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The video has an interesting commentary discussing the inspiration for Embassy Gardens; including motivations/design motifs from both the Highline and Union Square in New York City.
Last edited by MissionIMPOSSIBRU; 12-13-2013 at 03:50 AM..
There is so much going on in London and not just in respect of the city centre, the poorer areas such as the East End and South London are also seeing massive investment with vast concrete public housing (projects) developments being demolished and replaced with better housing, whilst the East End has just hosted the Olympic Games and is seeing massive investment with Canary Wharf set to double in size, the extension of massive ExCel Conference Centre, the redevelopment of the Royal Docks, the Greenwich Peninsula, O2 Arena, Thames Gateway and the redevelopment of many area in the South of the City.
The same is true of post industrial land, a lot of which is now being developed in areas close to the heart of London, in areas such as Nine Elms (currently) the biggest regeneration project in Europe), Kings Cross, Paddington Basin, City Road Basin, Chelsea Barracks, Chelsea Creek, Waterloo, the South Bank and numerous other projects, whilst the City of London has changed massively in only a decade with a whole host of new skyscrapers and buildings, and more planned, whilst areas such as Smithfield and Bishopsgates Goodsyard in the city area are to be totally redeveloped.
It seems like pretty much all of these cities are building significantly at this point and have been for a while. Is it basically a common trend of populations and economies concentrating themselves in their primary cities?
The UK very nearly went bankrupt in the 1970's and by the 1980's we had mass unemployment and a lots of our cities were equally devastated. Yes NYC had a bad crime rate, but London also had red hot summers of riots in areas such as Brixton and Tottenham, whilst many areas such as Notting Hill were virtual ghettos at the time, that's the same Notting Hill that's every estate agents dream these days and the same applies to numerous other areas. NYC never had the vast expanses of bombed out Land or the vast industrial East End that London had, the Docks are unimaginable vast and all were lost in the 1960's and 70's due to cointainerisation, you are talking docks that started at Tower Bridge and went right up the river eastward, they were at the time the largest docks in the entire world.
In terms of skyscrapers you don't notice a new skyscraper in NYC, it's just another skyscraper, whilst Paris hasn't changed in centuries in terms of much of the central city, whilst NYC was never destroyed in the way London was. NYC might have been gentrified like London, but large parts of London were also sadly destroyed or had to be rebuilt due to war, post industrialisation or poor quality post war architecture. NYC may have seen some rebuilding but it doesn't have the vast swathes to build upon especially near the Centre that London does as well as further out in to Greater London.
Another poster mentioned Kings Cross and I have to agree, Kings Cross was at one time awful area, that you wouldn't want to be around at night but today it's now totally different. After the war London was a bombed out hole, full of deserters, gangs, black marketeers and was a lawless place, Scotland Yard even set up special squads to deal with it, such was the extent of the problem.
I don't think many Americans actually realise what Londoners went through, or the extent of destruction that the city suffered, a city by the way that has virtually been destroyed three times during it's existence.
NYC actually very publicly went bankrupt in the 70s with the newspaper headline of "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD." If you're talking about crime rates, and this is very much a good thing, London was never anywhere close to NYC's crime rates--merely a tiny fraction of the sort of violence and abandonment that beset NYC and many US cities in the 70s through to the early 90s and even today London's murder rate is about a quarter of NYC's murder rate. You also should realize that NYC had one of the largest ports and shipyards in the world (it was basically the city's entire reason for being initially)--they went through the same crisis with containerization. Tokyo did, too, but with a lot more pro-active government.
NYC actually very publicly went bankrupt in the 70s with the newspaper headline of "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD." If you're talking about crime rates, and this is very much a good thing, London was never anywhere close to NYC's crime rates--merely a tiny fraction of the sort of violence and abandonment that beset NYC and many US cities in the 70s through to the early 90s and even today London's murder rate is about a quarter of NYC's murder rate. You also should realize that NYC had one of the largest ports and shipyards in the world (it was basically the city's entire reason for being initially)--they went through the same crisis with containerization. Tokyo did, too, but with a lot more pro-active government.
