Your city's vernacular housing?

JivecitySTL · #1 Posted **Feb 20, 2007, 11:00 PM**

I'm dedicating this thread to the vernacular housing in American cities. Please post ONLY FIVE pictures that best characterize your city's signature housing style. I don't want to see one house or any unusual examples. I want to see blocks that depict the housing most commonly found in your city.

I'll begin with St. Louis. This city is overwhelmingly comprised of multi-family red brick flats:

Your turn!

flar · #2 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 12:50 AM**

Great idea for a thread, I hope you don't mind a Canadian city in the mix. Hamilton, Ontario was built for this kind of thread and similar to what you would find in a lot of American cities.

The most common, there are tons of these 2.5 storey brick homes built closely together

These are a little older, sometimes this design comes in a row, sometimes they're just really close together. They often have a corner version.

These come in various versions, sometimes duplex, sometimes as rows, sometimes attached to the type above (you can see they have the same type of dividing wall

**EDIT** I changed this photo cause I wanted to show more diversity, the old picture showed single versions like the ones above.

Variations of these three storey walkups are found throughout Hamilton, but are especially concentrated around The Delta.

JivecitySTL · #3 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 2:35 AM**

^Great stuff. Canadian cities are most welcome.

mrherodotus · #4 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 3:53 AM**

Here are some from Pittsburgh. These are not necessarily the dominant type in Pittsburgh, where there are large numbers of various types of housing, but these are a common type here, that is not common in other large cities. A sort of detatched frame townhouse.

Here goes our answer to some of those Hamilton houses.

ColDayMan · #5 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 4:42 AM**

Well, I get more since I represent three cities, so...

Cincinnati

While Cincinnati has basically every style ever invented, the city's signiture style is the Italiante townhouse (arches over the windows/doors) and brownstone (the taller, 4 story arches, typically green or brown in color).

On the other side of the city, Tudor is prevalent, and is arguably the city's other signiture style.

Columbus

Called the Belgian Block, Columbus' signiture style is certainly unique and is prevalent throughout the city, but notable areas include the Italian, German, and Merion Villages along with the OSU campus area. For example:

Dayton

Called "Dayton Doubles," they are townhouses (split-unit townhouses) that are ALL OVER the freakin' city. They usually have an A-frame roof, but this time, they are turned 90 degree, making it seem like a flat roof from the front.

Austinlee · #6 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 8:54 AM**

^Columbus has my favorite house style for all Ohio cities. I simply love having the streets dominated with those beautiful old full brick homes. In comparison I don't like the Pittsburgh neighborhoods with the cheap vinyl detached townhomes.. They clearly were built as cheap and fast as possible to handle the huge in-migration of poor, uneducated immigrants coming to work in the steel mills. We do have some great all brick neighborhoods too, but Columbus just has the most cohesive, high quality housing stock out of any inner city I've been to in the US.

STLgasm · #7 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 12:45 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by PA Pride

^Columbus has my favorite house style for all Ohio cities. I simply love having the streets dominated with those beautiful old full brick homes. In comparison I don't like the Pittsburgh neighborhoods with the cheap vinyl detached townhomes.. They clearly were built as cheap and fast as possible to handle the huge in-migration of poor, uneducated immigrants coming to work in the steel mills. We do have some great all brick neighborhoods too, but Columbus just has the most cohesive, high quality housing stock out of any inner city I've been to in the US.

Guess you haven't been to St. Louis...

mrherodotus · #8 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 1:09 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by STLgasm

Guess you haven't been to St. Louis...

LMFAO!!!

Yeah. Columbus is damn good, but I agree, he needs to visit the Lou. New York has tons of high quality, cohesive inner city housing as well. Oh, and of course, let's not forget Boston, which is awash in high quality housing, and what is in my opinion, the pound for pound champ for high quality inner city housing, Washington, DC.

Midwesterner · #9 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 2:06 PM**

Indianapolis

Indianapolis has a few red brick apartments, but the majority of the city is wood-framed bungalows or four squares.

