[LSyd]

the first weekend of october i flew into columbia, had lunch, met up with a friend, and then went to the beach. an all too brief visit, but still nice. here's the pics.

the city from takeoff
1
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519716/original.jpg
coming in from Cayce
2
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519023/original.jpg
one of the best gas stations architecturally i've ever seen
3
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519027/original.jpg
possible future condo or other use conversion
4
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519029/original.jpg
new construction on USC's research area seen here
5
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519031/original.jpg
coming in on Blossom Street; l-r: Carolina Coliseum (future offices and mall conversion?), former Hyatt Hotel (recently remodeled and updated,) Adesso condos and behind it future site of mid-rise housing for USC honors students/former site of the "honeycombs" towers dorms where i lived my freshman year, and another USC research building under construction (this block is 90% different than it was 9 years ago when i was a freshman)
6
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519033/original.jpg
7
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519036/original.jpg
8
my future-self already says this hotel should've been left to its original modernist-funk design in the name of historic preservation; but alas, c'ese la vie (i took the legal ethics test here last year)
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519038/original.jpg
9
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519040/original.jpg
10
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519042/original.jpg
11
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519045/original.jpg
bathroom grafitti at a downtown deli
12
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519047/original.jpg
13
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519049/original.jpg
my old apartment building
14
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519051/original.jpg
one of two old low-rise residential buildings on the block
15
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519054/original.jpg
oh so modern...
16
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519697/original.jpg
the other low-rise residential building, now a coffee shop
17
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519699/original.jpg
south carolina's tallest; this'll change after i win the lottery and build a 900 foot tower in columbia (or two 500 foot towers)
18
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519701/original.jpg
onto the vista...my bank; headquartered in Birmingham, not CLT
19
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519703/original.jpg
20
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519705/original.jpg
21
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519706/original.jpg
22
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519707/original.jpg
23
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519708/original.jpg
one of several rehabbed train stations in Columbia
24
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519709/original.jpg
25
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519710/original.jpg
26
awaiting conversion...or demolition for a new building; next to the "confederate mint" which is now an urban grocery store
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519711/original.jpg
out on the edge of the Vista and downtown...things get kinda wierd...like this old house i'd never really noticed before
27
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519713/original.jpg
and the office of the "worst in town," cromer's food supply
28
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519714/original.jpg
another view from takeoff, with part of the airport in site
29
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519715/original.jpg
Lake Murray; where Doolittle's Raiders rehearsed before bombing Tokyo
30
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519717/original.jpg
some suburban satellite village that looks half-decent from above
31
http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/87519718/original.jpg

i can't wait to get back so i can properly photograph the northeast area of downtown i call "little charleston" for its old houses that survived the civil war that i've ran through dozens of times but never really photographed. plus i wanna photograph Orangeburg instead of just passing through.

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[atl2phx]

nice tour lsyd! cola is looking good with lots of new stuff goin on downtown. that gas station in #3 looks like a krystal.

[RockHillJames]

Sweetness!

[glowrock]

Reminds me to hit up Columbia the next time I'm out in Spartanburg visiting my dad... ;)

Aaron (Glowrock)

[mthq]

Lookin' good, Comrade LSyd! It's great to finally see some actual skyline shots... they're tough to find even on Google Images.

Columbia looks to me like a larger and more urban version of Fairbanks, Alaska. Major university, plenty of grit, and questionable old houses on the edge of town. Awesome :tup:

[StevenW]

Very nice! :yes:

[LSyd]

thanks y'all.

Lookin' good, Comrade LSyd! It's great to finally see some actual skyline shots... they're tough to find even on Google Images.

Columbia looks to me like a larger and more urban version of Fairbanks, Alaska. Major university, plenty of grit, and questionable old houses on the edge of town. Awesome :tup:

it's hard to get the whole skyline in one shot; usually you just see the main downtown cluster (the center,) but there's the cluster north of downtown, the USC skyline to the south and east and a few towers around five points to the east, and then the condos around the stadium. it's all in this pic, except for the stadium area. maybe i can go back and get a flight lesson or something ;)

Fairbanks sounds interesting now...

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p.s. i've found out that the last pic is downtown Lexington, which is the largest satellite/suburb of Columbia and center of the parasitic Lexington County. it looks better from the air than from the ground (i've only been there once on the ground.)

