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Maybe look at cities that managed to go from modernist car centric to traditionalist human centric design successfully and how they done it. How did they manage to convince people to demolish modernist architecture/neighborhoods in replacement of traditional architecture/neighborhoods?
Grand Rapids. A city that is fighting like hell to preserve its walkability and transit-friendliness, which is better than average, but gradually being eroded by increasing suburban development. The big highway through town, US-131, is nearing the end of its operational lifetime, and there is a big push from the local urbanist community (including the Strong Towns chapter) to replace it with a pedestrian-friendly boulevard of some kind. Currently, Grand Rapids' downtown preserves a lot of the original architecture, and it is a charming place to walk through. But even that is under threat by institutions like Corewell Health and which have begun turning lots of valuable space into parking lots/garages and eroding the walkability of neighborhoods.
ok but seriously I never thought there was a town/city in the USA that is restoring the damage that was done in the 50s and 60s from poorly planned urban renewal, the fact that people are moving in the city mainly because of the architecture and friendly pedestrian infrastructure shows that beauty is beneficial for cities, cities like Buffalo, St Louis and Cincinnati that got damaged can be beautifully revived in buildings and infrastructure, not just for cities but maybe the USA as a whole should go back to focusing on beauty
I'm European who always wanted to live in the US, but the lack of 'pretty' cities kinda keeps from achieving this dream. You feel so much better, even you have a bad day, when you can walk through a nice looking city. When every building makes you happy that you're here.
Charleston is expensive because people want what Charleston has. The solution is not to change Charleston-and get rid of the very thing people want in the process. The solution is build more places like Charleston.
@@abrahambendavid.7474 I agree entirely. Also, take note of the people in Charleston who actually constitute the town. Look at the manner of them, the things which they busy themselves about. This is what effectively makes Charleston what it is. This must never be forgotten.
Yeah but you don’t have to repeat Europe’s mistakes, where regulations are so strict that they cause a lack of housing, making prices to become unaffordable for everyone.
Actual good government-funded urbanism in a North American city? Never thought I'd see the day! Now, let's hope this urbanism is anchored by new public transit sometime in the future!
There is a BRT project in development that is desperately needed going up into north charleston where lower income workers live. Service industry workers cannot afford to live in any of the places shown in this video unfortunately.
I’m a resident and architect. The vast majority of projects touched on here are not government funded and are privately developed luxury apartments and short term rentals.
I've been to Charleston and Savannah, GA. The U.S. has some beautiful and fascinating historical architecture and a distinctly American design language when constructed like we see in Charleston. It's really a shame that we still build what we build today. Charleston would be a great place to move to, but the cost of living downtown is still very high, and many amenities are located in the North suburbs. I hope that modernism eventually fades, and the general public realizes what we can achieve when we properly plan our cities.
You do NOT want to live downtown! Trust me, I did and loved it and hated it. Difficult parking, flooding, tourists and people peeking into your windows and over the garden wall.
@@leDespicable Yeah, downtown Charleston really needs to rebuild its old trolley network. And they also need to move the amtrak station downtown. That will help immensely with the number of cars going into the city.
@@leDespicable Yes and so in Charleston that that was built long before the car. However, I could park on my property and had a carriage house to park my cars. Most did not have that luxury. Living in Charleston downtown has a lot of issues that people may or not be aware of like the frequent flooding a high tide.
The sad part is that because downtown is now a historic district, the city has become heavily gentrified. The city is currently unaffordable to everyday American. All the more reason to make this a trend. And I don't think those modernist buildings are bad at all. They have unique symmetrical form with masonry facades, which is way better than brutalism and glass monoliths.
Brutalism is one of the worst styles ever invented. The enormous amount of glass monoliths aren't particularly appealing either. I think modernism isn't that great, it's just better than some of the worst things we have ever invented.
@@SomeDudeQC The main reason this channel exists is because most people think that stuff is ugly and want to make beautiful architecture again. Most people agree that brutalism is ugly and traditional architecture is beautiful.
@@MatthewGraham027 the main reason this channel exists is to subjectively call an entire architectural movement ugly? Edit:Also traditional means nothing and is of itself subjective.
As someone whose family has been in Charleston for a very long time, I want to give some thoughts on your video and take. First the US was one the last of the western countries to abolish slavery. It is amusing to me how your pictures in the beginning are almost empty of cars whether parked or driving when in reality downtown is in near gridlock all the time and finding street parking is almost impossible. You didn't mention how the College of Charleston keeps growing and can take any building by eminent domain--and they have, over and over again. Up until maybe 20 years ago there was housing for lower and middle income people available downtown, now because of ever rising property taxes---Charleston re-asseses every year, and sky-high home prices only the rich can live downtown. And just like anywhere else if you have enough $ you can tear down any building you want and build any monstrosity you want, BAR or no BAR
As someone who lives in the outer suburbs of Charleston, it's hard to have seen it change like this. Admittedly, it is beautification, and it appears so if you only see what these areas are now versus what will be. However, it really is just very slow gentrification. The areas developed now used to be the older shotgun houses where people lived before the interstate came through.
