‘ARCHITECTURAL fast food’
THOSE BOXY APARTMENT COMPLEXES ARE SPROUTING UP IN CT
We have all seen them. Where once there was a naked lot or old building, new buildings are just popping out of the ground — made of 2x6s and plywood that are soon stacked five or six stories high. This type of building is called “Stick Frame Over Podium” or “5 over 2” construction. The 2012 International Building Code allowed for this new building type that has made mid-rise structures substantially cheaper and quicker to construct.
The upside is that towns like New Haven, Stamford and Hartford have all seen new private investment because the cost of this form of construction is low enough that developers can afford to risk money in the hope that people want to live downtown. So far, these buildings are finding tenants.
But are these buildings safe? In the decade since this construction type has been built, fires have occurred. And while these buildings can burn to the ground, they are required to have an extensive list of safety precautions built into them that have prevented death.
When this building type was first approved, Salvatore Ancona of the Nassau County, NY, Fire Service Academy noted, “As builders continue to push the envelope advocating for combustible materials in multiple dwellings, fire service professionals must keep up identifying
the risks.”
But more, architects and urban designers can see the aesthetic downsides of a type of building for which the chief benefit is cost and speed of construction. This cheap, expedient way to build is creating freight trains of mute boxes rumbling through America’s urban landscape and has caused a revolution in how buildings can dominate the aesthetics of our communities in just one decade.
But some designers see the possibilities. In Meriden, architect Brian O’Looney built 81 units of affordable housing for the Chrysalis Center Inc., which provides support services to residents and families from the greater community. In an email, O’Looney notes that this building “feels appropriate because it is the exact scale and shape of the former buildings upon which the history of the town was built, echoing those historic assemblages, all of which are now gone.”
In the Common Edge Collaborative website Randy Nishimura wrote about “5 over 2” construction: “They’re everywhere and yet too often look like they could be anywhere. It’s because the formula has been so consistently and prodigiously propagated. It’s also because their rise has been so sudden…The type [of building] is meeting a current need in a manner the marketplace supports. I also take no issue with how similar many of the projects appear to be, as long as they are responsive to the specifics of their immediate context (culture, topography, orientation, views, other site features).”
Whatever the economics or even benefits of “Stick Frame Over Podium” buildings offer, there is no doubt that the vast majority of them are architectural “fast food.” They meet a price point and satisfy a need without much cultural nourishment. So why do they sell? I think there are several reasons.
We like new things. New cars have a value that is instantly reduced once purchased; new homes carry a premium as well. And a zillion “DIY” home shows extol the undeniable allure (and value) of “flipping” that simulates that “new” house smell.
Interiors matter, exteriors not so much: The interiors of these boxes often offer higher ceilings and larger windows, open spaces and white walls — perfect blank canvases to decorate.
We do not care about making communities. The “parade of boxes” formed by these buildings has never been used to create urban space; they are simply built to the limits allowed by zoning. Roofscapes, interior gyms, even pools create internal, safe “shared space,” in lieu of facilitating a community outside the boxes’ walls.
The cure for these bland invaders? I think we will soon see the inoculation of the recession vaccine. In the coming months, the low interest rates that power development will be jacked up to temper the inflation that postpandemic expectation has nurtured. When the cost of money rises, the savings of “Stick Frame Over Podium” vanishes, and developers will stop building them and many other things.
That just leaves future generations to deal with what this decade has wrought.