We are not the Southwest—no matter what they paint us.
There’s a brand new building rising at 30th and Q that I mentioned in a previous blog entry. This new building, a Mercy Hospital satellite, sports a dark New Mexico orange tint. Nearly every new building going up lately in and about town is wearing a similar shade of burnt umber / tequila sunrise orange. Why? We’re not New Mexico; this is not the desert. We aren’t trying to color coordinate with red rock formations. Sacramento is a river city, and if anything, shouldn’t new buildings be in a complementary shade?
Or perhaps “they” know something I don’t know? Maybe the water crisis is worse than we think and river city will become dry creek. I hope not. Meanwhile, the backdrop for a bad western is out there, already. Get yer lassos ready, cuz we’re ropin’ some cattle this weekend, y’all.
It’s even worse at places like the Saratoga Townhomes at 9th & Q.
The most obnoxious example of this trend is the three-story uggo thing on Q Street and 23rd. In addition to the dreadful color, the building looks like a Natomas faux-Tuscan turned on its side. The building on 30th and Q is at least (in my opinion) architecturally not too bad–but yeah, there are colors other than orange and umber, guys!
30th and Q isn’t as bad as many others, but unfortunately, it is now the primary orange spot in my otherwise glorious office view. Evey time I look out the window (which is frequent, mind you), I get slapped in the eye with orange. (Sigh)
The 23rd and Q one looks so out of place amongst the Victorian style houses and the 70’s apartments. With these new condos/flats/mews/whatever-fancy-term-developers-want-to-use popping up, I fear Midtown will soon be a hodgepodge of really different architectural styles. And not in a good way.