“They were first really decried as the crystallization of pure real estate logic with just-added-in architecture,” said Liz Falletta, architect and professor of planning and urban design at the University of California at dusk. South. “But we have built enough of them for you to rent them at an affordable price. And now they’re celebrated for their mid-century modern design, and there’s a lot of nostalgia for them.
The Brownstones, which now sell for millions in New York, were also hated in their heyday.
“While they would later be considered genuine, contemporaries dismissed brownstones as modern and artificial,” wrote Suleiman Osman, professor of American studies at George Washington University, in his book “The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn”.
“When you’ve seen one house, you’ve seen them all,” wrote one reviewer, quoted in Mr. Osman’s book, of brownstones in the 1800s.
As with brownstones and dingbats, disgust can dissolve over time.
“A lot of people’s lives will have been lived in them, 20, 30, 40 years from now. In their role as housing and much-needed accommodation, people might view them more positively,” Ms Falletta said of the buildings today. “They may not be valued as good design, but people’s attitudes will change.”
At the end of 2020, the the nation was short of 3.8 million housing units, according to Freddie Mac. Multi-family buildings, despite their aesthetic flaws, can close this gap much faster and more cheaply than, say, brownstone or bungalows.
Critics agree that more housing is a positive, but they also feel that current construction is missing an opportunity.
“Getting housing built is more important than nitpicking about aesthetics,” said Kate Wagner, architecture critic and creator of the “Hell McMansion” blog, “but there is definitely room in the case to improve the aesthetics.”