You know why City Hall in Philly is still standing? By the mid-20th century it was considered an outdated, outrageously ugly, excessively ornate, ludicrously expensive-to-maintain folly; demolition was considered until the city discovered that this eldritch monstrosity of a building had been so solidly constructed that they couldn’t afford to tear it down.
The way I worded it was weird… “yet to be razed.” But I love that the reason it survived was because it was too hard to take down. Another win for monstrosities!
@@kendragaylordIt’s amazing. The fact that the statue of William Penn on the top looks, from the proper angle, as though he’s waggling his bits at the city is just, well, it sums up Philly perfectly.
My shock when I realize that a 1923 critic talking about an "1890 mansion" is probably using the same tone as a 2023 critic talking about a "1990 mansion".
Ah but the difference is that 1890s architect or builder actually knew about proportion and style and how to apply it, no McMansion builder in 1990 till now understood either of those two things.
@@darrens3 The are some smaller Victorian Mansions that play with roof, tower, and gingerbread proportions that end up look strange and off kilter and vir into McMansion territory, I feel like one was shown in the AI dream house vid because the proportions were so off it looked wrong and unreal.
Mansard roofs came about due to French property tax rules. The Carrez Law taxed properties based on usable floor square footage. Attics were specifically excluded. Having a steeply sloped roof gave you a whole extra usable floor for which you did not have to pay tax. Tax rules explain a lot of architectural features. London has many rowhouses with bricked up windows because homes were taxed on the number of windows.
I think the future architectural style for horror will be the ultra-modern Frank Lloyd Wright style. It's the perfect setting for "technology goes awry" horror and "soulless super rich person does horrifying things" terror.
One of the reasons the mansard roofed tower can seem off putting. Is that it's quite bulky at the top, it's cut short making it more menacing. It feels less like somewhere you'd like to look out of, but somewhere that is looking down on you.
What gets me is that the empire in "Second Empire" is that of Napoleon III, who completely rebuilt Paris into what it is today. Mansard roofs are common in Paris, but don't look spooky on the Champs d'Elysee. I suppose context is everything.
I wonder if it's because in the U.S. a lot of towns aren't very densely populated, and the buildings are spread out more than Paris so they look kinda lonely comparatively especially in a rural or small town setting. So yeah, basically what Kendra said. I feel if they were in more densely populated areas they wouldn't look as eerie.
Partly that would be the location context, but also they were built to minimise property tax there: because the top floor was above the eaves leavel, it didn't count towards the area of the house for calculating taxes. It's hard to see a tax dodge as spooky!
Maybe thanks to all the revolutions and the Commune and two World Wars, the French were bound to get jaded. In one of his essays, Anton LaVey speculated that the mansard roof became off-putting because its geometry was very contrary to the classical geometry, that mansard roofs felt incomplete to many ordinary people.
I find a lot of them have a pitched roof rather than the flat bit, which i think softens the look, plus with them being a lot of terrace/row houses, thats not really scary.
In Paris, they’re mostly apartment buildings. The mansard part is the fifth/sixth floor containing tiny attic rooms originally for the maids and butlers. It’s not just a tax dodge, it’s also a physical representation of the upstairs/downstairs lifestyle, in a way that the 2H19th C versions in America just… aren’t. At least not outside of a few areas like Nob Hill or downtown Manhattan.
I love when I find a new TH-camr with a niche I know nothing about, and video by video, I gain insight into a field I'd never really given a second thought. You always manage to tie your videos back into the real world in a way that really resonates. And just in time for spoooooky season too!
we all know attics are the spookiest part of the house- basements are the scariest part. mansard roof means more attic means more spooky. simple as. But seriously great video!
We don't have basements in our country, and rarely attics. I think our version of creepy is the vast Australian outback. I just watched a video about horror set in Australia, and sometimes there's a ramshackle, tin roofed building, or something. 😅
Its funny how they were created with the intention to make more use of the house space, when it seems contemporary houses are about *less* use of a space: pointless foyers, large bathrooms, L shaped kitchens that encourage a dining table, when it seems family dinner at a table isnt even common anymore, spare bedrooms, porches that are just for show. The past was optimistic about space usage, while it feels its all a facade now, even from inside the house
Also think about the attic in modern houses. One of my hobbies is looking at vintage house plants and houses from the '30s and '40s and up to the '50s but usually not past the '60s (which all call themselves modern in their own publications) have attic storage. Some have staircases leading to an unfinished attic, that the homeowner can finish later on their own time and as money allows. Some of the houses have a pull-down staircase with an unfinished attic that can be used for storage. Modern houses have different building styles that make it impossible to have an accessible attic. Because the idea is the homeowner will sell their thousand square foot home and not use all of the space in their home to make it more spacious. It depresses the heck out of me when I drive by new home construction sites and the only space used for living is the main floor because the attic is unusable and there is no basement (which really bugs me because I live in a tornado prone area and all of the new " affordable housing" is on a slab instead of having a basement or even access to a storm shelter?).
@@sailorz3 Basements are now only constructed in areas where there is ground frost...up North. Where ground frost takes place the footing for the foundation has to be a minimum of 12 inches below the frost line. Where I live, just outside of NYC, the frost line is 36 inches. That means the footing has to be a minimum of 48 inches below the surface to prevent damage from frost heaving. That's four feet minimum. Since the builder has to go down that far, it no big deal to go another couple of feet and construct a full basement. The only houses I see in North Jersey without full basements are in areas with flooding or ground water problems.
such a strange dichotomy between utility and appearance. people are attracted to those spaces not because they imagine what they can do in them, but because it's the expected thing to have, something to show off that they "have their life together"
@@rodrigocoockiemonster4460no it isn't, two adults being able to comfortably use it without butting into each other is more than enough for 99.99% of families. there is a world of a difference between "reasonably sized bathroom that leaves you with more storage/a bigger bedroom" and "house that sacrifices functionality solely for the sake of being a ✨tiny✨house✨. one improves practicality, the other spits in its face.
I'm surprised you didn't bring up McDonald's! I still remember when all of the McDonald's near me had the mansard roof design, I always thought they looked so cute and inviting. Using aesthetics to make children feel secure in a fast food establishment designed to get them addicted to nutritionally void slop? Now that's scary.
I have been dreaming of doing a video on fast food buildings, but there are so many people who would probably cover it better. My friend on tiktok @melinabee3 has some great videos on it!
@@kendragaylord dear, don't let perfect be the enemy of good enough! we'd love to see _you_ cover funky franchise fittings and furnishings cuz we like your energy and insight! Others research and discuss in their own way, but that doesn't mean it's in any way "better." 🫂
@@kendragaylordI understand if you still wouldn't want to go with the idea, but just know that if you do a lot of us would enjoy it ;w; I've watched video essays on the same topic multiple times, and as a viewer these types of situations are basically a "yay more cake! :D"
Omg yes! My mom, who was an art student, referred to the McDonald's roofs as "faux Mansard" and she haaaated them. It feels like they used that style all through the 90s and then sometime in the 00s started renovating McD locations with a style that's more reminiscent of a Starbucks.
