What's your opinion on this house?

I think this is the second article I've seen like that in recent months, having to do with neighborhoods trying to stay historic. To some extent I agree if that has all been worked out, a big matter in the first place - but this architect's work is fine with me. Not to say I completely like it, I'd use different material for the columns, but never mind.

There are ranges of historic - not renovation, but restoration - and real restoration is a rigorous thing, which (not having read the thread) I bet none in the neighborhood have followed.

I think this may be the same place I read about before, just in a more finished state. I can get serious restoration or replication (one of our clients did restoration on part of the property) but this architect and clients are fine to me. Seems like local mishugana.

It doesn't suit the neighbourhood and is hideous in its own right. It's a nasty mish-mash of MCM and post-modern.

I can't begin to say how much I hate houses with those tall, skinny windows.

I think it looks harsh now since it's incomplete, but with a garden, bushes/shrubs around the corners and a year to give it a lived in look, it'll be fine I believe.

I wonder what makes this particular neighborhood so historic?

To me it looks like a bunch of older homes that are quite modest and many times not very attractive in appearance. I'll bet there's a number that are getting pretty run down.

I live in an old established neighborhood, but I really welcome all the new styles of homes being built here, When a property is purchased with an original house on it, usually it's torn down or picked up and moved off someplace else, for a different purpose, i.e. a working studio.

Seeing all those original homes that kind of all look alike in their "To Kill a Mockingbird/Sherriff Taylor and Barney" days looks just as ticky tacky as those look alike clone communities.

What I don't like about the interior is that open kitchen design. I'd change that if it was my house.

I can respect tradition and believe sometimes things need to be preserved. On the other hand, to me this is a crowded little neighborhood that has seen better days, and were once quite modern themselves. Sometimes you just have to say "The world has moved on gunslinger"

I reread the article to try to see why this place was so historic, and saw that it was one neighbor who complained.
Now it becomes clear. You only need one Gladys Kravitz to make a stink.
There's someone in our neighborhood that complains about every single new home being built, every renovation and outside home repair. She roams the streets on her morning walks with a notepad. No ****.

I think those windows will always be hideous - no amount of landscaping can make that better. Almost all of the landscaping in that neighbourhood could be better.

I looked at the renderings (the slideshow seemed disproportionately reflective of the renderings) and while much of it isn't something I'd want to buy if I had $, I can see wanting to maintain a historic effect once that designation has been achieved. There are definitely better and worse infill homes out there. We've got some of each in our neighbourhood.

as I look back at the house a few more times I see that part of what seems really wrong is the roof pitch - the angle is just off

Oh, here's the historic reason for the neighborhood....
So in a nutshell:
Homes were built there after the Civil War.
After WWI people started driving and moved to better neighborhoods.
The houses deteriorated and would have been torn down.
In 1970 & 1971 some of the houses were renvovated and the neighborhood was "revitalized"
In 1972 they were going to build a bigger (and I'm sure better) road through the neighborhood. That plan was thwarted by the forming of "The Society for the Preservation of Historic Oakwood" Whoop-de-doo.

Now you find Victorian, neo-classical, French 2nd Empire, but reflect individual tastes and different architecture.

Unless of course your tastes are somewhere in the last 25 years.

In other words, nothing actually happened here. A bunch of old ladies that are now dead and gone met at their garden clubs and halted progress.

Neighborhood History

Oakwood is the only intact nineteenth century neighborhood in Raleigh. The neighborhood was built in the dense woods of Northeast Raleigh known as “Mordecai Grove” and sold off in parcels after the Civil War to individuals and developers such as Col. J. M. Heck, Richard Stanhope Pullen, W. C. and A. B. Stronach, and Thomas H. Briggs. The great variety of Victorian architectural styles represented in the neighborhood reflects the middle-class tastes of the business and political leaders of Raleigh for whom they were built, as well as the skill of local architects and builders. house

Following World War I, as the automobile came into general use and fashionable neighborhoods developed in Raleigh's outskirts, second generation Oakwood residents moved away. Many of the large residences became boarding or apartment houses. This depressed economic state preserved the houses from destructive modernization, but not from deterioration. By 1970 the area appeared destined for urban renewal. In 1970 and 1971, however, the rehabilitation of several houses sparked a general neighborhood revitalization. The announcement in 1972 of a major thoroughfare through the heart of the neighborhood united residents, and the Society for the Preservation of Historic Oakwood, a non-profit corporation, was formed. The thoroughfare plan was thwarted and the neighborhood revitalization continues.

