Home styles of the not-so-rich-and-famous

The ballooning suburbs in Post-War America was marked by simple, repeating architectural styles which are often overlooked by more iconic styles. However, abundant styles such at the ranch or split-level home would become a distinctly American staple.

The ranch style home had a simple floor plan and was constructed by simple materials. They were popular in warm climates but can be found anywhere. They are characteristically only one story tall and particularly wide, with an attached garage. My great-aunt used to live in a ranch style, as did everybody else in her Hamburg, NY neighborhood.

This example is from a farm in Northern Idaho. Most interesting is that it has a virtually identical floor plan to my Aunt's house in Hamburg, right down to the stoop at the front and the bay window. And here are some more:

  Split level homes are similar to ranch homes. They have little ornamentation are are based on simple construction, but are split across multiple levels. My grandparents had a house like this. They are often built to take advantage of uneven terrain and are considered an efficient style of construction. Not to be confused with a multi-story home, split-level homes may have different levels side-by-side with only a half story difference. In the case of my grand parents' home, the garage was at ground level with the drive way, but a staircase connected it to the rest of the house, with one flight heading down to the ground floor and another flight heading up to a second floor above it. Their basement was beneath both the garage and ground floor. The first image I have is a house for sale at the edge of my town that I've been trying to find an excuse to post in this blog for months, and the rest are from Google.

Give me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam...

I used Realtor.com to examine architectural styles in Buffalo since it'd be much harder to get myself lost (at least, not in a way that costs me lots of gas). I narrowed the search to a range of homes between $100,000 and $300,000 and looked for a cluster of available spots with photos and found myself in a region surrounding Wadsworth Street, a street which connects the southern terminus of Elmwood Ave. and Richmond Ave. I thought my price parameters might though off the results, but all of the homes were fairly consistent around the $150,000 range, with only two over $200,000. Of the seven houses I found, Realtor.com had classified them all into one of three different categories: Victorian, Traditional, and Bungalow. I'll use these categories to break them up, but will discuss how each house fits (or doesn't!) into its assigned category.

The first house is the most ornate in the neighborhood, and also the most expensive (at $250,000) It also has many of the features which I would agree make it a Queen Anne style Victorian: The ornamentation along the windows and the built in, rounded tower on the left side giving it an asymmetrical look.

The second house has little in common with the first beyond it's address: both houses were on St. John's Place. The house is asymmetrical due to its windows, but structurally is not. The ornate roof line does push it towards the Victorian style and is possibly a hybrid with something else, but, aside from maybe traditional, I can't be sure with what.

The third house hails from Mariner St. and is listed as "Victorian, Colonial." I am inclined to agree with the idea of the house being a small, colonial revival, being symmetrical and simple, embellished with a porch in front and no other ornamentaion.

 

These two houses are both described as traditional by the Realtor website. The first house is located on Plymouth Avenue and doesn't have much going for it. It is small and simple, clearly modern construction, with no ornamentation and is largely symmetrical. With no other elements to classify it, I'd agree to leave it as an example of the current vernacular style.

The second house is much easier on the eyes and is located on College Street. The windows are symmetrical but the addition of the porch on the right side means the structure is not. Strikingly, the exposed timbers offer more variety to this house. The timbers are purely decorative as they don't add anything to the house's support, but also push this house into the "Sticks" category.

These last two houses are classified as Bungalows. I hate the sound of the word, but at least I feel confident that I can easily identify one. Both houses are very small, one-story, and are relatively squarish. The first house on Maryland Street has a more "cozy" feel than the second, located on Wadsworth Street, due to the different colors and its nicely ornamented porch. 

As a whole, the Wadsworth neighborhood doesn't seem to have a uniform style, but the houses do have a common theme as being small homes, many of which perfect for a small family of two to four people. They are relatively small, saving space in the city, but most appear to have their own driveways and a little bit of green space.

An American in Europe (and Vice Versa)

Americans looking for an exotic getaway often look overseas to Europe. Despite the push for independence of the country, its citizens enjoy going back to the old world from whence they originated.

According to the website www.go-today.com, their 5 bestselling vacation packages are "London at its Best," "Prague at its Best," "Paris and London," Budapest, Vienna, and Prague," and "Taste of Europe." The last package includes two nights in London, two in Paris, and two in Rome. Thus, of the top 5, London is included in 4 of them. Prague and Paris are both in 2, whereas Vienna, Budapest, and Rome are also destinations.


London has the advantage of an English speaking population, probably contributing to its popularity. The website points out its shopping districts and monuments, including the Tower of London. Another package includes Buckingham Palace and Parliament. As for Prague, the site describes it as "Cobblestone streets and old-world appeal makes this city one of the most delightful places in Europe... Few places in the world emit a fairy-tale charm like Prague." Paris has a much more cultural appeal, focusing on the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, as well as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe. Both Budapest and Vienna are described as "Ancient" and "Historic" cities, where one can visit antique flea-markets and cafes. Rome includes a combination of the two, offering ancient history with the Colosseum and culture with the Sistine Chapel.

