J. B. Jackson

The garage has come a long way since its initial iteration as part of a stable/barn with chaufer quarters above. The main difference in garages since these barns has been its addition to the main house, and the improved and sole functionality it provided for many families. But this sole functionality would soon end as the garage became something more than a place to put and take care of your car. The garage was for old kitcken cabinets for storage, old refridgerators for storage, and everything else not wanted in the house, for storage. Also, depending on the families usage of their cars, the garage could be transformed into a useable living space. Screens put infront of the garage door opening instead of the garage door were used. Also, some familes opted to remove the garage entirely, and transform the garage into another living room entirely. But many people still use their garages for cars, and that functionality has not left.

*Sorry for the low quality post, these are my ideas that I came up with while reading Jackson. I had forgot about the assignment till early this week, and I've been too sick to even read the computer screen document. I will provide more details on this topic when I wake up tomorrow and can actually sit up and type. Thank you for your understanding.

(continuation:)

I know that the garage that I have at my house is chocked full of car related stuff, and probably would have been similar to the ones that chaufers would have dreamed about. It includes a lift and every tool imaginable to build/fix/clean a car. That is in start comparison to my next door neighbor's garage that not only lacks tools to fix a car, but was used for many years (probably 30-40) as the man's personal workshop. There were 4 uniquely different zones in the garage, and each was useful for a different reason. And he could build anything you wanted out of his garage, but just don't ask him to park your car in there.

The garages, from what I can tell, usually looked somewhat like the house they were attached to/owned by. The next door neighbor who has the cape house (both of them, from my previous post), have detached garages about 20 or so paces from their back door that match the style of their house. The brick house has a brick garage while the paneled house has a paneled garage. Once inside the garage, they all look the same. A big open space with windows in the back and side not attached to the garage, concrete floor (usually cracked right down the middle), and maybe some counters at the back of the garage. Rarely do you find a house that has another garage door going into the backyard (which I think is unbelievably cool), or one that is not a square (I've seen one that is a two car garage, but one side of the garage also goes back another two car lengths!).

To comment upon Sutton Lane, I'd like to say that many of those structures do NOT look like they were ever intented for garage usage. Most likely (in the case of the white house with big wooden doors) was probably used as a horse stable. The other small, tiny box garages were probably built one at at time by owners that wanted to have a garage on their street. Also, I was suprised to see the backyards open right up to Sutton Lane. I especially liked the houses that only had a covering for their car, whether there was no garage, or just no garage door! Lastly, I am surpised at the utter run-down look of the neighborhood, and suprised that not even one of the garages look in decent shape.

Ticky Tacky

1

2

3

4

5

6

The idea of ticky-tacky houses are represented on pictures 1-5. They were taken on stevenson road off of Millersport Highway. When comparing one house to another, it seemed that every one looked different from another, until a closer inspection was done. Every house appears to be the same from the fascade back, but the fronts of each house differed (sometimes there were houses with the same front, such as the ones in number 5). So in a sense, the "little box" mentality was preserved but in a different way than pure repetitiveness. The little boxes all had basically the same shape and make up (as seen in picture 2), but the obvious aesthetic differences were noticable from the front. I didn't want to clog up the blog with more photographic evidence, but various houses had red doors on them (two that I noticed). There were also some houses that greatly exceeded the norm or standard of the surrounding neighborhood. House number 6 is one of these houses. Besides number 6 (which looks full-blown roman style, from the arches to the teracotta style roofing tiles), the biggest and best houses on the street were on the corner lots. One even had a pool, while the other had a mudroom to connect the garage and the house.

The idea that these suburbs provide the people with their dream of "house, yard, and neighborhood" from Hayden's ideas is seen in the housing choices that these people made when buying/building these houses. Despite most houses being identical, they definitly showed their own variety of individualism and flair. Some houses had ornamental doorways, brick fascades, different colored shutters, an addition to the back of the house, lawn ornaments, and even one house and boarded up windows (but still inhabited, I'm positive). These neighborhoods fascilitated comraderie and friendliness, as many people were working outside or went for walks, and the street looked overall more active than the sidestreets behind my house. The yards definitly allowed for customization and showing of character, and those that were really interested in doing so put things onto the yard (10+ gnomes sound good to anyone?). Also, the people took steps to make their house their own, whether it was house color variations (picture 3 and 1), or additions to the house, or the door color.

