BS: Little Boxes revisited

Subject: BS: Little Boxes revisited
From: Bill D
Date: 08 May 13 - 11:16 AM

No.. this really isn't a music topic.

it is real

I have seen the original Little Boxes from a plane, but this one blows me away.

(If you are viewing this after May 8, 2013, just click the image and it will go to the previous.... always some interesting things to see.)

Subject: RE: BS: Little Boxes revisited
From: artbrooks
Date: 08 May 13 - 12:59 PM

Ya know, I think Melvina Reynolds would have had a bird if she'd ever thought that those "little houses made out of ticky-tacky" were selling for $half a million today.

Subject: RE: BS: Little Boxes revisited
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 May 13 - 01:14 PM

It's not like it hasn't been done before or that small housing units can't be very charming.

Another one. And here. Or here.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Little Boxes revisited
From: Ebbie
Date: 08 May 13 - 01:27 PM

If those homes were painted, Stilly, one would see immediately that they are not at all identical. My first thought when I saw the Mexico picture Bill linked to was how in the world would one ever identify one's own house.

Subject: RE: BS: Little Boxes revisited
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 May 13 - 09:38 AM

My riff was on the tightly-packed small houses. The point is, as obnoxious visually as the modern version is, there is a long-standing premise at work.

What you'll notice after a short time is that each resident has found a way to make their box a little different from the ones around them. Partly so they can find their own home easily, and partly, one would guess, to set themselves apart from the ticky-tack neighborhood.

My neighborhood has houses that are placed 25' back from the street, are centered on the lots, and all have masonry or stone exteriors. Anyone spending more than a few minutes here can see the five (?) floorplans that were used over and over, but that what sets them apart is different color materials to face the houses, roof colors, etc. I wonder what that neighborhood in the first photo would look like if it was all different colors. This photo turned up in a search I did last week after someone posted an interesting photo from the Italian coast. (Down the Google image search rabbit hole. . . ) These houses aren't particularly attractive, but the effect when they're all brightly painted different colors is interesting.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Little Boxes revisited
From: Ebbie
Date: 09 May 13 - 10:03 AM

Wow. Makes them downright fluorescent!

Subject: RE: BS: Little Boxes revisited
From: Bill D
Date: 09 May 13 - 11:29 AM

I have a similar photo of Cinque-Terre, Italy as one of several hundred screensavers. That type of arrangement of houses is fairly common in the world in mountain & seaside topography where centuries of building left little choice. It is a tourist destination and is quaint and fascinating...(and Google Earth used bicycles and hand carried cameras to allow one to drive and walk thru the town all the way out to the end of the pedestrian paths on the cliffs...beautiful). I cannot imagine wanting to stroll thru the San Buenaventura complex. I understand why builders would resort to this system... and why people with few other choices would move there, but my soul wishes it were not necessary.

The original Little Boxes of song fame were at least distinguished by alternating colors.(sort of like this
The one I linked to is striking because of the very uniform color pattern. Yes, I'm sure that, from ground level, residents DO add things to separate them from everyone else... and perhaps in a Mexico City suburb, they are pleased to have a clean, usable neighborhood of any type. I just recoil at the idea that they can't be a bit more....ummm... creative when building "people hives".

If you go to Google Images and enter "little boxes", you will get dozens of amazing images of similar... or worse... areas. Enter "Levittown, New York" to see the prototype of American "planned communities".

Subject: RE: BS: Little Boxes revisited
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 09 May 13 - 10:00 PM

Once it drops back to a day old, it looks like a link to the individual picture Bill D linked might stick:

Like Here (for latecomers)

John