As you walk through the neighborhood, you can notice the trends in architecture reflecting individual tastes throughout the years as well as features common to most houses built in this Southern climate. About the time of the Civil War, the Neo-Classical style of architecture was popular. This style was patterned after the ancient Greek temples with their large heavy columns topped with ornate capitals. The 70's saw a trend to a style “imported” from France, the Second Empire, a pompous style typified by Mansard roofs. Coming into the 80's and 90's the Victorians looked to England for a new type of architecture, the Queen Anne style. Queen Anne architecture sought to delight the eye with contrasting elevations, uses of texture and color, and free “romantic” forms. After the Chicago Exhibition of 1893, architecture saw a reversion back to the historic styles of the Greeks and Romans in the Neo-Classical Revival style. The architects were once again striving for correctness of form and symmetry.

houseAlthough most of the homes in Oakwood reflect individual tastes and differences in architecture, there are many common denominators. The architectural styles were modified for a Southern climate. Better than ninety percent of the houses have at least one porch. The roofs have a deep pitch in order to form large attics for added insulation. Latticework appears on rear service porches and under the houses to maintain circulation of air on warm summer days.

There are, other interesting features to watch for in a walk through the neighborhood. Low walls, sometimes of granite, on the property lines of many houses were used to demarcate the property Some of the homes still retain the blue porch ceilings to resemble the sky and, according to Southern folklore, to scare flies away. The transoms and sidelights seen often on the homes, were methods of lighting the hallways before electricity. Decorative and unusual vents in the attics were also a reflection of the individual tastes of Victorian homeowners. saved house

Oakwood is now one of Raleigh's tourist attractions. In recognition of Oakwood's importance as a valuable tangible reminder of Southern urban life during the 19th and 20th centuries, the neighborhood has been listed as an historic district in the National Register of Historic Places.

The City of Raleigh designated Oakwood as its first “local historic district” in 1974 to ensure that the physical charm and special character of the neighborhood is maintained. As part of the “local historic district" designation, all exterior changes are subject to design review by the Raleigh Historic Districts Commission.

My problem re housing going on is that I don't like much. I watch san francisco real estate and only really like maybe one out of thirty, if that (and I like different styles done well) - not re being contemporary or million dollar fixups, I could go on for great lengths how bad stuff is, while the market zooms out of reality (while messing up the city).

I appreciate your not liking the house ehbeth, I really do. I don't know that I would want that exact house. It's not an eyesore or something that will destroy the neighborhood.
The neighborhood is its people first, buildings next.

I guess it just gripes me that the architect is doing everything by the book, and would be out a lot of money over someone's reluctance to take the stick out of their butt.

definitely agree with this - I'm one of the people in Toronto that likes the Chin revamp of the ROM.

The house that started this - not an example of any style done well.

I do agree with that. I like a roof to be more pitched.

Around here, there's a couple/few houses I've seen that are new/being built with a flat roof. I hate that.

Well, here, Tsar's thread on real estate porn http://able2know.org/topic/211817-1

I can deal with different roof pitches in varied places.

No matter how pretty pictures of houses might look, ALWAYS check out the immediate area on Google Earth and Street View and Bing to see if there's a sewage plant/ motorway/rail line/airport/nuke plant/gun club/ chemical factory etc nearby first..

Yeah, I think if I was going to buy a house, I might do a perusal of the neighborhood. Although an airport would be pretty easy to hide.

I once camped overnight in a comfortable-looking field in the country but was woken every time an airliner came over on final approach; the airport was a couple of miles away but i was right under the glide path. Dunno how the people in the nearby farms and villages could stand it..

Seeing the town approved it then they should be able to keep the house and build it and live in it as is. The problem I think came up that the owners were told, as it appears uncorrectly, that the one appeal would not be a problem -- apparently it is.

That being said -- from what I read, even though it is a historical area -- it also says there are houses from various periods so what the heck is wrong with having a more modern version. Personally I don't particularly like the look - I don't hate it either and it doesn't look so out of place seeing the houses in the neighborhood are all different.

Then who the heck cares? Would they prefer a shack representing the 1600s with a farm and smelly farm animals?

That house is similar to the architecture which is "in" since a couple of years here in Germany (and some other parts of Europe), kind of neo-Bauhaus.

I really like it. Especially since my only complaint is the present state of the white paint areas has already been answered which isn't the final color as it's still unfinished (and it's depicted as a cool flat gray paint job in the renderings).