During the first event of the Green Bags Eco Lunch Series, I was treated to a tour of the LEED Silver-certified home at 2573 Observatory Avenue (BIRD'S EYE) in Hyde Park.
The $1.525 million new build by John Hueber Homes includes 11 rooms, four bedrooms, four full baths and 2 half-baths, as well as a two-car rear garage.
A full, finished basement includes a bar and wine rack and is expansive enough for a family room, game room or media room.
The house also incorporates such eco-friendly features geothermal heating, a water purification system with low-flow fixtures, Energy Star windows, appliances and fixtures, orientation toward natural light, and oak floors grown sustainably by an Appalachian collective - all with the added bonus of a 15-year tax abatement.
The property has been on the market for 14 months.
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Previous reading on BC:
ENCORE debuts eco-lunch series, real estate blog (4/23/08)
Fourth of July
2 hours ago
11 comments:
The reason that thing has been for sale for 14 months is because it is a huge tacky McMansion built much too close to the street with a second terrible McMansion in its back yard. Or is it the one with the McMansion in the front yard? I can't tell from the picture.
Both are too close to the adjoining property and are the reason the set back ordinances should be changed. They are an eyesore on an otherwise very nice block.
Looks like they took a suburban model and crammed it into an urban context.
That "huge tacky McMansion" appears to have caused the For Sale sign to go up at the real house next door, they must be more than upset and rightly so. I have never heard why that house, 2573, was built in the first place. Why was it built there? The people who own the original house wanted to block the street? Less grass to cut? Some evergreens would have worked. Are there actually two houses there? Keep an eye out for a leaking gutter or downspout on this house as it will be cause for the city to condem it and tear it down.
Perhaps indelicate, but every time we drive by those two houses we think of a dog smelling another dog's rear end!
Wow...this thing's getting panned!
Here's an open question, then: If it were set back from the street the same distance as the surrounding houses, would you feel better about it?
I'd also been watching this house and then then one in front of it (or vice versa) get built and thought similar things to others. But the dog analogy is fantastic!
I think the house itself is unoffensive. It doesn't quite match the style of the ones next door, but it's not like it's covered in vinyl siding. But the cramming the two onto the single lot kills it for me.
My guess is that the builder was hoping that the LEED certification would somehow make up for living with your nose in your neighbors rear end.
BTW - not sure what the outcome was, but at one point the house across the street was for sale as well.
Thanks for the opportunity Kevin...
No, it is still a homearama house that belongs in homearamaland.
Exteriorly speaking, it is big and klunky, has no style, grace, or charm, no fine details, the proportions are all off, it's aesthetically challenged. Looks like two eyes and an open mouth on the left saying, "Help, I don't belong here!". The pretend shutters are too small for the windows. And the shutters on the house in back are twice as big as the window? (1st flr center and left). A good design doesn't need crutches. The garage looks more important than the front door or is that a third garage bay? I could say something relating the double fans to the dog coment, but will refrain. Is there room for 30 street trees across the front?
If someone is going to build a million+ dollar house, it should have a million+ dollar design.
Why have the technological abilities advanced yet the design abilities have become infantile?
"The garage looks more important than the front door or is that a third garage bay?"
I'm not sure what you're referring to. There's a two-bay garage on the back of the house. What else are you seeing?
I couldn't agree more will all of the comments made so far. This house is horrendously out of place to begin with and the fact that it sits directly in front of another horrendously out of place house and EXTREMELY close to the street makes it that much worse. Green construction, LEED certified, and another 'accolades' it receives doesn't even come close to making up for it's major faults.
To clarify a few things- the land that the 2 new houses were built on was originally the side yard of the old Gothic house that's currently for sale. The owners of the old Gothic house now live in the NEW yellow house in the back of this monstrosity. So, their house is for sale because they moved into a new house next door. Their house is not selling for VERY obvious reasons.
I would love to know what went through the owners' and builders' minds when they came up with this scheme. Their thoughts couldn't possibly have been rational.
Always willing to clarify... It is easy to call the place a "huge tacky McMansion" but what exactly makes it one? I wanted to substantiate it. The garage comment was made in reference to the last photo on the left (bottom row) of the grouping that was posted with the article. This photo is of the house behind the house "in the street" - the other "dog". My comment was a subtle(?) design jab, meaning that the stuff - the fake beams and corner arcs (they even look like crutches) that are in front of the two garage doors is the same treatment given to the separate front entrance. In other words, why would someone wear shoes on their feet as well as their hands? Which is more important the garage or the front entrance? Which is the garage, which is the front entrance? If the "trappings" in front of/over the garage doors were to be removed, the focus should go to the front door. Though my guess is the garage would still take center stage - like so many houses built in suburbia. Maybe that was the intention, "Hey, look at my garage" - that is what I was seeing in the photo regarding the garage bays. ...planting Boston Ivy could do wonders for both houses as in turning them literally completely green. A misplaced and over-priced house(s) flaunted in public sets itself up for scrutiny. What is next to be squeezed into that space after the "garden", a rollercoaster? Can we all bring our lunch and eat it there? - pretend we are in Beverly Hills, CA that is. Eye candy is good but who is trying to impress whom - and why?
Props on the LEED certification, but I kind of doubt the necessity or efficiency of a house with 6 bathrooms. Unless its housing multiple families, or a full family tree.
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