If I was in charge of my city, I would.....

[eschaton]

The biggest issue with painting brick is that you'll need to repaint way, way before you'd need to repoint. You can maybe go five years without painting a brick house, while a good pointing job lasts 20-30 years.

I mean, I thought the reason people in wood houses pulled off the board and installed crappy modern analogues (aluminum, vinyl, fiberboard cement, etc.) was to cut down on maintenance?

[pj3000]

Some old brick (pre-1850s maybe?) needs to be painted; newer brick doesn't.

I like painted brick rowhouses of all styles mixed in with natural brick in old neighborhoods. DC has a lot. Not so sure about 20th century apartment buidlings though. The limewash that was done to that building Steely posted just does NOT work for me at all.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by eschaton

The biggest issue with painting brick is that you'll need to repaint way, way before you'd need to repoint. You can maybe go five years without painting a brick house, while a good pointing job lasts 20-30 years.

I mean, I thought the reason people in wood houses pulled off the board and installed crappy modern analogues (aluminum, vinyl, fiberboard cement, etc.) was to cut down on maintenance?

If it's done correctly, with a natural, mineral-based/linseed oil paints, then frequent repainting won't be an issue. They allow moisture to escape from the brick, and won't cause efflorescence and spalling of the brick

[cabasse]

somehow turn this
into some combination of this and this

is it practical? hell no. would it not still be amazing? hell yes


oh, and get rid of the ugly mess of transmission lines that run down so many of our main arterials. piedmont, 14th st, ivan allen blvd, etc. bury or relocate.

[eschaton]

My own pet peeves I would ban:

1. Replacement of windows with new ones of totally different dimensions.

2. Removal of front porches.

Most of the damage has already been done unfortunately.

[pj3000]

^ all too common Pittsburgh scourges!

[woodrow]

Originally Posted by pj3000

... ban the illuminated corporate lettering on buildings that defiles Pittsburgh's skyline.

It's terrible here... it seems that nearly every prominent (and not prominent) building on the skyline has mega-sized glowing letters tacked on. Really cheapens the overall look and destroys the design of many of Pittsburgh's tallest office towers.

It's like every building has to have a label on it now.

^^this. God I hate that. In Chicago I would make Chase, Trump, and Nuveen remove their signs, though weirdly I would allow Loews to keep theirs. The sign-on-top of the building is a particular scourge in 2nd Tier cities like my hometown of KC. I was visiting recently and a bunch of towers had tacked-on signs that do not relate to the buildings in any way. Would make allowance for historic signs. Those can be super cool. see - https://ericbowers.photoshelter.com/...K4QJWY-&GI_ID=

I would also not allow people to use unpainted pressure treated lumber for new front porches on older houses, esp. pre WW11. It is cheap, it looks cheap. No thought, no effort.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by biguc

I see we're aiming high.

riiiight?
Was kinda expecting more in depth answers than outlawing painting of brick or banishing light up corporate logos

[pj3000]

Yeah, let’s get real deep into zoning and city-wide adoption and adherence to the latest iteration of the IECC. That’ll be a fun thread.

[Maldive]

Originally Posted by woodrow

^^this. God I hate that. In Chicago I would make Chase, Trump, and Nuveen remove their signs, though weirdly I would allow Loews to keep theirs. The sign-on-top of the building is a particular scourge in 2nd Tier cities like my hometown of KC. I was visiting recently and a bunch of towers had tacked-on signs that do not relate to the buildings in any way. Would make allowance for historic signs. Those can be super cool. see - https://ericbowers.photoshelter.com/...K4QJWY-&GI_ID=

There are exceptions... in T.O. this corporate rebrand is the best thing to happen to the skyline in years.

Before

UrbanToronto

In progress

UrbanToronto

Now

UrbanToronto

[edale]

I don't mind painted brick at all. Cincinnati has tons of painted brick, and I think it adds a lot of much needed color to the city, especially in the gray of winter. Seeing how Chicago has a much worse and longer winter than Cincy, I feel like a little color would be a welcome addition there.



https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1106...7i13312!8i6656

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1103...7i16384!8i8192

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1610...7i13312!8i6656

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1132...7i16384!8i8192

[niwell]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

If I were King of Toronto, my main policy objectives would be to:


- Substantially expand the city's heritage inventory and give heritage protection legislation some real teeth to actually preserve buildings. The City's current heritage regulations are a joke (see above).

- Place a moratorium on land assemblies. Too much of the city's traditional fine-grained built form of narrow lots is being lost to chunky, block-spanning developments that are uninteresting and disengaging at street level. Let developers get creative with smaller lots or redevelop existing large lots first instead.

