Aging Your City

It's funny, though I didn't grow up in one, I do love cities.  It's sort of like how I got into studying geology.  It wasn't necessarily the science aspect that interested me, so much as the story behind how the Earth grows and changes.  I love looking as something (or someone for that matter) and coming to understand how it came to reach its current state.  The streets and buildings of a city tell as much of its history as the wrinkles and scars on a person.  I'll give examples.

Philadelphia
    A few pockets of small Colonial era buildings remain near the historic center.  The center of town was laid out in a grid, though later changes make some interesting intersections.  A massive civic pride type city hall has the founder perched on top.  Old brick rowhomes with high ceilings are widely evident in the center, though many have been converted to apartments.  Large trees line small streets.  There are few historic squares for respite from the heat (though modern one keep popping up).  A large boulevard runs at a diagonal to the city plan, from the art museum to City Hall, lined with museums.  Behind the Art Museum is the large city park.  Few highrises in the center.  As you go out from the center, you find homes, still of brick, but squatter (designed for AC) and many sport steel awnings over their porches.  Factories and warehouses (some now converted into apartments) lie along the rivers running on three sides of Center City. 

Prague
    Castles and religious buildings perch on the highest hills (the older castle is brick, the younger, mostly stone). For a city that has been around for a thousand years or so, not much remains of its early life.  The only Medieval homes that remain are museums in Prague Castle (the younger one).  The city's walls have disappeared, but some of the gates remain as towers around the historic center.  The cobblestone streets twist and turn throughout, with many passages (walkways) through blocks of buildings for shortcuts.  Homes and gardens of the elite on the hill below the castle are preserved as shops and government buildings (including embassies). The ground level in the center of town was raised to protect against flooding, half burying the ground floor of many buildings, and creating many basement style pubs as well as a network of tunnels for resistance fighters.  As you get away from the historic center (which is not even the same as during the time of Kafka's childhood) you begin to see more touches of the Soviet style of building, very blocky and functional, though much of it is crumbling now.  Even further and you see the panelaks, tall squared off apartment buildings of the modern Czech Republic, with bold colors on the exteriors and parking at their feet. 

Rio
    Traditional Colonial Spanish (Portuguese?) architecture is preserved mostly in historic/government buildings and fringe areas.  Strongly divided into neighborhoods that thread among the hills and along the coast.  Of course, Jesus looks down on them all.  Good neighborhoods tend to have a modern feel, often built with concrete (many building materials break down quickly in that environment).  Shopping streets and malls have been built in the city center near modern office complexes.  The most striking feature (apart from the beaches, I mean, come on) is the proximity of the favellas (permanent shanty towns) to the rich neighborhoods.  These neighborhoods spread up the hillside in bare red brick and tin roof sprawl.  Windows are often empty of glass and birds-nests of wires pass pirated electricity.  The drug cartels are said to run the favellas, though the police have been trying to pacify them for the World Cup and upcoming Olympics.  Dotting the city are playing fields (hard surfaces) for futibol (soccer), or at least primarily used to that end.

Brasilia
    A city designed and built to be the capitol of Brasil, it's a rather unusual place.  It was envisioned to be a modern city, traversed by car (without traffic lights, though they were later installed).  You were intended to never be far from a view of the open sky (like in those depressing traditional cities), so it is very spread out.  Consequently, walking around is a bit of a bear.  Originally, the working class were supposed to live alongside government functionaries and the elite in the blocos (which all have small shopping streets a short walk away, making each area basically independent of the others).  However, once the government got kicked out, the rich fled to the surrounding ares and the poor were driven beyond that.  Nobody owned the property surrounding (it really was built in the middle of nowhere), so some of the neighborhoods built on the outskirts are still technically squatters, for which the city will not pave roads (nice big potholes) or provide public water/sewer.  Satellite cities are row upon row of highrise apartments and shops, with access to the city via subway and highway (though as we discussed, driving can be a bit of a bitch).  Since Brasilia was planned, the favellas here developed well outside of the city proper and the residents take long bus rides into the city to clean houses or work in restaurants and shops.


Obviously, cities grow and change.  These changes leave their scars upon the streets and buildings.  After London's great fire, there weren't many wooden buildings left in that part of town.  In Philadelphia, you can see the outline of an old building that was torn down as scars and discoloration upon its neighbor.  Slums and ghettos are bulldozed so the rising middle class can have a shorter walk to the office.  Today, city centers in the US are being revitalized as many of the young desert the soulless suburbs (at least until they have children).  Even within a building you can see signs of growth and decay; a doorway on the third floor leads to open air; a porch walled in to provide extra room in winter.  Little touches like these are what give cities a sense of history.  It's what lets you know that people actually live there.