[Aaron]

wow

[UncoveringTruths]

Better be careful walking into walls and such. Detailed stuff!

[sklump]

Much as it's better than what was there before, it's still says "don't look at how badly we fucked up by creating this eyesore of a building."

[crude_intentions]

Holy Christ thats Cool. It would be awesome if art like that would become more common through out all cities.

[Specop_007]

Wow, thats kicks serious ass! Can you imagine a whole downtown done like that.
Hell, I'd probably get all disoriented and confused and pass out or something.

[sklump]

Gah!

Our economy produces more now than it ever has.

How about, instead of painting pictures of nice places on top of our slums-in-waiting, we just build actual nice places?

[Trab]

Beautiful work. I hope it's well-sealed, as depending on the neighborhood it's located in, it's not long before it gets tagged...

[mgibbons19]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('sklump', 'M')uch as it's better than what was there before, it's still says "don't look at how badly we fucked up by creating this eyesore of a building."

[PhilBiker]

Completely agree with mgibbons and sklump. I wonder what Jim Kunstler would feel about this.

[RiverRat]

The guy does amazing work … I have the luxury of living a few miles south of the works listed in the following links. I actually used to work in the building directly off the photo to the left of the first link. Steubenville actually has numerous murals throughout the blighted downtown area.

photo 1

photo 2

photo 3

Who the hell cares what Kunstler thinks. All the years of working in and around all of the murals ... the riff raff, drug dealers and 'gangsta's' pretty much left them alone.

[PhilBiker]

Interesting perspective Rat. So you live close to some of these murals, huh?

Here's why I care what Kunstler thinks:

Looking at that page, look for the "BUCYRUS" mural "After".

I live in a walkable New Urbanist neighborhood designed by Kunstler's ilk. The last house (a strip of beautiful townhouses right next door to a single family house with rear alley garages - unthinkable in a typical sprawl neighborhood) is being closed soon. They just revealed the plans for our new commercial development including offices, commuter parking, shopping - all in walking distance to every house in the neighborhood. The new town center features thougthful architecture that's actually designed to look like real neighborhood town center, not just another strip mall. The plans look much like that mural. It's a lot better to build the real thing, real walkable pedestrian friendly towns instead of more sprawl.

It's a whole philosophy, and these murals are like a cartoon carcature of what we should be building painted on the awful drek that we built. I'd rather have the real thing. These things are almost an insult to the New Urbanists. They look nice but you can't walk into them and live in that world. We should be building the stuff in the pictures.

You might look at the murals and see nice pictures, but I see sad reminders of what we should have built all these years instead of what we're stuck with. They're beautiful and depressing to me as a new Urbanist.

[RiverRat]

Philbiker … I understand your concern. However, it must be noted that the area where I live and the area where the murals are located are very old (early 1800’s) river based steel and manufacturing towns. I live in the proverbial rust belt and Appalachian coal fields. There is no New Urbanist revival movement here (only a movement of the population out of the area). The steel and coal industries are long past their heydays. What is left is a dwindling population base that is simply trying get by and vacant downtown areas that have been neglected for years. These towns have morphed into their current state over the last couple of hundred years. Hindsight is always 20/20 in terms of community planning.

Here is an example of community planning that evolved over many years. The town where I live has a major steel mill (which is slowly being demolished to use a scrap in the blast furnaces) and a large concrete block manufacturing plant. There are dozens and dozens and dozens of homes in direct proximity to these facilities (when I say direct proximity - I literally mean meters away). Imagine sitting on your back porch and the only view you have is a hulking/stinking steel mill. When topography is a limiting factor the towns made lemonade out of lemons. Heck … as kids we used to play tackle football in the ‘slag fields’ next to the mills.

[clv101]

Here's some urban artwork from the UK:

http://www.elmour.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ ... oto06.html

[mgibbons19]

I didn't mean to come off like a kerk The art certainly is beautiful. But aside from being excellent in terms of skill, the reason it grabs your heart so bad is because it is precisely what we don't have.

And, there are no NUists here either. I would love either the art or the real thing.

[ArimoDave]

To those who think we should have communities like what is depicted in the murals:

Maybe, people will get use to the look, and want their communities to look like these murals.
When the time comes to replace old buildings, they may decide to incorporate community planning
that changes the city into something similar. First comes the art -- later the real thing.

ArimoDave

PS Much better art than the "Nuts and Bolts"

[PenultimateManStanding]

Why is everyone so impressed with art that looks like a photograph? Man as machine? Time to put my collection on my computer and show some real art. (now that I finally learned how to do it, in order to put my self-pics up)

[jaws]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('sklump', 'G')ah!

Our economy produces more now than it ever has.

How about, instead of painting pictures of nice places on top of our slums-in-waiting, we just build actual nice places?

[PhilBiker]

Very well stated Jaws.

At least the New Urbanists are trying.

In my metropolitan area there are two or three true NU neighborhoods within about a 50 mile radius. Two huge and overblown because they got a lot of press and one tiny and virtually unknown. I live in the latter. It's like a breath of fresh air, I love it.

There are also some real old historic neighboorhoods which operate similarly, but they are so expensive that no-one but the ultra-rich can live there.

However, there's no more NU neighborhoods going in and I don't know that any of the downtown revitalization is happening with this in mind. There's so much growth there's construction everywhere and all the new stuff is the same old boring dreck strip-malls and "North Dallas Special" McMansion housing.

it seems that the gurgle of good sense that was New Urbanism has been largely forgotten. Shame.

Highly recommended reading: James Howard Kunstler's "The Geography of Nowhere".

[PenultimateManStanding]

]

[PenultimateManStanding]