Speculative homes planned for historic Springfield

[Debbie Thompson]

May as well add my 2 cents to housing styles.  As I drive through Springfield, there are a few houses that are not historic, and not faux historic.  Houses built in the style of 1960's - 1980's suburban ranchers.  There's one at 10th and Liberty, a brick one.  There's one at Perry and 10 or 11th (a bad shade of blue.) And there's the famous ugly hexagonal house on Hubbard around 9th or 10th.  Probably a few more.  To me, they stand out like sore thumbs. 

I also understand the argument about faux historic homes, though.  Here's my thoughts.  If you are going to mix it up, build loft style like Lake did on 7th to mimic the commercial buildings scattered around the neighborhood like Lane and Steve's house, and Chevara and Orin's.  Build Klutho-esque homes like Jason designed for Walnut.  (Wish that one had gotten built.  So cool.)  These designs would complement the historic homes, because the loft style exists elsewhere in the neighborhood.  And while Riverside has more Prairie Style homes than Springfield, we do have Klutho's own home on W. 9th and we could build more of those and be in keeping with the aesthetics of the neighborhood.

[ChriswUfGator]

There are those in riverside too, prior to the 1970s there wasn't much historic oversight.

[movedsouth]

But even the historic houses in Springfield exhibit a range of different styles. What is so bad about diversity in housing styles? If you want all houses to look the same, then there are plenty of subdivisions to pick from. (fwiw: I think the hexagonal houses are typical "Springfield" ... not sure I like the blue ranch at 10th and Perry though... ).

The sad part is that we lost so many houses. We can choose to paint over past mistakes as it has been done before by naming the new "replica" house styles after the architects whose work was destroyed to make space for them, or we can celebrate Springfield as a diverse neighborhood welcoming experimentations with new and innovative housing ideas that fit in with the existing historic fabric and bridge the gaps left behind by demolitionists with something that will be considered worth preserving 100 years down the road like the existing historic housing stock.

[sheclown]

True. We get hung up on matching the scale and massing but there is a wide range of housing sizes and styles to begin with.

I will say this, the one thing they all had in common was quality construction.