What surprised you most about the cities you've visited?

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by mhays

My main qualm was how Michigan interacts with the neighborhoods to the sides and mostly east (viaduct stairs), and the lack of life in that area (River North I guess?).

the neighborhood to the east of the mag mile is streeterville. river north is to the west of mag mile and has considerably more street life than streeterville.

Originally Posted by ThreeHundred

Chicago I instantly became a fan of these horseshoe shaped apartment buildings with a central courtyard. Does anyone know if this style of apartment have a name because they are all over the city in one form or another.

here in chicago, i've always just heard them referred to as "courtyard buildings".

example:

me: "hey, i heard you just moved into a new place, where are you at now?"

friend: "yeah, i got a 2 bedroom in a courtyard building over in buena park"

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Crawford

That apartment building typology is all over the place, and very common to every city between Buffalo and Milwaukee.

Detroit has tons of these types of u-shaped buildings.

I think it's more indicative of the period of construction than being a regional thing. There are a lot of those types of building in NYC, particularly in Upper Manhattan neighborhoods -- Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood -- and the Bronx.

[Tom In Chicago]

Houston - For what is supposed to be a progressive booming sun-belt city, downtown Houston looks like Detroit and is the only traditional urban component to the city. . .

Toronto - Architecturally dismal. . . who's in charge here?!?

San Francisco - For being such a beautiful city, all the high-rise buildings are brutally ugly. . .

Dubai - I didn't expect to see prostitutes on the streets

Denver - Thought I'd be more impressed by this place. . .

Seattle - Thought I'd be more impressed by this place. . .

Miami - Aside from the asshole tourists Miami/Miami Beach feels like a real city. . .

Los Angeles - Surprisingly hilly and very urbane. . .

New York City - Easier to find parking than here in Chicago. . .

Dubai - Surprisingly pedestrian friendly and walkable. . .

Mexico City - Lots of neighborhoods that resemble European cities. . . not what I would have expected to see. . .

Frankfurt - Man there's a LOT of retail here. . . is it me or is this a somewhat new phenomenon?

. . .

[Marcu]

Originally Posted by ThreeHundred

Tucson

Chicago - Absolutely blown away by the sheer size of everything. Everything is huge. Grant Park? Huge. Millennium Park? Huge. Field Museum? Huge. Also the quality of the architecture in Chicago is outstanding. I instantly became a fan of these horseshoe shaped apartment buildings with a central courtyard. Does anyone know if this style of apartment have a name because they are all over the city in one form or another. A picture I took.

In Chicago, we call them "courtyard buildings". There are quite a few variations both within city limits and in nearby suburbs. If I were to guess, Rogers Park (far north side) and Evanston (inner northern suburbs) probably have the largest concentration relative to other building styles. Most were built in the 1920s. More here: http://achicagosojourn.blogspot.com/...apartment.html

[BrandonJXN]

Originally Posted by Marcu

In Chicago, we call them "courtyard buildings". There are quite a few variations both within city limits and in nearby suburbs. If I were to guess, Rogers Park (far north side) and Evanston (inner northern suburbs) probably have the largest concentration relative to other building styles. Most were built in the 1920s. More here: http://achicagosojourn.blogspot.com/...apartment.html

Really awesome. Thanks for that.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I think it's more indicative of the period of construction than being a regional thing. There are a lot of those types of building in NYC, particularly in Upper Manhattan neighborhoods -- Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood -- and the Bronx.

There's a courtyard building typology in Upper Manhattan/Bronx, but IMO it's quite different than the courtyard buildings under discussion.

The Midwest-style buildings are basically all four floor walkups, with a dumbbell shape, and a park-like courtyard.

The Upper Manhattan/Bronx buildings are basically all 6-7 floors, often elevator, with a skinny u-shaped concrete entryway. There's no park.

[Omaharocks]

Atlanta - was different than I expected. I expected something more like Houston, but it's more like the metro DC area in terms of topography, weather, vegetation etc, but with in-town neighborhoods similar in built form and feel to a midwestern city like Minneapolis (just with more traffic and generally dispersed nodes of activity).

Seattle - I guess I just don't see what others do. Fantastic natural scenery, but I felt comparing it to Portland, that Portland had a cozy feel I can't quite put into words, with more interesting historic neighborhoods and better-quality infill.

Tucson - Was surprised at some of the Sonoran row-home neighborhoods adjacent to downtown - older, and to me more architecturally interesting than the vaulted row-home neighborhoods of the east coast.

Salt Lake City - Was expecting nice scenery, but didn't realize that downtown is literally nested right against the mountains - much more visceral impact than Denver, where the mountains are a bit off in the distance.

El Paso - Definitely expected to find a less vibrant downtown. Downtown El Paso has a fantastic historic building stock, and the number of pedestrians seems higher than in any other Texas city. The city is also very hilly, and it was bizarre to stand in a hill in an older neighborhood and see the stacked, colorful houses of Juarez directly across the way, almost like you could touch it.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Crawford

There's a courtyard building typology in Upper Manhattan/Bronx, but IMO it's quite different than the courtyard buildings under discussion.

