The most annoying parking lot thread

[Dan Denson]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Yeah, the convention center, Discovery Green, etc have really improved that section of DT Houston.

And the new sports arenas. I'm betting the poster knew what he (she) was doing by posting that old photo.

[cabasse]

Originally Posted by espalorius

theres something kinda sexy about it!

edit: the houston shot (atl one is .... umm :I the lamest nerd joke around haha)

sexy like this? man i had to, sorry

tarheel, i preferred your original post too, actually. hell it's pretty disgusting how many giant parking lots are either across from or even part of 90% of our subway stations...

[alps]

Yellow - Spring Garden Rd
Red - Barrington St

Green - old Infirmary site, soon to be home to the new central library
Blue - Clyde St lots being sold by the city and developed as part of the library financing
Purple - no known plans to develop this one, I hate it

[TarHeelJ]

Originally Posted by espalorius

theres something kinda sexy about it!

edit: the houston shot (atl one is .... umm :I the lamest nerd joke around haha)

Then I guess only a lame nerd would laugh at it...

[texcolo]

Fort Worth has two parking lots right in the middle of the Sundance Square area downtown. Although getting rid of one said parking lot would probably cover up this nice mural.

[photoLith]

Heres a quick paint thing I did to show how much of that area has been filled in since then.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Dan Denson

I knew someone would post that VERY OLD photo of the east side of downtown Houston. A large part of that area has been filled in with high rises, hotels, parks, etc.. What was the point of posting a photo so old?

[photoLith]

You just had to show up my 10 minutes of work in paint didnt you

[JManc]

i always have that graphic ready for when that 70's era photo is posted around here. didn't even see your until i posted mine. lol

[llamaorama]

Yeah, it's ironic that the picture used to illustrate Houston's lack of development in some areas happens to show the spot where the most intense building has occurred since it was taken.

Houston will be even better when infill happens along Main in Midtown. Seems like an obvious place. It has all the features of an urban neighborhood-shops, bars, and basics like two grocery stores all in walking distance and all between Downtown and the Medical Center. I can't understand why it's still such a dead zone for new construction. I guess it's still kind of ghetto, I know that's where the bus station is and it probably attracts an undesirable element.

[fishrose]

Originally Posted by jodelli

It's smack in the middle of Downtown Detroit, immediately northeast of Campus Martius. It's sort of a similar situation to Block 37 in Chicago, which is now occupied again after being mostly empty for years.

That's where the imaginary Cadillac Centre was supposed to go, right? Hopefully they do SOMETHING with that lot. Quicken Loans HQ maybe? Regardless, I think these surface lots are the most annoying ones in Detroit:


Dirt and gravel surface lots just a couple hundred yards from the dense core of downtown. It sounds like there are plans to develop something on some of this area, but in my opinion it can't happen soon enough.

[pseudolus]

Any sidewalk in my part of town



http://lh3.ggpht.com/_TDLjiNdehOc/S0...0/IMG_0115.JPG

There's a whole blog about it http://www.sfdsp.org/

[mthq]

Anybody have an aerial view of that same view of Houston in the present? At least maybe a screen capture from Bing or Google Earth? I'd love to see the difference.

[llamaorama]

Here it is, the camera would have been pointing from the top-right or NW and facing towards the bottom left or SW.

You can see Discovery Green u/c. The long building is the George R Brown convention center, and at the top of the park would be the construction for One Park Place(now completed residential tower). The odd-shaped empty parking lot bordering the park and kitty-corner to the NW from One Park Place is now the Hess Tower, almost completed. Then the similar shaped lot directly across the park is now the construction site for a 22 store Embassy Suites. And of course by toyota center you see the newish large hotel.

So that's 4 large new buildings in addition to the convention center and two sports arenas. Then, also seen but missing in that old picture is the Houston center buildings(one of them is complete in the old photo, the big black box behind the "k" in parking), mostly built in the 1980s-1990's which are in the lots just above the One Park Place lot, or towards the top left.

