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MLD, I am not sure how I feel about that building. But it is substantially larger than the buildings on that side of the street, and even the three story buildings on the other side, that aren't pictured.

It's also much larger in terms of the rear yard.

But mostly I am concerned not about this building, which fits architecturally even if not in terms of scale, but infill construction over the last 10-15 years on the same side of the street, but closer to M, and a building on the 400 block of M St. NE--I can't find a photo of it, I am sure I had one, but I'll take one the next time I'm over.

Similarly, this building on the 500 block of M St. NE is significantly out of scale even though it is reasonable in terms of architectural style.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rllayman/327438675/

The same guy built something similar, really large, out of scale on Rhode Island Ave., east of South Dakota.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rllayman/2871049053/

These are cases of capitalizing on the exchange value of the use value of place. These places are popular and valuable because of the historic building stock, its qualities, scale, and placemaking value, but the developers who build these things don't care at all about that, just maximizing their ability to benefit from it, and they do so by constructing buildings that diminish the quality of place in significant ways.

by Richard Layman on Jul 31, 2012 2:01 pm • link • report