Monster homes and the big lie
Rebecca Walsh, The Salt Lake Tribune, March 18, 2009
Millcreek has its own mythology -- complete with monsters and shadowy fortresses, rich nobles and poor peasants, an evil overlord and a simple, if skewed, moral.
It goes something like this: If big, bad government won't let us build big, bad architecture, good, big families are going to move and the neighborhood will die.
The story is told and retold by developers and real-estate agents and even small families hoping to become big families in an effort to hold off the county's plans to downsize building codes along the east bench.
"It stops families like us from being able to have the room to raise our children," mother of five Nichole Chisholm said at a public hearing Monday night.
She really believes it. Myths are powerful stuff.
They're also not true. Millcreek's mythology is overstated on two levels: Most families are not leaving because they can't build massive dream homes. And, faux chateaux can still be built under the new ordinance.
Still, Salt Lake Homebuilders Executive Officer Curtis Dowdle persists. He says most Millcreek homes -- which average just over 2,000 square feet -- are only worth as much as the land they sit on.
"We'd all like to be sentimental and say, 'I grew up in an 800-square-foot rambler and it was good enough for my family. Why wouldn't it be good enough for them?'" Dowdle says. "Well, it's not."
But Canyon Rim resident Susan Hurst and a University of Utah architecture
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student have developed a computer model that shows with a few changes to rooflines, virtually every monster home already in the neighborhood could be built the same way -- even bigger -- under the new rules.
"It doesn't accomplish anything," Hurst says.
And as for families fleeing to the land of mini-manses -- that might be apocryphal, too.
Jon and Camille Smart bailed on Canyon Rim last year and moved to Corvallis, Ore., with their two young children. They bought a modest home the same size as the one they left.
"Who wants to live around a group of people who couldn't care less about their neighbors?" Jon Smart wrote me in an e-mail. "The monster homes became the symptom of the real problem, which for us was the narrow-mindedness and short-sightedness of the people that lived in them.
"It would be exciting to live in a dream community, not just a community of dream homes."
Turns out the monster bile itself is driving families out.
ALSO IN THIS EDITION:
SLC secures cash to study mansion restoration - Derek P. Jensen, The Salt Lake Tribune, March 9, 2009
City needs to closely monitor vulnerable vacant properties - Editorial, Park Record, March 18, 2009
Lonely roads: View the sights along Nevada's highways - The Spectrum, March 17, 2009
MEMBERS TOUR OF THE MAJOR DOWNEY MANSION
ARCHITECTURE AND PRESERVATION AROUND THE GLOBE
SAVE THESE DATES FOR UHF EVENTS
NEW FROM THE NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION
Utah's National Register is ONLINE!
Utah's National Register of Historic Places nominations have been digitized and are now online.
LOCAL ARCHITECTURE AND PRESERVATION
SLC secures cash to study mansion restoration - Derek P. Jensen, The Salt Lake Tribune, March 9, 2009
City needs to closely monitor vulnerable vacant properties - Editorial, Park Record, March 18, 2009
Lonely roads: View the sights along Nevada's highways - The Spectrum, March 17, 2009
UHF Members Invited to Tour the Downey Mansion
Utah Heritage Foundation members are invited to join us on Saturday, March 28 to tour one of South Temple's stately landmarks: the Major Downey Mansion at 808 E. South Temple. The owners of the mansion, Jon Lear and Phillip Lear of Lear & Lear Law Offices, will open the doors for two hours that morning from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon for our members to view the renovated interior. Along with Utah Heritage Foundation docents, co-owner Jon Lear will be on hand to explain the process of refurbishing the 116-year-old structure and to highlight its features both original and new.
The Major Downey Mansion was designed by Frederick Albert Hale, one of Salt Lake's prominent 19th-century architects. Among his local notable structures are the David Keith Mansion, Alta Club, Elks Club, and the First United Methodist Church. The Downey Mansion is a fine example of the Victorian "seaside" or "shingle" house originating in Bristol, England and popular along the northeastern seaboard of the U.S. It is one of three homes on South Temple built in this style. It was occupied by Civil War veteran Major George Downey and his family until well into the 1920's.
Starting in the 1930's, the house served as an apartment building for many decades, until it was converted into a mixed-use office and residential building in the 1970's. Phillip and Jon Lear bought the house in 2005, and began work with architectural firm Cooper, Roberts, Simonsen Associates to respectfully transform a 19th-century structure to serve the functional needs and energy efficiency standards of a 21st-century law office.
Don't miss this opportunity on March 28, 10:00 a.m. until noon, to tour this fascinating rehabilitation project that incorporates both historic preservation and "green" energy sustainability.
ARCHITECTURE AND PRESERVATION AROUND THE GLOBE
The Greatbatch Pavilion: Toshiko Mori updates a Wright masterpiece in Buffalo - Danielle Rago, The Architect's Newspaper, March 17, 2009
A New Paris, as Dreamed by Planners - Nicolai Ouroussoff, The New York Times, March 16, 2009
Rethinking Postwar Design in London - Nicolai Ouroussoff, The New York Times, March 18, 2009
All He Surveyed: How Palladian was Palladio? - Paul Goldberger, The New Yorker, March 30, 2009
Home: New stadiums for the Yankees and the Mets - Paul Goldberger, The New Yorker, March 23, 2009
SAVE THESE DATES FOR UHF EVENTS
March 28, 2009
Members Tour of the Major Downey Mansion
10:00 AM - Noon
Don't miss this opportunity to tour this fascinating rehabilitation project that
incorporates both historic preservation and "green" energy sustainability.
April 30 - May 2
Utah Preservation Conference
Modern Ideas | Historic Places
April 30
Charles Phoenix's Retro Vacation Slide Show Tour of the USA!
5:30 PM at the Salt Lake Main Library
May 1
Education Session, 9:00 AM - 4:15 PM
Heritage Award Luncheon, 12:00 - 1:15 PM
May 2
Yalecrest Historic Homes Tour
10:00 AM - 5:00PM
Register Online Today!
Traditional Building Skills Institute Workshops - Ephraim, UT
Visit their website for a full calendar.
NEW FROM THE NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION
Story of the Week
Saving Saarinen
Two Opposing Plans for New Jersey's Bell Labs
Eric Wills | Online Only | Mar. 20, 2009
Public Policy Weekly Bulletin
March 20, 2009, Vol. 4 Issue 10 - In this issue read about the latest procedural moves in the Senate needed to pass an omnibus lands package with three key historic preservation authorization bills attached.
March 13, 2009, Vol. 4, Issue 9 - In this issue read about Preservationists descended on Capitol Hill on March 10th for Lobby Day 2009 with an ambitious preservation agenda for Congress to consider in the coming weeks and months. Among the agenda items that were being advocated for on the Hill were increased funding for historic preservation programs such as SAT, Preserve America, and state and tribal preservation offices; improvements to the federal rehabilitation tax credit; and historic preservation provisions, protections and funding that should be included in the next surface transportation reauthorization bill.
Seeking funds for planning your preservation project or to hire a consultant to get that project off the ground? Apply for a grant from the Utah Preservation Initiatives Fund (UPIF) by contacting Amy Cole at the National Trust for Historic Preservation at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or (303) 623-1504. Grants are available in three rounds per year - February 1, June 1 and October 1 - and awarded on a competitive basis!
