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Why is everything so ugly?

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Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#71

Post by donatj »

ajkjk wrote: post #64
donatj wrote: post #28

My city and apparently numerous cities in my area have passed ordinances that new buildings over a certain size have to have multiple facades to look like multiple buildings butted up to each other. The effect has been this astonishingly hideous theme park esq approximation of small town America that isn’t fooling anyone. It looks more out of place next to the actual turn of the twentieth century buildings than an un…

Sounds hilarious. Where's that?

Minneapolis Suburbs. There’s been a huge apartment building boom, and cities with leftover small town vibes have passed these ordinances.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#73

Post by MiguelX413 »

extractionmech wrote: post #29
midasuni wrote: post #7

Beauty isn’t valued in these areas by those with the resources to choose it. When the majority of people and businesses live hand to mouth, those that don’t have to constantly maximise exponential returns to their owners. Who has money to burn on “valueless” beauty Even if the cost of beauty is the same, and there is an actual value, as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you are increasing maximum potential value…

The issue is that New York decided as a strategy to rely on tourism revenue - it has nothing to do with “millenials”. I remember working as an intern building models for the disney land of 42nd street. Yes the models were cheesy (go take a look) but I mean anyone here remember Times Square before? That was one serious cesspool and I say this as a confirmed fan of late 80s New York, you know the city that your mom and…

Is /g an abbreviation of /gen?

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#74

Post by ghaff »

KerrAvon wrote: post #70
petepete wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought this grey decor trend was a British phenomenon - glad it's not just us!

Millennials in America apparently actually like the monotone look; it’s not just the resale thing. The process of making the house more bland for resale used to be called ‘beige-ing‘ by realtors (estate agents?) in the US; it’s not new, but it wasn’t always white and gray.

Someone I know (Gen X I guess) just built a new house and the design is nice enough and the location great. But the unending gray in every room... would not have been my choice.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#75

Post by KineticLensman »

ekianjo wrote: post #15
mewpmewp2 wrote: post #4

It's hard for me to understand what the author is exactly talking about without seeing more images.

its a word salad rant. An exercise in style to say mostly something that could be summed up in a few sentences.

Or just over two pictures, at 1 pic == 1000 words (he used ~2100 words)

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#76

Post by topaz0 »

KerrAvon wrote: post #70
petepete wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought this grey decor trend was a British phenomenon - glad it's not just us!

Millennials in America apparently actually like the monotone look; it’s not just the resale thing. The process of making the house more bland for resale used to be called ‘beige-ing‘ by realtors (estate agents?) in the US; it’s not new, but it wasn’t always white and gray.

Not sure where you're getting this. Zero of my millenial friends like this look -- and we represent a wide range of the millenial years.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#77

Post by xtiansimon »

donatj wrote: post #28

My city and apparently numerous cities in my area have passed ordinances that new buildings over a certain size have to have multiple facades to look like multiple buildings butted up to each other. The effect has been this astonishingly hideous theme park esq approximation of small town America that isn’t fooling anyone. It looks more out of place next to the actual turn of the twentieth century buildings than an un…

That’s funny. I don’t know about any ordinance, but you’re describing my town’s new downtown. [1]

Just around the corner is a 75+ yro brick building (to the right of this street view) [2] with a detailed facade fashioned to have a small personal scale and plays with ornament to align with other older buildings on this street. (And this is some firm’s same solution/plan that you can find in at least one development miles away. [3])

The building to the left of the street view is a monstrosity, and here is another around the corner [4]

I’ve heard many long-time residents complain bitterly about the experience of walking our downtown, so I hope this new building will move the needle in the right direction for folks.

For the speed the new building went up and the challenge to develop in such a central area on a large plot, I think the result is positive (though, I’m sure I could not afford to rent there).

[1]: https://maps.app.goo.gl/XKzYWUhiV5WTUBXv7?g_st=ic

[2]: https://maps.app.goo.gl/fGY9DYCvH6xZdNbz5?g_st=ic

[3]: https://maps.app.goo.gl/pgBMZ3wLUr3yCGvL8?g_st=ic

[4]: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Yj1Mk9pAE9BFMrNm6?g_st=ic

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#78

Post by pixl97 »

alkonaut wrote: post #13

The debate about how we can’t make classic beauty anymore will always be around (and it’s not very interesting). But what strikes me in some “ugly” cities is how accepted it is to let things be objectively ugly, for example in some cities you can see how a building wedged between two beautiful buildings has been torn down but the effort to build a new one seems on hold. As if owning the building/land gave the right t…

I'm pretty sure gravity may have some demands in how fast an ugly building comes down.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#79

Post by JKCalhoun »

apantel wrote: post #40

A whole article about ugly things with no pictures of them?

It's even weirder than that — the movie that is mentioned, "Army Soldier II" is not coming up in my searches.

Still, to this point:

> Such bad lighting — and such large portions! We exit the movie theater to a bright realization: our films are exactly as overlit as our reality. As our environment has become blander, it has also become more legible — too legible. That’s a shame, because many products of the new ugliness could benefit from a little chiaroscuroed ambiguity

Cool that I learned a new word. Having just watched "Badlands" last night from 1973, I definitely agree modern cinema has become way too "graded".

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#80

Post by TacticalCoder »

juggertao wrote: post #60
Avicebron wrote: post #2

As much as I claim to like brutalitism as a design philosophy, I do think we could bring back some things like classic marble architecture. Maybe some new fountains

Classic marble architecture is considered racist and white supremacy adjacent these days. https://intersectionist.medium.com/american-power-structures... https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2018/11/how-classical-...

> Classic marble architecture is considered racist and white supremacy adjacent these days.

Probably by some insane woke ultra-leftists. Romans had white marbles. Romans also had black emperors, from Africa (yes, really).

You have to have a serious sick mind to believe "white" means "white supremacy" and that anything "black" means oppression towards black people.

I think a talk should be had about the Ottoman entire, when non-white people ruled a great part of the world, including Europe and had, shocker...

Wait for it...

White people as slaves.

Wow. What do the woke have to say about that? How comes we're not asking for retribution, today, to turkish people for the white people their ancestors used to have as slaves?

One of my brother married a japanese woman and another brother had a kid with an african woman. So my kid's two cousins are half-asian and half-african. We speak several languages at home. We've lived in four countries. And I despise this cancer on earth that are woke leftists.

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