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Sunday, January 14, 2007
NU Mystery Towns
NAME these NU mystery towns. No entries from people who've been to them, please.
Click on the photos for larger versions.
January 14, 2007 in Architecture, New Urbanism, Travel, Urbanism | Permalink
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Are these ones you've just visited? The street view looks like it's in Europe (but the signs are in English, and most of the cars are American).
A ski resort in Colorado?
Posted by: steve at Jan 14, 2007 10:12:36 AM
getting colder
Posted by: john at Jan 14, 2007 10:17:42 AM
If that church is any clue, I would guess this is in Florida -- perhaps Seaside?
Then again, that land sure looks hilly for Florida ;)
Posted by: Joeventures at Jan 14, 2007 1:02:31 PM
Rosemary Beach and... I have no idea.
Posted by: Andrew Cusack at Jan 14, 2007 2:03:58 PM
Is it Celebration, FL? Looks a little hilly for that, though...
Posted by: sean at Jan 14, 2007 6:40:26 PM
Definitely [redacted] -- [Editor's comment -- Adam was right, but he's definitely been there. Anyone can name a place they've been to, but I think this is a surprising one if you haven't been there.]
Posted by: Adam Parish at Jan 14, 2007 11:51:24 PM
I haven't been there, but my guess is St. Augustine, Florida.
Posted by: Eric Fredericks at Jan 15, 2007 1:13:31 AM
There's only one Pensione (red buildng)...in Rosemary Beach.
Posted by: Rudolph, Paul at Jan 15, 2007 3:48:09 PM
Okay, all the people who have been to Rosemary Beach knew that the top photo shows Rosemary Beach.
As I wrote on TradArch,
On 1/15/07 10:40 AM, "cormac phalen" wrote:
> The first one is easy…Rosemary, since you took the shot looking down toward
> the post office (I cheated I go there everyday
>
>> No entries from people who’ve been to them, please.
Yes, it's easy if you've been there (and the Scott Merrill gable on the Post Office is a giveaway to some who haven't been there), but otherwise, I think it's pretty surprising.
Rosemary, as I understand it, started out "Anglo-Caribbean," which meant old St. Augustine with a little more genteel Classicism thrown in. But St. Augustine is simple, two-story masonry masses with one porch and one roof shape, and Rosemary quickly became three and four tall stories, with four and five porches and complex roofs.
Some of the residential streets are a real cacophony. Individually most of the buildings are good, but as a group many think there are too many soloists.
The main street I showed is different, because it has party-wall, street-wall buildings. Most of the buildings just go straight up from the sidewalk and have simple window rhythms, with the exception of the Gothic building currently under construction (slightly visible on the right). The porches make the elevations more complex.
One of the things that's interesting is that the plaza from where I took the photo has an elevation of 35 feet, and there's a rapid (for Florida) descent towards the Gulf. In other words, there's real topography, which is unusual for that part of the world. If you get there on a day when the sun's not beating down, this particular streetscape feels more like Central Europe than the Redneck Riviera. Reasons why: the topography, the picturesque street, the large, solid stucco buildings, the colors, even some of the heavy lumber details. It's an interesting sight.
I saw more than a TND during the past week, from Celebration to West Clay, in Indiana. One thing that struck me is that although the Pattern Books have been very successful, the best urban architecture was produced by builders working with construction techniques rather than style. Steve Mouzon has developed a very successful Town Architect technique in which he gathers all the builders and they spend a day constructing mock-ups of window details, crown details, etc. The mock-ups are then left on site, where contractors can refer to them.
These are most successful when they are a Classical Vernacular, so that the details are a living language about construction, rather than an historical style applique. You don't always experience this in photos, but it can be glaring in person. Two projects by Steve, The Waters and the Village at Providence show this clearly. At the first, he is the ongoing Town Architect, and the inexpensive houses (some sold for as little as $150,000, including the land) are on the whole quite good. While the production builders making more expensive style variations at Providence rarely rise to the level of the good. Pictures to follow in a few days, I hope.
The understatement and common elements of the Classical Vernacular produce good streetscapes at The Waters. Providence gets a cacophony of almost good style variations. It made me think that TNDs like Providence (style appliques) and Rosemary (architect's and owners' egos) should require that building applications include streetscapes drawings. There could be a drawing to which each architect would add their elevation as they went along.
Posted by: john at Jan 15, 2007 8:49:15 PM
