City (besides NYC) in the USA with the most "commie block" style apartment buildings (flat fee)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I see these a lot in the outer parts of Brooklyn and Queens, mainly built between the 50s and the 70s. They aren't projects. They are usually coop apartment buildings that you need to have an income and put a down payment on (it usually is a flat price per room - aka $4500 per bedroom plus a $2000 flat fee) plus monthly rent/fees. Some might say they are ugly, but I kind of like them. Do any other cities have residential buldings this?
Here is one in Brighton Beach (little Russia) Brooklyn.
The pinnacle of that style is Minneapolis's Riverside Plaza (known locally as "the crack stacks"). These apartments were very expensive and highly desirable in the 70's, and in one season, it was implied that Mary Tyler Moore lived there. Now Riverside Plaza is almost entirely inhabited by East African refugees.
Minneapolis also has a lot of similar buildings in the Loring Park neighborhood.
Otherwise, check out Chicago. There are lots of big, boxy, communist-era apartment buildings in Rogers Park and Edgewater, not to mention all the housing projects on the city's Southside.
While not exactly residential, Northeastern Illinois University and the Illinois Institute of Technology both have Soviet-brutalist architecture as well.
Last edited by Dawn.Davenport; 04-06-2015 at 09:09 PM..
Otherwise, check out Chicago. There are lots of big, boxy, communist-era apartment buildings in Rogers Park and Edgewater, not to mention all the housing projects on the city's Southside.
All the housing projects on the south side and west side are gone. They were torn down during the 2000's. The population of people in public housing projects went from 200,000 down to 20,000 in that period.
There are a few one-off commie style buildings peppered around the city, but they aren't really in the form of clusters like they are in NYC. It's just a building here and a building there built in the 60's and 70's.
For the size and building stock of the city, I would say Chicago is unusually devoid of that mass produced hulking commie block construction. Just given the fact the city tore most of it down.
I think it's probably a big reason there was a 200,000 population drop in the city. Much of those housing projects were full of kids, and if you look at the census the population of black people aged 0-19 in the city accounted for a huge portion of the population loss, 115,000 of the 200,000 total. Old white people were most of the remainder.
This is my hometown, I don't need to see pictures of it, I live it. I was asking about other cities.
Right, which is why I mentioned one in my city. Just thought it was odd you mentioned Brooklyn/Queens but not the largest such development in probably the country.
Right, which is why I mentioned one in my city. Just thought it was odd you mentioned Brooklyn/Queens but not the largest such development in probably the country.
Anywhooo..
The Bronx is part of NYC, we live in the same city. I know of Coop City, my grandparents lived on City Island and I have been to the bedbug movie theater many times at Bay Plaza.
It generally didn't pop into my head because quite honestly, in the past few years that area has become downright scary and I don't go over there.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
