Not an EyeSore transforms to an EyeSore (via real estate company)

[The St.Paulite]

Minnetonka Blvd's Fishman Deli (in Minneapolis) has lost its lease - a loss of a good, local business that has been struggling lately - but the building was a little homage to the art deco period. It's not an awesome building. It is what it is - a simple (originally) streetcar oriented one-story, small, simple, building with a small local business - it fits into the street scape pretty well, too. Not all buildings need to scream out "HERE I AM!!!"....

Here's how the transformation will look:




It is turning into this ....

[noodles]

goddammit.

[billonions]

Uh....not Kosher indeed.

  The replacement building looks like a retro modern imitation of a 1939 bus station.  Odd that...subliminal even.

[The St.Paulite]

The replacement building looks like a retro modern imitation of a 1939 bus station.  Odd that...subliminal even.

Good point Bill,
At least the new building has some re-use as a bus station after real estate values continue to decline and commissions continue to get so crushed they close the doors on this satellite office of a company that made it's money during suburban housing boom.

We Need a New Word:
I almost feel as if there needs to be a new word, something that is a perfect antonym for "renovate"; e.g.: when a builder comes in and "remodels" into a modernist nightmare that looks worse than the original.

[GCrites80s]

^ I usually go with the term nu. Any time something replaces (or attempts to replace) something cool with an inferior version, such as with nu-metal, nu-rock or nu-country, I label it nu. In conversation, the way to make this distinction is to drag out the U a little bit as in, "Look at the nuuu building they built".

[The St.Paulite]

I'm going to take your advice and use the word "nu". In the case of this building - "nu-modeled" ...

I think this has been covered a dozen times or so on this forum, but this "nu-modeled" building is a prime example of why I find myself being a NIMBY a lot of times. It's not that I LOVE what currently exists, but it's that I HATE what is being built.

[GCrites80s]

It's catchy! Pretty soon you'll find yourself using in a lot of situations.

[billonions]

We used Moe-dern.....

[jbushkey]

Maybe the citizens should go Howard Roarke on that POS? hahhahaaha 

ok before the gestapo kicks down my door, its a joke.  DO NOT blow anything up.

[The St.Paulite]

Here's the construction update ... Beautiful ain't it.

[faraway]

Maybe the citizens should go Howard Roarke on that POS? hahhahaaha  

ok before the gestapo kicks down my door, its a joke.  DO NOT blow anything up.

Don't patronize the businesses there.
I don't buy anything from a business in an ugly building or do business with any business in an ugly building.

Once I was at a public meeting about streetscape improvements and the local businesses were up in arms because traffic might be slowed somewhat during construction.  I said I didn't shop on that street ... because it's ugly and the majority of buildings on it are ugly. I don't even drive on that street .... because it's ugly and depressing ... so I don't know about any new businesses that open up on that street.  They didn't know what to say to that.

I will go out of my way to avoid ugly. Particularly deliberately ugly like this example.

[The St.Paulite]

Don't patronize the businesses there.
I don't buy anything from a business in an ugly building or do business with any business in an ugly building.

Once I was at a public meeting about streetscape improvements and the local businesses were up in arms because traffic might be slowed somewhat during construction.  I said I didn't shop on that street ... because it's ugly and the majority of buildings on it are ugly. I don't even drive on that street .... because it's ugly and depressing ... so I don't know about any new businesses that open up on that street.  They didn't know what to say to that.

I will go out of my way to avoid ugly. Particularly deliberately ugly like this example.

That's great. I love that story. Usually if you say something so far out of everyone's lexicon, they'll freeze. Unfortunately I have little choice but to drive by this building - the other option would be for me to go on the Interstate and I prefer sidestreets and smaller roads.

[GCrites80s]

Who put all those dents in the siding?

[marcszar]

Once I was at a public meeting about streetscape improvements and the local businesses were up in arms because traffic might be slowed somewhat during construction.  I said I didn't shop on that street ... because it's ugly and the majority of buildings on it are ugly. I don't even drive on that street .... because it's ugly and depressing ... so I don't know about any new businesses that open up on that street.  They didn't know what to say to that.

Ha, well put. I do the same thing, and it's not even an ideological effort or anything. It's a psychological thing, as I don't like walking in landfills. And a lot of our postwar streetscapes aren't much better than landfills. I always find myself unconsciously avoiding the streets that are intensely ugly and desolate - and I notice other people do too! If there are lots of dark holes leading to cavernous parking garages that carve up the streetscape, or if there are empty lots or parking lots, or if there are blank walls, or if the business blocks are composed of boring slabs of glass, concrete, and steel or of gaudy, faded, peeling pomo redos, then I find myself avoiding that street and all of the businesses there. Why is it so hard for these guys to realize that just because a gaudy billboard or avant garde tower will attract a highway driver's attention at 60mph, the same strategy doesn't work when your customers are walking by or driving much more slowly?

St. Paulite, who are the architects behind that monstrosity? I noticed they even proposed a nature band-aid in front of the building! (As per the rendering.)

Oh, architects! I'm getting tired of the profession's obsession with mindless shock value and mysticism, especially as the public overwhelmingly hates Modernist and avant gardist "experimentation" and prefers instead that big bugaboo of the profession, "traditional design." (Ominous drum roll please.) Anyone who doesn't like mindless avant gardism is dismissed as a bumpkin who "doesn't get it." Remember that Hadid proposal for a town in California - "Sadly this is just another backlash against "innovative" modern architecture..."

I almost feel as if there needs to be a new word, something that is a perfect antonym for "renovate"; e.g.: when a builder comes in and "remodels" into a modernist nightmare that looks worse than the original.

We already got a couple good ones:

Botch
Butcher
Castrate
Cripple
Damage
Debilitate
Deface
Disfigure
Dismember
Fumble
Maim
Malform
Mangle
Mar
Mutilate (the M's are all pretty good)
Rape
Ravage
Ruin
Tarnish
Wreck

...and probably the simplest and most accurate... Destroy.

I'm shocked, shocked that there's so much NIMBYism and historical preservation hysteria out there! How can that be?! Well, if every new thing is worse than the old thing it's replacing...

[Innocent Byproduct]

Please forive me for raining on this parade....

The replacement building looks like a retro modern imitation of a 1939 bus station.  Odd that...subliminal even.

Good point Bill,
At least the new building has some re-use as a bus station after real estate values continue to decline and commissions continue to get so crushed they close the doors on this satellite office of a company that made it's money during suburban housing boom.

We Need a New Word:
I almost feel as if there needs to be a new word, something that is a perfect antonym for "renovate"; e.g.: when a builder comes in and "remodels" into a modernist nightmare that looks worse than the original.

^ I usually go with the term nu. Any time something replaces (or attempts to replace) something cool with an inferior version, such as with nu-metal, nu-rock or nu-country, I label it nu. In conversation, the way to make this distinction is to drag out the U a little bit as in, "Look at the nuuu building they built".

I'm going to take your advice and use the word "nu". In the case of this building - "nu-modeled" ...

I think this has been covered a dozen times or so on this forum, but this "nu-modeled" building is a prime example of why I find myself being a NIMBY a lot of times. It's not that I LOVE what currently exists, but it's that I HATE what is being built.

It's catchy! Pretty soon you'll find yourself using in a lot of situations.

 


The one REALLY huge problem with using "nu" to describe crappy buildings is that "nu" is the abbreviation for "New Urbanism."

And considering this past week's podcast about Mr. I Am A Snob From Harvard Who Hates New Urbanism, I am of the opinion that New Urbanism needs all the support it can get.