If I was in charge of my city, I would.....

[kool maudit]

That blue Chicago building now looks like the Ishtar Gate.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by meh

and as an addendum, painted brick can look amazing, but painting quality face brick defeats the purpose of quality face brick, and shortens its life.

Bingo!

When a century-ago builder went through the expense to face his building with beautiful, high-quality face brick, there's no freaking need to paint it. regardless of how "nice" it might look.

It's such an amateur dip-shit flipper move.

[JManc]

Several houses in my neighborhood (late 70's/ early 80's era) have painted over the brick and most look terrible. Several are even baby shit green. The blue house in Chicago looks great though but ultimately terrible for the brick.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by meh

^ agree the blue looks really nice. and as an addendum, painted brick can look amazing, but painting quality face brick defeats the purpose of quality face brick, and shortens its life.

That's true. Where you do see painted brick in Toronto or elsewhere it tends to be in more traditionally working class areas, with lower-quality brick construction. You'd never see painted brick on places like this on the other hand: (unless also bought by some obnoxious flipper)


https://torontoluxuryhome.ca/neighbourhoods/rosedale

[Centropolis]

the painted brick trend fucking sucks. fortunately, i don't think it caught on in St. Louis as much as other places due to the local semi-reverence of the brick (doesn't stop abandonment and brick thievery - yes, professional grade thieves load pallets of brick from abandoned houses and they often end up in the Texas building supply market).

Update: Apparently out of town investors are doing this in St. Louis.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by toddguy

My God, both of these are absolutely offensive as hell! How was this allowed to happen? Who signed off for it?

Yeah, at least in the way I see this (facade preservation) often done in North America it looks like a robot wearing a corpses face. I hate it.

[Kenmore]

blow up and destroy the parking meter deal by any means, legal or not

[twister244]

Ya know.... I kinda like that dark blue....

If I was in charge of Chicago, the first thing I would do is bury the Kennedy from ORD to 130th (we are assuming money is no object).

I would also build a CTA connector line......

[streetscaper]

Originally Posted by twister244

Ya know.... I kinda like that dark blue....

Seems plenty of people here are a fan of it.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by twister244

Ya know.... I kinda like that dark blue....

If I was in charge of Chicago, the first thing I would do is bury the Kennedy from ORD to 130th (we are assuming money is no object).

I would also build a CTA connector line......

I agree with all of these points lol

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

.....forever ban the stupid recent trend of painting face brick.

Here's another recent victim in my neighborhood:





What was once a nice, timeless, century-old maroon brick chicago 3-flat will now forever look like yet another goofy victim of the stupid brick painting trend of the late teens.

The whole damn reason the people who built my neighborhood 100 years ago paid for the expense of nice quality face brick (often shipped up here from St. Louis because chicago clay is mostly crap) was specifically so that no one would ever have to worry about painting it, EVER!

And then some idiot flipper who watches too much HGTV buys a classic 3-flat and says, "I know an easy and cheap way to "update" this property".

Hey asshole, it didn't need any fucking "updating" like that. Put your flipper money into actual updates that actually mean something like new MEP.

the only thing you should ever do to brick is get it periodically tuckpointed.

This dumb trend cannot die soon enough.

[/rant]

I guess it depends for me. I find the native brown and beige brick in Chicago's vernacular to be quite depressing, tbh, although I love brick itself. Like that orange-y brick on the left looks like vomit IMO. Obviously, I wouldn't want every building to be painted disingenuously, but I'm much more of a red brick person, which is the vernacular of the NE, Mid Atlantic, and SE.

Seeing all the painted row homes in DC and Charleston, for example, gives me joy.

Point being. Anything in moderation. I think that block you posted a picture of looks more interesting and varied now, and compared to other paint jobs I've seen, it looks sensitive and well done. I know paint can damage brick if not done correctly, but I think there is a time and a place and sometimes it works, and when it does, it can be awesome.

[UrbanImpact]

For Broward County (multiple cities would need to work in conjunction since municipalities are tiny here):

- Increase zoning densities for current SFH zones east of I-95

- Finish the east side commuter rail line and stations (currently in planning stages due to bridge/tunnel dilemma in downtown Fort Lauderdale)

-Construct the planned people mover circulating FLL airport, Port Everglades and add a connection to Fort Lauderdale's downtown Brightline station.

