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I feel this should be a good thread to show some of the beauty of these historic post-industrial cities. Which would you argue has the “best” architecture?
They all have their positives and negatives. Going through each.
Baltimore:
Pros - Tons of surviving finely-grained neighborhoods. Oldest housing stock overall, with some early 19th century neighborhoods still surviving. Tight-grained urban fabric. Lots of classic prewar buildings remaining in Downtown.
Cons - Lots of blight. Mediocre skyline. Downtown marred by two many wide high-speed, one-way streets. Outer neighborhood rowhouse styles are very plain and unadorned.
Cleveland:
Pros - Many impressive "monumental" style buildings remain in Downtown area. Some real beauties in University Circle as well.
Cons -Ugliest residential vernacular overall, with most city neighborhoods full of detached 1-2 unit frame boxes.
Detroit:
Pros - A nice selection of monumental-scale prewar midrises remains.
Cons - Relatively little remains intact outside of Downtown, and the surviving intact neighborhoods, although sometimes nice, are pretty suburban in feel.
Pittsburgh:
Pros - Dense, tightly-packed downtown with few parking lots and a nice mix of older and newer buildings. Many intact 19th century brick rowhouse neighborhoods. Less blight than the remainder of the cities.
Cons - Frame neighborhoods (mostly on hills) are much uglier than brick neighborhoods.
St. Louis:
Pros - Cool historic vernacular in neighborhoods like Soulard and Lafayette Square unlike any other city on this list.
Cons - Probably the weakest downtown overall, urban renewal damaged the fabric of the city significantly. It could have been a Philadelphia of the Midwest, but so little was left standing.
I feel this should be a good thread to show some of the beauty of these historic post-industrial cities. Which would you argue has the “best” architecture?
All three of these cities have a lot of really good architecture but a lot of Cleveland’s homes are wooden framed houses which don’t have a lot of decorations and Detroit suffers from a dearth of quality pre-1920s architecture. Not to say it doesn’t exist and there aren’t a lot of great examples but it’s lacking compared to the other cities on this list.
Overall I’d put
Pittsburgh-St. Louis-Baltimore tie
Detroit slightly below those cities, maybe in 5 years I’ll change my mind if enough areas fill up. Right now I feel like there aren’t a lot of really cohesive historic neighborhoods despite great individual buildings.
Cleveland slightly below Detroit.
I feel this should be a good thread to show some of the beauty of these historic post-industrial cities. Which would you argue has the “best” architecture?
Skyscrapers...Cleveland by far...none has a tower as tall as Key Tower or as beautiful as Terminal Tower
Landmarks
Landmarks...St Louis...Gateway Arch is the most iconic landmark of all of these cities
Parks...Cleveland Metroparks rank best in the nation so Cleveland by far
Urban Design...Pittsburgh, the most compact and tightly packed downtown by far
Housing: Baltimore has the oldest and St Louis has the most brick...those 2 tie
Public Transit...Pittsburgh has the most rail I believe followed closely by Cleveland
Stadiums/Convention Centers...Detroit has this I one I believe w/ Ford Field > First Energy Stadium > Heinz Field > M & T Bank Stadium...baseball stadia PNC Park > Progressive Field > Camden Yards > Busch Stadium> Comerica Park...arena...Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse > Mellon Arena > Palace of Auburn Hills >
Historic Structures: Baltimore
Skyscrapers...Cleveland by far...none has a tower as tall as Key Tower or as beautiful as Terminal Tower
Landmarks
Landmarks...St Louis...Gateway Arch is the most iconic landmark of all of these cities
Parks...Cleveland Metroparks rank best in the nation so Cleveland by far
Urban Design...Pittsburgh, the most compact and tightly packed downtown by far
Housing: Baltimore has the oldest and St Louis has the most brick...those 2 tie
Public Transit...Pittsburgh has the most rail I believe followed closely by Cleveland
Stadiums/Convention Centers...Detroit has this I one I believe w/ Ford Field > First Energy Stadium > Heinz Field > M & T Bank Stadium...baseball stadia PNC Park > Progressive Field > Camden Yards > Busch Stadium> Comerica Park...arena...Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse > Mellon Arena > Palace of Auburn Hills >
Historic Structures: Baltimore
St. Louis has the largest rail transit network by mileage of all these cities, I don't even think it's close.
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