This month's award is going to a Positive Development. You can see in these pictures that a 1940's house is enlarged, updated, and basically recreated without major expansion into the setbacks or sky. Nestled in the old trees, this house makes perfect sense.
Before
And After
Sorry about this angle, but good builders deserve credit.
Checking out the demolition site from Wednesday, we are down to a large hole in the ground. Two large dump trucks have been moving the debris. The red thing in this picture is the top of one large truck. There are two men working with the backhoe and no safety precautions.
Across the street, two day camps are meeting at the school this week. 
I looked at the earth at a site that was cleared last week and is being prepared for new construction. This is what the soil will contain from here on, Chunky Monkey. 
And this City Inspections permit shows that it passed.
Are there safety and hazardous material inspections during the demolition?
Two words:
Lead and Asbestos
Two places:
On-site and the Landfill
That is a school across the street.
For the uninitiated, these are asbestos pipe wrappings.
SAFETY MEASURES
Pictures taken June 27, 8 am.
For more information on this topic:
Forum in Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Environmental Report in Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Construction and demolition debris management North Carolina
Asbestos in North Carolina
Would you believe that Wikipedia has a complete section on the trend. Check it out here.
Here are some of the tidbits worth noting.
Starting in the U.S. boom years of the 1980s, the houses now known as McMansions were a new concept intended to fill a gap between the modest suburban tract home and the upscale custom homes found in gated, waterfront, or golf-course communities. Subdivisions comprised of McMansions have been developed around such communities, while others are built in pre-existing neighborhoods, either in empty lots or as replacements for torn-down structures.
It has been suggested that their popularity may not be purely based on consumer desires. Adjusted for inflation, in terms of square footage and features, a house in 2006 costs about the same to build as a house in 1970. Therefore, in order to increase profit margins over previous years, builders need to build more expensive houses (more features and square footage) on the same tracts. ...
Size: The foremost characteristic of a McMansion is the impression of its largeness, particularly when compared with smaller, older nearby housing. ...
Construction and materials: McMansions are most commonly framed with generic materials to facilitate construction, using the same wood-framed studwall construction as smaller houses, typically with 2x4 (38×89 mm) studs, while also incorporating more expensive surfacing materials such as hardwood, stone, tile, ironwork, and upscale appliances.
Architectural features typically include more and larger rooms and extra lifestyle conveniences. Advances in building technology have provided less costly ways for features to be incorporated. Large rooms, with large ceiling areas, would not have been possible without metal connector plates to unify the wooden struts, which can be nailed by hand. Alternatively, 5-way or larger pre-fabricated wooden trusses can be used. This allows much larger roofs over an unsupported span, without the expense of metal I-beams or concrete spans. ...
Exterior style: In addition to the general impression of largeness, the other common feature are their tendency to incorporate architectural elements from non-native historical styles. The styles most commonly drawn on are classical and neoclassical architecture, or the half-timbered European styles, particularly English, Tudorbethan, Jacobethan, and French chateau styles. Elements taken from these architectural styles are often decorative, rather than design or construction features.
The most common decorative elements used are roofs, porches, and windows. Roof spaces that contain rooms rather than attics offer ample opportunity for dormers and cross-gables. Porches, being the focus of the front elevation, are often columned and pedimented with oculus or "bull's-eye" windows.
Another characteristic often found is the use of a more expensive building material, such as brick or stucco, on the front side of the house and a much cheaper material, such as vinyl siding, on the sides not facing the street. ...
The Ten-Minute House: The movement of the "atrium concept" home layout from popularity to ubiquity in modern American architecture stems largely from the "Ten Minute House" theory that has been espoused by real estate developers, realtors, and home builders. Economic changes in recent decades have made Americans change jobs more frequently, often necessitating moving. Today, the average American family will change houses every six years.
Consequently, houses change owners more frequently and thus must be designed to be marketable and appealing to as many people as possible, with less emphasis placed on the specific needs of the house's initial buyer. Most realtors agree that a client will like or dislike a house within ten minutes of entering. Combining a home's foyer with a two-story 'great-room' leaves secondary rooms more visible, making it easier for agents to show the house — and hopefully win the client over — in ten minutes or less. ...
A substantial amount of a typical McMansion's square footage goes toward large hallways, aiding the maximum visibility required for the "Ten Minute House" concept. The individual rooms in a McMansion, particularly secondary bedrooms, are often no bigger than in earlier housing. ...
Even in affluent locations which already have a ready assortment of large houses, the construction of what seems to be too large a house on an existing lot will often draw the ire of neighbors and other local residents. In 2006 for example, a home in Kirkland, WA (an affluent suburb on the Seattle Eastside) was built that was only 4 feet (1.2 m) away from the neighbouring home. ...
