December 2005 | Eyesore

Commentary on architectural blunders in monthly serial.

(A Little Holiday Time Relief from the Main Theme)

Circumstances took me to Troy, New York, Sunday, Dec. 4, when they were putting on their annual Victorian Stroll. Troy is an old Hudson River city of about 50,000 people (down from 96,000 in 1910) halfway between New York and the Canadian border. The late 20th century bypassed it so completely that it evaded the kind of false urban renewal that left so many other towns wrecked. The core blocks above the riverfront are marvelously preserved, and becoming repopulated. Trade is returning to the shopfronts. Troy is exactly the right scale for the kind of city America will need in this century. It will benefit hugely from a restoration of both river and rail transport.

Shown below is a renovated block in the Howard Street district of Baltimore, where I went two weeks ago. That city is making a startling comeback, and mostly at a scale that has a future -- the non-skyscraper, non-megastructure scale. Below you see a good mix of renovation and new construction. The architecture of the older buildings is obviously superior, illustrating the fact that we have a way to go before catching up to levels of excellence that were normal one hundred years ago. Perhaps the best thing about what is happening in Baltimore right now is that so many districts are coming back they are beginning to knit together back into a cohesive whole. The wonderful Revolutionary War-era neighborhood called Fells Point is connecting with Harbor East and that with the Inner Harbor, and that with improving parts of downtown so there is a sense of real continuity. The current situation in Baltimore also illustrates my pet theory that US cities will re-densify at their centers and waterfronts even as they contract overall in size and population. the result will be a different kind of city than the 20th century megacolossus, but not necessarily an inferior one.