A reader checked in the other day, and gave us the heads up that construction activity was stirring at 1014-16 S. 19th St., two long-vacant lots near Washington Avenue. Since no zoning notices had been posted, the reader was assuming that the construction was by right, but was concerned about aesthetics, considering the surroundings.

The lots

Taking a peek at the handy L&I Map, we were able to determine that two new homes are indeed on their way to this address, designed by Harman Deutsch. Fortunately, it seems that these homes will not be garage front homes, ensuring additional eyes on this street.

This project is just one more in a string of completed, ongoing, and upcoming residential developments on the southern end of this neighborhood. Much of the housing stock was seriously deteriorated ’round these parts as recently as a decade ago, and the developers have reinvented blocks at a time, many making  some fairly regrettable architectural decisions in the process.

Next door

Kimball Street, just to the north

South side of Kimball. Oh, the humanity!

While these new homes will also have bay windows, we can only hope that the builders will a) use a material other than stucco, and b) build something that doesn’t look like all the other homes in the immediate area.

But we’ll just have to wait and see what comes to pass. We’ll check back in here in the months to come, especially because of the serious amount of development going on around the corner, on League Street.