-Electrify Brightline & above mentioned commuter line (they will be running on the same tracks)

-Remove 2 lanes from Broward Blvd. for East/West light rail line that would serve downtown, western burbs, colleges, sawgrass/arena, and a stop at the Edge of the Everglades (and perhaps the beach on the east end).

-Encourage shade trees instead of pretty looking, but, non shady palm trees.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

I find the native brown and beige brick in Chicago's vernacular to be quite depressing,

And I freaking LOVE the warm earth tones of Chicago's brown/maroon/red/orange/yellow/blond/beige face brick.

Which is probably why I can't fucking stand it when some idiot flipper paints perfectly wonderful face brick some incongruously stupid color like white or blue in some wretchedly misguided attempt to "update" it.

It's face brick, asshole! It doesn't need "updating"!


Fortunately, this extemely dumb HGTV flipper trend has not savaged many other classic brick Chicago flat buildings in my neighborhood, as I feared it might when I first made this thread nearly 4 years ago. Perhaps people realized how dumb it looks, and how bad it can be for the brick.

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

And freaking LOVE the warm earth tones of Chicago's brown/maroon/red/orange/yellow/blond/beige face brick.

Which is probably why I can't fucking stand it when some idiot flipper paints perfectly wonderful face brick some incongruously stupid color like white or blue.


Fortunately, this extemely dumb HGTV flipper trend has not savaged many other classic brick Chicago flat buildings in my neighborhood, as I feared it might when I first made this thread nearly 4 years ago. Perhaps people realized how dumb it looks, and how bad it can be for the brick.

I guess it's just a matter of familiarity and what makes home, home.

This was in the mid-90s, but I nearly went to Northwestern for college and one of the reasons I didn't is because when I was touring Evanston and Chicago generally, I found that repetitive beige and brown brick to be very depressing. Like it all needed to be powerwashed or something.

Anyways, that was 18 yo me and 45 yo me KNOWs Chicago is an amazing town. It's just interesting how people's preferences develop. BTW, I grew up in the western suburbs of Philadelphia in a 2 story red brick colonial home with white clapboard siding & trim and black shutters. It couldn't get anymore traditional eastern seaboard.

[meh]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

...but I'm much more of a red brick person, which is the vernacular of the NE, Mid Atlantic, and SE.

i feel like you're forgetting a region or two... i mean, St. Louis was the largest brick manufacturer in the world at the turn of the 19th ---> 20th century, thanks to its plethora of red clay deposits and the invention of the hydraulic press.

[Steely Dan]

^ a giant % of Chicago's face brick came from St. Louis because most of Chicago's native clay soils were generally crap from a color and consistency standpoint, deemed suitable only for common brick.

[eschaton]

Pittsburgh is an interesting hybrid case, because in the 19th century, there was a strong geographic split between brick/frame neighborhoods. Brick predominated anywhere that was down by the rivers, where clay pits were productive and transportation was simple. But in the hilltop and plateau neighborhoods, the higher transportation costs meant that brick was only used for rich people houses, meaning there are a lot of frame-dominated neigborhoods.

By the 1920s, however, this began to break down, as brick became more of a veneer and not a structural material, and the overall cost differential between a frame and a brick building was much more minimal.

[meh]

^ I guess all the river cities along the Ohio and lower Mississippi have significant proportions of red brick architecture: Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis... New Orleans? Seems like below Missouri things become more wood-oriented.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by meh

^ I guess all the river cities along the Ohio and lower Mississippi have significant proportions of red brick architecture: Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis... New Orleans? Seems like below Missouri things become more wood-oriented.

The red brick vernacular was the "midland" style of architecture, and spread west with the stream of settlement originating in eastern Pennsylvania and the Upland South (we don't tend to think of them this way today, but the old city cores of Virginia were pretty brick-dominated as well).

In contrast, areas to the north, around the Great Lakes, were mostly settled by New England Yankees, and thus very frame dominated (Chicago was an exception due to a more mixed history). And the deep South was also mainly frame, so it took a frame vernacular westward as well.

[edale]

Painted brick is very common in Cincinnati, and I personally love it! A little color is nice, especially in the winter when everything is grey.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1106...oASAFQAw%3D%3D

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1153...oASAFQAw%3D%3D

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1610...oASAFQAw%3D%3D