What 20th Century Cities should become UNESCO Heritage Sites of the future?

[New Brisavoine]

Two new French sites have just been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

[wwmiv]

What are the sites?

[SIGSEGV]

one of those is probably the D-Day beaches. not sure about the other one...

[biguc]

Fun zombie thread!

This is actually a great one to revisit. I think modernist design was still generally reviled in 2007. But that was also the year Mad Men started. A few years later everyone was obsessed with barbers and midcentury modern furniture. Our perspective on and appreciation for 20th century stuff has changed a lot.

This hasn't always been good. There's a lot of objectively bad stuff (or, at least, stuff that doesn't work and is recognized as failure by most; most including the designers themselves) from as late as the '80s getting listed as historically relevant and, therefore, forever condemned to failure.

I don't want that to happen to places that would like to grow past being car-dominated failures. But maybe they've had their chance.

Anyway, I nominate:
Milton Keynes
This is what I mean about protecting something bad. Still, it's extremely 20th century. Let's dunk it in resin.

Bartlesville Oklahoma
I don't understand why Bartlesville is the way it is and I'm not people from there understand either. Still, Frank Lloyd Wright tower, Taliesen "Community Center", solid collection of substantial early and midcentury buildings, lots and lots of parking. This is a 20th century place.

Coventry
Nothing quite as 20th century as getting bombed flat and rebuilding as a car-centered dump.

Dresden
Except maybe getting bombed flat and rebuilding as a communist dump with fake historical buildings.

Katowice
The Polish have been building glass towers everywhere lately, kind of ruining the effect of communist city planning without making it better, but Katowice is still a nice example.

[iheartthed]

It's too late now but a well-preserved Rust Belt. Flint, Gary, or Youngstown could have been candidates but none have been well-preserved.

[UrbanImpact]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

It's too late now but a well-preserved Rust Belt. Flint, Gary, or Youngstown could have been candidates but none have been well-preserved.

Pittsburgh would be a good candidate. Here's what those cities used to +/- look like: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4288046,..._ep=EgoyMDI2MDcyMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by UrbanImpact

Pittsburgh would be a good candidate. Here's what those cities used to +/- look like: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4288046,..._ep=EgoyMDI2MDcyMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Yeah, some place like this might be worthy of a future UNESCO designation: https://maps.app.goo.gl/h9h19sY3EkQiucfv8

[iheartthed]

The U.S. has a tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage consideration. There are only four major urban areas with locations on the list thus far:

Birmingham, Alabama

• Civil Rights Movement Sites

Chicago, Illinois

• Early Skyscrapers

Dayton, Ohio

• Dayton Aviation Sites

New York City

• Brooklyn Bridge
• Central Park
• Ellis Island

Richmond, Virginia

• Virginia State Capital

https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/?action=listtentative&state=us&order=states

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by UrbanImpact

Here's what those cities used to +/- look like: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4288046,..._ep=EgoyMDI2MDcyMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Pittsburgh and Gary were both built by steel, but at different times.

That streetview of Pittsburgh is a little too 19th century to be from Gary.

Gary did not exist as a thing until US Steel built its largest steel mill ever there in 1908.

It was a 100% pure 20th century phenomenon, going from a population of zero in 1900 to 100K by 1930, and then 180K by 1960.

For reference, Pittsburgh was a city of nearly 325K in 1900, and was the 11th largest in the nation at that time.

Gary was literally still wilderness duneland giving way to a scattering of farms in 1900. There wasn't even a tiny little fledgingly village there.





here's a good now and then of Broadway, which was the main drag of downtown Gary. most of it is gone.

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

What are the sites?

1. D-day beaches (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword) in Normandy.

2. 13th-century fortresses built by king Saint Louis in southern France during early wars of religion.

@Brisavoine Merci d'être un peu plus explicite quand tu postes enfin quelque chose digne d'intérêt.
Mentionne aussi les sources des photos dont tu n'es pas propriétaire par des liens.

[TempleGuy1000]

Keeping focus on the 20th century, Bethlehem Steel is an important site. A good portion of it still exists frozen in time. It's home to the National Museum of Industrial History. The steel made there was used in many landmarks including the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Hoover Dam, among many other landmarks.

• Video Link

[muppet]

Antanananrivo, Madagascar