The Midwest-style buildings are basically all four floor walkups, with a dumbbell shape, and a park-like courtyard.

The Upper Manhattan/Bronx buildings are basically all 6-7 floors, often elevator, with a skinny u-shaped concrete entryway. There's no park.

Not really, elevators are relatively rare in older buildings above 110th St. None of the buildings that I have in mind are elevator buildings. All are 5 floor walk-ups, such as:

http://goo.gl/maps/ynrXA

http://goo.gl/maps/HWpYd

[Keep-SA-Lame]

Originally Posted by Omaharocks

El Paso - Definitely expected to find a less vibrant downtown. Downtown El Paso has a fantastic historic building stock, and the number of pedestrians seems higher than in any other Texas city. The city is also very hilly, and it was bizarre to stand in a hill in an older neighborhood and see the stacked, colorful houses of Juarez directly across the way, almost like you could touch it.

Most Texas border cities have crazy amounts of pedestrian activity and retail in their downtowns.

[Antares41]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Not really, elevators are relatively rare in older buildings above 110th St. None of the buildings that I have in mind are elevator buildings. All are 5 floor walk-ups, such as:

http://goo.gl/maps/ynrXA

http://goo.gl/maps/HWpYd

Elevators certainly were rare in the Bronx where I grew up on Crotona Park North. I think some of the aptment buildings on the Grand Concourse probably had elevators, but most of the five story bldgs. in central and south Bronx did not.

[Jonboy1983]

Originally Posted by Crawford

That apartment building typology is all over the place, and very common to every city between Buffalo and Milwaukee.

Detroit has tons of these types of u-shaped buildings.

Originally Posted by novawolverine

I always just called them U-shaped buildings, but they also commonly have art-deco influences as well.

Originally Posted by hudkina

That is actually quite common throughout the Great Lakes cities.

Pittsburgh has a notable hotel that is a "U" shape, the Renaissance Hotel, which overlooks the Allegheny River at the corner of Allegheny River Boulevard and 6th Street. A developer's earlier vision for the Strip District also included a series of 4-to-5-story apartment buildings facing the Allegheny River...

Anyway, I didn't post my surprising city...

Seattle. I was amazed at how the streets are laid out. Parts of it resemble San Francisco, especially near the Columbia Center. Also, the topography is very breathtaking. You have Puget Sound on one side of the city, and way off in the distance on any side of the city you have enormous mountains, including Mt. Ranier. It looks so close, but in reality it's some 80 or so miles away. Those are mountains, and I have never seen mountains like that in my life. I remember one mountain I got pretty up close to: Mt. Si. It looks so much taller than 4,000 feet for some reason

And yeah, I throw in something about my home town. I never was in the Strip until about a few years ago. My in-laws were there for their first time recently, and they couldn't get over how clean it was and how unbelieveably busy it was! They said it's better than South Philly's Italian Market. I was blown away at how busy it was as well. It felt like parts of New York City to me. Oh yeah, and my in-laws also said that as well...

[Lecom]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

dull, decayed/decrepit, dangerous and deserted.

Nice Rust Belt alliteration you got there.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by M.R.Victor

Toronto - my current home. I had certain pre-conceptions of how a city ought to function prior to moving to Canada. I find the city disjointed and completely lacking in terms of civic pride and civic identity. I love it none-the-less, which is surprising in itself, since the views I encounter regarding this city are wildly polarized.

This largely mirrors my views on Toronto. Many things about Toronto run contrary to my ideas about what a city should look like, but it seems to be moving closer to those cemented views each passing year.

There's no way in hell I could have lived in Toronto before 2000. Today I love Toronto (couldn't imagine living anywhere else), but it's still very much a work in progress. I think it will start coming together in about 10-15 years.

[novawolverine]

Originally Posted by Omaharocks

Salt Lake City - Was expecting nice scenery, but didn't realize that downtown is literally nested right against the mountains - much more visceral impact than Denver, where the mountains are a bit off in the distance.

I can agree with this. I haven't been to as many places as some, and the places I have been to, I think I had a some time to do some research to get various perspectives and/or had heard many things. But, SLC was a positive surprise for me. I knew it was near the mountains, but didn't realize just how close they were. I have a friend from college who lives downtown, and I have another friend from college 15 minutes away from them a few thousand feet above the valley near some of the best snow in the world for skiing.

I think the downtown could be better, but there are some cool and young neighborhoods along with some classy "old-money" residential neighborhoods with good vegetation. Lots of outdoor stuff to do. People seemed friendly and maybe it's just the places I went, but there were a lot of attractive women. It's easy to say that sometimes when you haven't spent a lot of time somewhere, though. It was just a slower, but very pleasant place to be. Don't know if I could live there, though.