Thank you!! Last year I finished the Historic Preservation program at the University of Vermont and I was racking my brain to try and remember if I had seen that house. I haven't been to Putney.
Kendra I think you’re marvelous, really a terrific storyteller. Your approach is always specific to point in time and unfolds forwards and backwards giving weight to that point in time, it’s present, it’s history and it’s future. Great style Dear!
I live on the top floor of a flat with an octagonal turret, mine has a lead onion topped dome with a weather vein on top, the building is old red brick, with sandstone window surrounds and sandstone detailing and intricately decorated wood bargeboards. It is in the middle of a town centre, with beautiful victorian and edwardian architecture and it's great for people watching with a 270 degree view, especially as there are mutiple pubs around. When they have live singers on I just open my window and get a live concert. At times when it's stormy outside and you're looking down your nose at the people below or just listening to the thunder and rain on the windows it is very atmospheric.
There was a video that I saw a while ago that delved into the architectural similarities of classic haunted houses, I think it was called "Why are all haunted houses Victorian houses" or something like that. The video explained that a lot of early visual mass media was created in the early 20th century by people who were kids in the late 1800's. In that time period, there was a lot of minor economic crashes and bank failures as a result of a lack of financial regulations, which meant that there were a lot of people making quick fortunes, building giant mansions, and the losing all of their wealth, leaving their giant Mansard roof topped houses to fall into ruin. The people who were the kids scared by those old decaying houses grew up to create movies, TV shows, comics, and theme parks, filled with a visual shorthand inspired by their childhood observations. Non-haunted depictions of this late 19th century American architecture can be seen in pop culture products like the movie version of "The Music Man" and Main Street in Disney Land, which was directly inspired by Walt's childhood memories from that time period.
There's a fantastic Mansard roof mansion featured in the new movie "The Brutalist." It jumped right out to me because I'd just recently watched this video!
Mansard Roofs are scary. They have crappy snow load capabilities, they leak, constantly, and are a maintenance nightmare. Any home owner should be terrified seeing one. If the idea of shoveling your roof when it snows is scary, these roofs should be a nightmare to you.
I don’t know much about architecture so correct me if I’m wrong here, but couldn’t you just construct it like they do the flat lines of ultramodern homes where the actual roof is pitched with a raised lip that looks flat?
@@eos_aurora I think I know what you're talking about, maybe. You'll see that sometimes on newer buildings designed to fit into historic areas, but it isn't a true Mansard roof.
My favorite horror movie house is the titular Monster House. I'd love to see you do a video on it, especially since it doesn't feel like an actual house style, more like they had to figure out how to anthropomorphize a house and give it architecture that would create an appropriately creepy face. Although, now that I've looked up an image of it, it does appear to have a Mansard-inspired roof.
The Newport design (aka the Amityville Horror house) is a good contender. Even though the original house has been torn down and replaced by another design, people see houses like that, with the eye windows on either side of the chimney and think "bad things in there".
"censored so I don't have to look at a spider" thank you! It does feel like a lot of the photos you used here, and Hopper's paintings, are capturing a liminal space and time. Where these giants, rich buildings that can house a dozen people comfortably, are left empty.
I don't know how Kendra keeps uploading the most niche topics and yet here I am: Absolutely invested in it, as if I had ordered this exact video. Again. Kendra, your intrests are a gift to us! Now I wonder how the widow walks fit into the horror genre
In media I always see that decay is always highlight by uterlising old grander buildings in a state of disrepair, isolation. The juxtiposition highlights what is being said from loss, decay etc. Fight Club's building is the opposite of the 90s dream apartment for example.
The journalistic narrative excellence of this channel remains exemplary. When you brought it back to Edward Hopper at 14:41 I choked up. Just outstanding.
My favourite spooky house is one I was fortunate enough to live in; it has a mansard roof but isn’t Second Empire: Belcourt Castle, in Newport, RI. As much as I loved living in the house itself, I also loved the opportunities changing seasons provided in finding new views of it, such as approaching the house along the ‘back streets’ in the autumn and catching glimpses of the roof looming in the distance with its many oval dormer windows gazing across the balding tree canopy like watchful eyes. I miss those times immensely; I greatly appreciate this video and all your other videos!
@@thereadingwriter4197 A fancy grandaunt of mine was acquainted with the family and I became enamoured with the house. I visited on my own as a teenager and was befriended by the lady who owned it and later in my early twenties she invited me to move in and help out; I lived (and worked) there for two years doing conservation, restoration, tours, and events. It was sold over a decade ago but I’ve been back a few times as a consultant and also as a guest. Looking back, the Belcourt years are definitely the golden ones of my life (so far!).
For horror houses of the future, 50-70 years from now, I can really easily picture current glass and steel office buildings. As soon as the window cleaners stop getting called in for a month or so, they'll already look haunted and decrepit. Add to that the perfect visibility you have from any angle, revealing either abandoned, outdated office furniture, or nothing but grime, and we'll have ourselves a horror legend. Abandoned malls are already popular for social media horror walk throughs, it's only a matter of time until Hollywood catches up
“There isn’t an easy way to find that out, so instead I chose a hard way that doesn’t tell you that much.” My entire (short-lived) academic career in a nutshell.
I love my 1864 Second Empire farmhouse. (It’s similar to the Addams house you showed except the porch doesn’t wrap around.) It’s super light and airy and truly not at all haunted. But it still occurs to me sometimes that in the last 160 years at least one person has died in this house.
It would be interesting to see your take on the Maitland house from Beeteljuice, before and after the Deetz family moved in. (Also the second empire style is my favorite and there's this abandoned-looking one in Weedsport, NY I dream of buying and restoring one day)
Ahh!! The old city hall building still stands in Lincoln, Nebraska (935 E O St)! It was built around 1860-1870. It’s no longer city hall, that was moved closer to the capital building- I think it’s just business now. But it still stands with its beautiful roof! The building was left unlocked a couple of years ago, and I actually got to check out the roof! Very scary, but oh so historic!
Hey Kendra, I love your videos. I'd love it if you did a video on the garden district houses in New Orleans. I recently started reading Anne Rice and her descriptions are so lucious, but I'm a brit so my imaginings have no reference point (except the humidity, I know exactly what that feels like!) Spooky books + Houses = Kendra Gaylord video?
Your videos are not only informative and interesting, they cheer me up, because of your wonderful offbeat sense of humor. When I see there's a new one, I feel happy in anticipation. When I think of spooky houses, my first thought is of the schoolhouse in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. I think it's because the way he filmed it, again from a low angle looking up, evoked a similar sense of isolation to Hopper's painting. It's interesting that Disneyland's Haunted Mansion has nary a mansard roof (perhaps because of its proximity to New Orleans Square), but the Phantom Manor in Disneyland Paris certainly does.
