Craftman Style

This very popular style of the early 1900’s through the late 1920’s comes in many shapes and sizes.  the most popular is the bungalow, which is a subset of the craftsman style.  Bungalow’s are rectangular shaped one and a half story homes with a gabled roof that has a steep pitch.

 Craftsman1

When you walk into a Craftsman style home there is a sense of space, the openness of the rooms, and the rustic or bold-square styling feel completely different from the Victorian houses still being built into the 1910’s.   The style wad popularized at the turn of the 20th century by architect and furniture designer Gustav Stickley.  He built furniture in a simple plain style, and the craftsman architecture does not have all the ornamentation found in Victorian era homes.

This style features overhanging eaves, a low-slung gabled roof, and wide front porches framed by pedestal-like tapered columns. Material often included stone, rough-hewn wood, and stucco. Many homes have wide front porches across part of the front, supported by columns.

The insides of these homes often have wood cove molding, wood beams on the ceilings, built in buffets, china cabinets, book cases, benches and secretary’s.  Piano windows, and french doors off of the sun room are common.  These homes have a lot of wood work and wood trim.  The dark wood work went out of style and in many of these homes it has been painted white or refinished to a lighter color.

They can be found all over the twin cities.  In St. Paul they are plentiful in the Mac Groveland and Merriam neighborhoods and on the East Side.  The style can be found in new homes being built around the metro and around the country.  There are many books, magazines on how to decorate them and catalogs filled with old style hardware and fixtures.

Bridge Under Construction

Bridges_3 The Bridges project, which Teresa has written about before, has taken a new and exciting turn.  This project, the largest and most controversial ever proposed in Saint Paul, was pulled in favor of a community led initiative called the Tri-District Council, as noted here previously.  What does that mean?  It could well be the dawn of an exciting new era in development in our city.

After the initial proposal was denied the re-zoning necessary the developer, Jerry Trooien, pledged to go along with an effort started by City Councilmember Dave Thune.  In this proposal, the three District Councils most affected – the West Side Citizen’s Organization, Capitol River Council, and the Fort Road Federation – appointed representatives to work out a new development that would meet everyone’s needs.

The first real start for this group came three days ago, on January 18. At this meeting, it was decided that we would chart a new course as partners in the process of working out a design from the very start with a clean sheet of paper.  The group was armed with a set of fundamental principles to guide its procedures.  It will do more than just react, but actually lay down what will happen as full partners in the process.   In short, the developer has agreed to make this process into a radical new approach to developing with the community.

Certainly, developments have occurred with input from the community before.  Our District Councils have initiated developments on their own, and have also worked carefully with developers who had proposals in hand.  But never before has such a large project been tried with community input from the very beginning.  Can such a process work?

The first question has to be “Who gets to decide what happens?”  The definition of “community” in this case has been expanded to include some districts that are not immediately adjacent to the proposed site on the West Side, downriver from the Robert Street Bridge, but are more broadly affected.  I have the honor of representing one such group in this process, the Fort Road Federation.  I hope that my interest is a bit more than my ability to see the site from the end of my block, and that my experience working with developers on projects closer to home will be effective.  It is this sense of history that we have built up over the years in Saint Paul that I would like to place at the group’s disposal more than anything.

It is hard to say exactly where this will all go at this stage.  The Mayor’s Office has recently weighed in with an opinion that the site is not eligible for Tax Increment Financing, which limits the options available to us – or at extends our timetable considerably as we seek ways around it.  What I can say is that we will do our best to come up with a development that is both realistic and acceptable to everyone who is affected.  It goes without saying that as people who live and work and play in the city we love, we also want what comes from this to be something that makes Saint Paul proud.

I wish we knew more at this time, but we have just started figuring out how we will proceed.  I wanted to post a story about this here as the first of a series of updates to inform the world how it is going and to invite comments.  Engagement of the broader community, including other people from around the nation who have experience with this sort of thing, will give us a better chance at success in this exciting new adventure.

