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Bowral Bricks, Charolais Cream, Hello House, Richmond, Victoria.
Architect: Oof! architecture
Collaborating artist: Rose Nolan
Structural engineer: AM Daly
Builder: Complete Builders Insight
13/03/15
"Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence. Love others as well as you love yourself." - Jesus Christ
A lot of the buildings in my neighborhood (my offishul proper neighborhood as defined by the City is Old North, but my neighborhood as defined by reality is the Near North Side) are very old. Nearly all of them come very close to the sidewalk, if not right up to it.
So we have stoops, which is good. They are nice for socializing and relaxing and cooling yourself on a hot day. A street with stoops is a street with a physical environment conducive to knowing your neighbors.
Some of our stoops are nice stone, like this one. There were some active quarries in this area's past, which explains some of the nice stone stoops, and also explains some of the wonderful, distinctive, huge stone lintels which crown the windows of many Near North Side buildings.
My dad lived in Hyde Park for a while when he was a kid (you know, shortly after famed city planner Harland Bartholomew officially declared this area a bonafide "slum"), and one of his memories of the neighborhood is of sitting on the big stone curlicues on the sides of stairs like these, and pretending that he was a cowboy and the stone was his horse.
My house now has a stoop, although the previous owners of this place pulled off the building's original giant stone steps and replaced them with concrete. SIGH. But I like my stoop. I like sitting on my stoop and talking to my neighbors when they happen to walk by. I like it when I am sitting on my stoop and talking to my neighbors, and my cat Swan feels compelled to participate in the neighborhood discussion, so he sticks his tiny arms out the mail slot and bellows--inside life and outside life mix together in a weird but wonderful way.
Stoops are definitely a good thing.