Gare-age

As you can see it is hard to tell where the garage is, it blends in, but a closer look shows that it is to the left of the picture, but it looks as if it's just part of the house, and its regular "living" use. It adds to the perceived size of the house.
Once again it is hard to tell where the garage is, it is assimilated into the house to the point where the use of the particular space is blurred.

For the most part J.B. Jackson's evolution of garages seemed very accurate and interesting. The only thing that seemed to be missing, obviously, would be the time after Jackson wrote. Maybe we don't give the topic of garages much thought because when we look at a house we don't realize what's the garage and what's the house, thats exactly the point. I though it was funny when he wrote on page 124:
"The added massiveness, the magazine suggested, would make for a more impressive house, and the three garage doors would imply three cars and a corresponding larger income. Surely these are very out-of date concepts, long since abandoned by the prospective home owner."
In fact that is what has changed since Jackson's writing, homeowners have gone back to that, or recreated that entirely. They do that to suggest a larger and better house, and thus indirectly a larger income and higher social status. I actually was just taking a drive in the country this weekend and it was so beautiful and of all the houses I saw tucked away in the trees, the one I remember now is the one when I said "hey look, a three car garage, man that's huge." The fact is since two car is the norm three car garages do impress us even more. But it doesn't have to be a three car garage to lend importance to the house. The subdivisions in the burbs all have two car garages directly attached and add to the size of the house, if they were not there, the houses would look alot smaller. In the case of my house and many other houses, the garage is totally integrated to the point where its the main entryway to the house, and I live above it directly connected to the upstairs. Its our creation as homeowners to instill a grander scale to our houses with the use of garages, even though for the most part, room for storage, and as Jackson said, could be called a warehouse.

Poor Us

I understand the sentiment completely regarding the banality of the modern suburb, the "sitcom suburb" as it was referred to in our reading. Yet as you read the piece of Jackson's regarding Ray's new house, I'm not sure we can help but wonder whether we did this to ourselves. The most staggering thing about Jackson's article was how deeply it contrasted the point of view of 50's America with 00's America about the use of suburbs. It seems it popular culture now, or even on campus, everyone hates the suburb, everyone hates the big chain, and everyone hates walmart (lower case on purpose). But what is underscored throughout the whole piece is that these sorts of characteristics where the exact reasons for the founding of suburbs. It seems clear that after the Great Depression and The Second World War somebody somewhere had the bright idea of saying to themselves "hey, lets make a place with safety and security!" and they did with the suburb. Most of all it gave the security of convenience, as Jackson said "convenience was all that mattered." The people of the time wanted this so bad, the detachment from work, the freedom of "no distinct code of behavior or set of standards." The ability to go to school close, or the hospital fast if needed, and the availability of commercial markets.
What they wanted, and what we still want is to break everything down to its smallest form and make everything simpler and easier. Ray's wife wanted to "reduce the functions of the house and to make it a convenience rather than a responsibility." This mindset is what led us to sitcom suburbs, and the ideas of having everything how we want it when we want it: the "automatic time of an electric range" or a dishwasher or garbage disposal or air conditioning or a washing machine, and now tv and the internet. We all can speak on end on how much we all apparently loathe suburban life and walmart, yet it is walmart who is still in business and thriving because they provide the American consumer with convenience and low cost. There is no sense in calling for the downfall of walmart if we as consumers are not first willing to stop shopping there. It is not about the things we have but rather about the people we are. The same applies for the discussion of suburbs. We can say all the houses look the same, or as in "little boxes" all the people come out the same (no time to explain that maybe the ultimate in a society's function is to provide equality for its citizens) yet until we become a people who value the things that seemingly bother us on end, we will not come closer to changing anything. Everything is in its place for a purpose and suburbs are no different, they suit the needs of Americans to a tee; life conveniences, the availability of a house for a home, the availability of nature in the yard, the availability of community in the neighborhood, and above all our own personal space and room to placate to our need for absolute freedom. Maybe we need to overhaul our priorities, maybe we need to rethink convenience and look towards co-ops instead of massive chains, or local vendors instead of walmart, or hummers instead of hybrids. We have begun to in small steps, yet we will not be a society full of virtue until we are a people full of virtue.