Wow. Fail. America was among the first places to end slavery. Read a history book. Less than 20 percent of African slaves came to America and the African slave trade outside of America persisted for more than 20 years. FYI there is more slavery today then ever per the UN.
The Pinnacle building comes to mind since it sticks out like a sore thumb every time I go to Mount Plastic via the Ravenel bridge. Have you seen the 'high rises' that were poorly built on Coleman and Ben Sawyer Blvd that completely ignored the height restrictions for the town? Someone's palms got heavily greased during those builds.
@@zionosphere Much of what you said is simply not true. People don’t understand what gentrification means. Most people use words today because they’re told those words because they’re told how to think. Just outside the gates of the citadel is Hampton Park and Wagner Terrace. Those were white middle-class neighborhoods before the interstate. All of those houses have been there since well before the interstate. These houses are not being replaced. Those neighborhoods went to hell when the interstate was built and people moved out to the suburbs. Over time suburbs get expensive and prices are cheaper in the city so people start moving back in the other direction. Cities actually need gentrification and want it because they desperately need property values to go back up because they desperately need the property taxes. Charleston and Boston are extreme examples of historic cities where over 50% of the real estate is except from taxes because they’re either churches or owned by a government agency. A city can’t survive like that. People often Champion the interstate system as possibly the best thing America ever did. The best thing the federal government ever did. Actually it’s one of the worst things the government ever did. It destroyed cities all across America. The reason you have so many poor crime and drug infested inner cities across America is because of the interstate.
@@pxn748 This is a very ignorant take. First, you clearly don’t know a damn thing about the history of slavery. You think slavery means the African slave trade. Slavery has existed since humanity has existed. Every country every culture every race has been involved in slavery, both as the oppressor and the oppressed. Slavery has never ended. In fact there is more slavery today than at any point in history. Also, people really don’t understand Europe’s place in historical slavery. Yes. The UK and other European countries ended the importation of slaves into Europe. But they occupied and controlled other countries long after they ended domestic slavery. What do you think the Vietnam war was? That was Vietnam wanting their independence from the French. America was actually one of the first countries to end slavery. Less than 20% of slaves from Africa came to America. Most of them went to the Caribbean and South America. The African slave trade persisted for more than 20 years after slavery ended in America. It should also be noted that the African slave trade could not have existed without African countries and African tribes being an integral part. Europeans weren’t running around Africa with nets Catrin slaves the way people were brainwashed believe by the miniseries Roots. In fact, Alex Haley admitted that Roots was a lie. He made it up. He said black people needed a narrative. Most what you are taught in school in history class is total bullshit. For example, America was not created in 1776. The declaration of independence did not create America. It was simply the 13 colonies, deciding to work together to overthrow the king. It wasn’t until the 1780s when the constitution was ratified, did we actually have a government. All 13 colonies independently had to ratify the constitution. America today is a fascist country. Do a little research on fascism. We are straight up absolutely a textbook fascist country. Over 90% of what the federal government does is unconstitutional. Project 2025 has a lot stupid stuff but the founding fathers would absolutely love at least half of it if not more. Including Alexander Hamilton. Everything tank has their own version of a project 2025. This is what they do. This is why they’re called think thanks. Nothing these people have ever done truly gets implemented. Administrations simply takes some of the ideas and use them to craft legislation. And about half of what project 2025 calls for should be done. And again if you go and read it and then read the constitution and especially if you read the federalist papers, you would see that the founding fathers would love it. Because it gets rid of enormous unconstitutional authoritarian agencies in the federal government. It does not give any power to the president that the president doesn’t already have. It does not shift the balance of power at all. This is the media doing what they do. Lying about anything and everything regarding Republicans while burying anything negative about a Democrat. Speaking of slavery, the Civil War was not actually about slavery. Yes it was a part of succession. But the south were not traitors. They had every right to use the legislative process to leave the union and they did. Because America was created to be 50 sovereign states not Canada with the federal government controls the provinces. What we have right now is the exact opposite of what the founding fathers created. The federal government is supposed to be very small, very weak and very limited. Now it is authoritarian and the states are controlled by the federal government. Like I said, America is a fascist country. The founding fathers would be horrified if they saw America today. But the Civil War was not a Civil War. It was the second American revolution. The south was not fighting the federal government for control of America. They simply wanted out because America had become tyrannical and