Travel observations and new developments of other cities and countries

[Binbin98]

Some sunny day photos in London, sadly my last day here but not for long.

I am starting graduate school in London in September of this year, I’m very excited for the move and my aim is to work and settle in the UK after school as my dad lives in England. This summer I will be in america spending time with family and friends before the move.

[markhollin]

Philadelphia's renderings for 2301 JFK Blvd. at 23 stories, 307', 287 units, some office space (courtesy of YIMBY Philadelphia):

[nashville born]

Posting this for the bike lovers: a bike garage outside an office building in midtown Atlanta.  Accompanying article calls it heavily fortified and lighted with a bike repair station that includes an air pump near the door.    Access is via a card reader.

[markhollin]

Columbus, OH:

[nashville born]

Bora Bora airport terminal and tarmac view.

 

[dmillsphoto]

1 hour ago, markhollin said:

Columbus, OH:

I'm planning on providing a CBus post soon.. The city is arguably 15 years behind Nashville with regards to surface parking (I can pay $6 for 6 hours of parking on High St across from Nationwide Insurance). But, there's no draw to downtown unless there's a festival on the bridges. Most new activity is outside the core. Franklinton is seeing the biggest shift in gentrification and housing being built, which is kinda behind and left of where the second picture is taken, above. More to come soon. 

[markhollin]

The Charlotte skyline from a Charlotte Knights baseball game:

[markhollin]

Cairo, Egypt's renderings for Oblisco Capitale, 170 stories, 3,281', 13.5 million sq. ft:
 

[Luvemtall]

There was a time when 1,200 feet was considered the pinnacle, and the Empire State Building was the top dog. But now these new buildings are becoming ultra talls never even considered possible. Although cool to see such things, don’t know about being that high up in an emergency situation. 

[Binbin98]

Daytona beach and cocoa beach

[markhollin]

Chicago's Murphy Auditorium renovations (circa 1926) into arts and events center.
 

[nashville born]

For the interstate capping proponents...

 

[Binbin98]

Atlanta at sunset. I’m staying here for 3 nights visiting family friends that live here. 
 

I’m going to be going to many different cities in america this summer as I’m driving my old car to give to my sister who lives in colorado from Miami. Then after seeing her and my childhood friend who lives in Denver I’m flying to the east coast to spend the summer in New York with family, before moving to London to start my graduate programme.

In short look out for more photos in the near future XD

[markhollin]

New York's rendering for 27-48 Jackson Ave., 69 stories, 811', 818  units, 11,700 sq. ft. of retail,. Will be the tallest in Queens (courtesy of YIMBY New York):

[Nathan_in_DC]

On 6/2/2023 at 7:43 AM, markhollin said:

Columbus, OH:

 

 

 

Columbus seems like a nice city, with lots of good architecture, walkable and moderately dense residential neighborhoods, a major internationally recognized university, and presumably a relatively low cost of living. It seems like a great place to live and raise a family, especially if you have a secure job at OSU or with the state government. Acknowledging all of that, for the life of me I cannot fathom a really good reason to place it very high on the cities I'd like to visit in the US. I've spent time in Cleveland, Dayton, and Cincinatti, but never Columbus. Cincinatti and Cleveland are interesting cities with unique cultures...Dayton is, uh, well, at least the Air Force Museum is nice... Columbus, however, just seems very bland (for lack of a better term). 

Am I being unfair or overly harsh? Should I put Columbus higher on my list of places to visit? 

[MLBrumby]

I've spent some time in Columbus in recent years. It's a "very nice" place without a lot of character. In essence it's a great place to live, but hard to imagine why anyone would go there except for The OSU events. It's a very tidy place without many slums, and that's because it didn't have a hard industrial base. Obviously grew on its "white collar" employment base. There are lots of hospitals too, as you might expect from a university city. There's a really massive one being built a.t.m. near the university.  For years I managed to avoid the original ("old") center of the university until a couple of years ago. Unlike the majority of the campus, the center is green and pretty, but the buildings are uniformly the old, stone (maybe our architectural friends here can help me, but I call it "classic Midwestern") styles that are a blend of Romanesque and Georgian. Major props for a very nice, small lake in the center. Overall, just too large and urban for my tastes. No doubt it's a good school that gets the lion's share of public education funding in Ohio. So it makes for an impressive flagship. High Street, which runs from the campus south to downtown is a long and busy corridor that rivals any college town "strip".  It even has several high-end hotels and restaurants. I think the capitol area is a bit underwhelming, and it's a bit of an anomaly for the size of the population. The downtown has a mostly linear (N-S) layout, but I've noticed in recent years that there is development in the E-W directions. I noticed many clean, walkable neighborhoods to the east of downtown.  There is a huge rebuilding project underway for the I-70/I-71 junction downtown, and I expect it will look much nicer, and I've heard it will have BRT lanes. Unfortunately, it appears to be even higher above ground than the original expressway. There's also a Civic Center area directly across the Scioto River that I found surprisingly nice, albeit not very large. I was told once that it was densely populated before a deadly flood in the 1930s. Very clean and overall a green city, but it's always sort of given me "Dallas, TX vibes".... for some oddly similar reasons. I could live there, but I think I'd get bored often. It is close to some more interesting cities, such as Pittsburch and Cleveland. My favorite Ohio city remains Cincinnati. 

[markhollin]

Melbourne, Australia (courtesy of Deborah Taylor):

[chc3]

A shot of downtown Bellevue WA from the 405 northbound this afternoon. The tallest building is Amazon.

[markhollin]

Miami's rendering for  One Island Drive, 63 stories, 800', 220 units; and Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 27 stories, 400', 240 rooms:  

[dmillsphoto]

On 6/6/2023 at 11:38 AM, MLBrumby said:

There is a huge rebuilding project underway for the I-70/I-71 junction downtown, and I expect it will look much nicer, and I've heard it will have BRT lanes. Unfortunately, it appears to be even higher above ground than the original expressway. 

Working on my post, but this just hit the news today, related to the 70/315 work: https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/columbus/how-rebuilding-of-i-70-71-will-affect-downtown-columbus-streets/

The 3rd St Cap that will lead into German Village is rendered below. This link shows the current southern view leading into German Village. This specific cap will mimic the one currently situated over 670 on the north side of downtown that contains High Street and feeds into the Short North. Hopefully with better architecture.

Edited June 9, 2023 by dmillsphoto

[markhollin]

Seattle, Rainier Tower, circa 1971:

[chc3]

Sound Transit light rail headed south from the Northgate station. They run every 15 minutes. They’re rapidly expanding it in three directions: north to Everett, south to Tacoma and east across Lake Washington to Bellevue and eventually Issaquah with a spur north to Kirkland.

[MontanaGuy]

12 hours ago, markhollin said:

Seattle, Rainier Tower, circa 1971:

My sister worked in that building for a few years and she told me that one time they had a tiny earthquake that was hardly noticeable outside but it really swayed inside the building.  I've heard that even a strong wind can make it sway, especially on the upper floors.  Cool building though, I remember when it was built.

[markhollin]

Boston's proposal for South Station Tower over arched train plaza:

[rolly]

On 6/7/2023 at 6:20 PM, chc3 said:

A shot of downtown Bellevue WA from the 405 northbound this afternoon. The tallest building is Amazon.

I hear a lot of Amazon Seattle HQ people will be moving out of expensive offices there to Bellevue, which supposedly has lots of available space.