60 Years of Urban Change: Northeast
iqc.ou.edu
60 Years of Urban Change: Northeast
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Re: 60 Years of Urban Change: Northeast
#2Wow. Pittsburgh, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, and Providence are intense.
See also - Midwest: http://iqc.ou.edu/2014/12/12/60yrsmidwest/ - Southeast: http://iqc.ou.edu/2014/12/18/60yrssoutheast/ - Oklahoma + Texas: http://iqc.ou.edu/2014/12/09/60years/
Re: 60 Years of Urban Change: Northeast
#3The automobile might prove to be the most detrimental invention of all time.
Re: 60 Years of Urban Change: Northeast
#4The Providence one is interesting, because the 2013 photo shows a substantial improvement---when I-195 was laid out, it made a crazy-ass loop through downtown (and bisecting some historic neighbourhoods) before heading east. About ten years ago they finally said, "this is dumb," and started planning for it to join I-95 further south. In the 2013 photo here, you can see the scars from where 195 used to be---it's still recovering.
If the "after" photo of Providence were from, say, 2003, the change would be even more dramatic.
Re: 60 Years of Urban Change: Northeast
#5The automobile might prove to be the most detrimental invention of all time.
It's really bad - the underlying pattern of change is tearing down a bunch of buildings an running big highways through the cities.
Re: 60 Years of Urban Change: Northeast
#6The automobile might prove to be the most detrimental invention of all time.
It's really bad - the underlying pattern of change is tearing down a bunch of buildings an running big highways through the cities.
You can also see huge blocks of land that used to be dedicated to railways, sidings and rail yards, mostly gone and replaced with large buildings.
Re: 60 Years of Urban Change: Northeast
#7Wow. Pittsburgh, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, and Providence are intense. See also - Midwest: http://iqc.ou.edu/2014/12/12/60yrsmidwest/ - Southeast: http://iqc.ou.edu/2014/12/18/60yrssoutheast/ - Oklahoma + Texas: http://iqc.ou.edu/2014/12/09/60years/
That's pretty sad, seeing Detroit turn from a bustling city to abandoned fields and parking lots
Re: 60 Years of Urban Change: Northeast
#8The automobile might prove to be the most detrimental invention of all time.
It's really bad - the underlying pattern of change is tearing down a bunch of buildings an running big highways through the cities.
Not to mention the tens of thousands of people evicted from high density buildings and ramping up suburban sprawl. Will that highway, after deducting maintenance and environmental damage, ever hope to recoup the costs in city services from handling low density housing?
Re: 60 Years of Urban Change: Northeast
#9Boston losing it's West End for towers in the park is one of the worst crimes of mid-20th century urban planning (renewal).
The automobile destroyed American cities... and mostly for the benefit of people who never even lived in the city but rather just commuted into or through it.
Re: 60 Years of Urban Change: Northeast
#10Wow. Pittsburgh, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, and Providence are intense. See also - Midwest: http://iqc.ou.edu/2014/12/12/60yrsmidwest/ - Southeast: http://iqc.ou.edu/2014/12/18/60yrssoutheast/ - Oklahoma + Texas: http://iqc.ou.edu/2014/12/09/60years/
Rochester is brutal. I go there every couple of months for work reasons and it's not hard to see how it was once a thriving city but it has been totally destroyed by highways.
I've seen these images before since architecture and urban planning are a hobby of mine and I always find the Buffalo before/after shots horrifying by how many pre-war buildings were turned into asphalt for cars.