Yeah, so while a lot of those vacant spots are still there a significant amount of construction has occurred in the like 30 years since that photo must have been taken. No different from any other major US city.

Anyways, Maybe I should be thankful that I can park in front of my own house, I guess.

I know it's not a popular opinion here, but think about all the people who need vehicles. Perhaps they work late, far away, or have children or commute to areas that are poorly served by mass transit? Ever think about the people employed in industrial areas which you can't get to easily except by car? The situation in SF sounds like a dilemma in a few DC neighborhoods I read about on either Greater Greater Washington or BeyondDC where they have decided to enforce no parking in residential driveways. This leaves some people between a rock and a hard place. Do you sell your vehicle or rent a u-store space? Will the city have the gall to suddenly begin ticketing, or tow away cars at night? What do you do?

Sure it's a Mercedes SUV parked there so we can make some assumptions, but I can imagine situations where it would be a real hardship on some working individuals to just start arbitrarily enforcing these rules, even if they are technically in violation now. Especially since transit agencies everywhere are cutting service and routes, and a few streetcars to enhance a city's image won't make up for what is done to the real backbone for the majority of riders, then I am even more concerned here.

[photoLith]

Originally Posted by photolitherland

[jodelli]

Originally Posted by fishrose

That's where the imaginary Cadillac Centre was supposed to go, right? Hopefully they do SOMETHING with that lot. Quicken Loans HQ maybe?

Yeah, that's where that Cuisinart structure was going to go, but it never made it past the renderings. Not that long ago the area closest to Compuware was grassed over but the re-routing of Woodward changed that layout.

Regardless, I think these surface lots are the most annoying ones in Detroit:


Dirt and gravel surface lots just a couple hundred yards from the dense core of downtown. It sounds like there are plans to develop something on some of this area, but in my opinion it can't happen soon enough.

Those aren't supposed to be permanent, but development funding seems to have evaporated for that area. Unless something like a new Wings/Pistons type venue gets built here.

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Chicago has plenty, and I may end up posting more than one*, but here is one of mine:


Source

Formerly the Rock and Roll McDonald's, the company decided to redo one of their flagship locations in densely populated River North, downtown Chicago. In a pedestrian-oriented area otherwise full of highrise development, McDonald's insisted on including a massive surface parking lot & double drive thru as part of the development. Nevermind the location, nevermind the already high pedestrian traffic, nevermind the great mass transit access. Nevermind being surrounded by a gillion hotels and tourists who walk & use the gillions of taxicabs that roam the district. A once in a generation opportunity to redevelop a prime site became...the city-hating eyesore that will last another generation (note: I don't mind the design of the building itself).

And what did the city do to prevent this? Bend over, say "yes, daddy", and take it in the ass. Because after all, McD's is a Chicago area corporation.

* Actually, at the top of this picture is one of my other most hated lots. Note Walgreens' surface parking lot, right in the heart of the city. Thanks for beautifying our city, assholes!

Let me just say that the McDonald's lot is NEVER full. It maybe has a couple, yes A COUPLE cars at most. They could have easily gotten by with street parking. Other busy McDonald's location like State and Chicago do perfectly fine without any parking.

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

^ For real. The only thing I see people really using is the drive-through. I hate that McDonalds. I remember Blair Kamin trashing the design when it was first unveiled. Here's what could have been. (The renderings are pretty small.) Parking was a big feature in all of them.

[ardecila]

Okay... Apart from the parking lot annoyances, I actually like the McDonalds design. The only good design in Kamin's article was the SCB one. Jahn's was so post-modern that it seemed incomplete without some Ionic columns and sphinxes thrown in, and Coffey's looks like a kid's crazy Lego construction, mixed with the Mega Maid robot from Spaceballs.

[pj3000]

Rice University. I've always hated these... as if that many people actually go to Rice Owls football games... or even attend Rice University!