of Back Bay rowhomes and the like are brick exteriors.
No, I am not thinking of rowhouses in general, but specifically brownstones. Brick is obviously not brownstone. Boston's Back Bay and adjacent areas are full of BROWNSTONES, exactly the ones that Seventh Fl showed in the photo, although Boston is also full of brick rowhouses. In the blocks of Back Bay closer to the park, vast majority of street-facing exteriors are brownstones. Brick starts to predominate as you go farther away from the center, but clusters of brownstone still remain liberally interspersed with brick.
Again, check Back Bay on Wikipedia. What does it say Back Bay is most famous for?
No, I am not thinking of rowhouses in general, but specifically brownstones. Brick is obviously not brownstone. Boston's Back Bay and adjacent areas are full of BROWNSTONES, exactly the ones that Seventh Fl showed in the photo, although Boston is also full of brick rowhouses. In the blocks of Back Bay closer to the park, vast majority of street-facing exteriors are brownstones. Brick starts to predominate as you go farther away from the center, but clusters of brownstone still remain liberally interspersed with brick.
Again, check Back Bay on Wikipedia. What does it say Back Bay is most famous for?
Yea, Back Bay is supposedly famous for brownstones according to wikipedia. I took an architectural walk of Back Bay and other areas of Boston since I'm specifically interested in vernacular architecture. That's how I realized that the term brownstones was being generically used because the vast majority of Back Bay houses are not brownstones in the same sense of brownstones where the street-facing exteriors are actually clad in brownstone. Look at what the wikipedia article is referencing for Back Bay brownstones--a single sentence mention of brownstones in a short article about global warming and rising sea levels for BBC news. The kicker for that is the picture of Back Bay features brick exterior rowhomes and not brownstones. The vast majority of Back Bay rowhomes are not brownstone clad street-facing exteriors and Back Bay itself and the other neighborhoods that do have some limited number of rowhomes are not that large.
Yea, Back Bay is supposedly famous for brownstones due to wikipedia. I took an architectural walk of Back Bay and other areas of Boston since I'm specifically interested in vernacular architecture. That's how I realized that the term brownstones was being generically used a lot of times because the vast majority of Back Bay houses are not brownstones in the same sense of brownstones where the street-facing exteriors are actually clad in brownstone. Look at what the wikipedia article is referencing for Back Bay brownstones--a single sentence mention of brownstones in a short article about global warming and rising sea levels for BBC news. The kicker for that is the picture of Back Bay features brick exterior rowhomes and not brownstones. The vast majority of Back Bay rowhomes are brick exterior and Back Bay itself and the other neighborhoods that do have some limited number of rowhomes are not that large.
I LIVE in Back Bay. It is full of brownstones made of brownstone (not brick) that clearly predominate over brick Victorians in some blocks, particularly closer you go to the park. The earliest 1860s Back Bay buildings in the block of Arlington/Beacon are all brownstones, as brownstone as it gets :-).
I LIVE in Back Bay. It is full of brownstones made of brownstone (not brick) that clearly predominate over brick Victorians in some blocks, particularly closer you go to the park. The earliest 1860s Back Bay buildings in the block of Arlington/Beacon are all brownstones, as brownstone as it gets :-).
I'm proud of you! If you're talking about the block on Beacon just west of Arlington, no, they are obviously not all brownstones and that's likely one of the most if not the most brownstone-heavy block in Back Bay, so yea, that's about as brownstone as it gets in Boston.
You clearly haven't been to Boston if you think that is distinctly NYC :-). That photo looks like every single one of about 300 city blocks of my Boston neighborhood of Back Bay, adjacent South End, some Fenway etc :-).
Just look up Back Bay on Wikipedia, or google images of Back Bay. Rows of brownstones are not distinctly any city (since you can find a row of them pretty much anywhere in the English-speaking world), but they are massively present in Boston, MA or London, UK (or any large city in the UK). In NYC, they are concentrated in a couple of areas - in Boston, they are the main form of architecture of the city.
I can vouch for that, having visited Boston 4 years ago, we rented a condo for a week in Back Bay. Apart from our building, the surrounding streets all had either Brownstone, Graystone or brick houses of that type throughout.
I can vouch for that, having visited Boston 4 years ago, we rented a condo for a week in Back Bay. Apart from our building, the surrounding streets all had either Brownstone, Graystone or brick houses of that type throughout.
Right, it has a lot of Victorian rowhouses, and brownstones are sometimes used as a shorthand to include all of these whether or not they have brownstone cladding or not. My point is that the vast majority of Back Bay houses are not actually brownstones in the sense of street-facing walls having brownstone cladding. Brick is much more common. This is not a dig at Boston or Back Bay, because it's still a great neighborhood and the alleys are great and functional. It's also not saying there are absolutely no brownstones in the narrow sense of exterior brownstone clad rowhomes, but they are far from the majority of what's in Back Bay and are in far fewer numbers than in certain neighborhoods of NYC.
Right, it has a lot of Victorian rowhouses, and brownstones are sometimes used as a shorthand to include all of these whether or not they have brownstone cladding or not. My point is that the vast majority of Back Bay houses are not actually brownstones in the sense of street-facing walls having brownstone cladding. Brick is much more common. This is not a dig at Boston or Back Bay, because it's still a great neighborhood and the alleys are great and functional. It's also not saying there are absolutely no brownstones in the narrow sense of exterior brownstone clad rowhomes, but they are far from the majority of what's in Back Bay and are in far fewer numbers than in certain neighborhoods of NYC.
You are right, brick cladding is preponderant. You can also take in Commonwealth Avenue, which is probably the preeminent street architecturally speaking, and it doesn't have a whole lot of brownstones, but is a beautiful mix of all styles and sizes of row homes.
Montreal has a lot of browntones, but they tend to be inserted in other types of rowhouses as well, alongside yellow and greystones. Chicago, too.
I'm proud of you! If you're talking about the block on Beacon just west of Arlington, no, they are obviously not all brownstones and that's likely one of the most if not the most brownstone-heavy block in Back Bay, so yea, that's about as brownstone as it gets in Boston.
No, that is just probably the brownstone-heavy block that you are most likely to have seen and remembered if you were in Boston. But there are many other brownstone-heavy blocks all over the city, and particularly Back Bay/South End. A whole street of them comes to mind somewhere in the East End, Willow or Willard or something. The point is that brownstones are not particularly "distinct" (meant probably as distinguishing) of NYC, since the same brownstones of Victorian design can be found pretty much wherever English is spoken as the first language, and probably a greater percent of all buildings in the city are brownstones in Boston than in NYC. My guess is there are probably brownstones even in New Zealand, although I won't be able to personally confirm that until 2022.
There's a large splotch similar to what you're talking about for upper Manhattan and the West Bronx in the Flatbush area, but the main commercial arterials are mostly stouter and often older attached structures.
Right , though Flatbush has a ton of Victorian houses. Probably more of those blocks than apartment blocks.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
