University Heights- Group 6

For our walkabout this week, our group visited University Heights. These neighborhoods are located west of the University of Utah campus, and are quite varied in size and style. Most of them are expensive and belong to higher income families, but there are also a few lower income apartments and condominiums, all clustered within the space of a few short blocks. The majority of the houses in these neighborhoods were either bungalow style or revival buildings, with many different variations on specific details of the designs.

When examining the four major components of style in the architecture of the buildings, there are some major similarities as well as many differences. The mass of most of the houses in the University Heights neighborhood are about the same. They appear to be quite weighty in volume, and have a more powerful presence, making one feel secluded and protected living in them. The plan of the houses could not be seen very easily from the street, but it was clear that the majority of houses were designed to have the more public areas in the front, and the private spaces in the back. What could be seen through the front windows were mostly living rooms or family rooms, with bedrooms or bathrooms almost never visible.

When it comes to detail, there were a myriad of different variations among each house. The roof pitches varied greatly and each house often had multiple parts of the roof which were a different pitch. The windows were mostly large and unadorned, and houses typically had only one chimney. Small details of the house such as the designs surrounding the windows or the coloring of the houses varied greatly, making each house distinct from the others around it. There were many artistic details decorating the doors and the gables, as well as a number of different kinds of columns designed as part of the porches.

The overall ambiance of the neighborhood itself is very friendly. The houses provide a sense of seclusion and security when walking by them. In the style of older upper class houses, the buildings are also placed quite a distance away from the street, with a few feet of grass lawn between the edge of the street and the sidewalk. This increases the sense of seclusion and distance from the fast moving cars and the city only a few blocks away. The decorations and colors of the houses are also, on the whole very welcoming, with brighter and happier colors and designs that give a sense of warmth to the neighborhood as a whole.

While many different styles of house design are clearly present within the neighborhood, the larger majority of the houses are a variation on the bungalow style. They are longer and rectangular in design, with a large front porch and varied roof pitches as well as the common presence of columns. Unlike traditional bungalow houses however, the long end of the house almost always faces the street rather than the shorter end. It was also common for the coloring of the bungalows to differ from the traditional natural colors, incorporating instead brighter blues and yellows, and sometimes even more intense colors like pink.