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I went out yesterday and walked around a housing development called "Prospect, Colorado". its a wretched little place that consicely answers the question: "what happens if you take 3 architects and give them 4 ounces of crystal methamphetamine?"

 

the whole idea is that a guy bought up a tree farm, razed it, and then started to overdevelop it to a maddening extent. the houses cost from ~$350,000 up to ~$950,000... it is an overpriced area with all of the houses being new (and of conspicuously cheap) construction, but worth a look nonetheless.

 

anyone have any other pictures of interesting/odd/different buildings?

 

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I have seen this sort of development in Colorado before. They do this around the ski resorts, but not quite this varied. They also have small clusters of these on the Florida coast. Again, not quite this bizarre.

 

I had a Design Studio in college that focused on this issue. Can you have no design limitations, or visual control of the houses and their aesthetic appearance, yet still have a sense of community. We had site constraining parameters, but the designs covered a wide range, from metal clad deconstructive structures, to sod roof eco-friendly huts.

 

Myself, I don’t mind so much, I have to say, I like it a lot more than a neighborhood built by one builder/developer, who is not so creative, and builds 500 houses, out of three floor plans. To me, those are far worse. There is a new one down the road from where I live that has tried to use the Craftsman style as an influence, but not too much, still vary traditional design. Rather ugly in my opinion, to mix the two. They have built about 100 of them, mostly varied only by the color of the paint on the exterior wall.

 

I guess it is just a matter of opinion; I would not like to live where my neighbors’ house is just like mine. If your neighbor comes over, and does not need to ask where the restroom is, it is cause for concern.

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I liked many of those buildings quite a lot. I question the prices, but thats a seperate issue.

 

I think what I liked most was the mixed developement that you dont really see anymore: house, house, house, side-by-side, house apartment, house, side-by-side. Oh, and I loved the use of colour.

 

As Travis stated, the homogeneous developements prevalent in most of N. America are an absolute travesty.

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I agree with John of this Jeff... These house are a LOT better then most cheap houses built in the US. As for the price... those are about normal where I am from, but that is because I am from LA. We have to deal with crap like this:

 

http://www.playavista.com/

 

Look at all the "spanish colonial" style POS. As far as I know, California has not been a Spanish colony for nearly 200 years, why the hell are we "pretending" that this styrofoam house was built back then.

 

Yes, it is cheap housing Jeff, you are right... but at least it has a contemporary typology. I say, if you want a house that looks old, buy an old house, don't buy an new house that is pretending to be old. Nostolgia is not what it used to be... it is cheap and ugly.

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100 year party court would be a pretty cool street address :)

 

pcstreet.gif

 

one thing to note is that not the entire town has such modern designs. the east side is more 'funky' and gradually fades to more complacent designs... some of which remind me of a psuedo-cape cod style.

 

this place has me kind of on the fence: it has a fresh (and sorely need) feel of funkiness about it, but its just so damn crowded and priced out of the local economy, as compared to the rest of the area that has been over-run by cookie cutter developments.

 

as for the viability of Prospect, if you go there on a saturday afternoon the place is a ghost town. there have been people living there for a couple years, and there should be a little 'hustle and bustle' but the place is littered with 'for sale' signs with no activity. there are more and more buildings going up, but their arent any takers. its pretty creepy.

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