There's a vlogger, Escape to Rural France, who is restoring a "Belle Epoque" (Art Nouveau) chateau, that was once a summer house for posh Parisian parties. It has a mansard roof, and a tower above the front entrance with a "Witch's Hat" roof. It's the first time this kind of house hasn't been creepy to me, likely because there was a fire forty years ago that burned out the interior and it's hard to be unsettled by an old house with no guts and a forest growing inside. The mansard part of the roof has its rafters, OSB cladding and membrane layer, but the black slate roof tiles won't be installed until the Witch's Hat roof is ready for tiling. The Witch's Hat installation ran into trouble last week, but I'm almost certain that the moaning wind was just the edge of Storm Boris. Almost. Certain. ;)
Fascinating. I recently went to a little vacation community in the forest of the Pacific Northwest. Very powerful HOA, land started being developed in the early 1980s, I think. Nearly every house/McMansion was designed in a sort of faux-log cabin style, maybe with some stonework. But there was one house that stood out like a sore thumb, I don't know how the plans got approved, maybe it was built so early the HOA hadn't made any rules yet (or maybe the rules were made in reaction to this house). This house could best be described as a Miami Vice coke mansion. Incredibly 80s. White and pink concrete, rounded corners, even had neon running lights. If wonder if that will be the new look for haunted houses in 75 years.
This is my favorite style of house. I love the mansard style roof. I actually want to have a home with one. But I’d modify the top of it to have a slight slope to prevent leak issues. I actually found photos of a Second Empire that used to exist near me. It was exactly the house I’d dream of owning. The tower in the middle front, a side porch, a sun porch, arched windows, and a solarium all under a mansard roof with rounded and circular windows. It was demolished in the 1920s and the lot has sat vacant for nearly 100 years. Even today not a single structure sits in its spot. If I could I would rebuild it near exact to what it was. The loss of these beautiful buildings is sad and I really wish they had been more loved while they still existed. There isn’t a day that goes by that I wish that house hadn’t been demolished 100 years ago.
The suburban McMansion will be the new horror house, but they will not last long due to the poor material quality. OSB and water do not play well together. Conversely, many mansard roofs were built with slate roofs, nailed down with copper nails, and flashed with copper, which gave these roofs potentially a 100 year lifespan. Neglected perhaps, but they survived to be that creep old house due to those beautiful and durable slate roofs.
Always delighted to have one of your videos pop up in my subs. Thank you so much for putting the time and skill into researching, scripting, and presenting one marvelous story after another.
Great scary movie that revolves about a house is 1944’s “The Uninvited”. Gorgeous house with a sea side view and a couple of ghosts. It’s my favorite scary movie.
The flat roofs atop all that glory concern me having grown up in a flat-roofed Florida bungalow which was not a friend of stormy days. Thank you for another exquisite episode.
I lived in one for a while - on the roof floor. Basically, it was a three floor building rented out as apartments - stairs came up the center, dividing the bottom floors in half, then stopped in the center of the roof floor. Imagine a donut of living space, with four corners bitten out. Balcony on the back, windows on all sides, weird little closets and stuff. It was ancient, and a total slum. You do live with a fear that someone could be living in the donut of insulation space around the donut of living space - possible and spooky. Somebody did squat in the basement once, so not even out of the question. Honestly though, I thought it was a blast. Set up like that, the roof floor is a perfect flat for 1-3 people.
When i found myself gasping with excitement at 13:37... I couldn't have hit that subscribe button faster. Awesome channel. Can't wait to rabbit hole the entire thing.
Double-commenting just to say -- thank you for getting me to care about something I wasn't truly aware existed until this video. Life has been chaotic lately, and having these videos is great. Thanks!
11:52 Didn't expect to be jump scared by the Weatherford courthouse here. I always liked that building, but I hate driving on the roundabout that surrounds it
I lived in a house with a mansard roof! Not one of the ones with the towers, but one of the more general style ones. What you’re talking about at the end, having room for people to live within the level where the roof is, relates to what I loved so much about that home. It was the first apartment I ever lived in on my own. It’s where I started raising my first child. Even though it was an apartment, my unit looked different than all the others. I could point to it from the outside and say, “that’s my house!” It always felt so cute and cozy to me. 😊
Loved the video! You hit the nail on the head with the conclusion that the houses are scary because they are now lonesome when they used to be so full of life.
I’ve been binging vincent price films lately and the house on haunted hill has been my fave. for some reason I cannot imagine the layout or true era of the house , but it’s so enthralling. The style and layout of the rooms makes me question if big old houses were mazes
I've been researching the Panic Room house this week which briefly features a mansard roof (though we only see it from the inside in the film). Perfectly timed video for me!💜
Oh man, what a great dive into that cool style. I had to go back and think about ones I’ve seen around Indiana and remembered the Reitz Home in downtown Evansville is absolutely gorgeous. Completed in 1871 it’s now a museum housing period furniture which many original pieces - def worth a tour of this is your jam!!
16:30 I have a feeling (bc it’s already kind of happening) that at least here in north/east Europe, the ”new” haunted houses will be the derelict, abandoned concrete buildings. Like especially the really big ones, like old hospitals or hotels. Brutalism style, stained and cracked by weather…. *shudders* Who knows what may be inhabiting those long empty halls now? 😉
This is so funny to me, because most of the mansard (or mansard adjacent) roofs I've seen repeatedly are from Practical Magic and Gilmore Girls and Charmed and Addams Family, and all of them are either cosy or funny (or both) so my association with such roofs has always been so positive ☺️☺️ not to mention, before this video I only knew that first mansard house painting by Edward Hopper, besides Nighthawks, and both those paintings are so heartwarming to me as well... It is such a strange realisation to understand that these were supposed to be shorthand for creepy 🙈
I used to walk past Woodburn Hall in college all the time! I knew the architecture was a little unusual, but I never knew what the style was called until now. Thank you!
I grew up in a fabulous mansard roofed house with a tower containing a widow's walk overlooking the Hudson River. It's a beloved "favorite house" in the village and I dearly wish our family still owned it. Children never walked up the gravel driveway for Halloween, terrified it was the Addams Family house. And it was haunted. Actually. I eventually wrote a sweet little ghost story published in "December Tales" about it. I'm still a sucker for the design style.
I adore your videos. John Maas’s book is wonderful. He had a great sense of humor. My favorite haunted house is Casper’s Art Nouveau style Whipstaff Manor. The set designers said they deliberately wanted a different style haunted house for the ‘90s other than Second Empire. Keep up the amazing work!
I don't recall having seen one in any horror media, but I find Frank Lloyd Wright houses eerie. The way he built them as sculptural works first, and the idea that people would need to live in them was almost an afterthought.
I'm so glad I'm not the only one, it looks like anything but a home first, like fashion plates featuring people with toothpick legs the size of giraffes 😅.
