Flytown was an urban neighborhood of blacks and various immigrants which was totally razed in the 50s for a tangle of highways and sprawling development. Some were much less fond of it than others, as accounts of the neighborhood vary a good deal. All of the land that was possible to develop is now part of Harrison West. Flytown serves as an example of how urban renewal could wipe someplace off the map and out of many peoples minds.

 

MAP

 

Starting at the NE corner we have a strip mall anchored by a Giant Eagle.

 

 

Right on the other side of the street are these stately homes. Even if Flytown was a stinky slum, you know that it's very unlikely a row of shacks once stood across the street this.

 

 

The New Yorker. Really?

 

 

I'm guessing they mean this is what it would look like if those classy brownstones were torn down for "progress".

 

 

 

Another complex, err, colony.

 

 

A slice of suburbia in the city.

 

 

At least there's a park here.

 

 

The only raised crosswalk in the city, which is a shame. Pretty sure it has to do with the huge retirement homes next door.

 

 

 

Looking east you can see part of the church on the corner and wasted land which could serve as an extension of Viction Village and Harrison West into Downtown.

 

 

To the west it's highways as far as the eye can see.

 

 

 

There aren't enough names and signs in the world to lend these places character.

 

 

 

Cartoon greenspace, as Kunstler would rightly call it.

 

 

Suburban offices too, I mean, how could it get any better?

 

 

 

An interesting building. It gets industrial further on.

 

 

Craving a PBR for some reason.

 

 

Strange location.

 

 

At least even in a slum you could go carless rather easily.

 

 

I feel dirty. This'll help.

 

 

Good urban infill where the building interacts with the street. Finally, we got it right and it only took us decades to figure out that the way you do that is...the same way we'd been doing it for over a century earlier. Doh!

 

 

So Thurber Village is actually Flytown II?

It would appear so. At least Flytown II sounds good. How many neighborhoods are sequels? Although, this follows the trend of the first one being the better of the two.

Thurber Village is the Columbus equivalent of Sandburg Village in Chicago's near-north: Ripping up the sorts of neighborhoods celebrated in the writings of these gifted authors, and then naming the bland, inferior replacement neighborhoods for them.

I've been in one of these apartment buildings. It's got a beat down Daytona beach hotel feel to it.

 

I've seen this part of town a hundred times, but never fully grasped what garbage it is. It's aged really poorly, too.

 

Thanks. I guess.

Those suburban apartment things remind me of an area between dontown Akron and Summit Lake that similar suburban-style development, with the cartoon greenspace site planning.  The style was more in that ski-lodge look rather than high-mansardic.

 

 

For some reason, Columbus just seems very suburban as a whole to me.  Even downtown seems strangely suburban in a way, and if you get just a few miles out of downtown, it actually is suburban.  Why is this?

I do really like that second shot, and the last shot of the infill looks pretty good too.

For some reason, Columbus just seems very suburban as a whole to me. Even downtown seems strangely suburban in a way, and if you get just a few miles out of downtown, it actually is suburban. Why is this?

 

Because Columbus' growth patterns jumped in various places due to high flooding in 1913. "Suburban" Thurber Village is nothing different than, say, Westwood or English Village in Cincinnati.  As the poster said, it was essential urban renewel for an African-American neighborhood (which is, of course, the American story).  "Urban" Columbus is 51 square miles compared to the "Corp Limits: Columbus" signs on I-71 which were annexed areas.  I think you just need to get a tour of Columbus.

 

BTW, the "New Yorker" looks like sections of the Bronx or Staten Island...

^

maybe thats why they called it the New Yorker.

 

 

It's time to start a movement; we can call it New Urban Renewal, and bulldoze all the suburban style crap that was built on the site of former urban neighborhoods, and then put the space back the way it's supposed to be.

 

We can accompany it with Rural Renewal, where we bulldoze the strip malls and subdivisions and rip up the parking lots, and return the land to food production.

Hey Rob, that is an awesome idea!!!

I think the only nice place in the whole thread is that infill.

Thanks for the photos though!!

I think there is some genius there Rob. This kind of neighborhood makes me fearful for Columbus' future as so much of the city seems to be declining suburban development with little long-term value.

Those suburban apartment structures are terrible.  I feel your pain Columbus.  I live on a street of early 1900's housing stock and there's one 4 story structure from the 1960's that looks just like those 'colony apartments' pictured above.  It even has that shingled top floor, that protrudes out.  I wish they'd all be demolished, lol.

Thanks Columbusite for this thread. Thurber Village was my first post-OSU graduation home...then we bought a fixer upper on Harrison Ave. for someting like $23,000 and made $50,000 (after the renovations) when we sold  it. Of course we got out too early cause we wanted to move back to the CLE but whatever. Great neighborhood despite the misguided urban renewal that wiped out Flytown...we could walk to the North Market (back when it first opened) and the hot spots on W. 3rd and High St. in under 10 minutes.

Those suburban apartment structures are terrible. I feel your pain Columbus. I live on a street of early 1900's housing stock and there's one 4 story structure from the 1960's that looks just like those 'colony apartments' pictured above. It even has that shingled top floor, that protrudes out. I wish they'd all be demolished, lol.

 

Ahh. The Paste-on Mansard. The good news about those things is they can usually be removed with a claw hammer and elbow grease with little or no affect on the structure. Let's keep this as an alternative to Rob's full-scale bulldozing plan, though, if any forumer were to have a bulldozer at the ready, it would be Rob.

 

I know I have bad taste, but my architecture cutoff isn't until about 1980.

^ roll your cutoff clock back 15 more years and most of this kind of crappy stuff wouldn't be around!

The big real estate boom that lead up to 73 crash is really much of the worst stuff. Even the early 60s stuff is better as it was sometimes influenced by Modernism rather than various faux- of the late 60s that carried into the 70s.

^ roll your cutoff clock back 15 more years and most of this kind of crappy stuff wouldn't be around!

 

I have to admit that I don't have much pull in the architectural community.