Slog - Comments on A View Without A Room http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room If you haven't yet, go read Jen Graves's fantastic feature this week on Seattle's obsession with views. It touches on real estate, the mountain-vs.-water debate, and the value of views that aren't really "views." Here's how it ends: An encounter with a view is visual, not participatory, like looking at landscape art. Beginning in the 18th century, there was a cottage industry of "view" painters—painters who made portraits purchased by gentlemen on their travels. At home, the paintings didn't just show off the traveler's sophistication; they also provided cold, damp, dim northern homes with false windows that "looked out onto"... Copyright 2008 Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:52:36 -0800 Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:17:51 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by JMR It's hard to quantify how much views are worth

If it's so hard, how come whenever you get a house or condo appraisal, it lists a dollar value for the view?

]]> JMR http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room#c989252 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room#c989252 Housekeeping Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:11:13 -0800 Comment by Michigan Matt (soon to be Balt-o-matt) When I was visiting friends in Seattle I could see the mountains from their kitchen sink. Being from the flatlands of the midwest I found this view awesome. But I have no idea how much it'd be worth.

]]> Michigan Matt (soon to be Balt-o-matt) http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room#c989264 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room#c989264 Housekeeping Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:15:14 -0800 Comment by JMR She negotiated a deal to buy the air over the building to the west of Cristalla, to make sure that building never got any taller. That way she could promise the views that she was marketing.

I'd rather views get managed this way, instead of the petty zoners and NIMBYs constantly fighting building height.

Or, maybe, develop a scheme where if you damage someone's view (like the Cosmopolitan tower situation in the article) you have to compensate the owner. Views: You Break It, You Buy It. Just a thought. Maybe there are places that do it that way.

]]> JMR http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room#c989267 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room#c989267 Housekeeping Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:17:03 -0800 Comment by Mr. X The irony of the "density at any and all costs" Stranger running a piece on the desirability of views is simply amazing - doubly so that ECB would post on it.

My head is now spinning faster than Linda Blair's...green pea soup to follow....

]]> Mr. X http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room#c989283 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room#c989283 Housekeeping Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:22:59 -0800 Comment by max solomon when you have a specacular view valued at $100,000 that you pay taxes on, and then some builder fuck buys the shack across the street & puts up a 6000 SF "Bungalow" style ugly piece of shit & blocks half that view & sells it for 1.8 MILLION FUCKING DOLLARS, then you have to petition the assessors office to revalue your property, then you'll be obsessed with "Views" too.

]]> max solomon http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room#c989304 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room#c989304 Housekeeping Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:31:52 -0800 Comment by unPC eh. pretty good article. but if you are looking at a wall, um, that's not a territorial view, it's not a view at all.

a territorial view is a view of the surrounding.....ahem, territory...bits of the city ... usually no water in it and no mountains....not dramatic but still nicer than looking into your neighbor's window 7-10 feet away or looking at a wall.

Seattle has tons of views and more waterfront and nicer in-city neighborhoods and no big huge crime ridden area and a bit of traffic....this is news??

]]> unPC http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room#c989406 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room#c989406 Housekeeping Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:23:33 -0800 Comment by Miles Why are elderly black people so obsessed with paving their yards?

]]> Miles http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room#c989458 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room#c989458 Housekeeping Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:43:41 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle @7 - for the same reason middle-aged white people are obsessed with taking chainsaws to the trees on public land in the "way" of "their views".

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room#c989522 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_view_without_a_room#c989522 Housekeeping Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:17:51 -0800