The major draw for American travels in Europe seems to be the allure of sampling history. Cities which have been around for centuries dominate the list and are frequently mentioned highlights. Cultural attractions stem from it, with well known artifacts anchoring the itinerary. Finally, the shopping experience seems to be a draw in London and Budapest, owing to their exotic appeal.

A German website focused solely on resorts, with locations ranging from Las Vegas to Orlando Florida and... little else, other locations featured being very close to one of the other two. www.touramerica.ie, an Irish website, features trips to New York, Orlando, Las Vegas, Miami, and Los Angeles. The common factor seems to be the great cities of the United States. Both sites focus on various hotels. I found sites from New Zealand and Australia which both largely pass up the United States for beach holidays in nearby places such as Fiji and the Cook Islands. The US is described on the Australian website www.travelscene.net.au as "large, loud and life-affirming, with some of the world’s most well-known attractions and recognisable structures in this beautiful, bold and bedazzling country." Destinations include Hawai'i, Disneyland, and various national parks. Once again, it is the hotels that are highlighted. In the example of Europe, it seems that its the destination and not the sites that matter.

A Tale of Two Waterfronts.

For whatever reason, I've had the city of Budapest on my mind a lot lately. So when asked to think about an old European city, it was a natural choice.

Budapest is the capital of Hungary and is a very old city, originally a Celtic settlement and, until the mid 1800's, was the two separate cities of Buda and Pest with the Danube River running between them. The construction of  a bridge finally linking the two cities ultimately lead to their unification. The river clearly defines the city's character.

The center of the city is the Hungarian Parliament building, with all of the surrounding buildings dwarfed by it. In fact, every photo I've found of Budapest and its skyline focuses on the Parliament building. In contrast to the Hungarian waterfront, I present the city of Chicago on Lake Michigan:

 

The skyline here is dominated by tall buildings. The shore along the waterfront is left to a large highway, whereas Budapest has a smaller roadway along either side of the river. Both cities have several one-way streets in the blocks near the waterfront. The city also has a more orderly look, owing to the predominant grid in Chicago. A peak at Budapest's roadways reveals that the Pest half of Budapest has some grid-like influences, possibly because of flooding in the mid-1800's, but it doesn't compare to the overwhelming conformity to a common grid in Chicago. Conversely, the buildings themselves in Budapest have a very uniform look, keeping a similar size and style while the buildings in Chicago are very individualized and compete for the viewer's attention. 

 There are a few generalizations that I draw from comparing these two cities. The first is that European cities are much older and in tune with their heritage than the much newer American cities are. While they seem to emphasis a common front, the American cities seem quick to take advantage of their surroundings and stand out. Skyscrapers, in this regard, are a demand to attention, which contrasts to the European skyline where it's hard to tell one building from another. Another effect of the timespans involved is that the European city it construct more haphazardly than the orderly grid pattern of American cities.

Also, people in Europe like flying over their cities in balloons. Maybe.

Spanish Homes in a New Land

All images in this entry are courtesy of Google Image Search.

Hardwick describes the affect ethnicity has on the landscape, particularly in architecture. By recognizing cues in architecture, a person can learn about the history of an area. These cues can be misleading, sometimes they may give insight to the original settlers of an area, but other times these cues are being imitated to create a certain atmosphere to either preserve heritage or to capitalize on tourist interests. Spanish architecture immediately came to mind as fulfilling all of these scenarios across the country.

Spanish architecture is rather distinctive in America, but is similar to Italian architecture and is sometimes referred to as simply "Mediterranean." Although the distinctions between the two are subtle, Spanish architecture has four hallmark features: Red ceramic tile roofs, stucco walls, arches over windows and doors, and low sloping roofs with little or no eaves. These features are evident in the next two images, the first is a picture of a resort in Vera Cruz, Mexico, and the second is a house in Santa Jose, California.

Spanish architecture is prevalent in areas that the Spanish first colonized, evidence of a sort of founder's effect described by Hardwick. Even though Florida and the American South-West have been out of Spanish hands for well over a century, the Spanish housing remains. An interesting case study is Santa Barbara, California. Santa Barbara was originally settled by the Spanish in 1782 as they spread north from Mexico, but was in American hands after the Mexican-American War in the 1840's. Some missions in Santa Barbara date as far back as 1812. In 1925, during a period of time that the town was pushing for a unified Spanish Colonial look, an earthquake struck the city and destroyed much of it. An ordinance passed which declared Spanish architecture would be the "Town's norm." Santa Barbara thus both serves as an example of original Spanish architecture as well as emulating that architecture for a historic and tourist look. The next two photos show the Station 3 fire house, built in 1928 right after the town's destruction, and a view of a neighborhood in modern Santa Barbara. (Station 3's own webpage!)

