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Judging Buildings – Corner of Upshur and New Hampshire
It’s been a while since we’ve looked at the former “Petworth Eyesore” located at the corner of Upshur and New Hampshire. Here’s what it looked like in April 2007 and here’s what it looked like in July of this year. I have to say the difference between July and now is amazing. I’m not saying it’s my favorite renovation but it’s a hell of a lot better than what it was fixing to look like.
Category: Architecture, Buildings, Petworth
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Its still an eyesore, and tearing it down would be a blessing at this point. The window’s don’t match from level to level, there is no architectural detail, and it needs a cornice badly.
It’s amazing to me that the owner spent all this time and money and created something that still really doesn’t enrich the neighborhood. Perhaps better than nothing, but certainly disappointing.
The yellow siding was indeed horrible. But now it has NOTHING of any style whatsoever! What happened to the arches over the windows? Why does the brick have zero variation in coursing?
Man, it’s like having a patchy, uneven lawn that just won’t grow, so you fix it by paving it with asphalt.
It looks bizarre, like a kit, that I put together, drunk.
This is what happens when developers/contractors don’t hire architects to actual design a building. They think they can design/build and end up with a building that does not work proportionally, aesthetically or with the context of the neighborhood. Same with the majority of pop-ups. Don’t be cheap, HIRE ARCHITECTS! And if an architect did work on this, they were probably only paid to create drawings for permit, not actually ‘design’ the building.
looks like the wing of a prison. tear it down and start over. and, yes, hire an architect, for Pete’s sake!
I liked it before. Even the cream colored one, at least it had character and if they had slapped a porch back on it, it would have looked good enough and residential. This just looks out of place and industrial.
Looks like a prison or a high school. I’d hate if that were across the street from me.
soo ugly!!
it’s the old bruce school, moved from georgia avenue to this location. ugly as hell before, ugly as hell no. no character whatsoever.
Could be better, could be worse. I’m still holding out for some architectural detail. Maybe they can just add a few things to make it “ok”?
fucking doctor’s office building. love the casement windows on 1 and 2, sliders on 3. guess that particular orthodontist prefers his windows to slide left-right, right-left.
shame. should have been restored as a SFD by someone who knows something about anything, and who cares about the neighborhood he works in.
This building is an embarassment to our profession – and the criticisms above (though valid) do not properly express how repugnant an addition to our city this building is.
Completely out of character and just awful. BUT, the housing around grant circle, while ok, would help elevate the circle to higher greatness if the building stock were more like let’s say the Logan Circle mansions. While this new building isn’t a classic urban mansion, it’s kinda closer the wardman’s and bungalows we’ve got now if it was. Given we’re right near the subway tunnel (and might I say the city deserves a Grant-Circle Sherman stop!, perhaps with a walking tunnel over to a mixed use deal at the site of the Clark proving grounds), I envision all this cheap housing going away and more of the kind of stuff at NH and Georgia and Tivoli (which I don’t like as much as the Logan mansions). Maybe in 30-50 years…
Prison.
What a sad looking place. I wouldn’t send my kid to school there (if I had a kid and it was a school)
What I really don’t get is why they spent so much money rebuilding the exterior of this place brick by brick, which has got to have been ungodly expensive.
And they used the crappiest, most industrial-looking brick imaginable, and then put in those cheap windows.
As far as I can tell, they didn’t change the footprint one inch. Why’d the even do this in the first place? I saw this unfold over months… the original brick wall came down, the new one went up in its place.
It can’t possibly have been cheaper to do this, then to either raze it entirely or simply repoint/repair the old brick.
So the result is, a lot of money spent for a result that is ugly.
If they paint the brick it’ll look better, I guess, but what a waste. The windows will be atrocious no matter what.
Those windows and doors make me want to throw up in my mouth.
kinda bizarre looking with the windows all mis-matchy cheap windows, patchy masonry work, and all the aesthetic details missing….
What is with the corner on the side that points IN ???
The shape of the building is VERY strange.
It will be a perfect Medieval Castle for the coming Zombie apocalypse. 1/2 a day of bricking over the ground floor windows and a few archers and 6 months worth of Petworth Safeway groceries, and the residents will be able to survive the Zombie incursion. Very forward thinking of the developer I dare say.
I noticed there are two electric meters being installed on the side of the building–that should mean it is being divided up into two units. Better than the four units that the former monstrosity was going to house.
While its not going to when a Pritker, it it better than the alternative. I honstley thought that New Hampshire Folly was going to have to raised. Lets wait a see how it cleans up in the end.
Sorry – I meant “Pritzker!” My typing sucks…PoP you need to get a spell checker to account for my intellectual laziness.
Why is there so much brick above the windows on the third floor? The roofline is oddly high. Maybe there’s a squash court up there.
Is that supposed to be a residential building? If so I assume apartments because no one in their right mind would buy a unit if it was condos. I agree it look like an update on the 1960s/1970s suburban doctors building.
I don’t see what is so terribly offensive about the house now. If they add some detail to the windows and do something to make the roofline more interesting it should look ok.
Here’s what the house looked like way back in the day:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rock_creek/2630505325/
Shutter would help. Not much. But they’d help.
While I don’t like the look of the place now, at least it will be finished soon and people living in there. A better situation than a boarded up sheel (10+ years) or an eyesore (3+ years).