Recognize any of the images above? They’re each depictions of actual houses in the Heights area (yes, even that really skinny one in the top right corner) as drawn by local designer Dalia Rihani, who tells Swamplot she’s long been fascinated by her neighborhood’s architectural landscape. Rihani started out planning to draw 1 home per week as an outside-of-the-9-to-5 creative outlet — but says she’s found herself doing it much more frequently than that, and has since been taking commissions to illustrate specific houses as requests started to pour in. She’s also been turning the graphics into post cards that she’s sent to some of the home’s owners, as a reader showed Swamplot:

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“The postcards actually came into play for all the homes whose homeowners didn’t know [I’d illustrated their house],” Rihani says. “I figured I’d send those people a postcard of admiration for their home in hopes that they wouldn’t be creeped out by the gesture.”

And how have the neighbors taken it? Rihani says she’s gotten requests for posters or a coffee table book of the houses, and the project has taken picked up momentum thanks to the neighborhood’s housing enthusiasm:

The first few homes I illustrated were ones I thought looked interesting or recommendations from friends. After a while, I guess word caught on and people started finding me on Instagram, asking me to illustrate their homes. At that point, I started selling 12×12 prints of people’s homes and hand delivering them. . . . One thing I noticed is that people living in the Heights are uniquely proud of their homes.”

You can check out more of the illustrations on some of Rihani’s portfolio sites, but here’s a taste below:

Images: Dalia Rihani (all but 2nd), Swamplot inbox (2nd)

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