Can anyone guess this popular city center?
Archive for the 'Pic o' the Day' Category
Nick, Charck, and Alex got it — it’s Church Street in Burlington, VT. Everyone was able to narrow it down to New England, however.
I love Church St because it embodies so many quality urban elements. The street is completely closed off to cars for several blocks, allowing people to comfortably utilize the public space in many ways.
The urban design is of high quality, with multi-story mixed use buildings defining street space as well as physically welcoming people on the street. In classic New England form, the street terminates as a “T-intersection”, showcasing a church (a public building/meeting house) as a symbolic gesture that the street is a functional community space and democracy is at work.
As you can see, this space is active year round despite Vermont’s frigid winter weather. During the summer and fall it’s a great spot to shop, dine al fresco, or just take a stroll with a friend or family member. Some of the surrounding streets are even bike-friendly, with bike lanes linking to the city’s network.
It’s hard to see how this scale could be objectionable to anyone; with Miami 21, we could expect to see quality urbanism of this scale in several neighborhoods.
Can anyone guess where this fine public space is?
Can anyone, without cheating of course, name the city, central plaza, and cathedral depicted in this picture?
Answer: Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara, Mexico
We’re running a couple days off, but let’s see if anyone can identify this urban pedestrian street. I’ll reveal the answer tomorrow or provide a hint later tonight…
I’m assuming everyone would have figured out what city was featured in yesterday’s Pic o’ the Day had I placed this picture up instead:
I’m surprised nobody could realize that was Duck Creek Park sitting right smack in the middle of all those housing sectors. The point of the Pic o’ the Day was to illustrate just how drab and boring our suburban lives in suburbia have become. As rd commented in the previous post:
I’m surprised nobody could realize that was Duck Creek Park sitting right smack in the middle of all those housing sectors. The point of the Pic o’ the Day was to illustrate just how drab and boring our suburban lives in suburbia have become. As rd commented in the previous post:“I still believe it’s somewhere in Miami visible by plane. I’ve seen Miami out of a plane before and it looks just like that photo.”
I’ve seen it too and it’s revolting. I can guarantee you (and I will) that I can find pictures of thousands of suburbs across the country that all look like they could be here in our own backyard. Kendall, most of Broward, South Dade, nearly all of Palm Beach, etc. is quickly becoming a mass of featureless suburban plight. Cookie cutter houses, laid out on arbitrarily curvy streets which connect to a few major connector roads, all of which are littered with drive-thru everythings and strip shopping centers. There is no sense of place or community because this isn’t a place (or a community!) just a soulless blob stretching out radially from every former nucleic city center…
To be continued…
Last week’s Pic o’ the day featured a very memorable, walkable, and livable neighborhood in Philadelphia. Today’s picture is just the opposite, exemplifying much of the construction occurring all across the American landscape. Try and see if you can figure out where this blandness is located. 
The point of this photograph is to illustrate the lack of creativity associated with urban sprawl. Developers are creating homogeneous housing areas which completely lack a sense of space or community. The available public space is poorly distributed, houses are sectioned off in quadrants inaccessible to pedestrians, and the whole neighborhood suffers from the lack of any memorable structures. I’d be surprised if anyone can guess where this place is…
The point of this photograph is to illustrate the lack of creativity associated with urban sprawl. Developers are creating homogeneous housing areas which completely lack a sense of space or community. The available public space is poorly distributed, houses are sectioned off in quadrants inaccessible to pedestrians, and the whole neighborhood suffers from the lack of any memorable structures. I’d be surprised if anyone can guess where this place is…
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