The owner and designer behind Queens’ first ever energy-efficient “passive house” rebuffed critics of the three-story home’s Lego-like façade Tuesday.
The future home of Tom Paino and his partner at 45-12 11th St., which Paino called “The Climate Change Row House,” features black, grey and white tiles in a sky pattern that local bloggers maligned in a barrage of posts last week.
But Paino compared the naysayers to yokels who attacked three-dimensional paintings during the Renaissance.
“People tried to throw rocks at the pictures because they weren’t used to paintings that had depth,” he said. “This house is going to be an example in the architecture world.”
But Paino’s design provoked viral putdowns on the web last week. Real estate blog Curbed ran a post about the house entitled , "Could this row house be the ugliest building in Queens?,” and popular local blog Queens Crap wrote that the house must have been designed by "Frank Lloyd Crap" in a Wednesday post.
A more supportive blogger admired the façade because the cloud design "reminds me of Legos," but Paino said he isn't paying any of them any mind.
"I have no idea who these people are," said Paino. "All I can tell you is that the façade is dramatic enough so that people walking by stop to look at it."
Ah, leave it to the Daily News to feel it necessary to get the crapmaker's side of the story when blogs poke fun at the crap. Here's the major part of the story that they left out:
Tom Paino bills himself as a preservationist. In fact, he was once a board member of the Greater Astoria Historical Society. For years, he claimed he was "restoring" his early 20th century rowhouse. Instead, he rebuilt it like this. Hypocrisy knows no bounds, especially in Queens where actual preservation is a joke, and this house is a punchline. But at least people are stopping to look at its dramatic façade!
You can either laugh at this stuff, or cry.
17 comments:
It looks like an impressionistic view of camouflage.
That is one ugly house.... is he trying to beat these Asians for the ugliest house in Queens? If he is, I'd say He's got a pretty strong contender there!
Here's a bit more information on it: http://climatechangerowhouse.com/blog/
BTW, From I heard, although the initial plan was to renovate the old house, regs prevented it, so it essentially had to be totally rebuilt in some form or another. And the owner decided to go green. I surely can't fault him for that.
You say "dramatic", I say "pathetic".
It looks like crap. Everything Tom Paino says is phony and hypocritical.
As the owner, he's stuck with this unsellable mess.
Regulations prevented him from renovating the existing house? That's got to be the biggest pile of horseshit I've ever heard.
And you can go green, without going fugly.
I heard that due to the new FEMA construction standards it was either essentially close off the basement level and take out all mechanical, or build higher to above the water line. But investing more than 50% of the house value in the rebuild would require the latter.
Insulting in every way imaginable.
It still looks like a camouflage house to me. But just like many things in Queens this is one that might need to be built over in the future because it looks like crap.
Paino. "All I can tell you is that the façade is dramatic enough so that people walking by stop to look at it."
They likely stop to gawk in horror - like at a car wreck.
Hey fool, you claim to be doing something positive but in the end this thing will be hated for decades to come. Mr. Paino you are part of the problem. Stop trying to sell your BS to everybody. They ain't buying it.
Like that Flipping Out guy Jeff on Bravo, I am sure he and "his partner" drove the brick mason mad also.
Leave it to the Daily News to get his side ...
Yes, crapper, that's what a newspaper does when it does it right. Both sides. You have no such obligation. That's fine. But don't criticize a media outlet for doing its job correctly. There's plenty they do wrong for you to criticize, as you do.
No, it did not do it's job correctly, as I explained, because the story is about the bloggers picking on this guy's choice of house style when the issue is that he is allegedly a "preservationist" and claimed he was going to "restore" the rowhouse, which does not require adhering to FEMA standards as it would have been a renovation of a structure standing for 100 years rather than new construction.
"I have no idea who these people are," said Paino. "All I can tell you is that the façade is dramatic enough so that people walking by stop to look at it."
That is the same thing I do when I see a huge pile of garbage in Jamaica.......plus I take a picture.
Crapper, yes, but it's still correct to get a response from someone being criticized in a piece, even if it's just one sentence among 800 words. All I'm sayin'.
I dunno guys I think this place looks great.. Slam a couple Fedders air conditioners in there and call it a day
Looks interesting. Queens is pretty ugly to begin with...some brownstones might be old but they aren't that beautiful. I say we go with it. The fact that it is a Passive House is amazing - act like you know, people.
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