Lincoln was in fact the first tyrant. Lincoln shit all over the constitution. The chief justice of the Supreme Court brought this to Lincoln‘s attention and Lincoln threatened to throw him in jail. The emancipation proclamation did not free a single slave. It was two years into the war, and Lincoln was deeply concerned because the north was getting their ass kicked, and he did the emancipation proclamation hoping it would cause a slave revolt, which would interrupt the southern war efforts. Even if Lincoln wanted to free the slaves, which he did not, he could not have done it. Slavery was legal. Only Congress can reverse legislation. Which is why the Civil War did not end slavery. Slavery ended six months after the Civil War with the 13th amendment.this is one of the many reasons why Juneteenth is so stupid and completely made up. Google Abraham Lincoln‘s letter to Horace Greeley, and read it. In the letter he states that his objective for the war is to force the south back into the union. Ending slavery was not his priority and it was not the reason for the war. The African slave trade was already coming to an end before the Civil War anyway. The industrial revolution was in its infancy. Technology was going to make slaves in America unnecessary. Slaves were actually expensive. I love when people say plantations had free labor. Good Lord, that is just beyond stupid. Slaves were very expensive. The reason slavery ended in states up north before the south was purely economic. Immigrants getting off the boat from Europe would work for pennies a day, which is where the term slave wages comes from. It was easier to hire immigrants than to buy slaves, and if they got hurt or sick, you could get rid of them because they were always more. And they had to provide their own healthcare, etc. Slaves were not only expensive to buy but expensive to maintain. And who do you think bought all that cotton and all that tobacco and indigo and tea and everything else that came from those plantations? The people up north. The textile meals up north. The north needed the plantations in the south. So did Europe. It was all one very interconnected system.
@@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606 Me too, I was kidding, and a midsized city like Charleston needs midrises height limit up to 15 floors max. with different European, Art deco, neoclassical, and Beaux-Arts Archi styles.
Charleston is okay. the historic city center/peninsula is charming and very walkable but there so much sprawl on the periphery. Great place for biking but public transportation leaves a lot to be desired
It's weird too, when I was in college around 2016 biking was pretty prevalent. We even had cool bike auctions. I think it really dropped off after a major bike accident. Idk what happened, but it seemed like everyone just... stopped biking?
@howtubeable That's the cringe factor of city beautification people. It's geared for gentrification and getting rid of the "undesirables." See Atlanta.
What really irks me is that architecture schools are still teaching modernism NOW. They still say it is important to build "of this age" while showing buildings from the 1950s.
But the American College of the Building Arts, based in Charleston, is bucking that trend. I suspect that has something to do with the preservation and expansion of beautiful urban design in Charleston.
I follow a guy on YT that talks about architecture and how nothing of aesthetic significance has been built since WWII. How architecture changed radically after the war. Tucker Carlsson has talked about this as well. That no great buildings have been built since the war. How America seems to have radically changed and lost its soul after being in the war. Clemson has an excellent school of architecture and they own a few buildings in downtown Charleston and Genoa, Italy and you can spend a semester in both places.
I visited Charleston this year and I was absolutely floored at how beautiful it is. I think a lot of why it is successful is because there are no highways going through the historic district. The sprawl outside of it is quite bad though! That parking lot on Market St stuck out like a sore thumb in an otherwise incredible area, that is great news that they are doing something with it!
These things are amplified by the fact that Charleston is a peninsula with I-26 running through the middle and completely surrounded by islands and beaches, marsh, rivers and creeks. Over 1/3 of downtown is landfill. Former marsh and creeks. The entire area is a fragile ecosystem that can't handle the infrastructure and population we have mow much less the insane growth. There can be only so many bridges and they create massive bottlenecks. Want to have your mind blown? Pull up Google Earth or maps in satellite view and zoom out to see SC from I-95 to the Atlantic. The entire eastern portion of SC is dark green. Why? Because it's almost all swamps, creeks, marsh, rivers, lakes, etc. A few years ago a fighter jet crashed on the eastern portion of SC and it took a few weeks to find it and people were laughing and mocking. I told them to watch the movie The Patriot, or the proposal scene in The Notebook, and the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back when Luke is in the swamp looking for Yoda. That's the overwhelming majority of South Carolina from 95 to the ocean. You could lose a squadron of jets in SC that might not get found until some good ole boy is in the swamp hunting or fishing.
Imagine what you could do with all of those empty lots in Buffalo. You could build such nice low/medium density buildings and make it a very nice place again
If the planning costs weren't so high, it would be such a low-cost, high-impact transformation to the area. And it wouldn't take very long to materialize; maybe 1-2 years until the first buildings are completed, with residents flooding in over the next decade.