[LSyd]

bump

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[LSyd]

another bump. b/c cola's better than greenville. ;)

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[Skyliner]

In your own opinion.:D "Better" is relative. Your obvious love for Columbia and hatred for the Upstate along with my love for Greenville and overall less favor for the Midlands region are proof of that. Both cities have pros and cons that everyone will either like or dislike. The "rivalry" between the two places on these forums is basically limited to those who live or have lived in one of the cities and view the other as a "threat" on one level or another. It doesn't take a genius to see that both cities have plenty to be proud of individually. I suppose it could be considered a positive thing that both cities have enough growth to create a healthy little rivalry since that usually helps places work harder to make competitive (needed) improvements. Very nice photos of Columbia in any case. I especially like the aerial shot of Lexington.:cheers:

[mello]

Ok not trying to hate or anything but from the two threads: Lsyd's and Skyliners on Columbia and Greenville respectively I have to say I am *far more* impressed with Greenville. To me it doesn't look like Columbia has much of a sense of place. It doesn't look very pedestrian oriented/inviting at all!

Big wide streets, not many trees, just disjointed discombobulated.... Maybe Lsyd didn't catch the good parts of Columbia I don't know. And maybe Skyliner's thread only showed the awesome parts of Greenville and was more of a "glamor shot" type of thread.

Anyone else see what I am seeing. No offense but there were no redeeming qualities to the Columbia photos that I saw, just very... blah

[LSyd]

^ there's lots of other photos of columbia i've put up; go look at those.

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[Ex-Ithacan]

Fun tour L, and I echo mthq's sentiment about the skyline shots. I hope the north end of town and downtown eventually merge skyline wise (it'll look huge then).

As far as the Columbia vs Greenville stuff. I've been to both (and actually stayed in both). I think the west end and waterfalls/river are big pluses for Greenville, but being the Capital and having USC offset that advantage. Gotta admit I like 'em both. ***wishes Ithaca had as much going on for it***

Thanks for the tour (Love the aerials).

[RockHillJames]

Columbia is very pedestrian oriented in places. Syd didn't show shots of 5 points and around the University. Columbia and Greenville both have a lot going on for them and are great places. I've lived in Columbia and spent a ton of time in Greenville.

I think overall Columbia's got more going on, just from a city feel to it. Greenville has an amazing downtown, but is very sprawl oriented once you get outside of downtown. Columbia has more urban fabric to it. Columbia is much more "gritty" than Greenville, if you will.

That being said, they're both great places and I'm very encouraged by what Greenville's doing. They're making great strides in creating a more urban place.

[LSyd]

looking at these pics again, i realize that most of them were taken on columbia's 3 widest streets (assembly, blossom and gervais.) oh well.

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[LSyd]

looking at these pics again, i realize that most of them were taken on columbia's 5 widest streets (assembly, blossom, gervais, huger and sumter.) oh well. of those, only Huger has ever felt pedestrian unfriendly to me; it's also the least developed, being a former industrial area.

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[mello]

^ there's lots of other photos of columbia i've put up; go look at those.

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Where? Could you please post a link.

[ColDayMan]

Nice job!

[LSyd]

^ thanks

Where? Could you please post a link.

some rooftop views downtown (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=121055)

night, historic USC Horseshoe, Five Points neighborhood and more from last winter (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=124664)

pics from last fall (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=412070)

pics from 2003-2006 (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=349756)

pics last summer (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=384450)

more pics last summer (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=392190)

winter 2 years ago (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=312681)

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[flar]

Columbia looks like a pretty decent sized city from those skyline shots.

[MplsTodd]

that gas station in #3 looks like a krystal.

My thoughts exactly!! Krystal is the "In & Out" of the south (well, sort-of)

Columbia looks nice! Course it's tough to miss when you have both the capitol and the major university in your city.

[ady26]

Columbia region is flatter than that of the Upstate!

[forumly_chgoman]

Depressing ....really quite ugly & poorly executed....note I did not say "planned"

[LSyd]

thanks everybody, except...

Depressing ....really quite ugly & poorly executed....note I did not say "planned"

^ i'm sorry your life is so horrible. go play in traffic, we'll feel better after you do.

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[forumly_chgoman]

thanks everybody, except...



^ i'm sorry your life is so horrible. go play in traffic, we'll feel better after you do.

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Da comrade coming from you I take that as a compliment

[Westsidelife]

Great shots of a city I've yet to see on this board.

[PA Pride]

Cool tour.