"Like a cemetery": San Francisco's colorful houses turning "gentrification grey"

[Tanuki]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/19/san-francisco-painted-ladies-victorian-houses-gray

..."From the Golden Gate Bridge’s International Orange hue to the elaborately carved and painted façades of the Painted Ladies fronting Alamo Square, vivid color has long been the grammar of San Francisco’s vernacular architecture.

But more and more, amid the pastels and the gold-leaf embellishments, you see a striking juxtaposition: 125-year-old houses painted in the tones of a cold war-era nuclear warhead or a dormant cinder cone. In neighborhoods like the Mission and the Haight, this phenomenon reads to some residents as an erasure of the Latino community or of the lingering counterculture. Gentrification gray homes have become a totem of affluent interlopers. The rush of wealth into central cities is global in scale, but its effects in San Francisco have been particularly pronounced – all the more so because of the city’s famously high opinion of its own uniqueness.
...
Fred Messbarger, a 15-year Mission homeowner, calls the gray trend “heartbreaking” and said that the “beauty of San Francisco is in the Victorians and Edwardians, and the contrast of the houses and the curves and the detail – and also the neighbors. One house could be totally different colors from the others.” (more)

[vlyons]

1. I used to live on Alamo Square

nt

[orangecrush]

2. Damned shame

Profit erasing culture and history.

[chowder66]

3. I really hate the grey trend. To me it's the new beige. nt

[Amishman]

8. yes, but interesting things happen when you use 50 different shades...

[chowder66]

10. You just had to didn't you. Couldn't stop yourself. lol

[dalton99a]

4. The same phenomenon can be seen in other cities

Stupid fad

[LakeArenal]

5. That's really a shame. Gray isn't even a color to me.

It’s cement, concrete, neutral.

I hated the beige “earth tone trend” before this gray blah trend.

[marie999]

6. We lived in the Castro District in the 70s and 80s.

The Victorian homes were beautiful and the streets and parks were clean.

[CurtEastPoint]

7. Thanks, HGTV, for this dreck of a 'scheme.'

[xmas74]

9. I love certain shades of grey

Like the ones with almost a purple undertone. But on a Victorian or Edwardian? Needs bright colors.

Even something newer with a grey needs bright accent colors. The grey should only be there so the accent colors really pop, like teals, deep emeralds, even hot pink. Grey on grey on white on beige? Blah.

[kimbutgar]

11. Where I live We painted my house bright blue and made neighbor across the street painted

Theirs green with orange trim. We both are boomers and the younger home owners have blah colors.

[CrispyQ]

12. In my area you can tell homeowner association neighborhoods

from the non-homeowner association neighborhoods by paint color. Some HOAs will allow color, but always extremely pale hues. Some won't allow anything but neutrals, beige, cream, grey. What a yawn.

[Sympthsical]

13. Long tracts of battleship gray in the city don't fit

Like looking at a row of cupcakes made from death.

That said. It varies. Some neighborhoods are still plenty colorful. Some of this color the article mourns is actually kind of yikes. It's easy to say "It has so much personality!" until you live next to it and have to look at it everyday. There's one house along Golden Gate Park I note every time I drive past, because it's such a garish eye sore. It's like this neon purple with diarrhea brown trim. It doesn't work at all, and it bothers me in that way that only something that is none of your business can.

But the pastels in the Outer Sunset have always been pleasant. Feels almost breezy, like an island environment, where you momentarily forget you're next to the ocean and quietly freezing to death.

Gentrification has brought modernization. Monochromes are the order of the day. Luxury isn't about color. It's all steel and grays. Which is an aesthetic I kind of like. I call it "storm aesthetic". Dark blues and grays.

Of course, I can't talk. Our neighborhood is just . . . beige. I actually don't even know what color my house is. Beige? I'd have to go outside and look. It's that memorable. And all the houses around us are similar color. We do have a red door though. So that kind of stands out.

[haele]

16. The problem I see is they painted with a single color.

Okay, grey or tan for the base coat. Inevitable to today's tech baron sensibility, but can be used as a start off point.
But as these are Victorian/Edwardian era buildings, there's a lot of gingerbread or wooden decorative exterior elements that should be painted an alternate color so they can "pop". Pink, lavender, light greens or blues, goldenrod, with white or chrome or gilded trim work.
Or vice versa, but color needs to be there, as that is the nature of that style of house.
Those pictures of the "renovated" houses for sale - ugh. A single color all over? Blah, even flipped Ranch bungalows for sale are usually given more character. These are being sold by investment companies looking at their bottom line and profit projections.

Haele

[Sympthsical]

19. I completely agree with you

The Victorian and Queen Anne style homes painted monochrome . . . just . . . blargh! It doesn't have to be like a child went wild on a coloring book, but the distinctive features should at least be distinct. The features are meant to stand out, and they get lost in a lot of the modern painting choices. A lot of people spent a lot of money to maintain and restore those features.

When it's all same-y, the light just doesn't hit the same way.

[marybourg]

14. Looking at photos of interiors of "updated" flipped houses,

you can’t tell if they were photographed in b&w film or color.

[skypilot]

15. This makes me think of a short story I read years ago...

...titled The Grey Ones by J.B. Preistley. It involves a man who is telling his therapist about how he is convinced that there are a growing number of people around who are kind of drab and soulless and "grey" who suck the vitality and fun out of things wherever they go. I've been thinking about that story a lot lately.

[4Q2u2]

17. So your telling me

A bunch of Tech Guru's are not the Fashion Trendy type of personalities?
Wow, who could of seen this coming!

[Skittles]

18. some people don't want multi-colored houses

to each their own

[electric_blue68]

20. That's a drag. I loved seeing those colorful houses when I visited.

Last edited Sat Nov 20, 2021, 11:31 AM - Edit history (1)

In a Interior Decorating game I play about 55% do nothing but white, greys, beiges, tans, etc.

The other 45% of which I proudly count myself 😁 go
colorful!