Tag Archives: 40515

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Day 63-Relatively Small Houses

day 63I spent some time today walking through the Hartland neighborhood.  Sometimes I find it hard to tell where neighborhood divisions are from looking at the map and other times I get lucky.  In this case, the area I passed through is distinct from its neighbors, who generally feature even larger lots and fancier houses–some of these are places you won’t believe.  Houses here are on the large side, probably in the neighborhood of 3,000 feet on average, usually brick and in the contemporary vernacular.  The neighborhood is well-kept, from the not-a-blade-of-grass-out-of-place school, with remarkably leaf-free lawns for the time of year.  These houses are nice–lots of curb appeal.  But residents really let the houses serve as their expression to the outside world.  Landscaping was bland, the seasonal light displays tasteful.

Street signs in the Hartland neighborhood
Street signs in the Hartland neighborhood

The cars in this neighborhood stood out to me.  The cars I saw were pretty consistently modest, with not as many newer cars and few luxury makes.  And these could be cars driven by household help–handymen, maid services.  But the observation seemed to hold even for cars that definitely belong to residents–cars pulling into or out of garages.  (It’s amazing how many people are moving on weekday afternoons!)  In some neighborhoods, I get the clear impression that people put a higher priority on their cars rather than there houses; this neighborhood seems to be filled with people making the opposite choice.  And it seems to be working for them!

The best surprise of the day has to be the old oak tree standing in a yard on Hartland, pictured above.  Preservation of old trees has been in the news here recently you might enjoy Tom Eblen’s October 2013 column on old tree preservation.

 

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Day 58-Sidewalk as recreational amenity

day 58Today’s walk was a chilly one, with flurries flying as I passed through the Century Hills area around Buckhorn road.  The houses here are 1980’s vintage following a ranch-style layout.  And though this is clearly tract housing with a limited number of models and the houses themselves are relatively austere, I think the architecture is above par.  Some models have clerestory windows, others have a unique bay window design.

There weren’t a lot of surprises here.  A sign near a stream calls attention to a sewer line replacement project that turns out to be one of many projects intended to eliminate sanitary sewer overflows and make other improvements to meet Clean Water Act requirements.  There were some other hints about interesting negative space including a cell tower that is in the middle of the dogleg at the north end of Smoky Mountain.  Otherwise, this felt like a pretty typical residential area.

A couple of things struck me today.  The first is the consistency in street form between post-war middle class neighborhoods, (particularly where single-family homes dominate).  These neighborhoods reliably have sidewalks with reasonably sized treelawns whether they were built out in the 1950’s or 2010’s.  I compare this to my experience in other places where sidewalks (if they exist at all) may or may not be located directly alongside the street.  It’s consistent enough to make one almost believe it’s been codified.  But not quite, because some neighborhoods, usually at the higher end of the price range, do forgo sidewalks.

The second is how differently sidewalks are treated in different places.  You’re more likely to find cars parked over sidewalks on cul-de-sacs (here, a car is parked on and along the sidewalk, apparently this is ok with the neighbors).  In places, streets are acceptable places for overflow parking while in others, driveways are packed (often at the expense of streets) to keep streets open.  Sidewalks usually feel as if they are treated as an amenity within neighborhoods, something to be used to walk the dog or to go for a stroll.   But its an amenity whose value differs depending on where you go.

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Day 42

day 42Today was a split day, with a portion of my walk through a residential neighborhood just south of Man O’ War called Cove Lake and the rest along the commercial corridor along Richmond Road behind the neighborhood.

The contrast between residential and commercial is very clear along Lake Wales.  This street appeals to me for a reason I can’t put my finger on.  It feels as if maybe it is just less self-conscious than most streets.  Lake Wales ends in a cul-de-sac, and it’s hard to tell from the map but it sits perhaps 12 feet over the adjacent car lot with a surprising view of brightly colored street lights at shoe level.  Here, the sounds of insects is almost loud enough to drown out the sound of traffic passing through what is probably one of the city’s busiest intersections.

The view from Lake Wales looking toward Richmond Rd.
The view from Lake Wales looking toward Richmond Rd.

The commercial strip is, of course, image conscious.  Besides, the car lot with the yellow and blue light posts, there are a number of fast-casual restaurants tending toward the trendy and up-and-coming, serving food out of buildings that weren’t here a year ago.  This being the place to be, the biggest surprise may be that a lot that has yet to be built has signs of a previous building that must have been razed.  Winding back on Eagle Creek, literally through a car dealership, puts you back in the older Cove Lake neighborhood.

Houses in the Cove Lake neighborhood
Houses in the Cove Lake neighborhood

The term “conspicuous consumption” is thrown around often enough to describe luxuries from extravagant phone accessories to large houses.  The simple houses here belie a time when the aesthetic was quiet austerity.  The tract houses built from the 1940’s through the 1960’s and into the 1970’s were generally simple.  Houses along Eagle Creek are very different than the bright new restaurants with visually interesting facades.

What works: The commercial strip is adjacent to the neighborhood but feels buffered.

What doesn’t: The maps.  Neither map provider I use correctly identified the intersection of Sand Creek and Richmond.

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Day 14

day 14Today’s walk was in Pickway, another surprisingly old neighborhood outside of Man O War, this time near Nicholasville.  Houses were overwhelmingly all brick, and very few had garages on the front.  I imagine most of these are from the 60’s or early 70’s.  (Side note: I see that Lexington provides historical information on the urban service boundaries, and I plan on playing with this data soon.  So perhaps surprises like this won’t be as frequent!)  It was a pleasant surprise, however, as the neighborhood seems to have aged fairly well.  My theory of neighborhoods is that they are fast-changing when they are young, often populated overwhelmingly with young families.  As they reach their 20’s, the kids whose families moved in when the neighborhood was young are staring to move out and the neighborhood mellows.  Eventually even the parents start to move on; by this time, the age mix of a formerly homogenous neighborhood starts to equalize and the neighborhood settles in, for better or worse.  This neighborhood feels like it’s settling in, consistent with it’s age, but it is good.  I thought the neighborhood felt comfortable (though this could be in part due the time I’ve spent recently in high-income areas).  It was also quiet compared to other areas I’ve seen recently.

Good: Feels quiet and safe
Bad: isolated pockets of neglect

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Day 6

This walk was through a fairly typical suburban typology with the standard tree lawn and modest yard that I’m most familiar  with.  This neighborhood is south of Man O’ War, but the houses appear to be typically late 1970’s or 1980’s vintage (which seems to be backed up by parcel information).  This also appears to be a Ball Home neighborhood.  I’m certainly familiar with recent Ball Homes and neighborhoods, which seem to have certain common attributes.   I was definitely surprised by the age, and somewhat surprised by the builder.  Surely the age of the neighborhood makes it one of the older neighborhoods south of Man O’ War, though of course, I say this with only a limited sample set!  No other surprises.  There was quite a bit of lawn-mowing in progress.  Also notable were the two yards decorated with pinwheels, which seems unique to me (though perhaps these are decorations in advance of July 4th!)