[patrod89]

Bellevue, Washington has one of the best downtowns I have ever been too. There is some history to it in Old Bellevue but all of the skyscrapers were built from the 80's to now. It's very modern. Only two or three old buildings like the PAACAR building. The mall is very nice and has one of the best views of the city. It's really coming a long way. Cranes still dot the skyline as well. The city height ordinance I think is actually helping the look of the city. it's very attractive.

[Illithid Dude]

I was really surprised by Boston. I didn't really know what to expect, but when I got there, I loved how clean and aesthetically focused it felt. Really a lovely city.

Miami, on the other hand... ugh. I got the worst vibe from it. The very city emanated douchy-ness. And the downtown was pathetic, and incredibly un-walkable. Disappointingly, all the new high-rises were very pedestrian-unfriendly. And I couldn't find any good restaurants! Incredible case of style before substance.

Munich is just a depressing, grey, ugly city. Felt like some second world Eastern European city. It's no Berlin, that's for sure.

Jerusalem was surprisingly verdant. Felt like Italy. I came in thinking that it would be a stone city in the middle of the desert, with nothing except for course shrubs for shade. Imagine my surprise when I found that there were more trees in Jerusalem then in Los Angeles! And incredibly urbane to boot.

[pdxtex]

alternate thread title, "what place seems crappy but wasn't as bad as you thought?"

[Omaharocks]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Munich is just a depressing, grey, ugly city. Felt like some second world Eastern European city. It's no Berlin, that's for sure.

Really? My experience was the opposite - Munich was far more architecturally attractive than Berlin imo, though came off as stuffier than Berlin. From what I remember, Munich is one of the wealthiest major cities in Europe, so the "second world" sentiment is odd...

In Europe, I was impressed by Sarajevo - very interesting ottoman quarter.

Tirana, Albania had a spectacular mountain background, and was far more unique in every way than I expected - and perhaps because it was culturally isolated for so long, it reminded me more of some South American cities than the major capitals of nearby countries.

[brickell]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Miami, on the other hand... ugh. I got the worst vibe from it. The very city emanated douchy-ness. And the downtown was pathetic, and incredibly un-walkable. Disappointingly, all the new high-rises were very pedestrian-unfriendly. And I couldn't find any good restaurants! Incredible case of style before substance.

You came to Miami and looked for good food downtown? Easy mistake to make I suppose but Miami isn't alone in having separate cultural and business centers.

Tampa for one. NYC to an extent. New Orleans? LA? Boston? Philadelphia? DC? Maybe I'm being too tight with my definition of downtown, but you get the idea. South Beach is only a short ride across the bay.

[leftimage]

A Montrealer's perspective...

CANADA

Ottawa: much more beautiful (natural and man-made) than I had expected. Sadly, also more boring despite the modest standards I had set.

Toronto: Much more interesting and lively downtown core than I had expected. Better nightlife. Assertions that the city just extends endlessly and aimlessly inland, however, were easily recognizable.

Kingston: a prettier core than I had imagined.

USA

New York City: I had extremely high expectations. They were met and then some. Truly the center of the universe...

Philadelphia: prettier and more historical neighborhoods than I had imagined. Shopping, eating, drinking all beat my expectations. Nightlife really depressing... as if city goes on lockdown and most white people get out of the general area... cop cars everywhere. (granted, only spent 2 nights)

Baltimore: Ugh, having seen the best and worst of this city within a limited time frame, city just seems like a sham. Nice though.

Miami: downtown is boring. South beach doesn't pretend to be something its not: cheesy but authentically so. Fake but genuinely so. And the turquoise-water, white-sand beaches so close to the core... an amazing city. Would consider moving there.

Virginia Beach: someone needs to spread the word that this place is funky as hell... the whole tie dye t-shirt/ stoners on longboards element was completely lost on me. Interesting vibe.


EUROPE

Milan: more entirely modern than I had thought. Almost seems like a city settled in the 20th century. Not a very cozy city... very businesslike. Surprisingly imposing high-rises all around the core.

Rome: Like another poster mentioned, this city is just strange... trampled by tourists, the old architecture and sights definitely deliver, but all the locals seem depressed. Seems like a hard life there... disgusting graffiti everywhere (outside of the cliché tourist spots) almost makes it seem like locals are fed up with the city's posturing. Folks seem either unfriendly, or unconvincingly friendly. I feel like an overdose of tourism may have turned this city into a schizophrenic, coke-sniffing cynic. Definitely oozing in corruption as well.

Torino: expectations had been lowered after seeing Rome. City turned out being phenomenally clean, seems to be basking in wealth. Locals seem to love their city and embrace visitors. Oddly enough, this city seemed more 'international' than Rome... or in the very least more welcoming of outsiders. Also seemed much more functional than Rome - less corrupt. Come to think of it, seemed like a different country altogether.

London: See New York.

Paris: see New York, but the locals weren't as friendly/lively.

Geneva: impeccable city. Boring, only because I lack the funds. Definitely the most expensive city I've ever set foot in.

Lugano: Without a doubt, the most geographically blessed European city I visited.

Here's a photo I took in Lugano.