I’m from fairfax county too.
There’s a housing development going up in the area that allegedly consists of $600K townhomes. And not townhomes in the British sense, either. It is a convenient. walkable area, but $600K? Yikes.
Oh boy do people rage here about that style. I personally love them but the ones I looked at were outside of what I would like to spend at the moment.
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Yep
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The only way a fake shutter could be worse would be if it had Comic Sans on it for some reason.
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This is a good take. One direction this could be taken is to highlight the banal, pathetic nature of wealth. These houses are a reminder that wealth is not glamorous or sophisticated, it really just magnifies the mediocrity of the person who happens to hold it. Pursuing wealth will not make you the person you aspire to be, and people who try to use wealth to compensate for their unremarkable lives only end up embarrassing themselves. This angle says that being rich sucks, and people should find other life goals.
The other direction though is basically connoisseur/hipster: It’s great to be wealthy and have nice things, but you must know how to do it properly. The true mark of elitism isn’t just being able to afford anything you want, it’s wanting the right things, which itself is an expensive pursuit. You have to know the right design consultants, attend the right parties with other rich people, etc. This angle says that being rich is important, but you actually have to get even richer in order to get the respect you seek.
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I do not understand the attitude that being able to tell good architecture from bad is reserved for the rich, or for hipsters (!) or connoisseurs (?!).
Architecture is the most democratic art form. Anyone can walk around and see tons of good and bad examples! I have never had much dough, and my formal architecture schooling is a semester of “History of Art and Architecture” at a community college. Yet, I am interested in architecture and love to look at it wherever I go, and read about it from time to time.
Frankly, I find the idea that only the rich/elite can know what makes for good and bad architecture is incredibly insulting and condescending. Is it some sort of defense mechanism? I guess I’m supposed to feel bad because I’m interested in something, and that makes me a “connoisseur,” and connoisseurs are… bad?
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This is the Venaria Castle that was built and expanded over like 300 years. Differents ideas, different architects and costantly run ouf of money made this a mashup of different styles and looks, notice the plaster and bricks.
Besides if you happen to be in Turin I advise you to visit it there’s als an huge park nearby.
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If you feel bad for the sin of being casually interested in architecture despite having no cash, think about how conflicted Kate Wagner must be, making a career out of critiquing the gaudy tastes of late-stage capitalist home builder and buyers. She isn’t from “old money” or from a wealthy background, either.
Kate Wagner came by her class consciousness the old-fashioned way. She grew up in an average three-bedroom tract home with vinyl siding. Come fifth grade, violin lessons and other activities exposed her to the lives and homes of peers from more-well-to-do families.
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Which means you are educated about the topic, yeah? One doesn’t need a degree in design to understand design there are plenty of ways to become educated on something that doesn’t include a terminal degree, right?
I don’t believe anyone here is arguing that? Being rich doesn’t automatically translate into having good taste (coughTRUMPcough). But there are plenty of people who have advanced degrees who are not “rich”. I see no reason to assume that people who have some sort of degree in architecture are just from the 1%, and are therefore immediately suspect.
No. Not at all. But you did use a fancy french word, there, so you are indeed immediately suspect as one of them intellectuals… you know, the REAL elite! 
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Over at The National Review, they’re trying to make “the clerisy” happen (spoiler: it won’t happen).
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As in defining a class? Who belongs to it? College professors and public intellectuals, or people with advanced degrees who work in the private or public sectors? Is it good or bad? Are they to be beheaded or shot up against a wall? Does having an advanced degree make one a member of this class, no matter what one is actually doing with that degree?
I have a lot of questions here…
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My best answer, quoting myself from the other topic…
[…]
Or, the tl;dr version: anyone Ayn Rand would have liked to kill off in a fictional train tunnel disaster.
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Ah! Ironic that I’m sure the staff of the National Review all have advanced degrees of one kind or another…
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Indeed. Quoting myself again, anti-intellectualism is…
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It could be argued that the aesthetic standards of architecture are themselves determined by elites, particularly since producing architecture tends to be one of the most expensive artforms to participate in creating. Any shmuck can do a charcoal drawing of whatever their mind’s eye beholds, but you need significant backing to produce an operahouse (or even a cottage).
It’s fine that you have been fortunate enough to study architecture and that you found a passion for it. What would be sad is if your architectural passion made you feel that the solution to this “McMansion Hell” situation was for the rich to build aesthetically pleasing mansions. Nobody should build mansions at all. They are useless, and while the ugliness of mcmansions underscores their uselessness, a beautiful mansion doesn’t legitimize wasting resources while others are homeless, it just masks the waste in glamour.
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My favorite Seattle roadside view.
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Kate Wagner is a national treasure. Please invite her to be a guest blogger!
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