Today's suburbanites have created suburbs of their own concotion, and they all are based off the same housing designs (or limited varieties of housing designs) just like the "little box" houses were off of Millersport. The suburbs behind my house tend to put more emphasis on the yard and space, since everyone tends to have more space infront of, behind, and inbetween the houses. There also tends to be less lawn ornamation (unless you are in an area that is known for it and really likes to do it). Also, house colors tend to be more muted or less noticable. Community tends to be less noticable, and people seem to pay attention to the social groups they meet outside their neighborhood, instead of creating a social group with the neighborhood.

Cape Cods, Ranches, and Split Levels, Oh My!

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

The pictures above show the different housing styles for the second blog assignment: Split level, cape cod, and ranch. Pictures 1-3 Show Split level, 4 and 5 show ranches, and 6 and 7 show Cape Cods. I took these houses from my neighborhood, and many of you have probably passed these to and from school. The two ranches and two cap cods are on North Forest Road near West Klein, and one of them is my family's (can you guess which one?)!

The split level house is recongizeable because of the two rows of windows next to the front door, and it looks like the front door is on neither level. I have grown up visitng friends in these houses, and I have been in and out of split levels for my entire life. These houses do have a basement, but they are usually lower or only on the half of the house that is higher up. Usually the bed rooms are on the upper part of the house (above the garage usually) and have many small and compact staircases.

The ranch house is the style of house that I have lived in and grown up in for my entire life. I do not know if they are all normally made out of brick, but both houses I have here are made all out of brick. The yellow house was built in the late 1950's (property bought 1952, built before 1960). The brown ranch was built in 1982. They are characteristic for only having one floor and having an attached garage. They usually have simple floor plans and valted ceilings (the room I am in now has a ceiling that goes up to the top of the house, and looks like it should have a second floor). The roofs of these houses usually overhang the edge of the walls further than most normal houses.

Cape cod houses (6 and 7) are characteristic for their very simplistic housing plan, usually only consisting of a one floor or one and a half floor design. From what I can tell, the houses are usually sided like number 6. I believe number 7 is a cape cod, but I do not know why it has brick. Many examples that I found online also had the same windows for the upstairs that number 6 had. The floorplan usually centered around the hall and the parlor.

Dempsey's Liquor Store and Bloch Bro's Mail Pouch!

I unfortunately did not do anything over spring break, and unless anyone would like to see a picture of my basement or living room (or a car I helped fix up) my break was pretty uneventful. But, on tuesday of this week I went down to Waterloo, NY to visit a family friend. We went to Connie's Diner (which has excellent food if you ever want to get something to eat in Waterloo, its on the main road in town, and the food is consistently good as I've eaten there a few times over the past 3 years or so and its always been the same), then he showed us the house he grew up in. When he was bringing us back to our car, we passed a building that recently had an outer layer of brick torn off of it, and this is what was under that outer layer of brick:

He had already pulled away from the corner before I could tell him I wanted to take a picture of it, so I had him drive around the block so I could grab a few snapshots of it. I forgot my camera (which was a mistake, as there was some other stuff I wanted to take a picture of) and I had to rely on my phone to take these pictures, so sorry about the quality.

Travel Guides

I have found two good sites for European visitors to New York City and Atlanta, and a site for American visitors to Paris.

Europeans to Atlanta:

http://travel.yahoo.com/trip-view-1483370-tara_travel_agency_s_best_of_atlanta_tour

Europeans to New York City:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-g60763-c96990/New-York-City:New-York:Activity.Advice.For.First.Time.Visitors.html

Americans to Paris:

http://www.eurovacations.com/EVWeb/Custom_SavedItin.jsp?fromlist=Y&sourceid=Evac&theme=Evac&utype=webuser&dest=Paris&item=Pkgs/2008011502200828


When I was comparing sites, I noticed that the European travellers had a lot more details about where they were going to go, and mostly weren't the big "Grand Canyon" type of places. The Georga trip to Atlanta mentioned places like the aquarium, art museum, and other places (probably) only popular to locals. But the trip to New York City focused on the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, WTC site, Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island. Atlanta has a lot to offer what Europe does not necessarily. Atlanta places emphasis on all of the minor places for visitors like the aquarium. Europeans seem to like the USA for its techological improvements and innovations, and treat the Americans like an oddity that needs to be visited and seen. So the Europeans put less focus on places like Gettysburg, Lexington & Concord, Old Ford Niagara (which you'd think the French would want to come see), and other battlefields. This is in comparison to Americans flocking to battlefields all over Europe.

