Here's a typical apartment building. I would enjoy living in something like this. The open balcony at the top had a couple drinking their morning kafija when I walked by:
Here are a couple more. I like how the buildings sort of talk to each other in the streetscape. Every one of them is saying to its neighbors, "Hey, look at me. No, look at me." Click on the photos and check out all the funky detail.The corner buildings are in particular a delight because they often have fanciful towers wrapping around the corner, as it does here.
Some sensitive building owners have seen fit to light their buildings up at night in order to highlight all the detailing, such as with this beauty. And as you can see, the Art Nouveau folks were totally into the Baltic little balcony design motif that I have already referenced.
Rīga is fun to walk around because there are just blocks and blocks of these highly ornamented buildings in the so-called Art Nouveau district. Some of them need work; all that ornamental plasterwork must be difficult to maintain, and finding the master craftsmen who can restore it can't be that easy any more. If I am correct, it is not carved stone. Generally, the buildings are brick underneath, and the ornament is a façade that's been hung on the structure, which means it doesn't last as long as stone would. That said, Rīga is well aware that it has a treasure trove of this architectural style in its built environment, and it has done a creditable job of preserving it.
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