The Sameness of New Apartments

[DTowner]

This topic has come up in a number of threads over the years, but this is an interesting article on the sameness of apartment buildings being built all over the country and the stick construction being use.  Since the trend is driven by costs, it is unlikely to change anytime soon.  That is too bad because I suspect these buildings will not age well with their blocky looks and different color palettes.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-02-13/why-america-s-new-apartment-buildings-all-look-the-same

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

I wish there was a bit more creativity in apartments and building styles, but profit is king so they typically do about as little as possible within project budget.

All of those in the article look much better than the vast majority of apartment complexes in Tulsa which are mostly south of 41st.
All of those urban looking modern blocks look far better than this relatively new complex at 81st and Memorial: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Creekwood+Apartments/@36.0425344,-95.8883929,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipMITRTRO66B6EswwGsFOgM4_O6PYU21Wl2nrVvy!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMITRTRO66B6EswwGsFOgM4_O6PYU21Wl2nrVvy%3Dw203-h120-k-no!7i1000!8i594!4m8!1m2!2m1!1sapartments!3m4!1s0x0:0x3b1183d6517d31d4!8m2!3d36.043018!4d-95.889262 or this: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Woodland+Park/@36.0575421,-95.8509858,3a,100y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipP1gv8ON0KFD3ltb8CPcAi0N5h-EvPEyp8p4Fl4!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP1gv8ON0KFD3ltb8CPcAi0N5h-EvPEyp8p4Fl4%3Dw203-h152-k-no!7i640!8i480!4m8!1m2!2m1!1sapartments!3m4!1s0x0:0x8cb1f6323228afaa!8m2!3d36.0575691!4d-95.8513892

Most all of the apartments are pretty hideous and monotonous. The newer ones in downtown are far better than the older ones such as Central Park Condos or Lincoln Plaza. The newer ones like the Edge or new orange block one in Brady look much better than even the typical newer better looking complexes in Tulsa.

They only started making a decent number upscale looking apartments in south Tulsa/suburbs when they realized there was a vast number of under-served higher income people who cannot/will-not buy a house but will not live in a typical bad-looking apartment complex. I think downtown developments really helped spur that arms race of nicer upscale rental housing. If you want a very nice place in a nice environment in Tulsa, downtown can't be beat.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

The article is complaining about the monotonous copy-paste style, and I agree it is bad in some places, and we should have a high standard, but it isn't that bad most cities in the US and usually the urban areas where those styles are built are the more interesting looking parts of town.

We are a far cry from anything close to the miserable monotonous replication of massive apartments that goes on around the world:

Hong Kong

or Russia ,

or Iran

or UAE

or Eastern Europe

or Seol

or Russia
(again)

Overall America enjoys pretty nice urban apartments. It's good to make instructive criticism, but is not as bad as the article makes it out to be. The world has a tremendous number of people and they need housing. There's only so many nice old buildings to rehab. Building new is incredibly expensive and there's a finite number of resources. People need affordable places to live. As long as they're at least as nice as those listed in the article, I'd be happy with that over the atrocious looking ones all around 169 and I44. Not every place has to be a gem. That takes hundreds of years to develop city mostly full of gorgeous buildings like in parts Europe or parts of NYC and is extremely costly (and even those places are a hit or miss hodge podge of styles and nice/ugly buildings).