It's the beginning of the end of vernacular architecture on the 600 block of West Wilson Street in Madison WI


Photos by Retiring Guy

Plan Commission approves five-story apartment building on West Wilson.  (Madison.com, 4/23/2019)
City staff recommended approval of the demolition and conditional use permits the project requires. The Bassett Street Neighborhood Steering Committee also wrote in support of the project. 
Verveer said he had “not heard any negative concerns from neighborhood stakeholders” about the project. 
But in February, the Landmarks Commission said the buildings to be demolished had historic value and said it would be an “extensive loss to vernacular housing.” The city’s file on the property at 616 W. Wilson indicated that the house was designed by architectural firm Claude and Starck, but city staff couldn’t find any additional supporting materials that this was the case.



The first sentence in Encyclopedia Britannica's entry on "vernacular architecture":

Vernacular architecture is defined as the ordinary buildings and spaces constructed, shaped, or inhabited by a particular group of people.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Then and Now: East Towne Mall and Interstate/151 interchange

Image
Then.  1981 aerial view, with cloverleaf intersection at top center and mall at lower left.   Now .  Mall still in business, though not the draw it used to be, and surrounded by satellite stores. Madison malls change with the times .  (Channel3000, 4/16/2018) Madison’s West Towne Mall opened in what had been a cow pasture in 1970, and its sister mall East Towne opened a year later. On the city’s near west side, the Hilldale Shopping Center opened in the early 1960s. The traditional model for successful shopping centers really didn’t change for the next 30 years.   It generally consisted of anchor stores, kiosks, long corridors of smaller retail stores, and a food court.“That's the format that was around in 1970, 1985, and 1998 and it's still around today,” says University of Wisconsin marketing lecturer and business consultant Moses Altsech, “but it's no surprise that it's not cutting it anymore.” Actually, for those of us who were there at the creation -- the l...
Read more

Then and Now, State and Frances streets, Madison WI (part 2)

Image
THEN (;ate 1950s/early 1960s) Postcard from Retiring Guy's collection Now & Then: Heads and Beds .  (Capital Neighborhoods, 8/1/2015) An ad in the 1957 telephone directory proclaimed the Town/Campus Motel as “Madison’s Newest and Most LUXURIOUS Accommodations.” It enjoyed a great location between the UW campus and the state capitol, had adjacent free parking, and “telephone and free TV in every room.” Early occupants of the State Street commercial spaces included a Toddle House Restaurant, a national chain with 24-hour service. NOW THEN (mid-1960s) From Retiring Guy's postcard collection NOW Some of the changes: Town/Campus Motel replaced by a hulk ( The Hub ) State Street now a mall (limited auto traffic) 400 block of North Frances Street ends in a cul-de-sac trees, planters obscured view of Capitol Other Madison Then and Now posts: 2019 UW-Madison Agriculture Hall .  (6/3/2019) The Edgewater Hotel   You don't mess with a classic art moderne building .  (...
Read more

Autonomous flying pods: Transit X has lots of work to do yet

Image
Company proposes ‘flying solar pods’ as new public transit alternative in Madison .  (Madison.com, 6/3/2019) The planning board said it would continue to monitor Transit X's progress and might look at its proposal again when it has more evidence that the project is realistic. But for now, the city will keep its focus on developing Bus Rapid Transit.   "I would never say something’s not possible because it’s great to think about different ways of doing things, but just this particular model at this time is unproven," said Ald. Keith Furman, 19th District. "It just doesn’t seem realistic, unfortunately." As a follow-up to Alder Furman, I offer two screenshots from the above video. (red arrows added) How does the woman in a wheelchair access the pod? Original 5/20/2019 post , "Autonomous flying pods:  "It's the Jetsons, just with a track" starts here.   Creator of autonomous flying 'pods' wants to bring them to RI . (WPRI, 10/28/2018)...
Read more