Wed 10/16/18

Loup County, Neb.— Loup County is the 5th least populous county in Nebraska, and the 10th least populous in the country, with 632 residents (as of 2010) covering 568 square miles of land.  This gives the county a population density of 1.1 people per square mile!  Here are the Loup County elementary and high schools.  Notice how they are located on gravel roads, which represents the center of Taylor, the county seat.  (The high school looks more like a prison from this angle.)  Right nearby is the Methodist Church, apparently built in 1926.  Taylor only has 190 residents, but it has a visitor center and an arboretum.  One block north is the historic Pavillion Hotel, built in 1887, and some other old buildings in what looks like the original main street.  Here’s an article I found about the wooden cut-out villagers (look closely at the Hotel).  I originally started just picking a spot to view in the middle of Nebraska.  I came across the “village” of Almeria ten miles west of Taylor, which has a long-closed country store.  Here is the North Loup River which runs along Highway 91.  It looks like it could easily overflow its banks.  This hilly stretch looks like it could be from Little House on the Prairie.

Fri 6/1/18

Santa Rosa, Calif.– a rapidly growing city of 175,000 north of San Francisco.  Thousands of homes were burnt to the ground in last October’s wildfires.  Here’s a news story about the first home being rebuilt in the Coffey Park neighborhood.  I came across this fascinating article about a guy who used drones to visually map the devastated areas from the air (see the interactive features).  This Google Streetview shot shows the area before the fires, with Coffey Park on the left, and homes on the right which can be seen as destroyed in the article.  Note that the late Charles Schultz’s home was also destroyed in the fires, with his widow making it out okay.  His Museum & Research Center was not touched.

S.C. Developments

Rock Hill – “The Anderson” – 108 E. Main St. (Street View), featuring 89 apartments in a location to help bring downtown back to life.

Texas Developments

Austin

West Campus Is The Envy of Austin’s New Urbanists – shows high rises planned for this university area.  (article dated 2/24/17; I’m posting 3/21/18)  Here is the site of the first one, under construction, which looks to be magnificent.  Look at the charming old Southern home across the street, which is about to be tremendously overshadowed.  This area, overall, seems to be quite disjointed.

Tue 1/31/17

Durham, N.H.–Lots of new development in or near downtown the past few years.  Starting on Main St., let’s see what goes up at this fenced-off site, where an old house used to stand.  Here’s a nice new addition to downtown, which the building coming right up to the curb.  Just a bit up on the other side of the street is the new development, which used to be a side yard to the historic house next door.  Rounding the corner onto Madbury Rd., you can see the main part of this new development.  Continuing down Madbury Rd. is this big new mixed-use building, which includes a restaurant with some outdoor seating.  A bit further along the road is Madbury Commons, a large (supposedly 1,000 bedroom) complex that apparently is being rented mostly by students (go figure).  The website gives an aerial tour.  Reversing direction and heading up Pettee Brook Ln. brings us to this modern new residential building, which also includes a Papa John’s.  Crossing Main St., and heading into “Quad Way”, I wonder what is being built here, seemingly connecting the MUB with Holloway Commons (formerly Huddleston dining hall).  Actually, it looks like that’s been there, just some renovations being done.

Mon 1/2/17

Longmont, Colo.–I search the web for a new urbanist village in Colorado and came up with Prospect New Town, located on the site of a former tree farm.  Its slogan is, “Where rural country meets urban downtown.”  This appears to be the main entrance, although no real sign.  The village center is mostly modern architecture.  Here is the rather nondescript town square.  Continuing to head up the main road, Tenacity Dr., is a wide duplex on a tree-lined street with vines growing up the center.  The alleys are basically an extension of the sidewalks.  Here is an old-style commercial building on 100-Year Party Ct.  (And, yes, the village has some interesting street names.  See the alleyway Tempted Ways Dr.)  A bit further up Tenacity Dr. are these old-style (southern?) homes, one with a tree fort out front.  Across the street is a more traditional town green.  Here is a view without leaves on the trees, looking toward the other side of the town green.  Heading out a side exit to the village is a regular suburban neighborhood.  The residents there get the benefit of having a delightful walking area right nearby.  Here is a view of the mountains to the west.  The southern section of the village has modern-style houses.  Here is a playground in one of the village greens.

N.H. Developments

State 10-year highway plan–2017 – 2026–dated 5/18/16–Everett Turnpike widening planned for 2022 – 24.

Route 16 Corridor Safety Study–dated June 2015–see p.18 for proposed double-pronged roundabout in Conway

North Carolina Developments

Charlotte area

The Towers at Mattie Rose will feature a woonerf, a European-style shared street concept. This is a small development just outside downtown featuring interesting designs.  (I located the article 12/16/16, but it’s dated 4/15/16).  Here is the location of the future development.

The same company (building the above development), Grandfather Homes, builds homes of “duets” and “triets”, basically duplexes and triplexes that actually blend in as one big home.  See this example in Charlotte.  Check out their website for the outdoor covered patio with a fireplace at this house.

 

Tue 12/13/16

Merrifield, Va.–The StreetView of Avenir Pl. has finally posted, stamp date being October 2016.  Low-rise retail buildings from the massive parking garage on this side, opposite 6-story (mostly) residential buildings with a Harris Teeter store on the ground level.  A couple streets down is Halstead Square Rd., also a new addition to StreetView.  Nice modern buildings on a narrow street.  Here is the link to Halstead Square’s website.  The complex even has bowling lanes and a pet spa.

Fri 11/25/16

Melrose, Mass.–Info about a new senior living facility, The Residence at Melrose Station.  Here is the site on StreetView as of 2012, a one-story business.  This is a drawing of the facility (from the article):

Heading east on Essex St., there is a Shaw’s which fronts the road.  This is one block away from a delightful Main St.  I headed south, then west on W. Foster St., to this nice condominium building.