Monthly Archives: August 2014

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Day 33

day33Today, I had my first shot at walking through Chevy Chase.  While I had some expectations based on its location and designation as a historic neighborhood that it would fit a relatively urban typology, it seemed more in line with the quiet but very nice suburban areas around Andover or Chilesburg, although there are some pre-World War II apartment houses located along Cochran as well as some duplexes from about the same time.

As in many other neighborhoods within a similar market range, there is a lot of construction going on here.  It ranges from simple painting to more ambitious remodels (including one landscaping project where the architect’s sign in the yard proclaimed they were “building someone’s dream”).  In general, the recent work done to houses in the neighborhood appeared to make the neighborhood more like its cousins outside New Circle Road in spite of the restrictive design criteria.

Parklet at the end of Chenault
Parklet at the end of Chenault

Any single person or family moving to a neighborhood changes it, perhaps almost imperceptibly.  The sum of those changes can reflect a greater shift, and I wonder if that is happening in Chevy Chase (though of course, it’s much harder to tell with my very limited exposure to the area).

What works: The parklet at the end of Chenault

What doesn’t: Existing design criteria may not be sufficient to preserve the neighborhood’s (built) character.

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Day 32

day 32Today’s walk was dominated by the strip malls along Richmond Road at Man O’ War. Most of the time I find that walking slowly past a place allows a lot more detail to sink in than driving past quickly, but that was less true here. My biggest surprise was that the first of many painted horse statues that I will walk by during this project turned up in front of a Texas Roadhouse.

Texas Roadhouse's painted horse
Texas Roadhouse’s painted horse

But today’s stroll did give me the opportunity to walk down nearby Rio Dosa and Locust Hill, past a retirement living complex and a pretty standard apartment complex.

I’ll probably say this about every single strip mall I walk past, but this again feels like an opportunity.  Some of the people who work in the strip mall live in the nearby apartments.  So do many of the people who shop at the grocery store.  Yet this area is treacherous to travel by foot.  Two things really stand out as contributors to this.  One is the traffic flow.  The service road concept works fine in small highway towns, but in areas with heavier traffic, drivers are forced to focus on too many things.  A certain volume of traffic making left turns onto streets like Locust Hill is unavoidable, but there are design features that can make this a little less dangerous for pedestrians as well.

Hedges instead of sidewalks
Hedges instead of sidewalks

Second is the lack of pedestrian features in general.  In this case (as in Hamburg) pedestrians are driven to walk through parking lots or narrow streets with landscaping.  The message is that, if you don’t drive, we don’t want you.  Sometimes this is not an obvious problem because of the type of businesses; indeed, this stretch has many car-oriented businesses.  But this is short-sighted, as better pedestrian features might encourage someone to seek out a coffee shop while they wait for their car repairs.

What works: mix of apartments, including retirement complex, close to shopping

What doesn’t: true pedestrian connectivity could use some work

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Day 31

day31Today, I walked through the Stonewall neighborhood near Clay’s Mill and Man O’ War.  This area is officially referred to as Higby Woods, though signage in the neighborhood is the new variety that identifies the neighborhood with a badge.   The area seems to have been built in the late 1970’s, but the housing has aged well and I think this neighborhood does a pretty good job of exemplifying a certain architectural quality that late 20th/early 21st century houses in Lexington have that I haven’t seen in other places I’ve lived.  In this case, it’s predominantly Colonial Revival, but one house has an upfit to a Scandinavian-modern look.

Stonewall neighborhood street sign showing the neighborhood "badge"
Stonewall neighborhood street sign showing the neighborhood “badge”

One feature of these homes is large lot size.  Many of these lots were well-equipped, with pools, playgrounds, patios and basketball courts. (The nearby park, meanwhile, had none of these.) I though about the trade off between lots of big yards versus a nice park. With a park, you share cost with your neighbors (or, really, with the rest of the city). And that’s fine as long as you all basically agree on what you want from the park (or whether you want them at all).

Neglected basketball hoop in the Stonewall neighborhood
Neglected basketball hoop in the Stonewall neighborhood

But, as the city grows, it’s easy to feel as if you voice is lost in the crowd. If you can afford it, a nice yard can serve as a hedge against your neighbors having different priorities, though it comes at some cost, and in the case of this area, this is evident in the maintenance of many formerly well-installed basketball hoops.

The good: well-cared for neighborhood

The bad: …with more than it’s share of tagging!

 

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Day 30

day30Today’s walk was through the Radcliffe neighborhood, near Russell Cave Road and next to I-75.  The mix of architecture made me think initially that this neighborhood had been built over a relatively long period, with both very basic brick homes and more complex split-level designs.  It turns out the time-frame for these houses is fairly consistently mid- to late- 1960’s.  While some of the neighborhood felt as if it were undergoing that last surge of change before it settles in to a steady state, other parts felt…grandmotherly, perhaps?

Otherwise, there weren’t a whole lot of surprises, just a relatively quiet neighborhood where neighbors are looking out for each other.

The good: Watchful neighbors

The bad:  Proximity to the highway with little sound abatement

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Day 29

day29Today’s walk was through a neighborhood that was very similar to yesterdays, with a mix of multifamily and single family homes, and nearby businesses.  The big surprise today was the sheer number of four-unit apartment buildings along Yellowstone, Winter Garden and Snow Rd, which made walking this stretch feel like walking through an apartment complex, though one with similar but not identical styles and upkeep.  Overall, this area stuck to it’s 1970’s-vintage aesthetic, car oriented, though not as obnoxiously so as some newer neighborhoods.  An ambitious person could walk to Wal-Mart or other shops on Richmond Road (“walking distance” is for practical purposes anything within a quarter to a half mile; these places are just over a mile each way.)  Construction also appears to be generally high-quality, leading me to think that this could be a good “sleeper” neighborhood for someone looking for low rent or a good value home to buy.

The good: Good mix of housing, good quality construction.

The bad: Not, strictly speaking, “walkable.”