If you've been
following my threads recently you know that I have been trekking around the east coast for weddings. One was in Greenville, and of course I did some exploring of the city, so here are the pictures.
I admit that I had low expectations for Greenville. I'd never been there and don't recall seeing pictures of it on the forum (although I'm sure there have been many threads in the past). My expectations were off the mark. Downtown is indeed small for a city that size, but it's also urbanistically in tact, alive, and totally charming. And the Falls Park is undeniably cool.
It's almost too bad Charlotte and Greenville can't be combined, because each lacks what the other has. Charlotte has the corporate skyscraper presence that gives it a big city vibe, but it doesn't have Greenville's vintage urbanity. Greenville of course has the latter but not the former. In some way it is urbanistically better, but it still feels very much like a town, as opposed to a bona fide city.
Anyway, pictures.
The main drag of downtown. Pretty much looks like this for several blocks.
Pretty solid building coverage, mix of historic and new, lots of entrances per block... all good stuff. And the city has done a nice job with the streetscape, too.
I'm not sure why the city exactly felt it necessary to line everything with the black tubing, but I actually kind of like it. It's perfectly situated to lean against comfortably, so it's almost as if the entire street is lined with one long bench.
One of the relatively few tall buildings.
The tallest building, unfortunately, is not going to win any awards.
Very curious-looking new development. I assume the wrapping extends all the way around the garage, and that they're counting on the adjacent lot to be developed so it doesn't look
so weird.
I found it curious that Greenville's collection of historic mid-rises seemed to be comparable to Charlotte's. Were they once closer in size?
Getting closer to the river there is a stronger industrial vibe.
The Reedy River waterfront clearly has a ton of potential. They did a good job with the scale of the new buildings at left, now let's line the rest of this sucker with more.
The river hits a waterfall directly adjacent to downtown, around which there's a nice park.
The suspension bridge is cool.
The falls themselves. They're more impressive in person. Something about this picture makes the falls seem smaller than they are, but make no mistake: this is a river. Note the people on the left-bank path off in the distance, for scale.
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