Creating Places: A Citizen Observer's Look at Nashville's Built Environment


Writer's Note: William Williams' interest in the manmade environment dates to 1970, at which point the then-young Williams started a collection of postcards of city skylines. The collection now numbers 1,000-plus cards. Among the writer's specific interests are exterior building design, city district planning, demographics, signage, mixed-use development, mass transit and green/sustainable construction and living. Williams began his Creating Places column with The City Paper in February 2005. The column in its original form was discontinued in September 2008 and reinvented via this blog in November 2008. Creating Places can be found on the home page of the website of The City Paper, at which Williams has worked in various capacities since October 2000.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Bound for Birmingham

There are only a handful of Southern cities whose built forms are similar to those of gritty, blue-collar Northern cities such as Buffalo, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh. Of these, Birmingham might be the best example. In addition, Alabama's largest city offers one of the best "big city pedestrian epicenters" in the South: Five Points. This writer will be in the Ham the next two days, during which a self-guided tour of industrial architecture masterpiece Sloss Furnaces is on tap. A report of this trip will soon follow.

No comments:

Post a Comment