They wanted to know what it feels like when your neighbors tell you that they hate your home...
and, how to build a house on a thrift budget.
some pull qoutes:
"owning an unusual house requires a thick skin. Neighbors and bloggers can lash out at houses that look very different."
"Fits in wonderfully with the downtown parking garages" (one blogger's comment-- which is actually pretty damned funny)
needless to say, since building our house, we've acquired (the very necessary) skin of steel.
here's an excerpt from today's story:
For architect Jeanne Gang, a 2011 MacArthur Fellow, connecting to the surroundings in Chicago means using lots of concrete, iron and steel. "Chicago has a rough climate. You need resilience to the outside," says Ms. Gang. One of her goals is to take those heavy materials and make them feel lighter by bending them and creating delicate-looking surfaces.
The Brick Weave House she designed for ad executives Tereasa Surratt and David Hernandez started out as an old horse stable and ended up as a two-bedroom, 3,700-square-foot house that cost about $450,000 to renovate. It is surrounded by a two-story masonry screen made of iron with bricks woven in, with an open space every other brick.
The house looks like a sculpture and is completely unlike any house anywhere around it, which is a problem for some critics. "Cool design, but not here," says one online commenter. "Fits in wonderfully with the downtown parking garages," writes another. Ms. Surratt says she understands some of the concerns, but she loves the house. "We knew she would take industrial materials and make them beautiful," she says.
check out the whole story here.
I am digging the accompanying videos the WSJ is making with their stories.
(below- some shots of some of the featured homes)
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