Saturday, October 24, 2009

Thematic Photographic - Junk

Each week Carmi at Written, Inc. has challenged readers with a theme for photographic inspiration. This week the photographic challenge continues with the theme JUNK.

For this take on the theme, I'd like to present Architectural Junk.

West Los Angeles is an expensive part of town. Even middle-class neighborhoods have become inflated in value, and people with money have remodeled modest cottages into grandiose palaces.

This example shows the trend. Small bungalows and plain '40s cape-cods have swelled their tiny lots. They've grown upper stories or frenchified grille-work, fake stone quoins, oversized windows and pointless, ill-proportioned porticos. It's hideous.

But the house next door is even worse:


Click to embiggen - you really must, to get the full effect!

What designer conceived this outrage? The horrendous mottled paint treatment. The graceless distorted curves. The undersized windows, so awkwardly distributed in the field of the wall. The single garage door, marring the attempted symmetry of the design. The meager cornice, the pointless columns. Unmatching light fixtures, imbalanced in scale - with the chintziest ones chosen to welcome guests' entry to the home. The peculiar placement of the fixture above the garage door. The cluttered stairstep texture of the front wall. And is that a bronze cupid statue, poised beside the trash bins?

Not to mention those.....BOOBS.

It looks like some kind of outsized stucco brassiere.

12 comments:

Sue said...

Tell us what you really think! I have to say, house number 1 isn't great but house number 2 is just awful.

Sue

Sue said...

Hi g-you caught me while I'm trying out different templates and backgrounds. I wondered what would happen if someone happened to click on my blog while I was flipping through things. I'm tired having the same thing so many others have, and I think my photos show up better on black, so I'm playing tonight. Thanks for the advice about the picture...I need to get one in the header.

Gilly said...

Ghastly!! You do wondeer how anyone can actually WANT a house like that! :o

But the UK is not guilt-free on that subject, though I haven't got any shots to show you! Believe me, the people who put a flat-roofed extension on our house needed a lesson in a) architecture and b) an appreciation of balance and proportion!!

Unknown said...

Oh my gosh! It does look SO bad! Who would do that to a house?

BrightenedBoy said...

I actually thought the first house looked alright, but the second one just seemed pretentious.

Ornate does not make tasteful.

cactus petunia said...

I love the term "Architectural Junk"...it's what my dad used to call "remuddling."

Jason, as himself said...

Interesting. I know in the San Fernando Valley this sort of thing is happening all over. I think they're calling it mansionization? Sound familiar? Gigantic monsters overlooking modest 1940s housing.

Amanda Moore said...

G,
I am so sorry I missed your link with Carmi's theme. I live in the San Fernando Valley and to me these hideous houses look like spawn of Glendale LOL. Over ornate and gaudy, great shots for Junk!

Yvonne @ StoneGable said...

Very funny and witty.
Thanks for trying out my button and giving me feedback!
Yvonne

Queenly Things said...

God love, em.
We have a place up here that is so beyond even those examples and we have always called it the Hollywood House.

Char said...

I think the original homes had such character, it pains me to see what has been done to them. Happy Pink Saturday, Char

Anonymous said...

I clicked to embiggen and was immediately horrified. Ack!!!