Quote:
Originally Posted by Gladys Kravitz
God!!! I hope so. While I may disagree with a lot of the provisions of the Conservation District rules, this is one that I would support 100%. Nothing looks worse than a cheap crappy stucco job slapped up over the front of a brick building (see the monstrosity condo at Passyunk and Christian). Nothing says cheap better than stucco or vinyl.
Now, that said, I really don't support some of the more restrictive requirements such as the way they are essentially banning garages. Although Doug Heffernan managed to make his garage habitable.
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The big garage doors on the sidewalkscape are a much worse offense than any of those building materials. I wouldn't be snobby about stucco and vinyl, either, although I used to be an anti-vinyl snob. The problem all us aesthetes have is we're OK with someone banning something we find unappealing while appalled that they'd trample on an owner's right do make a design decision that meets our approval.
Regarding vinyl, I once assumed it was just tacky siding stuff. Little old clapboard houses on country farms -- real wood houses -- those were charming, but vinyl! Ugh! Well, once we were staying at a charming B&B in Maryland with a pre-Civil War era house. I was talking to the owner and in the course of the conversation, made a snotty remark about vinyl siding. Well, although he didn't say much to this paying guest, I really stuck my foot in it, since that very house had a vinyl covering.
It was charming and beautiful, and I wouldn't have known the difference if not for that conversation.