I start this topic not only because of my private collection, but because of the Skyscrapers built on other cities. I have been collecting old photos about U.S. City’s not just New York for many years, I can name quite a few:
This is only a small selection of the cities about which I collect old photos. Those of you interested are welcome to post pictures online between the years 1850 and 2000.
Historical pictures about :
Skyline, aerial views, street perspectives, buildings (unbuilt or destroyed), infrastructure projects,…
to be posted.
These cities could’ve been booming metropolises. Instead, they were “de-Manhattanized” - removed of their density. What lays there now is parking lots and highways.
Looking at the city from overhead and you can truly see the scope of “de-Manhattanization”. The amount of parking lots is quite excessive. This seems to be an unfortunate trait for a large number of cities in the US. In many cities, it’s quite easy to pick out the parking lots since you’ll see buildings and then large expanses of blacktop.
In downtown Kansas City, we can even see entire blocks dedicated to just parking lots or otherwise left vacant. I’m sure what are now empty parking lots were lively blocks with lots of businesses and homes.
same in Dallas, I think they may do that (I wouldn’t count on this with my life or anything but) so they can “keep” plots in the downtowns open for modern skyscrapers without them just being grass fields.
And I’d assume the benefits of this are:
it will cost future developments less money
and without keeping them empty fields they have room for cars as well
and there wont be residents complaining about a 200 year old building being torn down (they’d be more likely to welcome the new development than the parking lot)
maybe even to keep their cities World Class Modern [WCM] when the modern buildings are erected from the ground