The people going to Europe, in specific a trip to Paris, was focused on the Versaille Palace and Gardens. Also they offer a Seine River dinner cruise. I find this funny because it is built outside of Paris (so the King could escape the city, which was probably a good idea for the beheadings of his ancestors later on). The European travel packages focus on more national, manmade, and historical landmarks. The people travelling to Europe definitly want to discover the Europeans during their respective hay-days. So going back to Rome and seeing the Coliseum, Versaille in France, and Big Ben in London. They also want to go see the Acropolis in Athens. Europe offers Americans the ability to be in a time and era that the Americans could never be a part of, and a heritage that they could never be a part of.

Covered Bridge

I was searching around the internet on a "Picture of the Day" thread and a member posted this. It is from their town in Pennsylvania. The construction esign of hte bridge I found to be very interesting, especially in light of our last class together.

What Style Is It?

This has been one of the hardest assignments I have ever done, so I hope my work has equated to adequtely labelled houses!

Prairie Style. The long style house as well as the dark and light contrast on the outside of the building made it look like a Prairie style.

Greek Revival. The columns that are on both sides of the main entrance as well ast he big windows and the roofing structure (entablature?).

French Colonial. The steep roof, the big front porch, the wooden beam porch, and the windows (espeically the third floor with the peaked top to them). Also, the centrally located chimney.

Bungalow. Gabled roof facing the street. The porch that spans the middle front of the house, as well as the battered front porch piers.

Second Renaissance Revival. The main difference between the bottom floor and the floors above it, as well as the style of the roof made me think of the second renaissance revival style. Also, the inclusion of gateways and arched openings made it stand out.



Unknown. It really feels like this should be something, and after reading Blumenson I really feel like this can be classified somewhere. I just cannot figure out what it is. Does anyone have any idea or any clue? I am at a loss and it is seriously bothering me.

Anyone else have trouble using and understanding the terms in the Blumenson book? I stumbled over several and had to google many just to understand what they were talking about. Overall, I hope I did a good job and would like any comments if anyone agrees or disagrees with my choices.

Urban Panoramas

The first picture are from atop a building in Memphis, Tennessee. The second two pictures are from the acropolis in Athens, Greece.

One of the most obvious comparisons are the importance (or even presence!) of sky scrapers in Memphis over Athens. For cities in the United States that sprouted during a time when skyscrapers were possible, they shape the landscape in an almost all-encompassing way. For Athens, which has been developing for over 2000 years, the ability to build sky scrapers is impossible in a city that has been dominated by one or two level houses for the majority of its lifetime. I would feel that this trend occurs over a lot of European cities. Low-laying cities dominated by one or two story buildings versus the skylines of Memphis, New York City, or any other major city in the United States dominated by sky scrapers.

Greek Buildings

I have taken various Greek classes, and if my memory serves me, this is the first example of a peristyle collinade on any building in the Greek world. This drawing of a structure is the Heroon at Lefkandi. The columns are wooden, and support a thatched roofing structure. The date is sometime around 1000-800 B.C.E. for the building. Wikipedia has more information, all though it is limited in comparison to what I was taught in my class, and I do not wish to post it all since this thread is about imitation Greek architecture, not real Greek architecture!

I have various examples of Greek styles throughout my neighborhood. All I had to do was go up and down 2-3 streets and take pictures while I drove. The columns and the roof styles point towards Greek-styled houses. Some are more obvious than others, since some encompass the entire house while some have columns only on the porch.

The Buffalo Museum of Science is aonther example of the Greek Style of architecture. ALl though it really is only found in the columns, the Greek influence is there.

I'll start with the most obvious piece of Greek architecture found on UB's campus. I know that it isn't a full building, or anything close to a collapsed building even, but it is very Greek-like.