On the other side of the country, in Florida, Spanish architecture remains just as strong. Several years ago during a family trip to Florida, we took a tour of the Edison house in Ft. Myers, Spanish influence was cited often in the development in the area (As well as the namesake of the even more abundant Spanish Moss). Although thousands of miles away from California, the influences were the same. The following two photos show Spanish styles in Florida, the first credited as "Old Florida" style and the second is a Spanish Revival. (In fact, the entire real estate listing for Rock Creek, CA features Spanish influnenced houses)

Some examples of Spanish Revival architecture have departed from the historic look, but still allude to the heritage of the region. The first photo is a modest house in Los Angeles, CA, and the second is a "McMansion" built in Orlando, FL, for a wealthy European in "Mediterranean Revival" style. Part of the enduring popularity of this style is that the type of construction easily suits the climate of these regions, and wouldn't work well in the harsher winters up north.

One More Light!

As noted in the last post, every example of a non-American traffic light was always posted on a pole and never hung by wire across an intersection. I speculated the reason for this was that other countries, Europe in particular, prefer to lay power lines underground rather than hang them from poles. Therefor, perhaps this extended to traffic lights as well: Countries were either unwilling or unable to hang them from wires since they were not above ground to begin with. However, I recently obtained a photo from Chile which counters this theory:

Although the image isn't very clear, it is quite obvious that the traffic light is suspended by a pole, in complete defiance to above-ground power lines along the very same intersection.

Crossroads of the World

I've actually caught myself wondering why traffic lights are the way that they are. Why Red-Yellow-Green? Do other countries use the same colors? So I jumped at the opportunity to do a little research on the subject and get credit for it. Speaking of traffic lights, I have a typical US example here:

Red on top, yellow in the center, and green on the bottom. This order is the same everywhere in the world from the information I could gather. However, not all lights are aligned vertically like this. As you may have seen around the country, some are horizontal instead. The one on top is from Canada, where vertical lights are common, while the one on the bottom is from Japan, where it is the norm to orient the lights horizontally.

While interviewing people around the world, I was at first surprised how alike traffic signals were. Even in Japan, the  basics are the same. However, interviewing a friend in England, I was taken aback when he described the light sequence as "Red, Red-Amber, Green, Amber, and Red again." An interview with a German friend turned up the same thing.  Sure enough, the Red-Amber light is a European phenomenon. They described it as a "get ready to go" light, but it lasts only a second, just enough time to take your foot off the brake pedal. To confirm it wasn't something spread by the British Empire, I asked my friend Lee from New Zealand if they used this combination, and they did not, it is confined to Europe. The first picture was sent by my friend in England, the second is from Germany.

By now another oddity was catching my attention. The British traffic light was attached to a pole at the side of the road, where in the US we might set up a stop sign. I asked if this was typical in the United Kingdom and was told that it was. I began to ask around my contacts about this and it seemed universal: In England, in Germany, in Chile, in Japan, and in New Zealand, traffic lights were posted beside the road, or attached to a pole which extended over the road. Never did I hear an account of lights being suspended over the intersection by wire, which is somewhat universal in the United States. The next two photos show overhead lights from Germany and Japan, both mounted by poles over their respective intersections:

Of course, not all traffic lights are directed at cars. The United States is a very car-centric society, but elsewhere traffic lights are used for all sorts of traffic. I have two German examples, the first used for a bike path crossing a street. The second shows a more typical pedestrian crossing, with a flashing yellow light to warn oncoming traffic that the crosswalk is is use. The third example is a pedestrian light from Japan, which shows a visual countdown.

Now that we've taken a quick tour around the world to look at their lights, let's turn our eyes to the future of the traffic light. Although the position of the colors on the traffic light are standardized, the colors all look the same for people with red-green color blindness. One solution for this comes in the form of changing the shapes of each light, so it doesn't rely on color alone. To paraphrase the movie Starman, "Square means go, Triangle means stop, Circle means go really really fast."

Another innovation in the design of the traffic light is the addition of a progress bar so commuters can tell how long a red light will stay red. The idea behind this design is that drivers can turn off their car at a red light to conserve gas and cut down on emissions while knowing how much time they have to do this. Personally, I don't think this is a good idea, since I've heard turning on a car burns a whole minute's worth of gasoline, and most lights don't last that long... but I do appreciate the idea of a progress bar.

Other changes are much more mundane and are already ongoing. For example, you may have noticed in recent years that traffic lights have been receiving a face lift. Incandescent bulbs in signals are being replaced by LED displays, reducing power requirements. Considering that traffic lights are constantly active and how many lights are in any given city, the savings add up quickly.

Also becoming more prevalent is the use of programed lights. Whereas lights used to be operated manually, and then predominately on timers, traffic lights can now my synchronized along a roadway so that, in theory, traffic should be able to pass through and hit all green lights. I've had limited success with this so far, and sometimes it seems I hit all red lights, but technology will catch up one day.