urban renewal and planning disasters

MolsonExport · #1 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 5:18 PM**

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

MolsonExport · #2 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 5:26 PM**

Pruitt Igoe (St. Louis)

Quote:

Pruitt–Igoe was a large urban housing project first occupied in 1954 in the U.S. city of St. Louis, Missouri. Living conditions in Pruitt–Igoe began to decline soon after its completion in 1956. By the late 1960s, the complex had become internationally infamous for its poverty, crime, and segregation. Its 33 buildings were demolished with explosives in the mid-1970s, and the project has become an icon of urban renewal and public-policy planning failure.

Wikipedia

Above images c/o Wikipedia

Indoor common areas. Left (conception), Right (reality):

wsws

The North One · #3 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 6:27 PM**

Damn, what they did to Albany was straight up murder.

mhays · #4 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 7:18 PM**

Seattle narrowly sidestepped a plan like Albany's -- replacement of the then-downtrodden Pike Place Market with a series of residential towers on a big plaza-like podium. This was killed in the early 1970s. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/31947478578040803/

We've had our share of civic teardowns of course. I-5 was pushed through town, taking a block-wide stretch right past the CBD. Also around 1970 a tragic fire was the excuse for retroactively outlawing about 5,000 SRO-type housing units, resulting in mass teardowns and kicking off our modern homeless trend. As for saving, Pioneer Square is another good example from about 1970. Busy times those were...not coincidentally I had just learned to walk...

ThePhun1 · #5 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 7:54 PM**

What's that building that in some ways looks like a toilet seat behind the quadruplet towers in the third Albany pic?

Centropolis · #6 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 8:31 PM**

this is a different st. louis urban renewal mega-blooper than the former pruitt-igoe site.

the 1950s mill creek valley clearance, west of downtown and east of midtown.

st. louis post-dispatch

pre-demolition, looking towards midtown. you can see the midwestern rowhouse vernacular.

old midwestern stock.

friedmangroup.com

missouri history museum

during demolition

you can see pruitt-igoe up to the northeast.

missouri history museum

the half-baked replacements.

missouri history museum

the scar.

historyhappenshere.org

Crawford · #7 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 8:31 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThePhun1

What's that building that in some ways looks like a toilet seat behind the quadruplet towers in the third Albany pic?

It's the performing arts center; aka "The Egg".

I don't think Empire State Plaza or Pruitt Igoe are particularly bad in terms of urban renewal. Empire State Plaza has a fair amount of interesting stuff, is certainly a landmark, and replaced a fairly decayed area. Pruitt Igoe eventually became a disaster, but it too replaced a slum area and was a high quality development in its infancy. The problem with Pruitt Igoe was management and tenancy, IMO.

If you want real disasters, look at Cincy's West End, which was a super-dense (for North American standards) brick neighborhood demolished for basically nothing (freeway ramps and parking lots), or Detroit's Black Bottom, which was an almost as dense neighborhood demolished for about the same.

Ryanrule · #8 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 8:34 PM**

china is doing a lot of "towers in a park"

wonder how that will work out for them .

Centropolis · #9 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 8:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crawford

If you want real disasters, look at Cincy's West End, which was a super-dense (for North American standards) brick neighborhood demolished for basically nothing (freeway ramps and parking lots), or Detroit's Black Bottom, which was an almost as dense neighborhood demolished for about the same.

the st. louis mill creek demolition was around the same scale as the black bottom clearance.

Centropolis · #10 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 8:48 PM**

i've heard that a lot of the wrought iron fencing from the demolitions in st. louis ended up on the near northside of chicago, like old town, just as those areas were in the very early stages of being revitalized.

Crawford · #11 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 8:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Centropolis

the st. louis mill creek demolition was around the same scale as the black bottom clearance.

Yeah, I had never heard of it, but sounds about the same. To me, those are the most egregious examples.

All the urban renewal projects were based on flawed thinking, but I think the ones where you actually got something in return (whether modern housing, parks, skyscrapers, cultural centers, etc.) are slightly less odious. When a neighborhood is wiped out and the replacement is basically nothing; that's where it really hurts the city overall.

Centropolis · #12 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 8:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crawford

Yeah, I had never heard of it, but sounds about the same. To me, those are the most egregious examples.

All the urban renewal projects were based on flawed thinking, but I think the ones where you actually got something in return (whether modern housing, parks, skyscrapers, cultural centers, etc.) are slightly less odious. When a neighborhood is wiped out and the replacement is basically nothing; that's where it really hurts the city overall.

yeah, today that area is a mish-mosh of 1960s light industrial and offices, highway infrastructure, and some new construction by st. louis university, and some of the area was never rebuilt with anything. most people don't realize that the much larger area was completely clear-cut.

Centropolis · #13 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 9:05 PM**

the pre-civil war era st. louis riverfront was cleared for the arch, of course. hotels where lincoln slept in the 1840s and possibly where charles dickens laid his head. early 19th century fur trader warehouses and watering holes. poof.

circa 1818. the mansard was of course added much later...

umsl.edu

shorpy.com

https://stltourguide.files.wordpress.com

st. louis post dispatch

www.cnu.org

yale university press

shorpy

Centropolis · #14 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 9:16 PM**

airstrike of the north st. louis warehouse district by the 1957 us airforce.

Centropolis · #15 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 9:25 PM**

kosciusco, between soulard and the river, was slated for heavy industrial but sort of half baked out.
exhibited building styles reminiscent of new orleans.

vanishingstl.blogspot.com

stldotage.blogspot.com

hungarian catholic church, circa 1843.

jd3189 · #16 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 9:26 PM**

How large was St. Louis population-wise back then? Looks like it was at least in the top ten.

Centropolis · #17 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 9:30 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jd3189

How large was St. Louis population-wise back then? Looks like it was at least in the top ten.

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.

wong21fr · #18 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 9:41 PM**

The disaster known as the Skyline Project in Denver of the 1960's and 70's. 27 blocks of downtown Denver was torn down with the idea that they would be replaced by shiny new office towers:

Denver Urban Renewal Authority Skyline Project Era

Unfortunately, here we are nearly fifty years later and a lot of of those blocks are still parking lots.

MplsTodd · #19 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 10:22 PM**

Minneapolis had the Gateway District, an Urban Renewal project that resulted in a complete destruction of approximately 12-14 square blocks in the original 1880s-1890s part of downtown Minneapolis (before downtown's heart gravitated southward towards 5th-8th streets. By the late 1950s, this area was skid row and had scores of worn out buildings. But the scorched earth demolition resulted in the loss of several architectural treasures, including the Metropolitan Building, an elegant 1890s landmark that was considered the first "skyscraper" in the city (at 12 stories). It was torn down in 1961 and was a parking lot for 20 years and then the site was developed with a generic 8-story Class B building.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...FQjEYwodKTYF2Q

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...FQjEYwodKTYF2Q

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...FQjEYwodKTYF2Q

https://www.minnpost.com/business/20...-gateway-scars

http://lileks.com/mpls/gateway/

Buckeye Native 001 · #20 Posted **Oct 21, 2015, 10:57 PM**

Does highway construction count? Because if so, I'd throw I-75 through the West End of Cincinnati and the construction of I-71/Fort Washington Way into the mix.

Granted, Fort Washington Way replaced a lot of nondescript buildings in an area prone to flooding, but the end result was the sequestration of the riverfront from the rest of Downtown Cincinnati. Eventually, the city built a crappy cookie cutter multipurpose stadium and an even shittier arena, and then eventually two stadiums that suck all they can from the taxpayers of Hamilton County for the pleasure of hosting awful football and terrible baseball teams.