This is very much a description of his thinking process, but I never really looked at them that way. I always thought they were beautiful. I imagine you've heard the story of the leaky roof on the Falling Water house. When it started to rain and leak onto the dining table, the new owners complained and Mr. Wright famously solved the problem by telling them to move the table. 😆
@aksez2u I think part of why those of us who find them creepy find them so is precisely because so many people love them unconditionally. 😅 it's like not only do people not take the time to explain them to us, they just worship them outright, and in a way few other styles have ever been and it disturbs me somehow. The more F.L.R. style and brutalist style gets its Renaissance, the more I want nothing more than to be shut away in a cottage or victorian house with a giant garden around it. 🌳 ❤️
I remember touring the Cedar Rapids Frank Lloyd Wright House in Iowa, and there were some very neat features to it and all, but the level of absolute control that he had over every detail, to the point where people who agreed to have him build a house couldn't provide their own decorations or furnishings, they had to only have the things that he said they could have. He wouldn't even build for tall people because he said they threw off the scale of his houses.
@@zarinaromanets7290 I want to say that FLW's prairie home style has never gone out of style, but I'm afraid you will accuse me of being a slavish devotee 🤣 Brutalism, on the other hand, can stay in the dark IMO.
i view your channel as the lectures i wish i had the privilege to attend to if i could study anything i wanted, of course if money were'nt a factor. i actually looove victorian architecture so thank you for making these videos for people who also love to see paintings of the sunlight in a mandsor house
An entire video about my favorite style of roof! Yes! Happy day. When I was looking to make some interesting gingerbread houses I started looking at real houses to figure outwhat I liked best. Of course it turned out what I liked best was pretty hard to make especially as geometry and drafting arent my greatest strengths. As always Im so grateful for the video. Also Im really excited for a sims build!
Love you, Kendra! I wanted to throw out for consideration the modern (mostly) glass homes - I feel like a lot of spooky movies have featured them and it’s understandable the reason why - no where to hide, easy to break into, cold feeling and you can see all the spooky stuff outside starring in! 👻 👀
Edward Hopper is one of my favorite artists. I am fascinated by the theme of people who are together physically but not apparently in any other way. I’m going to have to think about a through line from Uncle Fester to “Nighthawks”. 🤔
Recently, my teenage niblings decided to give their grandparents' house a refresh, and I overheard the eldest remarking that they didn’t want to mess with the "iconic nineties vibe" of the place--the blond wood of the bookcases and cabinets, the light blue walls, the twin recliners facing the TV in the living room, etc. I was so startled that I nearly walked into a stucco wall. Iconic? NINETIES? I grew up in that house, and could explain every "iconic" style choice as the haphazard accident it was at the time. The oak bookcases had come cheap from a wholesaler, and Mom had decided in 1992 that her new cabinets should match them because the oven only came in black and she didn't want a dark kitchen. The light blue walls happened because she was clinically depressed and wanted to remind herself of the sky. The recliners were a substitute for the sofa we never actually ended up getting. Etc. To me, the vibe of the house was chaos and inertia, the kind of place where someone had randomly stacked some dictionaries on a side table in 1998 and someone else had put a picture frame on top and it was just part of the decor now. How was that a vibe???? And then I remembered this video, and I thought about people in the 1920s meming on houses from the 1890s. The more things change, right? I guess it IS a vibe. For my money, though, you could make an iconic horror movie setting out of 90s suburban interior design, at least. Something about unaddressed generational trauma, addiction, and/or the widening wealth gap. I happen to know from personal experience that a bloody handprint shows up beautifully on a light-blue wall or a blond wood cabinet door.
I knew what a Mansard roof was and a second empire building but I didn't know any of the interesting background. This is an excellent video. I knew nothing of the back story of the Adam's Family or the New Yorker cartoons. I learned a lot.
I just found your chanel and have watched and liked a number of videos in quick succesion. They're great and you have such an engaging way of presenting them! Congrats on 100K, very happy to be one of them!
You know why City Hall in Philly is still standing? By the mid-20th century it was considered an outdated, outrageously ugly, excessively ornate, ludicrously expensive-to-maintain folly; demolition was considered until the city discovered that this eldritch monstrosity of a building had been so solidly constructed that they couldn’t afford to tear it down.
The way I worded it was weird… “yet to be razed.” But I love that the reason it survived was because it was too hard to take down. Another win for monstrosities!
It’s in the Baroque style. As in Philadelphia is expensive and left me baroque.🤪😉😜😄
@@kendragaylordIt’s amazing. The fact that the statue of William Penn on the top looks, from the proper angle, as though he’s waggling his bits at the city is just, well, it sums up Philly perfectly.
Lived there for a bit and this was the first thing to come to mind
@@samfeldman1508 gold
My shock when I realize that a 1923 critic talking about an "1890 mansion" is probably using the same tone as a 2023 critic talking about a "1990 mansion".
Ah but the difference is that 1890s architect or builder actually knew about proportion and style and how to apply it, no McMansion builder in 1990 till now understood either of those two things.
@darrens3 the difference between the past and the present is that in the past, people were wrong. Whereas in the present, people are right.
@@darrens3 The are some smaller Victorian Mansions that play with roof, tower, and gingerbread proportions that end up look strange and off kilter and vir into McMansion territory, I feel like one was shown in the AI dream house vid because the proportions were so off it looked wrong and unreal.
Styles go through four stages: 1. New and popular. 2. Old and tacky. 3. Forgotten. 4. Vintage and popular.
Just like Gen X, although we are yet to reach our 'vintage and popular' phase . :))
@@bluewren65 isn't that kind of happening now with the whole kate moss grunge/heroin chic coming back?
@@Steph-zo5zk Those of us old enough to remember heroin chic shudder at the thought. I knew plenty of heroin junkies at that time, it was not chic.
@@bluewren65 Consider yourself lucky. Boomers are now at the old and despised phase.
That is the truth. The longer ones lives the more it is just "rinse and repeat".
Mansard roofs came about due to French property tax rules. The Carrez Law taxed properties based on usable floor square footage. Attics were specifically excluded. Having a steeply sloped roof gave you a whole extra usable floor for which you did not have to pay tax. Tax rules explain a lot of architectural features. London has many rowhouses with bricked up windows because homes were taxed on the number of windows.
*ANCIENT LIGHT*
hehe
Yeah, I kept waiting for her to mention that, but it slipped through the cracks.
Taxation is criminal
There was a time when a house was taxed by how many rooms it had, and a closet was considered a room so many homes didn't have closets for that reason
@@kinokind293i think she did in her og vid about them
I think the future architectural style for horror will be the ultra-modern Frank Lloyd Wright style. It's the perfect setting for "technology goes awry" horror and "soulless super rich person does horrifying things" terror.
Yes, so many possible openings for a horror film when there's a stream running through a house!
This was used to great effect in Us I think
I also see brutalism a lot in more recent horror films
Defo starting to see it happen - i personally think theyre scarier withway more windows and seemingly no curtains 😂
nop
One of the reasons the mansard roofed tower can seem off putting. Is that it's quite bulky at the top, it's cut short making it more menacing. It feels less like somewhere you'd like to look out of, but somewhere that is looking down on you.
They have such weird proportions, but I love them more for it!
