Where have all the architects gone? I was once an architect student in college before I switched to Industrial Design. Even though I decided against that career there’s still a part of me that enjoys studying architecture. One of my favorite websites to visit is www.adrianarchitecture.com . I took Peter Barr’s tour last year during Adrian’s Maple City Fest. There’s actually a tour map that you can use to take the tour yourself if you’re so inclined. Anyway, I love that kind of stuff. I admire the people who spend the time to buy these old houses in order to bring them back to life. My favorite styles are probably the craftsman, Greek revival and Romanesque. Sure these houses are a big challenge to refurbish, BUT the results are worth it in my opinion. If you take the architectural tour behind City Hall you’ll also find that the streets were modified to create an ideal place for children to run around. That’s what neighborhoods are all about!
So why all this talk about architecture? Well, I’m wondering why all houses have to look the same these days? I painted “Little Boxes” for the LCVA Box Show Auction last Fall. It represents my feelings concerning all the vinyl sided little boxes cropping up all over the place. I understand why people buy them and I cant really blame them. You can buy a brand new vinyl sided box for less than an old clunker downtown. People buy box houses for the same reason people shop at Walmart and that’s $$$. So what’s the problem? Well there are a bunch! But, here’s the one I feel like complaining about today. Small farmers cant compete with megafarms, just like the corner store cant compete with Walmart. So, when it’s time to retire how can you blame them for selling their land to developers? And, developers make out like bandits when they can subdivide the land into a thousand quarter acre lots and put up cookie cutter homes as fast as they can. Building cookie cutter homes keeps the costs down and allows them greater profits…..So they can buy up more farm land and start all over again, and again, and again. Why would anyone want to pay more for an older house? Well, for one I kinda like farm land. I grew playing in open fields. I wonder what’s going to happen to Lenawee County when all the farm land is gone? And, what about the older homes? Should we just write them off and bulldoze them over? Who cares about those old junkers anyway? I care. I guess I’m stubborn like that. And, the painting “Little Boxes” is not about the cute little song. To me the little houses on the hillside represent little locusts eating up all the countryside.
The Heron 