While the average American family has shrunk in size, the average American home has grown. In 1974, average single family home was 1,695 square feet (157 m²); in 2004 it was 2,349 square feet (218 m²). The average family size, on the other hand, has fallen from 3.1 people in 1974 to 2.6 people in 2004. ...
Regional variations occur on these themes. In the South, many developers create an upscale atmosphere through references to the plantation lifestyle of the antebellum South, i.e. "Plantation Creek", "Belle Terrace", "Oakhurst" or the like. ...
Point of View / June 25, 2007 / News & Observer
Teardown trend not a healthy one:
Home diversity essential to city
Curtis Kasefang
RALEIGH - Around the country, teardowns have started in the spotty fashion we are experiencing in Raleigh and accelerated to the point where entire neighborhoods can change in just a year's time.
Under current policies and regulations, the tear-down rate in Raleigh is likely to accelerate, creating a less diverse housing stock and driving lower income residents to suburban areas where public transportation is less available. A diversity of housing stock, particularly smaller homes where the initial investments for land and construction have been amortized over a longer period of time, tends to be more affordable and accessible to first-time homebuyers, providing work force housing that is essential to a healthy city.
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a cover story on April 26, 2007.
"They really get it," said City Councilwoman Mary Norwood, who has been making the rounds of NPU meetings to field questions about the changes. "Home builders, preservationists and the city's Planning Department have already signed off on this. It's not complicated. It's just clarifying the code, closing loopholes, and is very much needed as we bring in new construction and renovations to our communities."
During the task force's work, residents were asked to identify structures they believed to be out of scale near their own residence. Something interesting happened: A street would have had four or more renovations or rebuilds, but only one would be considered out of scale by its neighbors. They would point to the same structure again and again. What this tells us is that it's not redevelopment itself that concerns neighborhood residents; it's the speculator exploiting the value of our long-term investment in our community to "push the envelope" that worries us.
The Infill Housing Task Force analyzed hundreds of structures to quantify "scale." We sought advice from the construction and real estate professions. We drafted legislation last fall that was modest in scope. After extensive additional input, we are now in the process of finalizing its language.
In the meantime, with out-of-scale development now a public issue, teardowns in the neighborhoods accelerated. Perhaps this was a ploy to get ahead of any restrictions that might be coming, or maybe it simply reflected the state of the economy. Either way, voices from the neighborhoods sounded growing alarm, and they requested that I introduce a moratorium to give them "breathing room" while the final draft of the infill regulations was going through our 90-120 day review process. I understood their concerns. I conducted an analysis of demolition permits and focused on the neighborhoods that had the most teardowns. Our courageous Mayor Shirley Franklin issued a moratorium until Feb. 6 so that the Atlanta City Council has time to bring some order to this frantic land rush.
The proposed revisions are divided into sixteen sections. The majority of the proposed revisions are intended to provide clarification of the existing zoning ordinance rather than introducing additional regulations. The City of Atlanta, working with the Atlanta Infill Development Panel (Panel), was consistently sensitive to the balance between zoning ordinance controls and property rights. New verbiage, such as the controls on retaining walls, was introduced only after specific requests heard during the 2006 public forums hosted by the Atlanta Infill Development Panel.
The proposed revisions only apply to the R-1 through R-5 residential zoning districts. The proposed revisions to the zoning ordinance are not intended to be retroactive or affect existing housing stock. They would not prevent an owner from finishing an unfinished space so long as that space is within the existing building envelope. Owners of existing houses would only be affected by the proposed revisions to the zoning ordinance if they chose to make an addition to the house.
In the past, urban renewal meant bulldozers sweeping clear huge tracts of land for housing projects, highways and malls. In today's Atlanta, change often proceeds parcel by parcel, within neighborhoods. Generally that piecemeal development is an asset to the community; both the developer and the new resident have an interest in preserving and even cultivating the very charm of the neighborhood that made the parcel attractive for redevelopment in the first place.
The problem is that some are prepared to "kill the goose that lays the golden egg." Anyone can drive around town and see parcels that have been redeveloped without any effort to fit into the existing neighborhood. This kind of development imposes a cost on the surrounding community. Much of a home's value comes from the character of the area, the charm of the neighborhood, and the physical condition of the streetscape. One "McMansion" can depress property values of nearby homes. Our residents know this. They are concerned. They turned to us, their elected representatives, for help.
Today's N&O has a column that states the debate about tear-downs is heated. To say the least.
Tear-down debate is heated
If you want to get a good argument going, start a discussion about tear-downs. ...
This document, from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, highlights stories throughout the country as community after community grapple with the issue.
Teardowns in the News
Nice to see we are not alone.
Tragically sad to see it as well.
