Duluth council OKs zoning changes for three housing projects
April 23, 2012 at 7:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
The Duluth City Council gave a go-ahead Monday to zoning changes that could lead to a new housing
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Duluth council OKs zoning changes for three housing projects
5 Comments
Looked at Kuepers website and their new builds are quite admirable in quality. Trouble I have with their design is that it’s all very Northwoods log cabin in style and unbefitting for historical, riverside, post-industrial Smithville in west Duluth.
I searched their site for an example of an apartment building and found the Cypress Apartments in Baxter in the commercial portfolio.
While these differ from the Northwoods motif, they unfortunately copy the same bog standard rubbish apartment / motel template replicated elsewhere in Duluth. I cite the Fairfield Inn on Miller Hill, Oakland Apartments at UMD, Campus Park built by Mark Lambert on Rice Lk Rd and the Lester River Condos – described as “luxury”. The only luxury feature of them is the price.
Stayed in the Fairfield Inn when it was new and hardly slept a wink. The whole room shook each time a guest room door shut. Evidently the doors have to comply with fire regs and are disproportionately heavy to the flimsy walls and floors.
This is a disposable building with a short shelf life. Let’s face it. It’s easily knocked down, the demolition materials disposed of and something else erected in its place or the eyesore left to deteriorate.
This slipshod manner of construction is unwelcome by this reader and I have to question why we are are doing this to our towns and cities,,,, more importantly the communities.
I’m not suggesting opulence, country club standard for every apartment, condo, townhouse development. I’m demanding better design criteria (not fast food, one size fits all), eco-friendly and energy efficient buildings, construction of dwellings that are habitable and built to last and developments that integrate with and extend the physical boundaries of the communities and neighborhoods in which they occupy.
Where’s the legacy in any of this? How long before the vinyl cladding grows mould, cracks or dents? How energy efficient are the windows? How healthy are all these synthetic materials if they were to burn? You can bet they’re not wool carpets. The exterior siding is made from petro-chemical ingredients. The ceilings are low, ventilation and natural light is poor. There is likely no storage. There is no imagination in the design, no concern for architectural detail, no innovation, no thought given to the habitability of these dwellings and no craftsmanship in these pre-fabricated eyesores.
This do-it-on-the-cheap template takes a tired distortion of a mock-Georgian design, builds it with artificial materials (vinyl cladding, brick fascia supported by a timber-frame, cheap sash windows and metal stacks substituting for chimneys. And that’s just the outside.
Interiors – screw some ill-fitted kitchen units to the wall, paper thin partition walls, skip the moulding and install lino and poly-fiber wall-to-wall carpet and dress the sales model with a cozy look and wham! you can charge a small fortune today for tomorrow’s tenement.
It’s time NOW for the City of Duluth to take a progressive step forward and adopt stringent building codes so that the city does not become ANYWHERE SUBURBAN USA of plastic houses, parking lots and sprawl.
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???? Yup..that will really attract private investment. Just what we need. More rules and red tape.
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All three areas will be rental. Yup, this town is on the move.
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The Woodland school project will take kids who’d normally be living in the slums and allow them to live closer to campus. This also keeps streets less-clogged with cars and lessens house parties in family neighborhoods.
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And don’t forget….Duluth is set to “pop”.
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