The next building is the albright knox art gallery in Buffalo. I know that many other people have posted this, as well as my next example, but it still is appropriate I feel. Its overwhelming impact on the Buffalo area makes it deserve to be in every post. If I remember correctly, it was built for the Pan-Am festival? Does anyone know for sure? I think they needed a more permanant and fire resistant building to house the priceless pieces of art. It is also very reminiscent of the buildings in Washington D.C. The columns as well as the roofing style show the Greek influences.

Street Furniture

I feel it immediately necessary to apologize for several things: I could not get the pictures to cooperate for this blog, so they are not organized around the text as best as I would have hoped, and I am sorry for the quanitity of pictures and if it freezes your broswer/internet connection.

I wandered down 3 or so blocks on Mainstreet in Williamsville and found many interseting items that I did not realize existed on sidewalks, and some that I was waiting to find and take pictures of. There is a laundry list of items that I found, including what was on utility poles, what was on the sidewalk, what was written on the sidewalk, and what the sidewalk was made out of.

For items that I found on light poles (not to mention two types of light poles, which I did not realize until my camera was put away, so I only have one type to show): posts to hang banners on during festivals, outlet plugs, signs for the cars and bus system, street crossing equipment for pedestrians, and street signs.

For items found on the sidewalk include yellow paint markings, which I am not completely sure of the purpose. I can assume that it is gas lines or some type of marking for a hidden underground line, but I am not sure. There were also manhole, utility, and traffic covers on the sidewalk. For the manhole covers, I found this unusal since I normally see them in the middle of the street (such as on Maple Road between North Forest Road and Hopkins Road).

I found many items between the road and the building, some of which surpised me while others did not. I found a large wooden bear and person (which other bloggers have posted, so I will not be repetitious with the pictures), as well as benches, memorial to the "Ice House," gas meters, walls (brick and pole separaters), fire hydrant, trees, places to purchase/pick up local papers/flyers, trash cans, plants (or pots for the plants), and hanging liquor shop signs. I even found a mail slot that was built into the building in such a way that it destroyed the obviously fake storm shutters.

Lastly, I have found it interesting as to the material choice for creating the sidewalk. As it is shown in the pictures, the sidewalk is half brick and half concrete.




The placement of many of these street furniture pieces are apparent based on their design and purpose. The reasoning behind some of the pieces is not so clear, such as the material choice as well as the presence of bears and people made out of wood. Due to my lack of travel, I can not compare Main Street's view to that of another city. I have been in St. Louis, New York City, and Indianapolis briefly, I have never ventured to look at the sidewalk in such a manner as to answer this particular question.

There are many objects on the sidewalk that are from the owners of the various shops that line the streets. Examples are the potted plants, the bench outside the bank, and the wooden statues. Other objects are maintained by the town, such as the garbage bins and the "Ice House" memorial. I find one of the more interesting objects to be the outlet found on the utility pole. I knew that I was going to find many objects littered around the sidewalk, but the outlet was a shock to me. Maybe it is the winter time, but the majority of the street future seems to serve as eye-candy more than a function for the people passing by. The memorial, the shafts to hang banners on the light poles, and the multi-material sidewalks serve more aesthetic or ceremonial purposes than anything else.

The liquor shop I found appeared to be the oldest building I encountered on the trip, and it warranted the extra look at the top floor (which was being used by a second business, the Stitchery Witchery).

I never did understand the degree to the clutter (and I still do not understand why some items exist, such as that wooden bear!) and utility of so many pieces of furniture throughout the few blocks of sidewalk that I ventured on today. Lastly, it appears to me that most of the furniture is of newer origin (within the last 40 or so years) than of any older or more historic origin. The only true historic object that I could find was the bench area which appears to serve as a memorial for a historic building that existed years and years ago. Iwas also suprised by the amount of trees that existed, I passed well over a handful, including a newly planted treet.

Overall, I can offer some advice to anyone who wants to go take pictures of street furniture. As tempting as it is, do not stand as long outside the bank taking pictures as I did of their benches and low walls. Just a cautionary word of advice.

Money and Class Houses

I have chosen to look around the city of Buffalo for inspiration. My "money and class" house example is representative of my love of medieval and more ancient times. It reminds me of the Harvard- or Yale-like campus. The size is important, the amount and organization of windows, as well as the castle-like shape to the front of the building. The building looks very imposing because of the big brick front. The building looks like well built and sturdy. Also the big wooden door with the plaster (?) surround seems very classy.