I am not sure exactly what your problem is, however all I stated was in recent years London has seen the most dramatic change in terms of it's skyline and the redevelopment of extremely large sites which were either the result of urban blight/de-industrialisation or which were remnants of war. In terms of bankruptcy, Britain was left bankrupt following WW2 when a largely bombed out London and Britain had to ration food (rationing went on until the 1950's) and we nearly went bankrupt again in the early 1970's when the lights constantly went out and the country was on a three day week. Then again this has nothing to do with my initial assertion, nor does all this nonsense regarding NYC.
In terms of the Docks, London's Docks were over twenty miles up river, and were closed as were the warehouses leaving tens of miles of empty docks and warehouses, they didn't even revert to containerisation, the ships instead docked right up river at Tilbury or at new docks such as Felixstowe in Suffolk, although some containerisation has come back to the Thames Gateway via the recent opening of a new dock. You have to go a very long way up the Thames to actually reach London, far further than NYC or Tokyo, whilst Paris is not a port city and was never bombed to the same extent London was during WW2.
But Paris was a big industrial city with a lot of large industrial areas that have been redevelopped or are currently in redevelopment.
That may be so, but how much of this land is in Central Paris, I can't see Paris have anything like the 195 hectares at Nine Elms just across the bridge from Chelsea at Battersea for instance.
Paris Rive Gauche (this only show the part inside the city limits of Paris because the redevelopement cover a much larger area along the Seine river).
This is as central as Nine Elms.
Ney Macdonald area. (same case here including the nearby Plaine Saint-Denis area, this is a much larger redevelopment area than what's shown here).
...etc
Not that I am really that bothered but neither are as big as Nine Elms, at 195 hectares, and Nine Elms leads directly on to further developments at Southbank and Waterloo, whilst Chelsea Creek and Chelsea Barracks are just across the river as is Lots Road Power Station and the massive redevelopment at Earls Court in Kensington, with some 6,000 new homes. Then there is the new Imperial Campus and redevelopment at nearby White City, and I am only scratching the surface here.
Whilst I don't mind Paris and love the fact we have a rapid Eurostar connection lets not pretend that Central Paris has anywhere near the potential of redevelopment London does, to suggest otherwise is like suggesting that London's listed West End has lots of potential for redevelopment, when in fact we all know it doesn't as it's historic and protected by law. Paris might have one or two areas but it still has no where near the potential that London has.
I am not sure exactly what your problem is, however all I stated was in recent years London has seen the most dramatic change in terms of it's skyline and the redevelopment of extremely large sites which were either the result of urban blight/de-industrialisation or which were remnants of war. In terms of bankruptcy, Britain was left bankrupt following WW2 when a largely bombed out London and Britain had to ration food (rationing went on until the 1950's) and we nearly went bankrupt again in the early 1970's when the lights constantly went out and the country was on a three day week. Then again this has nothing to do with my initial assertion, nor does all this nonsense regarding NYC.
In terms of the Docks, London's Docks were over twenty miles up river, and were closed as were the warehouses leaving tens of miles of empty docks and warehouses, they didn't even revert to containerisation, the ships instead docked right up river at Tilbury or at new docks such as Felixstowe in Suffolk, although some containerisation has come back to the Thames Gateway via the recent opening of a new dock. You have to go a very long way up the Thames to actually reach London, far further than NYC or Tokyo, whilst Paris is not a port city and was never bombed to the same extent London was during WW2.
I never mentioned Paris as a port city nor having it being bombed--I specifically mentioned Tokyo.
NYC literally went bankrupt rather than nearly went bankrupt. Blight and deindustrialization on a massive scale is not specific to London nor the UK and was arguably worse in NYC. NYC's ports went out of the city to New Jersey.
Don't know what your problem is, but you seem to want to make this into which city is developing the most like London. The answer to that is London. Congrats!
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