What gets me is that the empire in "Second Empire" is that of Napoleon III, who completely rebuilt Paris into what it is today. Mansard roofs are common in Paris, but don't look spooky on the Champs d'Elysee. I suppose context is everything.
I wonder if it's because in the U.S. a lot of towns aren't very densely populated, and the buildings are spread out more than Paris so they look kinda lonely comparatively especially in a rural or small town setting. So yeah, basically what Kendra said. I feel if they were in more densely populated areas they wouldn't look as eerie.
Partly that would be the location context, but also they were built to minimise property tax there: because the top floor was above the eaves leavel, it didn't count towards the area of the house for calculating taxes. It's hard to see a tax dodge as spooky!
Maybe thanks to all the revolutions and the Commune and two World Wars, the French were bound to get jaded.
In one of his essays, Anton LaVey speculated that the mansard roof became off-putting because its geometry was very contrary to the classical geometry, that mansard roofs felt incomplete to many ordinary people.
I find a lot of them have a pitched roof rather than the flat bit, which i think softens the look, plus with them being a lot of terrace/row houses, thats not really scary.
In Paris, they’re mostly apartment buildings. The mansard part is the fifth/sixth floor containing tiny attic rooms originally for the maids and butlers. It’s not just a tax dodge, it’s also a physical representation of the upstairs/downstairs lifestyle, in a way that the 2H19th C versions in America just… aren’t. At least not outside of a few areas like Nob Hill or downtown Manhattan.
I love when I find a new TH-camr with a niche I know nothing about, and video by video, I gain insight into a field I'd never really given a second thought. You always manage to tie your videos back into the real world in a way that really resonates.
And just in time for spoooooky season too!
we all know attics are the spookiest part of the house- basements are the scariest part. mansard roof means more attic means more spooky. simple as. But seriously great video!
We don't have basements in our country, and rarely attics. I think our version of creepy is the vast Australian outback. I just watched a video about horror set in Australia, and sometimes there's a ramshackle, tin roofed building, or something. 😅
the thought of walk-out basements or split levels being scary is at once amusing and intriguing
I didn't know the Addams family was a comic first. Filing your fence to make it sharper is fn funny
Yup. And none of the characters in the comics had names until it was made into a TV show back in the 60s.
It would also be considered a booby trap...illegal in most areas and would certainly open up the homeowner to considerable civil liability.
@@MrSloika No. Barbed wire fences are perfectly legal.
@@cmmartti Maybe in some rural areas. In most places they are not legal.
@@MrSloika
barbed/spiked/pronged security fences are everywhere, not sure what you're seeing
Its funny how they were created with the intention to make more use of the house space, when it seems contemporary houses are about *less* use of a space: pointless foyers, large bathrooms, L shaped kitchens that encourage a dining table, when it seems family dinner at a table isnt even common anymore, spare bedrooms, porches that are just for show. The past was optimistic about space usage, while it feels its all a facade now, even from inside the house
Also think about the attic in modern houses. One of my hobbies is looking at vintage house plants and houses from the '30s and '40s and up to the '50s but usually not past the '60s (which all call themselves modern in their own publications) have attic storage. Some have staircases leading to an unfinished attic, that the homeowner can finish later on their own time and as money allows. Some of the houses have a pull-down staircase with an unfinished attic that can be used for storage. Modern houses have different building styles that make it impossible to have an accessible attic. Because the idea is the homeowner will sell their thousand square foot home and not use all of the space in their home to make it more spacious. It depresses the heck out of me when I drive by new home construction sites and the only space used for living is the main floor because the attic is unusable and there is no basement (which really bugs me because I live in a tornado prone area and all of the new " affordable housing" is on a slab instead of having a basement or even access to a storm shelter?).
@@sailorz3 Basements are now only constructed in areas where there is ground frost...up North. Where ground frost takes place the footing for the foundation has to be a minimum of 12 inches below the frost line. Where I live, just outside of NYC, the frost line is 36 inches. That means the footing has to be a minimum of 48 inches below the surface to prevent damage from frost heaving. That's four feet minimum. Since the builder has to go down that far, it no big deal to go another couple of feet and construct a full basement. The only houses I see in North Jersey without full basements are in areas with flooding or ground water problems.
Critizizing large bathrooms is like praising those ugly Japanes pod houses
such a strange dichotomy between utility and appearance.
people are attracted to those spaces not because they imagine what they can do in them, but because it's the expected thing to have, something to show off that they "have their life together"
@@rodrigocoockiemonster4460no it isn't, two adults being able to comfortably use it without butting into each other is more than enough for 99.99% of families. there is a world of a difference between "reasonably sized bathroom that leaves you with more storage/a bigger bedroom" and "house that sacrifices functionality solely for the sake of being a ✨tiny✨house✨.
one improves practicality, the other spits in its face.
I'm surprised you didn't bring up McDonald's! I still remember when all of the McDonald's near me had the mansard roof design, I always thought they looked so cute and inviting. Using aesthetics to make children feel secure in a fast food establishment designed to get them addicted to nutritionally void slop? Now that's scary.
I have been dreaming of doing a video on fast food buildings, but there are so many people who would probably cover it better. My friend on tiktok @melinabee3 has some great videos on it!
@@kendragaylordPlease go ahead and make the fast food video!!! Would love to see what you dig up about that niche
@@kendragaylord
dear, don't let perfect be the enemy of good enough!
we'd love to see _you_ cover funky franchise fittings and furnishings cuz we like your energy and insight! Others research and discuss in their own way, but that doesn't mean it's in any way "better."
🫂
@@kendragaylordI understand if you still wouldn't want to go with the idea, but just know that if you do a lot of us would enjoy it ;w; I've watched video essays on the same topic multiple times, and as a viewer these types of situations are basically a "yay more cake! :D"
Omg yes! My mom, who was an art student, referred to the McDonald's roofs as "faux Mansard" and she haaaated them. It feels like they used that style all through the 90s and then sometime in the 00s started renovating McD locations with a style that's more reminiscent of a Starbucks.
At 12:11, the Vermont mansard is 106 Main St, Putney VT 05346. It's condos now but we'll maintained.
Thank you!! Last year I finished the Historic Preservation program at the University of Vermont and I was racking my brain to try and remember if I had seen that house. I haven't been to Putney.
Thank you for this! The internet is so incredibly cool!
Kendra I think you’re marvelous, really a terrific storyteller. Your approach is always specific to point in time and unfolds forwards and backwards giving weight to that point in time, it’s present, it’s history and it’s future. Great style Dear!
I live on the top floor of a flat with an octagonal turret, mine has a lead onion topped dome with a weather vein on top, the building is old red brick, with sandstone window surrounds and sandstone detailing and intricately decorated wood bargeboards. It is in the middle of a town centre, with beautiful victorian and edwardian architecture and it's great for people watching with a 270 degree view, especially as there are mutiple pubs around. When they have live singers on I just open my window and get a live concert. At times when it's stormy outside and you're looking down your nose at the people below or just listening to the thunder and rain on the windows it is very atmospheric.
this comment transported me into a different place, love it.