Thanks  Erik  for attending the public  meeting on Thursday the 18th, 2006, and sharing this with our readers

Related Posts   Also visit AllSaintPaul

Predatory Mortgage Lending

AttorneyDollars_7 General Swanson Releases Predatory Mortgage Lending Study Group Report and Proposes Legislation  Follow the link to see the reports.  Like most government web sites they are in PDF format.

The Report outlines the problems with mortgage fraud and includes maps clearly showing that their are more foreclosures in some neighborhoods than in others, and that fraudulent lending practices plays a role in too many of the foreclosures  our attorney general is proposing legislation for:

Predatory Mortgage Lending Proposals
1)Prudent and Appropriate Lending
•            Lender must verify borrowers’ reasonable ability to pay loan
• Prohibitions on "Churning" or refinancing without benefit to the borrower -Prohibitions on loans resulting in negative amortization
• Requires loan counseling before refinancing subsidized loans or "special mortgages"
2) Eliminate Waiver of Fiduciary Duty for Brokers
• Bars brokers from avoiding legal obligation to act in borrower’s best interest.
• Currently brokers may avoid fiduciary duty by issuing a boilerplate waiver to borrower.
3) Criminal Penalty for Knowingly Providing "Grossly Unsuitable" Loan -Criminal penalties up to $75,000 or 2 years in prison
• Additional penalties for crimes against disabled and elderly
4) Prepayment Penalty Prohibition -Reinstates ban on prepayment penalties -Lenders using federal law to preempt still required to disclose
5) 5% Cost Limit: Add Yield Spread Premium and Third Party, Non-Governmental Costs
• Adds yield spread payments from lenders and closing service costs to the 5% cap on loan fees.
6) Comparable Monthly Payment Quotes
• Require that lenders include taxes, insurance, escrow in comparing loans
7) Private Right of Action in Chapter 58
• Allows borrower to sue for violations under chapter 58
• Credit unions, and federal or state chartered banks are exempted
8) Private Right of Action in Chapter 82B for Fraudulent Appraisals
• Allows lenders and borrowers to sue for fraudulent appraisal violations under chapter 82B

Read Legislature urged to rein in home loan abuses – St. Paul Pioneer Press

Potato Chips

Chips This graphic came to us from Leanne Paynter, a Florida REALTOR/broker and friend.

Part of my job when I work with people from out of town who are moving to St. Paul is to bring them up to speed on Minnesota.  We are a little different, dontcha know?

I like to say "you betcha" to show off my ability to speak Minnesota.  I don’t actually use the word in conversations but I know how to and I can if needed.

There are other words that we use in these parts that I like to make sure our new neighbors understand so that they can develop good relationships with their neighbors.  What if one of my clients was invited to a neighbors house for hotdish?  They might want to know what hotdish is so I make sure I explain before they move in.

They might want to know what the bars that we eat after the hot dish are all about and will need to remember not to ask for a soda or a coke if they want some pop to drink.  We don’t mash buttons in elevators we press them. 

Some say this is the land of Minnesota nice, others say that it is  really Minnesota ice.  It is our Norwegian heritage that makes us seem a little standoffish, but I have to say we are an exceptionaly friendly, smart and attractive group of people, above average in many ways. Read my last few posts and you can’t help but notice that our housing stock isn’t bad either.

Have a great weekend!

Greek Revival

Greekrev

This beautiful example of a Greek Revival home is located in Irvine Park near downtown St. Paul.  I always associate these with the civil war.  They were popular around the country from about 1850 to 1875.

A pediment is a low-pitched triangular gable on the front of some buildings in the Greek revival style of architecture.  This particular home as the Grecian style columns.

My own home is a Greek revival but built in the 1850’s, and is much simpler with no columns but has the low pitched triangular gable and the symmetrical design, and wide plain trim work.  There are three Greek Revival style homes in Irvine Park and several can be found in the oldest parts of St. Paul.