The built environment on Main Street through Over the Rhine in Cincinnati is just about perfectly preserved, with few building losses. We’ll look at the east side of the street first. Despite being “Main Street,” it’s a surprisingly narrow thoroughfare, allowing for relatively slow traffic speeds and easy pedestrian crossing. The street has one of…
Tag: Redevelopment
Liberty, Sycamore and Thirteenth Streets, Over the Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio
We’ll look at a variety of streets next. Liberty Street is a classic example of a narrow street that was widened by the demolition of historic structures, creating what I call a traffic sewer. The north street wall is preserved, as you can see above and below, but on the south side, there’s a jagged,…
Vine Street and Environs, Over the Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio
Vine Street is one of the main streets cutting through the Over the Rhine neighborhood, coming up from the Ohio River through Cincinnati’s downtown. It is not interrupted from the central business district by any interstates and other than the overly wide Central Parkway, pedestrians can easily connect with the heart of the city from…
Over the Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio
We’re heading to Cincinnati, Ohio next, to look at Over the Rhine, which is one of the best preserved early Nineteenth Century neighborhoods in America. St. Louis used to have numerous neighborhoods like Over the Rhine, but we annihilated them like fools. Kosciusko, Carr Square (read part two) and Mill Creek, all neighborhoods in St….
German Village, Columbus, Ohio, Part Three
We’ll look at a few more streets in German Village today. I think what makes this such a beautiful neighborhood is that even if the houses are different sizes, they maintain a certain architectural uniformity that creates that harmony. Likewise, with only a couple of different roof types, such as the gable above and the…
Redevelopment Continuing, Lafayette Square
Back in May of this year, I checked in on the massive new development transforming the long moribund northwest side of the Lafayette Square neighborhood. I think most people know the story: the wealthy area declined and industry moved in (though that’s not entirely true, as early sources show that dirty industry had always been…
Redevelopment, Former A.G. Edwards Buildings
As readers might suspect, I have been bedridden, overwhelmed with grief at the announcement that two of the oldest buildings on the former A.G. Edwards campus are marked for demolition in order to build two new hotels, a couple of blocks from the new soccer stadium. As many readers know, this was the heart of…
Streets of St. Charles
I was out visiting a friend two Saturdays ago, and I was intrigued by the “new urbanism” development of the Streets of St. Charles. It’s becoming increasingly common for wealthier suburbs of major cities to build these mixed-use developments, where there are ground floor restaurants and stores below apartments or condos. There’s usually a hotel…
TopGolf and the District, Chesterfield
In case readers living outside of a metropolitan region where there is currently no TopGolf, I thought I would take a couple of photos to show what such facilities look like. This is the one out in Chesterfield. Perhaps the most prominent feature is the giant net which wraps around the field where players seek…
Rapid Changes, Mill Creek Around Grand Boulevard
Late on Saturday, I checked up on how the residential development of the former railyards of the western Mill Creek valley was going. This is west of the historic African American neighborhood, but is the actual valley, where roundhouses and light industry, as well as massive switching yards once lay. The building that was under…