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Good House of The Week: Oakland County, Michigan
🕑 Added 2017-06-15 21:22:10 +0000 UTC Here on McMansion Hell, it is often forgotten that a house can still be large without being, well, horrible. A lot of the houses featured demonstrate classic ills of residential architecture: illogical massing, low quality materials, and bizarre design choices, especially regarding windows.This week's GHOTW, built in 2004, demonstrates that a house can be large and operate within more opulent styles and still be architecturally refined. This house is in a style that so few really get right: French Eclectic. The swooping hipped roofline, wrought iron roof crestings, segmental (arched/curved) elements (dormers, windows, roofline, etc.), and frontal balcony place it within the style, though in a more sparse, modern tone. The meticulous garden in the back is a particularly authentic touch, reminiscent of the gardens from the 18th Century, though the style of the architecture is from the 19th Century.
The materials are of high quality - the shutters shut, the walls are genuine stucco. The stonework is not overdone, and the house is not overly busy. The attached garage is well integrated with the primary mass, carrying over important elements like the roof pitch and crestings, as well as dormer and window styles. While it is a little goofy to see shutters surrounding the door, that's a small price to pay for an otherwise well-put-together home, especially compared to the one featured in today's main post.
Link to Listing: https://www.redfin.com/MI/Oakland-charter-Township/3185-Saint-James-Ct-48306/home/99289981
Comments
ducksauz
The unreachable landing and Mussolini pulpit over the entry door are dust-catchingly pointless. There should have just been a window and no landing there.
I really appreciate the exterior (and the breakdown of what makes it work!), though I'm a little suspicious of the rear - the roof looks a bit complex and nubby in the last photo. The interior elements seem well-done - I feel like the what's called out a lot in this blog is inconsistency. Like, here the crown molding is consistent throughout a room and doesn't run into any other elements, and that is often not the case in McMansions. Windows, too, are consistent throughout a room. This house makes me wonder if his & her sinks, unreachable landings, makeup stations, bars, large fireplaces, etc. are all things that must be added to fill out a fundamentally huge house. Without them, the space would be too empty and cavernous. Is there another way to approach large rooms without adding all these "features"? Still a good house, and I hope whoever lives there does a lot of entertaining to get the most out of it.