@@jule4772 it is lovely and means I have a mini dining area, that I also use as a work desk when working from home.
This sounds like Europe. And it sounds lovely ❤
@@aksez2u I'm in England
@@Alex-cw3rz Ah. Sounds positively charming 😊
There was a video that I saw a while ago that delved into the architectural similarities of classic haunted houses, I think it was called "Why are all haunted houses Victorian houses" or something like that. The video explained that a lot of early visual mass media was created in the early 20th century by people who were kids in the late 1800's. In that time period, there was a lot of minor economic crashes and bank failures as a result of a lack of financial regulations, which meant that there were a lot of people making quick fortunes, building giant mansions, and the losing all of their wealth, leaving their giant Mansard roof topped houses to fall into ruin. The people who were the kids scared by those old decaying houses grew up to create movies, TV shows, comics, and theme parks, filled with a visual shorthand inspired by their childhood observations. Non-haunted depictions of this late 19th century American architecture can be seen in pop culture products like the movie version of "The Music Man" and Main Street in Disney Land, which was directly inspired by Walt's childhood memories from that time period.
There's a fantastic Mansard roof mansion featured in the new movie "The Brutalist." It jumped right out to me because I'd just recently watched this video!
Mansard Roofs are scary. They have crappy snow load capabilities, they leak, constantly, and are a maintenance nightmare. Any home owner should be terrified seeing one. If the idea of shoveling your roof when it snows is scary, these roofs should be a nightmare to you.
I don’t know much about architecture so correct me if I’m wrong here, but couldn’t you just construct it like they do the flat lines of ultramodern homes where the actual roof is pitched with a raised lip that looks flat?
Nah.
@@eos_aurora I think I know what you're talking about, maybe. You'll see that sometimes on newer buildings designed to fit into historic areas, but it isn't a true Mansard roof.
This comment is endorsed by carpenter gothic gang!
Just install those propane heaters for patios on roof and you don't have to shovel snow.
My favorite horror movie house is the titular Monster House. I'd love to see you do a video on it, especially since it doesn't feel like an actual house style, more like they had to figure out how to anthropomorphize a house and give it architecture that would create an appropriately creepy face. Although, now that I've looked up an image of it, it does appear to have a Mansard-inspired roof.
When I think "spooky iconic house rooflines" my personal first thought is always the Amityville Horror house.
Kendra we're lucky to have you!! I'm so glad you've found success
😊 Every video is a delight
The Newport design (aka the Amityville Horror house) is a good contender. Even though the original house has been torn down and replaced by another design, people see houses like that, with the eye windows on either side of the chimney and think "bad things in there".
"censored so I don't have to look at a spider" thank you!
It does feel like a lot of the photos you used here, and Hopper's paintings, are capturing a liminal space and time. Where these giants, rich buildings that can house a dozen people comfortably, are left empty.
Congratulations on the 100K creep, you deserve it! You are such a well-researched, thoughtful presenter
And dryly funny, too!
I don't know how Kendra keeps uploading the most niche topics and yet here I am: Absolutely invested in it, as if I had ordered this exact video. Again. Kendra, your intrests are a gift to us!
Now I wonder how the widow walks fit into the horror genre
In media I always see that decay is always highlight by uterlising old grander buildings in a state of disrepair, isolation. The juxtiposition highlights what is being said from loss, decay etc. Fight Club's building is the opposite of the 90s dream apartment for example.
Mansard roofs are what make the older neighborhoods in St Louis so special. Loads of second empire architecture that gives the city a gothic feel.
The journalistic narrative excellence of this channel remains exemplary. When you brought it back to Edward Hopper at 14:41 I choked up. Just outstanding.
My favourite spooky house is one I was fortunate enough to live in; it has a mansard roof but isn’t Second Empire: Belcourt Castle, in Newport, RI.
As much as I loved living in the house itself, I also loved the opportunities changing seasons provided in finding new views of it, such as approaching the house along the ‘back streets’ in the autumn and catching glimpses of the roof looming in the distance with its many oval dormer windows gazing across the balding tree canopy like watchful eyes.
I miss those times immensely; I greatly appreciate this video and all your other videos!
That’s so cool! Why/how were you able to live there?
@@thereadingwriter4197 A fancy grandaunt of mine was acquainted with the family and I became enamoured with the house. I visited on my own as a teenager and was befriended by the lady who owned it and later in my early twenties she invited me to move in and help out; I lived (and worked) there for two years doing conservation, restoration, tours, and events. It was sold over a decade ago but I’ve been back a few times as a consultant and also as a guest. Looking back, the Belcourt years are definitely the golden ones of my life (so far!).
For horror houses of the future, 50-70 years from now, I can really easily picture current glass and steel office buildings. As soon as the window cleaners stop getting called in for a month or so, they'll already look haunted and decrepit. Add to that the perfect visibility you have from any angle, revealing either abandoned, outdated office furniture, or nothing but grime, and we'll have ourselves a horror legend. Abandoned malls are already popular for social media horror walk throughs, it's only a matter of time until Hollywood catches up
“There isn’t an easy way to find that out, so instead I chose a hard way that doesn’t tell you that much.”
My entire (short-lived) academic career in a nutshell.
Mansard Roof by Vampire Weekend: a classic. 😁
I love my 1864 Second Empire farmhouse. (It’s similar to the Addams house you showed except the porch doesn’t wrap around.)
It’s super light and airy and truly not at all haunted. But it still occurs to me sometimes that in the last 160 years at least one person has died in this house.
I love your videos and specifically your soft voice and the lack of backing music makes it so clear and calming to listen to ❤
My favorite Hollywood-created house with a Mansard roof…Practical Magic! We need an episode on that gem♥️
I love that house so much! I did a 10 witch houses and that ranked number 2, but a whole video on it is a great idea!
It would be interesting to see your take on the Maitland house from Beeteljuice, before and after the Deetz family moved in.
(Also the second empire style is my favorite and there's this abandoned-looking one in Weedsport, NY I dream of buying and restoring one day)
You will need something that other people want if you are ever going to live that dream. Perhaps we should talk?
You’re honestly my favorite TH-camr
Ahh!! The old city hall building still stands in Lincoln, Nebraska (935 E O St)! It was built around 1860-1870. It’s no longer city hall, that was moved closer to the capital building- I think it’s just business now. But it still stands with its beautiful roof! The building was left unlocked a couple of years ago, and I actually got to check out the roof! Very scary, but oh so historic!
Hey Kendra, I love your videos. I'd love it if you did a video on the garden district houses in New Orleans. I recently started reading Anne Rice and her descriptions are so lucious, but I'm a brit so my imaginings have no reference point (except the humidity, I know exactly what that feels like!) Spooky books + Houses = Kendra Gaylord video?
I am from southern Louisiana and I would love this too!
Yes! And maybe how some of those architectural influences can be found on Disneyland's haunted mansion.
Your videos are not only informative and interesting, they cheer me up, because of your wonderful offbeat sense of humor. When I see there's a new one, I feel happy in anticipation.
