Some readers may remember the infamous Cat House on Windermere in Walkerville, that we visited back in September, 2007.
The old house was demolished after it was left abandoned by the owners at the time, and full of cats. The site remained a vacant lot for the better part of a year, before some work started on the site.
This is the turd that’s been thrown up in Old Walkerville. A child with crayons could do a better job of urban planning than the people in charge at city hall. The neighbours were told that the house would “blend in to the neighbourhood”…
… uhh, yeah… You can’t even tell that house is new, it looks just like the rest of the street…
Certain areas of the city (like old Walkerville) need to be held to a certain level of design for new construction. If infill is built in old and historic neighbourhood, then you should have to build a house that looks like the rest of the street.
Other cities do it, why are we always having to settle for a silver medal in this city? Its the little things that make our cities and neighbourhoods appealing. If the owners of the replacement for the Cat House wanted a LaSalle style house, they should have built one out there…
The scale and massing of the whole end of the block is thrown off by this place, not to mention that the “porch” is idiotic looking. Building this house to look more like the rest of the ones on the street would not have been difficult or more expensive. I think it’s just a lack of anyone caring in the planning & building departments. Rubber stamp on the plans, and we’re good to go…
Crescent Lanes first opened on Ottawa Street in 1944 at 1055 Ottawa Street, opposite Lanspeary…
Above is a photo of the home of Mr & Mrs Oswald Janisse, located at…
in 1917 two Greek brothers Gus & Harry Lukos purchased a one story building on…
Photo from Google Streetview A long time reader sent me an email the other week…
An unremarkable end to a part of Windsor's history. The large vacant house at 841…
One for the lost Windsor files, is this house that once belonged to Joseph Reaume…
View Comments
Andrew, you HAVE to submit this house as the "Eyesore of the Month" to James Howard Kunstler, lol
It is by far, the most atrocious thing I have seen in some time. It is insulting, really. It looks like some sort of a practical joke, like someone will pull a chord and the crappy suburban exterior will fall apart revealing an Edwardian inspired cottage.
If only...
Furthermore, I feel embarassed for the people who will live in this house, surrounded by character, they are the ugly sister in a row of true beauty... Poor Walkerville, you deserve better
Someone showed up for the Woodward Dream Cruise in a Geo Metro.
What happened to Walkerville's old building restrictions set up by Hiram Walker? I was told during the Walkerville Distillery Tour that Hiram Walker made everyone sign building restrictions on their deeds in Walkerville before Hiram would sell it to them. I was told that different streets in Walkerville looked similar because of his restrictions on the deeds, e.g. min. two stories on a particular street, brick or limestone (not clapboard), etc. Didn't this get grandfathered in when Walkerville changed to Windsor? Was the building permit legal based on these restrictions or did the City of Windsor remove them years ago?
Sadly, this new house is totally inappropriate for the street and I agree with all the above. But it is not the only example of new infill homes in any neighbourhood in Windsor. While walking the neighbourhoods of the core over the last few years, I have found many examples of this great inconsideration for the streetscape of neighbourhoods, some are just bad, a couple I found were actually hostile to the neighbourhood(s) and the street.
Those walks got me thinking, Andrew should hold another contest on the best and the worst of infill building in our neighbourhoods, which will show demonstratively that our city planning and building departments don't have a clue or care to what is being built as long as they collect the fees.
To call that house a turd is too great of a complement. What an absolute disgrace. A raised bungalow has no place on a classic street with gracious two-story homes. Shame on the builder of this and shame on the City of Windsor for allowing it.
oh.
my.
god.
i just don't know what to say. what did the neighbours say when this thing was finished???
I certainly hope that the builders, the owners, and the city are fined or penalized in some way, and forced to put that 'turd' on a truck and move it to other cookie cutter slums in the area.
My brother lives a couple houses down you can see his house in the above piture it the one with the candian flag on the porch I have spoke to him about that house and all the neighbours are not to happy about it
I don't think the house is that bad style-wise. In fact if it were made to sit higher (with what everyone seems to want today, a finished basement) it would have blended into the neighbourhood a lot better or a second floor might have been better achieved which would give the house better height.
But maybe they didn't need the room or the higher bills (Windsor does have some of the highest energy and water bills on Ontario). I also beleive there are now by-laws as to how close a house can sit next to one another. With eaves overhanging on both sides it might not have been feasible to build this house as high.
I do agree that the "porch" is non-existing which throws it out place compared to the other houses. It would have been better suited on Lincoln where some of the older houses are only 1.5 stories.