[Rwarky]

What are the most elegant avenues & boulevards in your city?

[urbanscraper]

What are the most elegant avenues & boulevards in your city?

Bryan Boulvard in Greensboro is nice. actually its more like an expressway but the scenery is natural and gorgeous.

[zodiac]

Oooooh and I have to give it up for Charlotte's Independence Blvd!!!! Just beautiful!!!!
:D

[LouisianaRush]

New Orleans: St. Charles Ave
Miami: Collins Ave

[pkp]

Government Street, followed by Springhill Avenue, Dauphin Street, and Old Shell Road.

[Andrea]

I hate to say it but I honestly can't think of any grand boulevards in Atlanta.

[atlantaguy]

I think Peachtree from Pershing Point to 14th is quite impressive, along with Ponce east of Moreland along the Olmstead parks and old mansions.

[tennreb]

In Memphis, there's North, South, and East Parkway and Central Ave. Up until the 1960s, Memphis was an extremely well-planned city and the inner core reflects that today. South Parkway is now in a ghetto (there's even a rap song about it), but it is still beautiful.

[scguy]

In Augusta Georgia it would either be Park Avenue (the whole stretch) or the Summerville area of Walton Way. Possibly Broad Street in Old towne as well. Park Avenue is my favorite though. Its a 2 lane brick road but divided by a 20 foot median of azaleas and overhung with a canopy of mostly evergreen Oak trees. The Homes along Park Avenue arent as grand or elegant as in adjacent areas like Summerville, but they are still very nice.

[Atlguy33]

I would say the grandest and most scenic major streets in Marietta, Georgia, would have to be Cherokee and Church streets (parallel, one-way) between the square and the Kennestone medical area. They are each lined with beautiful, historic homes. Parts of Kennesaw Avenue are also very nice.

[scania]

I would say in Atlanta, its West Paces Ferry Rd.

[fla_tiger]

In Baton Rouge, North Boulevard is the original old residential parkway, even the Old Governor's Mansion is located there. Other grand parkways in the central city include Steele Boulevard, Hundred Oaks and Terrace.
Farther out east into the nearby suburbs Goodwood Boulevard has a beautiful Live Oak tree canopy among comfortable residences.

[Teshadoh]

Ponce east of Moreland along the Olmstead parks and old mansions.
I agree - I think that is Atlanta's only real grand boulevard, a traditional parkway in the Olmstead tradition. Representing my hometown Rock Hill, SC - Oakland Ave is lovely, or was once when oak trees covered the whole street in a canopy with the college on the side. Charlotte might be Queens Road, it isn't a very urban thoroughfare, but it's what I think of elegant avenues.

But this topic does bring up a point - grand boulevards are missing in most cities.

[macdaddy]

For Atlanta, how about Charles Allen, with it's tree-lined median...

[joey]

In Richmond, I guess it's Monument Avenue:

http://www.vcu.edu/lesspainsurgery/images/monumnt_ave1.jpg
http://www.vml.org/VTC/Art/05JulArt/MonumentAve.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/41/92371938_4b6cf82286.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/100/289161708_973853ff9c.jpg?v=0
http://static.flickr.com/118/289161870_eb26ff1bf5.jpg?v=0
http://static.flickr.com/114/302054387_470c1b627a.jpg?v=0
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b13/soccerman1/August7Richmond2005/August7Richmond043.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d103/richmondpics/4-15-2006/Richmond4-15-2006045.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b13/soccerman1/August7Richmond2005/August7Richmond034.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b13/soccerman1/August7Richmond2005/August7Richmond041.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/91/247839041_7097b185cb.jpg?v=0

Or it could be "The Boulevard" which intersects Monument Avenue (and which is composed more of museums and 1920s apartment buildings than of single-family homes):
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b13/soccerman1/August7Richmond2005/August7Richmond026.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/28/259739167_1e83aa05c2.jpg?v=0
http://static.flickr.com/23/35059399_236a8a9ef9.jpg?v=0
http://www.historicrichmond.com/images/vamuseum.gif
http://www.grouptravelleader.com/4_2006/images/museums_virginia.jpg

(These images were variously borrowed from VCU, Flickr, wrldcoupe4 on SkyscraperCity, Historic Richmond Foundation, and several others -- see their URLs for source information)

[Andrea]

I think Peachtree from Pershing Point to 14th is quite impressive, along with Ponce east of Moreland along the Olmstead parks and old mansions.

