Same Houses, 60 years apart

"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury) 10/21/2015 at 19:30 • Filed to: None

3

18

Before:

After:

Capistrano Beach, CA, just a few miles away from where I grew up. As someone that likes mid-century modern architecture, I much prefer the clean and simple lines of the homes in the first picture.

Thankfully, some of the original homes still exist in their un-mansionized form:

bob and john > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 10/21/2015 at 19:34

0

thats a friggen big boat

The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 10/21/2015 at 19:34

1

I’ll take the MCM any day.

jkm7680 > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 10/21/2015 at 19:36

0

I’d honestly take both.

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 10/21/2015 at 19:39

0

I love mcm furniture, but the architecture never really did it for me.

My citroen won't start > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 10/21/2015 at 19:41

6

Jesus that pseudo-mansion looks tacky

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > My citroen won't start 10/21/2015 at 19:54

0

Here’s one from the next street over from my folks.

Before (not the same house, but the same model and street):

After:

There’s a rule that states that if you leave one wall standing, you can consider it a remodel instead of a teardown, and as such, taxes and building codes are minimally affected. With this loophole in place, existing houses are being (nearly) leveled and poorly designed McMansions are going up in their place. Yuck.

My citroen won't start > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 10/21/2015 at 19:55

2

That saddens me, where are all the real architects?

RallyWrench > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 10/21/2015 at 19:57

2

We’ve had a building moratorium related to our lack of a sewer since 1987, so people have been doing “remodels” on old homes, leaving a wall standing and building mini mansions. I hate it.

OPPOsaurus WRX > My citroen won't start 10/21/2015 at 20:15

0

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > My citroen won't start 10/21/2015 at 20:15

0

I know what you mean. I discovered a little too late that I should have pursued architecture as a career. I like to think that I could have done something to prevent such eyesores from being built.

For several years back in the ‘70s my family lived in a 1950s 2,060 sq ft house in Fullerton, CA, moving out in 1980. The more I look back at this place, the more I am amazed at the level of detail that went into every aspect of the home. Subtle touches that made for an amazing flow and great usability. I still use a number of features from that house in my own (amateur) designs.

One of the most obvious things about it was the window at the back of the living room. It was pretty much all glass, albeit broken into three minimally-separated panes because of the size of the glass in question. We were on a bit of a hill, and most of the back yard was actually down a flight of stairs, on a terrace level away from the street level. As such, the view out of the living room was fantastic and overlook most of north Orange County. Disneyland was just a few miles south of us, and they fired off fireworks every night during the summer at 9:35 PM. If we wanted a show, all we had to do was turn off the lights and look south from our living room. Whoever designed that house really knew what to do to take advantage of the limitations and features of the lot, somewhat like what Pierre Koenig did with Case Study House #22:

OPPOsaurus WRX > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 10/21/2015 at 20:17

1

i’m not mad they expanded it but damn, couldn;t they have done it in the context of the existing design language. Nothing is worse than being llike ‘o i saw this house in the Mediterranean and I would like ot build it in the US where it really doesn’t belong. I just looked at a house that was not as strong in the modern design as those but it was definately unique for the area. It was really beautiful.

Brian, The Life of > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 10/21/2015 at 20:22

3

Ugh ... whoever did this should be beaten.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > OPPOsaurus WRX 10/21/2015 at 20:33

0

I agree with you completely. I’ve seen some great renovations and house expansions, but they take the style of the neighborhood into consideration. The best ones add on to the back of the house, perhaps increasing the pitch of the roof a little to add a second story. It still looks like a period-correct smaller home from the front, but has much more space inside. You may be losing a bit of your back yard in this process, but you’re keeping the neighborhood balanced.

Back in my folk’s neck of the woods, there were several acres left undeveloped with the expectation of a school being built on that site. Well, that plan never came to fruition, so more houses were built on these lots. Now most of the homes in this area are around 3,250 (+/- 500) sq ft on lots of about half an acre in size, but the new developer decided to build these massive 45-5500 sq ft monstrosities on lots about a quarter of an acre. No setback in front, no back yard, and no space between the houses. Totally out of character with the rest of the neighborhood - yuck.

ranwhenparked > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 10/21/2015 at 20:58

1

Ugh, I don’t see how this is an improvement. I don’t mind neoclassical architecture, but having a 2-car garage taking up 1/3 of the facade kind of blows a hole in the concept - also, you just know that most of what you are seeing is that cheap stucco over foam crap that McMansions have today. If you’re going to do an imitation of the past, at least do it with some integrity. If you can’t afford to do it right, do something else quality that you can afford.

I get the desire for more space, but it isn’t like that simple Mid-Century design wouldn’t have lent itself easily to going up another story if they wanted to, without completely wrecking the tasteful original look.

OPPOsaurus WRX > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 10/21/2015 at 21:10

1

3200 is pretty large. 5500 is massive. Those were the sizes I was designing at my last job, but they all had larger pieces of land, like an acre or two.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > OPPOsaurus WRX 10/21/2015 at 21:26

0

It’s all about proportion, house to lot. My folk’s place is just under 3,500 sq ft, and it’s just the two of them these days. They thought about selling and moving to someplace smaller, but they like the neighborhood and the place is paid off and the taxes are low (thanks prop 13...) This was a brand-new house, bought to get away from a 20 year old house that needed repairs and updating, with the expectation that they’d move to a smaller place by a golf course or something when they retired. Now the house is 35 years old and needs repairs and updating, but they have the time to do it now.

OPPOsaurus WRX > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 10/21/2015 at 21:55

0

yea thats a lot of space for two people. i did a complete renovation on my house, all the way down to the studs with new insulation. Pain in the Ass.

Tim > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 10/22/2015 at 11:24

0

Grew up in SJC.

Hay rides through town, swallows day parade, people remembering your name.

Now, bumper to bumper traffic, mc mansions everywhere, no one seems to know anyone.

I like that San Clemente still seems to have some of the dumpy old surf neighborhoods left. For now...

#grumpyoldmansays