Bucktown's old two-floor houses aren't glamorous, but they do bear themselves with quiet dignity. Sandwiched between two homes on the 1600 block of N. Wolcott (across the street from the "Urban Sandbox" mentioned in the previous post) is this new home: 
I love - and hate - these juxtapositions peppering Bucktown and other neighborhoods throughout the city: gentrification is rarely so clearly displayed. What are the neighbors thinking?
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40 weeks 5 days ago
I'll start by saying that I've never been fond of the barrel roof and I don't really care for this house regardless of the roof.
I think the architect did well by respecting the roof height in keeping with the scale of the adjacent houses (probably bc of codes) but then blew it with the windows. The windows of the surrounding houses read horizontally while with this house, they chose to go vertical throwing off the scale, articulation and vocabulary of the adjacent vernacular. The house is completely out of context.
If I were to design this based only on the elements that are there, not adding anything new, I would first bring the block down to the height of the overhang of the brick house. I would keep the windows below that line so that it at least speaks with the windows of the houses next door. Of course bringing the windows down will create problems in where the floors/ceilings are inside so I would have either put the door on the second floor like the brick house or better yet, dug down a little and minimized it all together by going down a few steps. That little door does absolutely nothing for the facade compared to the scale of the windows. It doesn't look inviting or as grand as the rest of the house is shouting. Bringing it below street level would allow the roof over it to span the entire front of the house creating a nice little porch to sit under while it would visually support the weight of the windows.
This design is not symmetrical but it's not balanced either. There is just something way off about it that needs further study of materials and scale.
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