- Overhaul zoning bylaws to allow up to 5-storey apartments as-of-right citywide (see: https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...9&postcount=13). Also liberalise commercial zoning uses.

- Give the Design Review Panel the ability to actually enforce (and not just recommend) design requirements on new developments above a certain size. We're in a once-in-a-generation building boom that will characterise the city's built landscape for decades to come; let's treat this as a city building opportunity to create an iconic new vernacular instead of letting developers throw up whatever cheap spandrel-covered shit they can get away with.

- Rebrand and improve the city's public realm. Right now our street signs, light standards, traffic lights, street furniture, paving, etc. are mostly ugly and utilitarian. Could use an overhaul with some actual good design.

- And of course, actually build some much needed transit instead of using it as a political football that will just get replaced with a new scheme whenever a new government is elected.

I think mine would probably mirror these! A few others I'd like to see:

-Severely disincentiveize the conversion of multi-unit "houses" into single family homes. Not sure how this could be done in practice, but it's becoming far too common in my area.

-Make it easier to allow said multi-unit homes to have individual ownership of units, similar to the 3 flat situation in Chicago. They exist here but it's very rare, and I could see it being a popular option for ownership over a highrise condo. Would also fit into the idea of allowing 5 storey as of right buildings. I imagine this would require a revamp of the condominium act.

-Loosen restrictions for setbacks on commercial streets so we can have a 5 storey street wall. There's actually a ton of additions occurring on main streets right now but it's hard to notice because most are set back from the structure. Not everything over a few storeys needs to be pushed back. Heritage concerns notwithstanding.

-Actually enforce traffic laws. It's become a (very dangerous) joke at this point.

[ssiguy]

In Vancouver............ban all non-citizens from buying real estate and go after tax evasion where people living in $10 million homes declare no income because it was made offshore.

[Omaharocks]

Originally Posted by edale

I don't mind painted brick at all. Cincinnati has tons of painted brick, and I think it adds a lot of much needed color to the city, especially in the gray of winter. Seeing how Chicago has a much worse and longer winter than Cincy, I feel like a little color would be a welcome addition there.

Well, I think that's a different thing. As with D.C., colorful painted brick has long been part of the character and identity of the city.

In Chicago, the character is unpainted brick, usually of very high quality as Steely points out. And the black and white color scheme is of the ubiquitous trendy silliness found all over major metros these days.

So I agree it's an asinine trend. I currently go back and forth between Albuquerque and Atlanta, and the painted-white brick trend is all over Atlanta, wherever there is brick to be found. And many of the older wood-siding craftsman homes in ATL have been painted black and white when flipped despite the fact these homes were basically built with muted colors in mind.

Fortunately for Albuquerque there isn't really much brick. And even if there was, nobody would paint it based on any stupid trend. Only the more global metros do that shit. People in ABQ either have too much sense, or too little money. Probably the latter

[JManc]

The painted brick buildings in London and Cincinnati work because of their style. The example in Chicago doesn't. Also, the color brick they use in London tends to be pretty ugly for some reason.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Omaharocks

Well, I think that's a different thing. As with D.C., colorful painted brick has long been part of the character and identity of the city.

In Chicago, the character is unpainted brick, usually of very high quality as Steely points out. And the black and white color scheme is of the ubiquitous trendy silliness found all over major metros these days.

So I agree it's an asinine trend.

Bullseye!

[thoughtcriminal]

Originally Posted by woodrow

esp. pre WW11.

WW11? How long was I asleep?

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by thoughtcriminal

WW11? How long was I asleep?

sorry bro the moon is broken now.

[Pedestrian]

"If I was in charge of my city, I would" . . . (1) stop raising business taxes and driving business out of the city, (2) cull the bureaucracy and limit its benefits (e.g move to defined contribution pensions, not defined benefit ones and increase employee contributions vs city ones), (3) fire much of the city leadership (the ones not already going to jail thanks to the feds), (4) JUST SAY NO to camping on the sidewalks (but find someplace to create an authorized camp site with security and sanitation), end the policy of removing traffic lanes used by most of the populace and handing them over to the small minority of young, fit bicycle riders.

[muertecaza]

Originally Posted by cabasse

somehow turn this
into some combination of this and this

is it practical? hell no. would it not still be amazing? hell yes


oh, and get rid of the ugly mess of transmission lines that run down so many of our main arterials. piedmont, 14th st, ivan allen blvd, etc. bury or relocate.

If we're changing pet peeve-y things, burying transmissions lines would be at or near the top of my list in Phoenix too. This stuff drives me nuts:

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4586...7i16384!8i8192