One of the most interesting houses in my neighborhood was built during the last year. Well, it isn’t exactly in my neighborhood, and it isn’t exactly in Columbia. It’s in an adjacent outparcel. I guess you’d call it “infill” housing?
I watched its progress as I drove down our main road. It became visible from behind the familiar row of houses I’ve passed since 1998. I was intrigued. It was clearly taller, and more interestingly shaped, than any of the other houses that have been put into that little patch. It looked like it was shaping up to be a weird and wonderful house.
Watching the house move towards completion became a sort of guilty pleasure. In Columbia/HoCo the prevailing opinion on a new house going up it that it’s A BIG PROBLEM. Aren’t we all supposed to wail and gnash our teeth at the site of new housing? “We don’t have room” “Schools are overcrowded” “Resources and amenities will collapse” “The traffic will overwhelm us.”
You know the drill.
As childlike as it may sound, I found myself rooting for this house against the world. So what if it doesn’t match anything else near it? Is that a crime? In some ways its architectural style leans more “Columbia” that the houses on either side. This house is doing its own thing. It’s making no effort to fit in.
As a person who has been doing my own thing for my entire life with little success at fitting in, I suppose I am projecting (just a bit) onto the new house. I just want to believe in it rather than deride it.
Once upon a time in Columbia it must have been exciting to see new houses going up. It was socially acceptable to be happy about them.
Not anymore. It’s too complicated. The lines have been drawn.
Recently I ventured into the little culdesac/lane to get a closer look at the New House. It really is weird and wonderful. I hope whoever lives there is very happy.
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