When I think of spooky houses, my first thought is of the schoolhouse in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. I think it's because the way he filmed it, again from a low angle looking up, evoked a similar sense of isolation to Hopper's painting.
It's interesting that Disneyland's Haunted Mansion has nary a mansard roof (perhaps because of its proximity to New Orleans Square), but the Phantom Manor in Disneyland Paris certainly does.
My favourite sit down, stop, relax, watch and listen channel.
There's a vlogger, Escape to Rural France, who is restoring a "Belle Epoque" (Art Nouveau) chateau, that was once a summer house for posh Parisian parties. It has a mansard roof, and a tower above the front entrance with a "Witch's Hat" roof. It's the first time this kind of house hasn't been creepy to me, likely because there was a fire forty years ago that burned out the interior and it's hard to be unsettled by an old house with no guts and a forest growing inside. The mansard part of the roof has its rafters, OSB cladding and membrane layer, but the black slate roof tiles won't be installed until the Witch's Hat roof is ready for tiling. The Witch's Hat installation ran into trouble last week, but I'm almost certain that the moaning wind was just the edge of Storm Boris. Almost. Certain. ;)
"House By The Railroad" is very liminal.
I like it.
your bookshelf in the background is vibrating menacingly
All the books are chatting about their thoughts on Second Empires. (But actually thank you for pointing out, I need to check my focus settings)
Now I cant unsee it😂
Could it be the use of image stabilization whilst the camera is mounted on a tripod? It can do funny things.
Dang it! Why did you have to point that out? 😂
Fascinating. I recently went to a little vacation community in the forest of the Pacific Northwest. Very powerful HOA, land started being developed in the early 1980s, I think. Nearly every house/McMansion was designed in a sort of faux-log cabin style, maybe with some stonework. But there was one house that stood out like a sore thumb, I don't know how the plans got approved, maybe it was built so early the HOA hadn't made any rules yet (or maybe the rules were made in reaction to this house). This house could best be described as a Miami Vice coke mansion. Incredibly 80s. White and pink concrete, rounded corners, even had neon running lights. If wonder if that will be the new look for haunted houses in 75 years.
I’m a Kendra enthusiast!! You always succeed at making the most mundane things fascinating!!
This is my favorite style of house. I love the mansard style roof. I actually want to have a home with one. But I’d modify the top of it to have a slight slope to prevent leak issues. I actually found photos of a Second Empire that used to exist near me. It was exactly the house I’d dream of owning. The tower in the middle front, a side porch, a sun porch, arched windows, and a solarium all under a mansard roof with rounded and circular windows. It was demolished in the 1920s and the lot has sat vacant for nearly 100 years. Even today not a single structure sits in its spot. If I could I would rebuild it near exact to what it was. The loss of these beautiful buildings is sad and I really wish they had been more loved while they still existed. There isn’t a day that goes by that I wish that house hadn’t been demolished 100 years ago.
the thematically appropriate spooky season Kendra Gaylord video yes absolutely
The suburban McMansion will be the new horror house, but they will not last long due to the poor material quality. OSB and water do not play well together.
Conversely, many mansard roofs were built with slate roofs, nailed down with copper nails, and flashed with copper, which gave these roofs potentially a 100 year lifespan. Neglected perhaps, but they survived to be that creep old house due to those beautiful and durable slate roofs.
Yes! I researched slate roofs for a previous video and I couldn't believe their longevity!
Always delighted to have one of your videos pop up in my subs. Thank you so much for putting the time and skill into researching, scripting, and presenting one marvelous story after another.
Thank you for making that Vampire Weekend joke! I have had the song stuck in my head since I clicked on this video 😅
Great scary movie that revolves about a house is 1944’s “The Uninvited”. Gorgeous house with a sea side view and a couple of ghosts. It’s my favorite scary movie.
The flat roofs atop all that glory concern me having grown up in a flat-roofed Florida bungalow which was not a friend of stormy days.
Thank you for another exquisite episode.
You make niche-knowledge so unbelievably exciting. Please write a book
I am glad to see your videos. Even before watching them I get a little lift.
How you left alone that footnote with "crowning indignity" and "Uglified Renaissance"...such restraint.
I'm watching your video on Thurs, Oct 3rd, and it now says you have 100,000 subscribers :D CONGRATULATIONS!!! Great video :)
Your channel is one of the last redeemable reason left to remain on the internet.
The Adams family, Edward Hopper, and masford roofs! This video has it all!
I lived in one for a while - on the roof floor. Basically, it was a three floor building rented out as apartments - stairs came up the center, dividing the bottom floors in half, then stopped in the center of the roof floor.
Imagine a donut of living space, with four corners bitten out. Balcony on the back, windows on all sides, weird little closets and stuff. It was ancient, and a total slum.
You do live with a fear that someone could be living in the donut of insulation space around the donut of living space - possible and spooky. Somebody did squat in the basement once, so not even out of the question.
Honestly though, I thought it was a blast. Set up like that, the roof floor is a perfect flat for 1-3 people.
When i found myself gasping with excitement at 13:37... I couldn't have hit that subscribe button faster. Awesome channel. Can't wait to rabbit hole the entire thing.
Really cozy video and great research, Kendra. Thank you for sharing things that we've all thought about but never really learned about.
Double-commenting just to say -- thank you for getting me to care about something I wasn't truly aware existed until this video.
Life has been chaotic lately, and having these videos is great. Thanks!
11:52 Didn't expect to be jump scared by the Weatherford courthouse here. I always liked that building, but I hate driving on the roundabout that surrounds it
Congrats on 100k, great video as usual
I just found this channel recently, you make these topics interesting even though I have no interest in these topics.
Morticia was probably expecting a reverse vacuum!
They literally did that in the recent animated Addams Family movie. Lurch uses the vacuum to blow dust over everything.
I love your outfit so much and the spooky vibes of the video are perfect.
W00t! Almost 100k. Good job on a great channel!
I lived in a house with a mansard roof! Not one of the ones with the towers, but one of the more general style ones. What you’re talking about at the end, having room for people to live within the level where the roof is, relates to what I loved so much about that home. It was the first apartment I ever lived in on my own. It’s where I started raising my first child. Even though it was an apartment, my unit looked different than all the others. I could point to it from the outside and say, “that’s my house!” It always felt so cute and cozy to me. 😊
I love french second empire styles so much!! they are beautiful. I also like the Hopper painting "house by the railroad" and a poem that goes with it
Loved the video! You hit the nail on the head with the conclusion that the houses are scary because they are now lonesome when they used to be so full of life.
I’ve been binging vincent price films lately and the house on haunted hill has been my fave. for some reason I cannot imagine the layout or true era of the house , but it’s so enthralling. The style and layout of the rooms makes me question if big old houses were mazes
I've been researching the Panic Room house this week which briefly features a mansard roof (though we only see it from the inside in the film). Perfectly timed video for me!💜
Oh man, what a great dive into that cool style. I had to go back and think about ones I’ve seen around Indiana and remembered the Reitz Home in downtown Evansville is absolutely gorgeous. Completed in 1871 it’s now a museum housing period furniture which many original pieces - def worth a tour of this is your jam!!
