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The Raising of Chicago

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Re: The Raising of Chicago

#71

Post by twelvechairs »

timjahn wrote: post #39
js2 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See also the 1893 World's Fair - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition (One of my favorite books in the last few years is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil_in_the_White_City )

Amazing book! Hope they finally make it into a movie sometime soon.

wow. never knew of this book but I'm an architect with a good understanding of the pioneering work and complex relationships of Burnham and root, Adler and Sullivan and mckim mead and white. there are cracking stories to be told here. I'm going to have to pick up the book now to see if it is done justice.

Re: The Raising of Chicago

#73

Post by jusben1369 »

ParahSailin wrote: post #60
jusben1369 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well if any of today's American cities lost 5 to 7% of their population in a single year to some sort of medical epidemic I suspect there'd be a fair bit of civil activity.

The 1885 cholera epidemic is a widely told myth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_1885_cholera_epidemic_m...

Well I was going simply off the article. Still, even that entry shows pretty consistent spurts of deaths hitting 3 - 5% of the population so it's pretty consistent with the point of the article (after multiple years of deaths they were force/spurred to act)

Re: The Raising of Chicago

#74

Post by mackey »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #59
mackey wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who works in an office building along rose kennedy greenway, I wouldn't say it was totally a disaster. Basically everything along the greenway has been revitalized and it's pretty beautiful to walk around in the summer. There is a lot more activity in the area and lots of new restaurants.

The real problem with the Big Dig is that is was designed and built in ignorance of the law of demand [1] as it applies to lane capacity. The traffic congestion that the Big Dig was supposed to eliminate simply moved outward [2]. They should have eliminated the Big Dig completely and spent the money on increasing rapid transit capacity. That said, eliminating the elevated highway that cut the North End off from the r…

I can't really speak to traffic because I rarely drive, but I do agree there needs to be more investment in rapid transit. I rely on the red line/walking to get to and from my office. It is the only line I would consider living on.

But I did want to add that it isn't only the north end that was cut off. I doubt the resurgence of the Sea port area/"innovation district" would have happened if it hadn't been for the big dig.

Re: The Raising of Chicago

#75

Post by mapt »

Galveston underwent a similar transition of two stories after the catastrophic damage of a hurricane in the year 1900, in order that it would never be vulnerable again†

†Unless the city expanded outside the elevated seawall, which it did... for a time. Predictably, another hurricane has corrected this oversight recently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galveston,_Texas#Hurricane_of_1...

Re: The Raising of Chicago

#76

Post by tripzilch »

newbie12 wrote: post #45
clarkm wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a gif of the land reclaimed by Boston over time: http://wp.streetwise.co/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/filling_i... Can you imagine anything of this scale happening today?

Today's Boston can't even build a traffic tunnel. The Big Dig was a disaster-- took decades, costs billions more than planned, and was so shoddy the finished roof fell and killed someone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig

Not to say this is okay, but those huge historic engineering projects usually cost more than just a single life.

Every time I see a cathedral or dom tower ... :)

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