by Architectural Observer | Nov 22, 2016 | Blog, Observations
It’s Sunday morning in a small Midwestern town; the mood is slightly surreal. The few people who are out are gathered at an auction house; a cluster of vehicles surrounds it. Loudspeakers along the main street fill the air with a woman’s voice intoning a...
by Architectural Observer | Nov 21, 2016 | Blog, Observations
It’s a common sight in small-town America – vacant or underutilized storefronts lining the heart of town. Declining populations and a struggling economy have both taken their toll and it shows. How communities deal with these growing vacancies varies from...
by Architectural Observer | Nov 21, 2016 | Blog, Observations
Every once in a while I run across an interesting example of well-designed door hardware from the mid-20th century. There used to be more, of course, but our culture’s obsession with making everything new again has relegated a lot of it to the landfill or...
by Architectural Observer | Nov 21, 2016 | Blog, Observations
I’ve yet to see a replacement siding installation which was without at least some undesirable side effects. The house shown below fared far better than most do when subjected to a “maintenance-free” (ha!) future; the homeowner and/or the installer...
by Architectural Observer | Nov 19, 2016 | Blog, Observations
Houston, Texas, is a fascinating place. Famous for its casual zoning laws, the city has an insatiable appetite for redevelopment and reinvents itself at a seemingly constant pace. In scenes that have been repeated time and again for more than a half century, quiet...
