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Comment by nemo44x | Hacker News Reader

It would be nice if they could make them look good. The examples in that article are hideous. Sad that beautiful towns will have to take in such awful architecture because it's relatively cheap to construct and will get the builder through warranty. But it isn't based in any historical standard, just a post-modern hellscape. Especially that one in NJ - it's just the worst thing I think I've ever seen.

They should at least make the facades respect a standard sort of like how they do in England and parts of Europe.

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Personally I think they look pretty good.

The really ugly buildings, at least in San Francisco and Oakland that I'm familiar with, are where they take a single family house and chop it up into a bunch of little apartments. It's such an illogical abomination. From the outside you have a bunch of doors stuck in crazy places, kind of a "shanty town" vibe. From the inside all the rooms are weirdly shaped and extra plumbing is stuck in where it doesn't make sense.

It reminds me of the old joke about C++, that it's like designing an octopus by nailing extra legs onto a dog.

Anyway, I would like to see all of those replaced with something-over-1 apartment buildings.

Oh no I completely disagree. SF has some of the best dense architecture IMO. Duplex/triplex/etc townhomes give density without having big overwhelming buildings. It means you don’t have big stretches of road without variance or entrance in the building you’re walking against. It also often gives garages and small backyards which a lot of people want.

I will agree that it means there’s a lot more individual maintenance required with more facade space having more owners. So poorer neighborhoods look… poorer.

It's especially bad if affordances for green space aren't taken into account. New York City, for all its problems, has done an excellent job of ensuring that there are trees and parks basically everywhere, combined with generally wide sidewalks, which makes the endless rows of 3-5 story apartment buildings feel comfortable to inhabit.

I agree in part but it doesn't take much design-wise to make them blend in smoothly from what I'm seeing. At least when theres a lot of trees around maybe?

Anyway the real postmodern hellscape kinda seems like its the homelessness thing more than the too much housing in walkable mixed-use zoning thing.

But again, I hear you on the architecture.

Yeah the first one in Austin was nice to see the semi-mature trees. Makes a huge difference and one of the reasons living in an old town with mature trees (and a well financed program to plant and maintain) is so awesome. Walkable things are awesome. And it's even more awesome when you're walking into a denser part of town that actually has nice looking buildings that don't look ridiculous.

Build but build smart and build beautifully. A beautiful environment is super important to the mental health of a community. We should surround ourselves in beauty.

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