Poor Us

Buffalo...just kidding

The top two here are the American cities, New York then Chicago. The bottom two are Prague and Budapest. The first striking thing that i notice about these two sets of cities is the absolute urban sprawl of the commercial skyscraper in the American cities. The height of the first two just crush the European wonders. This seemingly is the American of the city, the grandeur and in fact heights that our cities have grown into. This is primarily due to the modern aspect to our cities, first the building architectures and secondly the time period in which they became metropolises. The European cities here predated our American centuries by over a thousand years, and the old fashioned ways seem to show. This is made possible because both of these European cities were left infra structurally intact despite both world wars, allowing for the old world look and feel to permeate. This old world or cultural feel to the European cities seems to be absent from the American ones, as if they had no significant history other than being a product of industrialization, urbanization, and growth. It seems as if each of the European cities has its own unique aura over it, while the American cities, more or less, are painted over in one broad stroke of modernism.

The Gladiators of Architecture

All good architectural study obviously begins and ends with the placement of revival columns on the facade of none other than a parking garage, but if i must go further...

The closest i could find to the Parthenon was the center of the Albright Knox Art Gallery. The ionic columns, rectangular shape and roofing all try and emulate it.

The facade of Hayes Hall on South Campus radiates the Parthenon as well, with its columns, similar roofing, and shape etched in.

In general though the column as portrayed on the Parthenon is present in almost every architectural setting.

In this storefront in the heart of the Delaware District.

Or here on the front and most featured part of this Presbyterian Church near South Campus.
And also in simple homefronts as seen here, though not that simple because its on Chapin Parkway.

Once upon a time, when we had an honest president

From outside Abraham Lincoln's Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois

street furniture, not patio furniture

Some nice things still do exist. It shocked me. I took a walk down the main drag in my home town of lancaster ny, the home of pretty much nothing. I just started to glance here and there and noticed some cool stuff that I never really took the time to see before. Many of the things I observed were actually very pleasant and reminded me of a simpler and almost better time, as Im sure their placement or the act of leaving them there was intended to do. Like the first image here on the left, it has the old looking lamp posts they just installed last year, I think because of the 150th anniversary of the town, the old gas look, I like it, it even has an American flag...wave the flag and all will be right I guess. Behind that you have the small town version of a central park, with some trees and a few benches. Behind that you see the old building of what used to be a factory, it says tinning and plumbing and some other stuff, again a nice old nostalgic feel to it. The next one, here on top to the right has more of the good old town feel as it is a place for the posting of such activities all around town. Seems to hint at some of the older ways the town operated, and I could just imagine what that would have been like a hundred years or so ago, what kind of system they had for town announcements, but i bet it would have been something to this effect, especially as it was in the town center. Some more things i noticed that would add to this old feel were the nice brick crosswalk that made me think of how the roads might have been set up for the first cars, the small narrow allies that lined the sides of main street that reminded me of a bigger city and even more so, an older town, and finally a nice old rusty fire escape on the side of a building that reminded me again of the larger cities and the older towns that are in them.
Here we have the start of some things that wouldnt have been there some time ago, and that don't reflect an aesthetically pleasing side of town. I love this picture. It get everything rolled into one. The grand space waster and polluter, the parking lot is in full frame. Though a modern creation, and not a very nice one in this picture at that, its interesting to think about what people did with their buggies when they came to town. In addition to that we see the next essence of the new American town, the parked car. The cars here reflect a modern time filled with pollution, except for that Honda in the foreground of course. The disgusting loading dock, the hanging power lines and especially the large satellite in the left corner kill the town's quaintness in one fell swoop. These most certainly would not have been apart of older towns, though the idea of someone from the 1890's having to deal with a satellite tv is pretty funny, kinda like 'Looking Backwards' funny. If the frame was a tiny bit bigger you would be able to see the massive electrical box on the left, attached to the side of the building that made the parking lot. Just another little touch of progress, attached firmly to the building, taking away facade more and more each year.