^

There is actually a book about this written by a psychiatrist called Root Shock.

 

 

So when the new place opens, the existing hospital will be vacant? That's not exactly revitalizing the city...

 

This is a merger of two hospitals, so there will actually be two sites vacant.

This is truely disgusting and the new hospital looks sprawled out... are there height restrictions there?

^ No. There are several 10-story buildings nearby.

as it's a merger, i'm not sure if there is room, but couldn't they have just renovated and added on to one or the other of the hospital sites instead?

 

wait, what am i saying? i'm sure they looked at that and found it was much easier and cheaper to do teardowns and build from scratch. never mind. ugh.

I just found this page and wanted to post, I work for the company and also have lived in Springfield all of my life, most of these houses were rental properties and were in need of much repair , some were older type architecture , in my opinion it was an improvement to the city and it's infrastructure, i don't believe anyone was misplaced or caused to be homeless because of this, 

Webcam shows the nearly completed hospital:

 

http://www.earthcam.com/client/srmc/

Interesting low-density suburban type construction appearing in a formerly dense urban area-is this the new Midwestern re-development paradigm? If so, it appears to be based on the assumption that urban land is now cheap enough for this kind of sprawling layout and most "right-sized" Midwestern cities will no longer have a need for dense redevelopment as they once had during their horse & buggy-streetcars days. So now, automobile-centric suburbia arrives downtown and the old dense urban development model becomes obsolete? Not sure personally that such spacious suburban type development is necessarily bad in decaying urban areas but when entire historic neighborhoods are sacrificed for it, it surely is. (the old failed 1960's Urban Renewal model redux) This kind of suburban style redevelopment works and looks best when its done in former industrial areas, not in former historic neighborhoods, IMO.

Looks like it belongs next to I-70.

Interesting low-density suburban type construction appearing in a formerly dense urban area-is this the new Midwestern re-development paradigm? If so, it appears to be based on the assumption that urban land is now cheap enough for this kind of sprawling layout and most "right-sized" Midwestern cities will no longer have a need for dense redevelopment as they once had during their horse & buggy-streetcars days. So now, automobile-centric suburbia arrives downtown and the old dense urban development model becomes obsolete?

 

Yes, you have it right.  This is pretty much the case in Dayton.

 

There is infill stuff that follows New Urbanism, but thats sort of a design choice in certain amenity areas or locations.  The suburban "buildings set in a lot of landscaped parking" (for the higher quality developments) or "large floorplate with generic parking lots" suburban strip or spec office site planing (for more routine things) is pretty much what's being done in town. 

 

I joke that Dayton is being "suburbanized".  This has been going on at least since the 1960s urban renewal efforts.

 

As for hospitals, here in Dayton hospital expansion is how they are doing 'shrinking city' residential/light commercial demolition, replaceing blocks of housing and corner store type stuff with hospital parking lots and ancillary buildings (labs and clinics & such).  Though we also got a new high-rise hospital via Miami Valley's "Heart Tower"...since it sits on a hill it dominates its part of the city sort of like those stand-alone skyscrapers in Europe.

 

What a terrible waste for Springfield. Those were significant Greek Revival homes.

 

I don't think I will ever be visiting Springfield, after seeing this mindless destruction. Reminds me of what's going on in Wheeling: http://www.jonathondenson.com/2011/11/sad-future-for-wheeling.html

Here is a photo I posted last night in another thread:

 

The Arcue Building in downtown Springfield, Ohio is being demolished right now. I photographed this a few weekends ago while on location, and stayed at the Courtyard - which sadly replaced the Arcade. There was a reason I requested the corner with a balcony...

 

 

Cause?

 

Antiquated elevators. Seriously. The building had a decent occupancy and even first floor retail. More on this building soon.

What a terrible waste for Springfield. Those were significant Greek Revival homes.

 

I don't think I will ever be visiting Springfield, after seeing this mindless destruction. Reminds me of what's going on in Wheeling: http://www.jonathondenson.com/2011/11/sad-future-for-wheeling.html

 

It's a sad time for historic preservation nationally. Almost seems like the 1950's Urban Renewal days all over again and no matter how "cash strapped" municipalities claim to be, I've yet to see even ONE that ever postponed a single "nuisance" demolition citing a lack of funds. There was a CBS 60 Minutes report this past weekend about the City of Cleveland dealing with its vacant and abandoned homes "problem" via mass demolitions. The segment cited 1,000+ demolitions on track for this year alone with 20,000 more homes to go. Try to imagine the staggering costs of building 20,000 new homes, some of them being very large two story dwellings. Think how many substantial neighborhoods it would take to accomodate these 20,000 soon-to-be-gone homes? All of those materials and lost labor costs going out in dumptruck loads of splinters and dust to the landfill...and unlike rehabbing, mass demolitions do not create long term jobs (unless you subscribe to the silly myth that "if you tear it down, they will come and rebuild"). Such a senseless waste. I visited Wheeling in 2009 after a decade of absence. Much of what I saw in 1999 was gone and a local informed me with disgust how hell-bent Wheeling was in destroying its once-grand architectural legacy. It almost seemed like a case of destructive self-loathing. Of course, the chronic weak local economy is cited repeatedly as the pressing need to "right-size" but it is my understanding some of these faded areas are now seeing the beginnings of a boom brought on by regional natural gas drilling. (Marcellus-Utica Shale activity) If economic predictions pan out, locals may look back in regret that they were in such a hurry to eradicate their past. Much of economically disadvantaged eastern Ohio may benefit from this energy activity as the needs for drilling supplies and materials is ramping up long dormant businesses. The whole concept of "right sizing" towns and cities is woefully short-sighted and based on the immediate here and now. If predicted long term climate changes come to past, the Midwest and Ohio in particular may see populations grow because it has in abundance the one natural resource most often predicted to be scarce and in high demand in the furture: fresh water. Please pardon my ramblings, but my point is that hastily made decisions to "downsize" communities based on the current recession or on short term economic forecasts may in hindsight appear to have been terrible mistakes a decade or two down the road.

It's great that I found this community of like-minded people, who also appreciate the historic buildings in rust-belt cities.

 

I think there are a lot of cities that continue to preserve and maintain their historic architecture. There are just some, like Wheeling and Springfield, that are stuck in a 1960s "urban renewal" mindset.  I could never live in a city like that -- I would want to chain myself to the Arcue building.

In the case of Cleveland, many of the truly historic structures were lost years ago.  Much of what they're talking about razing now is cheap woodframes in an unmarketable duplex format.  By all means there should be a moratorium on tearing down brick apartments and mixed use buildings.  But losing all those duplexes gives us a chance to rebuild with more brick apartments and mixed use buildings.  While we fight for preservation, as well we should, we also need to help guide our cities toward a denser future.