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Horrors, Look At Those Building Vents!
East Side Architectural Review Board shudders at unapproved venting on new building at Oakland and North. Is there a solution?
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East Side Architectural Review Board shudders at unapproved venting on new building at Oakland and North. Is there a solution? Back to the full article.
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That’s not all…. what about the tan cap/flashing on the top of the building. The picture doesn’t do it justice. Looks much worse in person.
Just use brushed aluminum then it becomes a design feature. Boom. Problem solved.
When are we going to learn?…. ‘never believe a developer’. Will it ever stop? Developers continually build something that wasn’t approved! There should be penalties!!!! That may slow it down. Since when is Lincoln Fowler the architectural design guru? For all we know he could have been behind Bay View’s ugly bus stop!
Did the developer “go cheap” and scrap plans for an integrated heating/cooling plant in favor of individual units?
In a related thought of other changes to original plans: check out the architectural haircuts on two historic renovation jobs in Milwaukee: Railway Exchange building (SW corner of E. Wisconsin & N. Broadway), and the building at the NW corner of S. Water & E. Buffalo (I don’t recall the building name).
You’d have to assume there were plans to replace the missing large scale decorative cornice/crown elements that were lopped off the top of each building. Contemporary views can be viewed at Google Maps with the “street view” photos. Historic photos of both buildings are found on digital websites.
I thought about these examples when reading the recent obit. for Paul Jakubovich. I would imagine he had an opinion and a story about both of those buildings (and about the more recent defacing of the carved frieze on Journal/Sentinel building).
These grilles are certainly no uglier than the unattractive overhead wires necessary to make our new streetcars move. Streetcar propaganda pictures don’t always show these wires. Bait and switch? The view of City Hall from Water & Wisconsin is interrupted by a massive elevated walkway. As is the view of the French Gothic Gesu church from 12th Street. Milwaukee gave up on looking good decades ago. You do not notice such carelessness in London, Paris or Montreal.