Monday, December 28, 2009

How Would We Zone For This Today?

I saw this article circulated by Planetizen, The High Cost of Ignoring Beauty, and wondered about some our more creative structures. Given the strictness of zoning, could uniqueness be foreclosed upon?


Hammond Castle, Gloucester Built 1920's


Searles Castle, Great Barrington, circa 1888

Usen Castle, Waltham, circa 1928

Blantyre Castle, Lenox, 1903

These are just a few of the Castles of Massachusetts.

Posted by at
Labels: ,

2 comments:

  1. Christopher KingJanuary 1, 2010 at 8:24 AM

    I don't see any problem with a simple R1 -- maybe a variance on setbacks....how are away are the property lines.... LOL....

    I work in wireless, sometimes in zoning.

    Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Daniel Fortier, AICPJanuary 1, 2010 at 10:30 AM

    Chris

    Thanks for the comment. It is so tough, on one hand we need to ensure affordability, which McMansion's detract from, but on the other hand variety in building design is also desirable. Zoning, when combined with a lack of creativity by builders, leave us with boxes with triangles on top. Dull, dull, dull. Even the historic preservationists feed into this, preferring traditional colonial style homes over buildings with some style.

    Dan

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)