MayDay · #10 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 3:07 PM**

Cleveland

There are a lot of these "double-deckers" in Greater Cleveland (inner city and most inner-ring suburbs) - I really don't care for them:

Some variations on the upper porch:

Another prominent style of residential architecture is a four-story Tudoresque (I live in this type of building):

Most newer in-fill is comprised of contemporary townhomes (attached):

ColDayMan · #11 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 5:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by STLgasm

Guess you haven't been to St. Louis...

Certainly, St. Louis is a brick city as well but what Columbus perhaps excels on versus St. Louis are the vintage brick sidewalks and streets, which enhance the "brick feeling" of the old city (not talking about the 150 annexed square miles, but the original 60). For example, on all sides of the city, there will be an entire streetscape up to brick (street, curb, sidewalk, fence, step, then house). Perhaps I did not see that in Jive's tour of St. Louis (though I'm sure St. Louis has an area like that, perhaps in Soulard).

But who cares. Columbus and St. Louis are beautiful brick cities with different colors (the former orange, the latter red).

1ajs · #12 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 5:42 PM**

tipical of the older nieborhoods

tipical 50-60´s suburb homes

JivecitySTL · #13 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 5:53 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ColDayMan

Certainly, St. Louis is a brick city as well but what Columbus perhaps excels on versus St. Louis are the vintage brick sidewalks and streets, which enhance the "brick feeling" of the old city (not talking about the 150 annexed square miles, but the original 60). For example, on all sides of the city, there will be an entire streetscape up to brick (street, curb, sidewalk, fence, step, then house). Perhaps I did not see that in Jive's tour of St. Louis (though I'm sure St. Louis has an area like that, perhaps in Soulard).

But who cares. Columbus and St. Louis are beautiful brick cities with different colors (the former orange, the latter red).

True, true. And you're right, Soulard has brick sidewalks...

ColDayMan · #14 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 5:57 PM**

^Now don't you miss the old days in which we'd duke it out over "Well, YOUR city sucks because it doesn't have ____!" "F#ck off, man! YOUR city is a sh!thole!"

Oh...the days of yesteryear...

Segun · #15 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 6:19 PM**

Hmmm, how to do this for Chicago? Well, I'll just limit it to whatever I find right now.

Apartment blocks. You'll find most of these towards the lakefront. They usually have more than one entrance and range from 6-50 units.

The Quintessential Chicago bungalow.

3-flats. This picture shows a particular greystone style native to Chicago. North Lawndale is full of them. They come in different architectual styles, shapes, colors, and building materials.

2-Flats. Just like the 3-flats, they differ greatly. I chose this picture to illustrate some of more ordered, manicured areas of them near the bungalow belt.

Tapered roof buildings, including cottages, 2-flats, 3-flats, etc. I chose this picture because it demonstrates a sort of cohesive style found west of the lake in industrial neighborhoods. Note the different sizes and building materials used in the construction of them.

I'm not showing pictures of highrises, you all know what those look like.

Evergrey · #16 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 6:23 PM**

I love those Cleveland "duckbills"... that first shot is so colourful, MayDay!

DeBaliviere · #17 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 8:53 PM**

Here's a few shots of Skinker-DeBaliviere, a pretty typical St. Louis neighborhood:

PhilippeMtl · #18 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 9:04 PM**

MONTREAL
PLATEAU/CENTRE-SUD/ST-HENRI

PLATEAU

GRIFFINTOWN/CENTRE-SUD

PLATEAU/ROSEMONT/VILLERAY

OLD MONTREAL

bartzman · #19 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 9:06 PM**

to anyone from St. Louis.....would you describe the typical st Louis house as "French-style"...i dunno, but the ones in jivecity's second pic look kinda french-canadian-ish? i know the name "st louis" is french and that the city flag has a fleur d'lys in it.....but i also know that there are next to no french people in the city...so is that archetecture authentically french-north-american or is it just all co-incidental.....in other words, how French is STL?

CGII · #20 Posted **Feb 21, 2007, 9:09 PM**

Milwaukee has its very distinct style of duplex, most built from around 1890-1920. It is by far the most common form of housing in the city. On the east side, the duplexes are more colourful, farther inland they are mostly white with grey, blue or green second floors/trim, and on the south side they take on a more pastel palette. Here are a few examples of the more popular model:

A similar style (not the same model, but close)

A mix of genuine 'Milwaukee duplexes' and similar models: