As incredible and amazing as skyscrapers are, I've been wondering about the hidden gems of cities. What are some smaller, or less noticed architectural spaces in your city that really should be better known? From houses of worship, courthouses, quirky and extravagant homes.. let's share some true standouts.
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Sprawling on the fringes of the city in geometric order, an insulated border in-between the bright lights and the far, unlit unknown. (Neil Peart)
A favorite hidden gem of mine is Lärkstaden (Lark City) in Stockholm. Its quite central, but most of the area is embassy townhouses so theres really not much going on street level. However, its very calm because of its lack of shops etc so it becomes a nice getaway from the hustle & bustle that surrounds it.
Its just 4 blocks i believe and the architecture feels a bit british with its dark brick facades as opposed to the pastel-colored-buildings that surrounds it.
In St. Louis, this one isn't really all that interesting at first glance. It's current purpose is to act as the base of a two-tower Hilton Hotel. What it used to be was Spain's national pavilion at the 1964 Worlds Fair in New York. After the fair, the St. Louis mayor at the time, who was of Spanish decent, bought the building and moved it to St. Louis to continue to operate as a pavilion representing Spain. It did so for a year before it went bankrupt. Eventually a hotel was built on top of it. Many of the architectural elements that really made it stand out at the fair have been renovated out by the hotel, like its front entrance, but the side still looks as it did at the World's Fair: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Tspq2wWdi3cHQdix7
Wow... the juxtaposition between those gorgeous homes and what is across the street is quite jarring.
Well at least no one can accuse them of not keeping it weird.
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"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - George Bernard Shaw Don't ask people not to debate a topic. Just stop making debatable assertions. Problem solved.
__________________ "To sustain the life of a large, modern city in this cloying, clinging heat is an amazing achievement. It is no wonder that the white men and women in Greenville walk with a slow, dragging pride, as if they had taken up a challenge and intended to defy it without end." -- Rebecca West for The New Yorker, 1947
Brooklyn's Lott House is pretty under the radar. The first sections of the house were built in 1720, and it is one of the oldest surviving structures in New York City. What makes it feel so under radar is that despite being such an old house, it's nestled on a block in Marine Park surrounded by duplexes built in the 1920s and 1930s. Most people pass by it without even noticing the house. I biked past it for years before noticing it myself.
In Phoenix one of my favorites is the Wrigley Mansion near the Biltmore and north Phoenix Mountain Preserve area. I guess it's fairly well known (although maybe outsiders didn't know there is one in Phoenix), but it's a gem and "hidden" in the fact that it's tucked away only accessed via a side street through a office complex, over a canal bridge, and up a small hill.
Although I am loathe to consider San Antonio "my city," there are some nice little touches here and there. This dead-end street in the King William section with a bridge over the San Antonio River at its end, when experienced in person, has a bit of a NOLA vibe to me. Not so much on Google street view.
Although a few of those Koreatown indoor malls are kinda unknown and really feel like youre in Asia somewhere.
Not in LA, but in nearby Glendale.
Brand Park. Popular and has a few hiking trails. I just went recently and had no idea it was so nice. Its not talked about in LA really. Almost like a Mini Griffith Park.
for cleveland there is a small area revived by hippies in the 1960s that is charming and has a nice annual street fair — of note hessler road is brick paved and hessler court is wood paved —
where hessler road and hessler court meet
via chris roy
The Masonic Temple in Philadelphia is probably the most beautiful building in the city. Every Philadelphian knows it, but not many venture inside. You're in for a treat when you do. It does not at all look inside like you think it does looking at it from the outside.
Not sure if this fits the prompt but for Salt Lake, I really love the Marmalade Hill neighborhood in Salt Lake City. It feels completely unique to the valley as it doesn't align directly with the city's overall grid.
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