Atlanta has plenty of magnificent residential streets in Druid Hills, Buckhead and Ansley. I guess Ponce and West Paces would come closest to what I think of "grand boulevards or avenues", although neither is really distinguished for commercial or monumental architecture. And as you say, maybe some stretches of Peachtree would fit the bill, although it too is marred by lots of really mundane stuff.

Oh, and the power lines we have everywhere.

:(

[Buckley]

Augusta- Greene Street downtown (lots of small monuments and tons of azaelas in the median), a bit gritty in the Augusta tradiation; Walton Way is probably the most attractive street in the town, just not as grand

Athens- Milledge Avenue runs through 5 points neighborhood and fraternity row, not a boulevard. The street named 'Boulevard' is pretty cool in its own right.

Birmingham- Highland Avenue (twisty divided street with several little parks)

Atlanta- I agree with Ponce de Leon-has always been my favorite street in Atlanta area

[x.man]

Greensboro's grandest boulevard would be West Market Street. Four-lane, divided parkway, straight as an arrow, with lots of trees and grand houses from the 1910s-1930s. Sadly it has been marred over the years by two freeways at each end...Aycock on the east and Wendover on the west. It is still one of the greatest avenues in North Carolina.

[Pillsbury Doughboy]

Oooooh, I get to make a list:
1. King Street in Charleston
2. In Augusta, I agree with Buckley, either Walton Way (on the Hill) or Greene Street and with SCguy, with Park Avenue (I love that little street). I'd also have to throw in one of the Bransford Streets (the main one and the baby Bransfords). Those brick streets are cool and the way the trees hang over with the old homes barely visible---very cool.
3. Gotta love Ponce in Atlanta, but I can't help but feel so impressed when I'm on Peacthree Street right in the center of downtown---plus it's either that or Highway 41---crank up the Allman Brothers and head down past the Big Chicken!!!

http://roadsidegeorgia.com/images/big_chicken_sm.jpg

[joey]

I think the closest thing to a traditional Boulevard in Atlanta is the stretch of Marietta Street between Five Points and Centennial Park -- It's wide, flanked by tall buildings, and has an attractive median. If ticker-tape parades were still en vogue, this would seem the perfect place.

[KB0679]

Representing my hometown Rock Hill, SC - Oakland Ave is lovely, or was once when oak trees covered the whole street in a canopy with the college on the side.

I think it's still pretty cool and would qualify.

[sgray]

You can't top St. Charles Ave. in New Orleans with the streetcars, huge antebellum homes, and majestic overhanging live oaks. Plus beautiful Tulane University campus and Audubon Park on either side


:jester:

[Prahaboheme]

You can't top St. Charles Ave. in New Orleans with the streetcars, huge antebellum homes, and majestic overhanging live oaks. Plus beautiful Tulane University campus and Audubon Park on either side


:jester:


Personally, I've always been partial to Esplanade Ave in New Orleans running from the French Quarter through Bayou St John up to the Museum. Doesn't get much better than that!

[Chris Creech]

For Atlanta, how about Charles Allen, with it's tree-lined median...

Probably one of the few planned boulevard routes through Atlanta. I wish they'd done more. Apparently when Piedmont Park was built up around the Cotton States Exposition, there were two major Boulevards that were created to connect Piedmont Park and Grant Park. You had Monroe & Boulevard going from the North side of Piedmont Park to the North Side of Grant Park. Then I'm not sure what it was originally called, but Charles Allen/Parkway Dr./Jackson from the center of Piedmont Park to the South side of Grant Park.

Both were treelined boulvevards, and Boulevard had the trolley line connecting the parks.

That just didn't fair well though, you had: 1) The great Atlanta fire destroyed the huge beautiful victorial Mansions from Ponce de Leon down to Grant Park. They would be replaced by apartments that would eventually become mostly section 8 housing, 2) the renaming of streets along racial lines along Ponce de Leon, and 3) I-20 which took out huge chunks of Grant Park and cut many of the connecting streets.

You have to wonder though what that might have been like today. Old restoried victorian homes all up and down Boulevard, with a trolley line connecting the cities two main parks. It probably would have been much like the garden district trolley in New Orleans.

It would be a great project to see the city restore Boulevard and Parkway Dr. to their original purposes. Long wide treelined parkways with nice houses, retail nodes with trolleys. That would do wonders for those neighborhoods, especially spanning I-20 and reuniting some of those historic neighborhoods that were cut apart.