urban renewal and planning disasters

[photoLith]

Wow, those morons completed destroyed Albany. Unbelievable. And "downtown" Niagara Falls is one of the most unwelcoming downtowns in the country and is completely dead. What in the freaking hell were they thinking?

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by lio45

LOL!

That's both funny and very sad, though.

ya gotta learn to have a laugh or two.

[Urbannizer]

Originally Posted by destroycreate

Omg...


Well not to mention what happened to Houston

Then...




A few years ago...

That photo second photo of Houston was taken in the late 70's or early 80's, not a few years ago.

Quite a few of those lots shown were wiped clean for a major development dubbed "Houston Center". 32 blocks were affected.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_Center#History



This was phase one of the project. Plans include office buildings, hotels, pedestrian malls and even a people mover system (rail).











http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/h...tial/?p=429356

Only a small portion of this came to be -- 1HC, 2HC, Shops at Houston Center, Fullbright Tower and later on, 5HC.

http://www.houstoncenter.com/home.axis


http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/image/101244524


http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/b...on-center.html

Here's another before photo of the area, surprisingly it appears nothing significant was lost here.


http://downtownhouston.org/news/blog...town-makeover/

As of today, most of the scars caused by Houston Center have been healed. Our convention center, a new park, and a number of new hotels, high-rises and office towers have been built.

The Grove And Houston Skyline II by Mabry Campbell, on Flickr

Maravilloso! 2015: The Water Festival by Arie, on Flickr



The oil boom of the 80's wiped out a lot of buildings only for most projects to never materialize.

[Reverberation]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

A place for posting information and pictures of urban "renewal" and planning disasters, and for discussing what was, what could have been, and what went wrong. And solutions.

Some examples to get the ball rolling.

Empire State Plaza (strangely beautiful as well as grotesque), Albany (NY state):



3 above Wikipedia


above images c/o timesunion

The way things go, that will be cool again in 10-20 years.

[Matthew]

Winston-Salem often receives compliments on how beautifully historic it is. However, Winston-Salem had several massive urban renewal projects. I could show photographs of how the city looked in 1955 and many locals wouldn't recognize it. I wish the rowhouses demolished in the 1950s, Italianate and Second Empire Mansion District, and the demolished brick industrial buildings in today's IQ District were still there. Think of how amazing the IQ District (an Innovation District development by BioMed Realty) would be today, if all of the brick Victorian industrial buildings were still standing. I wish the retail block demolished for the courthouse was still there and the hotel (across the street) demolished for a concrete plaza was also still there. At one time, Old Salem and the CBD were connected with historic buildings. I thought I would share the Super Block (actually multiple city blocks). This became the Financial District.

Winston-Salem Super Block (Today's Financial District):
Demolition began in 1977. Web Ventures 100 (a Kentucky developer known for the Lexington Financial Center) proposed two all-glass skyscrapers and a water garden built over a massive underground parking deck. The first of the two skyscrapers would have an indoor greenhouse and glass elevators, looking down on the park. Piedmont Airlines (headquartered in Winston-Salem) helped move the project forward and paid for the beautiful water gardens. Only the first of the two skyscrapers was completed and the watergardens was built. Another developer proposed twin office towers, condos, retail, a rail streetcar connecting it to Old Salem, and a walking and bike path. The walking and bike path was completed. A developer from Texas proposed twin towers with a park, but it didn't move forward. Another developer proposed a 14-storey building, but it never moved forward. Later Wachovia would move the project forward again, with their headquarters and two or three other developers built-out remaining sites with office space.

The first building opened in 1987 and the multi-block project wasn't completely built-out until 2000. It has designs from Cesar Pelli, Pickard Chilton, and the watergarden was designed by the famous architects Zion & Breen Associates, known for their park designs in New York City.

Before: (I think it's 1882-1890s?)

Credit: Unknown?

After:

Credit: Me (in 2003?)

The 60 foot tall waterfall, designed to be seen from the expressway, looks similar to their waterfall in NYC's Paley Park:

Credit: Me (in 2003?)

The park was a success! It attracts people and is a great place to be. I also think the park attracted the office development. All of the buildings, except for two, are designed to be a part of the park and bike and walking path. The BB&T Headquarters is a United States example of a skyscraper in a park, for those interested in skyscrapers in a park developments. The park is named for the mayor at the time of demolition. It's Corpening Plaza Watergardens & Park. A marker recognizes the gift from Piedmont Airlines. What an amazing gift. It lights-up at night, too. I've seen everything from concerts to festivals to weddings in this park.

I can also share the Government District, Twin City Quarter, and IQ District, if anyone is interested. Urban Renewal projects in Winston-Salem actually called for demolishing most of the historic buildings downtown and even included a mall in today's Arts District. The Urban Renewal projects generated more tax revenue. It was mostly local residents who worked to stop the demolition.

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Originally Posted by Kenneth

Birmingham probably didn't have much to destroy, and I mean that in a good way. And back in the 40's through 60's, cities in the south were not large enough to have large areas destroyed anyway, so only small buildings were pinpointed.

Oh, Birmingham had plenty to lose; its downtown area is relatively large and dense for a city its size and retains a majority of its pre-war structures. Fortunately, the inner city began to die (economically) out before any value was seen in it. You can thank white flight and damn Bull Connor for that.

Now, we have so many vacant pre-auto-era buildings that we have no need to build new buildings at the moment. It's a miracle that our terminal was the only true catastrophe we experienced in this sense.

[ThePhun1]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

it overtook boston in 1870 as number 4 as a victorian boom town. the city proper peaked in 1950 at 856,796 but had dropped to number 8 by then.

