08 December 2010

On Local Architecture and Eye Candy

I initially wanted to use this blog as a showcase for the mid century (modern and modest... mostly  modest) architectural gems that I see in my daily travels. When it came down to carrying my camera with me and taking stealth-like shots of people's homes in order to post on the internet, well... I confess I chickened out.

Not knowing the legal and/or ethical ramifications of doing this, I'm going to wait until I can do some more research on the subject. In the meantime, since real estate listings are online for the public (and since there are 2  'famous' houses on the market in my area for sale at the moment) and businesses are public as well, I will showcase some of my favorites and some of the examples of MCM[odest] architecture here.



Firstly, one of  the 'famous' houses! Known simply as "Seventeen-Oh-Nine Meadowbrook", I will freely admit that, at the risk of "cheating" on my house, I drive past 1709 Meadowbrook at least once a week. It is only about 3 miles away and I am in that area (honest!) 3 times a week. Partner-In-Crime (aka the Über Enabler ) was contemplating a purchase, since the asking price of 1709 is the same as our home was. It has 1 more bedroom than here, and a better kitchen, however we have 1.2 acres of land here and an inground pool. Pros/Cons and all.

What most people don't see with 1709 is that the property (yard) itself is quite small and there is little to no privacy in the way of trees. There are houses close in proximity and with all of those windows I can imagine the neighbors can see alot. The photos taken for the real estate site (and even my grainy one from the street) gives the appearance of a solitary home on a decent piece of land. In reality, it's not.


This crap photo was taken with my phone during one of the drive-by-stalking missions.

And then there is the Joel Levinson:


This is also for sale, click here  for one of the listing pages and check out the interior.


Here are 2 real estate listings that don't have shitty small photos:

Erm. Not my style per se, I don't care for white wrought iron but if it were mine I would definately paint the exterior with an appropriate color scheme.

This house is what I would consider very typical MCM for my area of this county. It's nothing over the top in the grand scheme of what MCM could be, yet it is probably situated in a neighborhood of more traditional style homes, and probably sticks out a bit.

Businesses!
 Nu-Life Cleaners in Hatboro, PA. Driving past this makes me smile.

Everything about this building kills me with coolness. The petite size, the angles, the contrast of a cornflower blue door against the black & white paint... ahh. I don't take my dogs here unfortunately; I've never seen the inside.


Ok I've stayed up far too late pouring through real estate ads (found 3 intact pink kitchens!) when I should of been lugging out the Christmas tree and decorations.





1 comment:

monogirl said...

I hear you about the chickening out thing. Cell phones make it easier to take covert pictures, but I still feel weird about doing it. I don't know why.