I enjoy these videos so much. I like the Mystery Shack from Gravity Falls. It seems bigger on the inside than on the outside.
Yet another banger from Kendra
16:30 I have a feeling (bc it’s already kind of happening) that at least here in north/east Europe, the ”new” haunted houses will be the derelict, abandoned concrete buildings. Like especially the really big ones, like old hospitals or hotels. Brutalism style, stained and cracked by weather…. *shudders* Who knows what may be inhabiting those long empty halls now? 😉
This is so funny to me, because most of the mansard (or mansard adjacent) roofs I've seen repeatedly are from Practical Magic and Gilmore Girls and Charmed and Addams Family, and all of them are either cosy or funny (or both) so my association with such roofs has always been so positive ☺️☺️ not to mention, before this video I only knew that first mansard house painting by Edward Hopper, besides Nighthawks, and both those paintings are so heartwarming to me as well... It is such a strange realisation to understand that these were supposed to be shorthand for creepy 🙈
just subbed this is exactly the niche content i’m looking for
I used to walk past Woodburn Hall in college all the time! I knew the architecture was a little unusual, but I never knew what the style was called until now. Thank you!
I grew up in a fabulous mansard roofed house with a tower containing a widow's walk overlooking the Hudson River. It's a beloved "favorite house" in the village and I dearly wish our family still owned it. Children never walked up the gravel driveway for Halloween, terrified it was the Addams Family house. And it was haunted. Actually. I eventually wrote a sweet little ghost story published in "December Tales" about it. I'm still a sucker for the design style.
When I was a boy we lived in a house with a Mansard roof (no tower). The house had a view of Manhattan across the river.
I adore your videos. John Maas’s book is wonderful. He had a great sense of humor. My favorite haunted house is Casper’s Art Nouveau style Whipstaff Manor. The set designers said they deliberately wanted a different style haunted house for the ‘90s other than Second Empire. Keep up the amazing work!
I don't recall having seen one in any horror media, but I find Frank Lloyd Wright houses eerie. The way he built them as sculptural works first, and the idea that people would need to live in them was almost an afterthought.
I'm so glad I'm not the only one, it looks like anything but a home first, like fashion plates featuring people with toothpick legs the size of giraffes 😅.
This is very much a description of his thinking process, but I never really looked at them that way. I always thought they were beautiful. I imagine you've heard the story of the leaky roof on the Falling Water house. When it started to rain and leak onto the dining table, the new owners complained and Mr. Wright famously solved the problem by telling them to move the table. 😆
@aksez2u I think part of why those of us who find them creepy find them so is precisely because so many people love them unconditionally. 😅 it's like not only do people not take the time to explain them to us, they just worship them outright, and in a way few other styles have ever been and it disturbs me somehow. The more F.L.R. style and brutalist style gets its Renaissance, the more I want nothing more than to be shut away in a cottage or victorian house with a giant garden around it. 🌳 ❤️
I remember touring the Cedar Rapids Frank Lloyd Wright House in Iowa, and there were some very neat features to it and all, but the level of absolute control that he had over every detail, to the point where people who agreed to have him build a house couldn't provide their own decorations or furnishings, they had to only have the things that he said they could have. He wouldn't even build for tall people because he said they threw off the scale of his houses.
@@zarinaromanets7290 I want to say that FLW's prairie home style has never gone out of style, but I'm afraid you will accuse me of being a slavish devotee 🤣 Brutalism, on the other hand, can stay in the dark IMO.
i view your channel as the lectures i wish i had the privilege to attend to if i could study anything i wanted, of course if money were'nt a factor. i actually looove victorian architecture so thank you for making these videos for people who also love to see paintings of the sunlight in a mandsor house
Kendra your videos are amazing, I feel so lucky to watch them and learn from you! Need to see that Cassandra Goth mansion....
You always bring a new perspective of familiar things, and I love your references to different art forms! Super interesting
Not me on zillow looking for a spooky house 😅
An entire video about my favorite style of roof! Yes! Happy day. When I was looking to make some interesting gingerbread houses I started looking at real houses to figure outwhat I liked best. Of course it turned out what I liked best was pretty hard to make especially as geometry and drafting arent my greatest strengths.
As always Im so grateful for the video. Also Im really excited for a sims build!
My significant other calls these "Scooby Doo houses" lol
Love you, Kendra! I wanted to throw out for consideration the modern (mostly) glass homes - I feel like a lot of spooky movies have featured them and it’s understandable the reason why - no where to hide, easy to break into, cold feeling and you can see all the spooky stuff outside starring in! 👻 👀
Im not surprised you're developing a strong following. You're funny, soothing, and informative. ❤
Edward Hopper is one of my favorite artists. I am fascinated by the theme of people who are together physically but not apparently in any other way. I’m going to have to think about a through line from Uncle Fester to “Nighthawks”. 🤔
Oh. Wow. I had no idea I could be interested in a roof style. Well done. I learned things I didn't know I didn't know.
Recently, my teenage niblings decided to give their grandparents' house a refresh, and I overheard the eldest remarking that they didn’t want to mess with the "iconic nineties vibe" of the place--the blond wood of the bookcases and cabinets, the light blue walls, the twin recliners facing the TV in the living room, etc. I was so startled that I nearly walked into a stucco wall. Iconic? NINETIES? I grew up in that house, and could explain every "iconic" style choice as the haphazard accident it was at the time. The oak bookcases had come cheap from a wholesaler, and Mom had decided in 1992 that her new cabinets should match them because the oven only came in black and she didn't want a dark kitchen. The light blue walls happened because she was clinically depressed and wanted to remind herself of the sky. The recliners were a substitute for the sofa we never actually ended up getting. Etc. To me, the vibe of the house was chaos and inertia, the kind of place where someone had randomly stacked some dictionaries on a side table in 1998 and someone else had put a picture frame on top and it was just part of the decor now. How was that a vibe????
And then I remembered this video, and I thought about people in the 1920s meming on houses from the 1890s. The more things change, right? I guess it IS a vibe.
For my money, though, you could make an iconic horror movie setting out of 90s suburban interior design, at least. Something about unaddressed generational trauma, addiction, and/or the widening wealth gap. I happen to know from personal experience that a bloody handprint shows up beautifully on a light-blue wall or a blond wood cabinet door.
Thanks!
Holy moly! Thank you so much!!
was waiting for the vampire weekend mention. love your style of videos queen
I knew what a Mansard roof was and a second empire building but I didn't know any of the interesting background. This is an excellent video. I knew nothing of the back story of the Adam's Family or the New Yorker cartoons. I learned a lot.
I just found your chanel and have watched and liked a number of videos in quick succesion. They're great and you have such an engaging way of presenting them! Congrats on 100K, very happy to be one of them!
your humor and niche interests are a killer combo 🙏 glad your channel has grown so much since i subscribed