12 unrecognizable before and after views of cities

[Samwill89]

http://www.oobject.com/category/12-u...ews-of-cities/

Despite the appearance of permanence that historic buildings create, many if not most of the worlds famous cities have been almost entirely destroyed either by war, property speculation or Ayn Randian architects. They have been rebuilt, either as replicas (Warsaw) or even in the image of the culture that destroyed them (Hiroshima). Here are images where either we or others have matched up locations for incredible before and after shots.


1. Kabul

Paghman Gardens, Kabul Afghanistan taken 40 years apart. We imagine that Afghanistan was always a barren and oppressive tribal culture, but as this image shows, war after war has turned back the clock.


2. Detroit
Perhaps America’s capitalism, red in tooth and claw will reveal what happens when a failed city gives itself back to nature, not in the space of 500 years, as Rome did, but within a lifetime.

Other cities pictured:

3. NYC (Manhattan)
4. Hiroshima
5. Dubai
6. San Francisco
7. Dresden
8. Warsaw
9. London
10. Las Vegas
11. Paris
12. Shenzhen



Do any of you have your own before/after pictures?

[Krases]

I can't contribute any of my own, but here is an older picture of City Center under construction in my city (click to go from 2005 to 2008).

[jboy560]

Wow. That Kabul picture is amazing in the most unfortunate way.

[huggkruka]

Interesting pictures, but many of them aren't really before and after pictures. Nice to see someone describing Le Corbusier that way as well, it's not what you hear regularly in architecture school... XD

[dimondpark]

Interesting.

The 1st Las Vegas pic implies that the strip is on Flamingo but the 2nd image is really Las Vegas Bl, not Flamingo.

[CGII]

Originally Posted by huggkruka

Interesting pictures, but many of them aren't really before and after pictures. Nice to see someone describing Le Corbusier that way as well, it's not what you hear regularly in architecture school... XD

You think it's appropriate and insightful to describe one of the most influential and important architects of history as 'unqualified but self appointed?' I'm sorry, that comment lost a lot of credibility from them.

[ue]

I don't get how there isn't a before Detroit picture. How can this be a BEFORE and after list?

[10023]

Originally Posted by CGII

You think it's appropriate and insightful to describe one of the most influential and important architects of history as 'unqualified but self appointed?' I'm sorry, that comment lost a lot of credibility from them.

I like some of Le Corbusier's furniture, but he was the embodiment of an architect that designed as an aesthetic exercise without any thought to the human side. We can only thank God that his visions for Paris were never realized.

[CGII]

Originally Posted by 10023

I like some of Le Corbusier's furniture, but he was the embodiment of an architect that designed as an aesthetic exercise without any thought to the human side. We can only thank God that his visions for Paris were never realized.

Naw, that's Walter Gropius. The Radiant City was actually a humanitarian effort; the slums of Paris presented horrible living conditions. They were unsanitary, dark, crime ridden areas that needed to house even more people and which had virtually no open space. Corbusier's solution was to replace that urban condition with a park, and to place within that park towers whose plans maximized the permutation of light and air. The Radiant City was never built, but his similar Unite d'Habitation projects were built and have a notable reputation for incredibly satisfied tenants.


brunorigolt.blod.lemonde.fr

Many ideas he put forth in the Radiant City and then reused in later projects were incredibly successful. Of course, the Radiant City also failed on many levels, but it was not because Corbusier designed machine architecture.

[shane453]

I love a good before-and-after. These two images of Oklahoma City are currently being used in campaign material supporting the city's third Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS) program, which should give us 6 miles of modern streetcar, an enormous downtown park to be the center of a new 1000 acre urban neighborhood, bike/walking trails, etc, when voters go to the polls on December 8. The first MAPS has sparked about $4-5 billion in downtown investment over the last 10 years, as seen in the "after" picture.

California St, Oklahoma City, 1998, one of the worst parts of town. You can see the Bricktown Ballpark (first of original MAPS projects) under construction at the end of the street.



Same view, about 5 years later. Today this stretch of buildings visible in the picture hosts the Academy of Contemporary Music (Paul McCartney's music college), retailers, nightclubs, bars, restaurants, loft apartments, and office space.

[Samwill89]

That is really neat shane!

[mmourning]

I always harp on how transformed the Old North neighborhood of St. Louis is. I've never seen such building restorations before! Even though basically reconstructed, they retain their historic look and feel.

1211-15 North Market Before


And After:


Source: Old North blog

Same buildings as above, post-facade repair but pre-roof.


And After:


Source: Built St. Louis

Blair/Clinton Intersection - December 2002 (Before A)


Blair/Clinton Intersection - November 2005 (Before B)


Blair/Clinton Intersection - September 2006 (After)


Source: Built St. Louis

And others:













Source: Old North blog

[shane453]

Wow- those are really great, and probably really really expensive, restorations in STL.

[sabino86]

Originally Posted by shane453

Wow- those are really great, and probably really really expensive, restorations in STL.

Definitely worth it though.

[Don B.]

Phoenix 1946:


Phoenix today:


--don

[i_am_hydrogen]

Poor Afghanistan has been ravaged not only by war but also Taliban iconoclasm.

****

Harlem before and after – 1980s/1990s to 2007
All photographs were taken by Camilo Vergara.
All photographs retrieved from http://invinciblecities.camden.rutgers.edu/intro.swf


1988

2007



1988

2007



View the remainder of the photos here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=149448

[Don B.]

^ Could we have one or two of the best, and not 800 photos, clogging the thread? Also, some of these don't show that much change. 20 years is not all that long in the greater scheme of things...

Thanks for sharing, though.

--don

[mr1138]

Some pictures of Denver's Central Platte Valley. The first appears to be from the 50s or 60s judging by the construction of I25 at the top of the picture. The second is Google Earth's 2007 aerial. Both pictures from http://www.flickr.com/photos/28936694@N03/page5/ via the Riverfront Park Blog http://blog.riverfrontpark.com/

The flickr account appears to be protecting their bandwidth or something by not letting me link directly to the photos from this post, so I am going to have to just post links unless somebody can tell me how to get around this.

Before:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2893669...54619/sizes/l/

After:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2893669...54969/sizes/l/

[10023]

Originally Posted by CGII

Naw, that's Walter Gropius. The Radiant City was actually a humanitarian effort; the slums of Paris presented horrible living conditions. They were unsanitary, dark, crime ridden areas that needed to house even more people and which had virtually no open space. Corbusier's solution was to replace that urban condition with a park, and to place within that park towers whose plans maximized the permutation of light and air. The Radiant City was never built, but his similar Unite d'Habitation projects were built and have a notable reputation for incredibly satisfied tenants.

The Radiant City was exactly the wrong way to improve Paris. It would have destroyed Paris. The "tower in a park" concept was one of the big mistakes of 20th century urban planning.

[CGII]

Originally Posted by 10023

The Radiant City was exactly the wrong way to improve Paris. It would have destroyed Paris. The "tower in a park" concept was one of the big mistakes of 20th century urban planning.

I don't disagree. But the Radiant City was born out of very compelling ideas about the relevance of open space, light and nature in the fabric of an overcongested cityscape. Does the fact that Le Corbusier designed one hyper-fantasy project as a study make him a horrible architect? Absolutely not.