Return of the cookie-cutter house

Wall Street Journal via MSN Real Estate ^ | Dawn Wotapka, The Wall Street Journal

[Lorianne]

The premise of the story, that by choosing your carpet color and countertop material from a wider array of choices, you were previously NOT getting a cookie-cutter house, is pretty hilarious.

Oh well.

[robomatik]

i love mcmansions. really! no. i really do. really.

[durasell]

What is interesting about that picture is that the house to the right appears to be a Craftsman home — a high point in American architecture.

[MHGinTN]

My son just moved his little family into a Lowder Homes ‘cookie cutter’ model. Pretty darn nice cookies that! The floorplans are limited but the amenities are still flowing to keep people buying.

[robomatik]

surely you jest! (frank lloyd wright is spinning in his grave) :)

[GOP Poet]

Good point! Did you notice the ‘apartment building’ has a pseudo craftsman facade? Ree duck u lus! Horrid.

[durasell]

I’m not a fan of Wright’s Usonian houses. Talk about cookie cutter!

[durasell]

Ha! I didn’t notice that. Thanks for the laugh!

[petitfour]

How about this cookie cutter election? Here’s your stainless steel liberal war hero. Here’s your stainless steel New England liberal. Or there’s always the stainless steel Southern Baptist preacher to choose from. We used to offer an upgraded less leaky conservative choice, but the race cost too much, so we had to limit your options in order to speed things along.

[robomatik]

i'll take one of these though.

[durasell]

There is only one of those!

[robomatik]

-standing corrected> ahem! "i'll take IT"

:)

[durasell]

I wonder if it’s still a private residence...

[robomatik]

i live in cincinnati and live fairly close to a wright house. (my father almost bought one). i've always wanted a house with a stream that runs through it. ;)

as to whether this one (i forget the name) is privately owned, i have no idea.

[Dominnae]

That house is called Falling Water.

Growing up in Connecticut, one of our neighbors was Anne Baxter, the actress, who’s grandfather was Wright.

She had a house that looked very much like a Wright, but it wasn’t.

[Bobalu]

[durasell]

I think it’s Fallingwater.

[Tenniel2]

FLW was a better artist than engineer, and Fallingwater started falling apart not long after it was built in 1937 (at a cost of $155,000 -- this in a time when a spacious suburban single-family house could be had for under $10K).

It was a vacation house for the Kaufmann family until it was donated to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in 1963. Major structural reinforcement was done in 2001-2003, with the retensioning and reanchoring of the sagging cantilevered concrete beams, at a cost of some $11 million.

Extensive waterproofing was also installed, but because of the site's dampness and some of the deficiencies in the original design (such as the lack of roof flashing and internal drains), the maintenance contractors, and their descendants, have got jobs for life.

[napscoordinator]

That is an interesting house. Can I fit my family of five in there? How much did that house cost I wonder? The savings on going smaller would outweigh the inconvenience for my wife and three kids.../sarc.

[AlaskaErik]

It looks to be about the size of my master bedroom.