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A dingbat is a type of formulaic apartment building that flourished in the Sun Belt region of the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, a vernacular variation of shoebox style "stucco boxes". Dingbats are boxy, two- or three-story apartment houses with overhangs sheltering street-front parking. The elevation view of a dingbat is "half parking structure, half dumb box." Mainly found in Southern California, but also in Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Nevada and Vancouver, dingbats are known for their downmarket status and inexpensive rents. Some replaced more distinctive but less profitable building structures, such as single-family Victorian homes.〔Deegan, Joe (March 16, 2006), (Dingbat Eyesores, Loving Eye ), ''San Diego Reader''〕 Since the 1950s they have been the subject of aesthetic interest as examples of Mid-Century modern design and kitsch, since many dingbats have themed names and specialized trim. Dingbats are also reviled as socially alienating visual blights; California historian Leonard Pitt said of them, "The dingbat typifies Los Angeles apartment building architecture at its worst."〔 From a structural engineering perspective, the "tuck-under parking" arrangement may create a soft story if the residential levels are supported on slender columns without many shear walls in the parking level.〔William Graf (May 2008), "(The ShakeOut Scenario, Supplemental Study: Woodframe Buildings )," U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1324, p. 12.〕 ==Name== The first textual reference to the term "dingbat" was made by Reyner Banham in ''Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies'' (1971). He credits the coining to architect Francis Ventre and describes them: :"...() are normally a two-story walk-up apartment-block developed back over the full depth of the site, built of wood and stuccoed over. These are the materials that Rudolf Schindler and others used to build the first modern architecture in Los Angeles, and the dingbat, left to its own devices, often exhibits the basic characteristics of a primitive modern architecture. Round the back, away from the public gaze, they display simple rectangular forms and flush smooth surfaces, skinny steel columns and simple boxed balconies, and extensive overhangs to shelter four or five cars..." While the word is sometimes said to reference ''dingbat'' in the sense of a "general term of disparagement,"〔"Dingbat," ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (1989), 2nd ed.〕 ''dingbat'' refers to the stylistic star-shaped decorations (reminiscent of typographic dingbats) that often garnish the stucco façades.〔City of Los Angeles (2003), ''(Draft Preservation Plan Workbook: Architectural Styles )'' "Dingbat". Accessed March 7, 2009.〕 These flourishes and other ornamental elements reflect the contemporary but more complex Googie architecture. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dingbat (building)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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