Partially because of Sun Belt boomtowns like LA and Houston as well the US' ultimate out of nowhere boomtown: Chicago.

[Tom Servo]

After the Great Fire of 1871, the following three are the worst disasters in Chicago's history:

Carl Sandburg Village

UIC

The Dan Ryan and Eisenhower Expressways

I'm sure someone can dig up some before and after photos, but trust me, the urban devastation was vast.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

I wouldn't go that far, not when the South also features some of the nation's best urbanity in New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah, Memphis, Richmond, Norfolk (where a downtown mall revitalized downtown), Miami Beach, and other communities.

But that's the prewar south.

Anyhow, it doesn't matter because the north has just as many examples of anti-urbanism, the only difference is that it had a much larger existing prewar building stock to start with.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Tom Servo

After the Great Fire of 1871, the following three are the worst disasters in Chicago's history:

Carl Sandburg Village

UIC

The Dan Ryan and Eisenhower Expressways

I'm sure someone can dig up some before and after photos, but trust me, the urban devastation was vast.

Believe it or not, I'm not as opposed to the expressways (they simply had to happen), but Carl Sandburg Village and UIC are indefensible. I know some architecture fanatics believe they were fine pieces from their period, but I just find them both god-awful.

I actually don't mind the designs themselves, but their interface with the city around them are horrid. UIC in particular really needs to spruce up their campus. All of those damn garages and lots along Halsted need to be redeveloped into something worthy of a true University.

[MolsonExport]

No mans land, Toronto (1970s):

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by ThePhun1

Partially because of Sun Belt boomtowns like LA and Houston as well the US' ultimate out of nowhere boomtown: Chicago.

of course the clock is always ticking on a boomtown in a nation of boomtowns.

Originally Posted by Tom Servo

After the Great Fire of 1871, the following three are the worst disasters in Chicago's history:

Carl Sandburg Village

UIC

The Dan Ryan and Eisenhower Expressways

I'm sure someone can dig up some before and after photos, but trust me, the urban devastation was vast.

and the cubs.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by photoLith

Wow, those morons completed destroyed Albany. Unbelievable.

You're exaggerating, it was a tiny fraction of the urban tissue of the core. Having been to central Albany many times in the last few years (shopping for real estate mostly) I was pretty impressed, overall.

A lot of blight still, but buildings rarely end up getting demolished. Which means they could eventually be brought back. Plenty of 1800s architecture boarded up and waiting for gentrification.

[Lakelander]

Originally Posted by Kenneth

Birmingham probably didn't have much to destroy, and I mean that in a good way. And back in the 40's through 60's, cities in the south were not large enough to have large areas destroyed anyway, so only small buildings were pinpointed.

I wish that were true. Jax ripped down a Civil War era African-American neighborhood on the edge of downtown in the 1990s, to clear up blight for Jags fans on their drive from I-95 to the stadium. Here's a few pictures:


LaVilla around 1950


LaVilla in 2006.

Some photos from the neighborhood's last days during the mid-1990s:












One last picture. The three blocks at the bottom of this 1930s DT Jax image are of LaVilla. Most of the Cathedral District (neighborhood at top of image on other side of DT) and the entire wharf district is also gone.

[hauntedheadnc]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

But that's the prewar south.

Anyhow, it doesn't matter because the north has just as many examples of anti-urbanism, the only difference is that it had a much larger existing prewar building stock to start with.

The best urbanism up north is also of pre-war vintage. You have to admit that when the South did to urbanism, it did it right. Charleston and Savannah especially are incomparable in the way they perfectly blend the built environment with the natural world. Savannah's squares and Charleston's gardens... You can't say enough good about them.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

The best urbanism up north is also of pre-war vintage. You have to admit that when the South did to urbanism, it did it right. Charleston and Savannah especially are incomparable in the way they perfectly blend the built environment with the natural world. Savannah's squares and Charleston's gardens... You can't say enough good about them.

don't forget about new orleans, son! i love the urbanism of savannah and charleston but i'm always catching myself there like "but in new orleans it would be...".

[Crawford]

Savannah and Charleston are nice but very small cities, with a few blocks of good urbanism. IMO NOLA is the only Southern city with an extensive, intact, walkable core.

[hauntedheadnc]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

don't forget about new orleans, son! i love the urbanism of savannah and charleston but i'm always catching myself there like "but in new orleans it would be...".

I haven't been there, so I can't really comment on it other than in the most general terms.

Originally Posted by Crawford

Savannah and Charleston are nice but very small cities, with a few blocks of good urbanism. IMO NOLA is the only Southern city with an extensive, intact, walkable core.

Small cities yes, but they both feature considerably more than a "few blocks of good urbanism." The point is though, that when the South did urbanism, it did it very, very well. The quantity may have been small but the quality was top-notch.

[photoLith]

Charleston and Savannah have a hell of a lot more than a few blocks of amazing urbanism, not at all comparable to the extent of New Orleans, but still, each one has about 100 blocks or more of good intact urbanism. In the case of Savannah, it has about 3-4 miles both ways of historically intact urbanism and historic neighborhoods.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by photoLith

Charleston and Savannah have a hell of a lot more than a few blocks of amazing urbanism, not at all comparable to the extent of New Orleans, but still, each one has about 100 blocks or more of good intact urbanism. In the case of Savannah, it has about 3-4 miles both ways of historically intact urbanism and historic neighborhoods.

both cities are solid, to be sure. i've seen enough to be big fans of both, and have fam in charleston (most of my family is "old" southern).

in my case i was speaking more to my personal preferences of the particular varients of culture and cuisine.