We need a couple of mixed use buildings of 20 to 30 floors on a couple of those empty lots. Our skyline needs a couple of major additions. Something designed in good aesthetic taste and not some drab uninviting chunk of concrete with tiny windows or the cheap crappy low rises with the painted aluminum and vinyl siding that are popping up around Buffalo.
@@r.pres.4121 I would put those within the downtown area. I think the city needs more density along the more major roads (Broadway). I'm seeing on the map that some 3+ story apartments are being built, but they have a pretty boring design. I was looking at a some new buildings in a different city and they have a European design which looks very nice.
Many blacks left Charleston during the Jim Crow era for cities like NYC for example but Charleston still had a black majority well into the 1990s. It's only been in the last 20-30 years where the black population has decreased as a percentage of the total population dramatically. Unfortunately many of those families have been priced out of the city with the new growth. U can barely even find anyone with a native Charleston accent. The city has improved a lot but it has lost some of its uniqueness and culture in the last 30 years
I appreciate that you are one of the few urbanist channels who also care about architectural beauty, as modernist car-centric infrastructure and modernist architecture are inextricably tied together. I think the reason many people are dissuaded from going back to traditional city planning is because in the minds of some people, walkability is now associated with soulless, modernist urban cores. However, I would like you to look into "architectural illiteracy", which is the fashioning of buildings to appear a certain style without the architect actually being informed in that style. In terms of traditionally inspired buildings being erected today, fake classical massively outnumbers genuine classical. I know it doesn't seem that important, but it leads to tacky and fake looking traditional buildings that people also hate and call it things like Disneyland architecture, and further drives people towards modernism. The Gaillard Center at 2:20 is authentic, as were some other structures, but many of the other examples you showed were not . The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art has a great article on this subject. I don't see classical architecture making a full recovery unless the architectural world is cognizant of this issue.
Modernist architecture I think can be used to build new buildings in centre cities, even historic areas, provided the buildings respect the surrounding architecture and conform to the proportioning referred to by books like _The Golden Section_ and _The Old Way of Seeing._
@@shabushabu5319 Even they do that wrong. They should be operating smaller vans and shuttle buses. But government never solves problems, only create them or make them worse.
Charleston isn’t really growing fast. It has annexed 100’s of square miles in recent decades and then built suburban sprawl. The low country is a sprawled out suburban nightmare with traffic congestion that rivals much bigger cities.
@@trontron4372 Wrong. That is still growth and they are now building up downtown and everywhere else. Mount Pleasant just over the bridge had under 20,000 in the early 80s, now over 100,000. \ NY city sprawled north before going up. That's how ALL growth evolves due to land prices until traffic makes higher urban land prices more affordable with condos and going up.
@@nedhill1242 Charleston is never going to grow tall like NYC. That’s the point of my comment. Charleston as a city has gobbled up thousands of acres of forested land and for not a lot of growth. whenever people speak of Charleston’s growth, they show you downtown and the peninsula, which has had some decent growth and urban development recently. But the majority of Charleston’s growth is suburban sprawl. Have you seen the plans for west of the Ashley in upper Charleston/Dorchester county?
@@retrojordans5 I’m 58 years old. I live in Charleston. My family is from Charleston. My grandfather laid the telephone lines over the original Cooper River Bridge. When people say Charleston, they’re not talking about the city limits of Charleston. They’re talking about Charleston in general. That includes the beaches and the surrounding area. Very few people are talking about specifically the city of Charleston. That’s your little narrow view because you want to sound like an intelligent enlightened person. When you talk about growth, it’s always gonna be the entire metropolitan area. Because the growth around the city of Charleston drives what happens in Charleston. And there’s a reason why the city of Charleston can’t grow. Do you know what those reasons are? I bet you don’t. Part of it is, Charleston is like Boston. They are the two cities by far in America with the least amount of taxable real estate. The city cannot tax anything owned by the federal government or the county or the state. They also can’t tax churches. Significant portions of Charleston are owned by churches and other nonprofits. The college of Charleston. Medical university of South Carolina. Roper Hospital. Public schools. Government buildings with the state the county and federal government. You’re talking about any enormous percentage of the landmass of the city of Charleston that they cannot tax. But around Charleston is dependent on in one way or another downtown Charleston and they have to pay for all of that infrastructure. People in Mount Pleasant downtown. People James Island work downtown. The port. I could go on and on. That’s reason number one Reason number two. Charleston doesn’t have bedrock like up north. You can have high rises right by the ocean in Florida because they have bedrock. You can have that up north. Because they have bedrock. You can’t have that in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. There’s nothing to put a foundation on For very tall buildings. At least 1/3 if that more of downtown is landfill. So much of what is in and around downtown Charleston can’t be built on beyond may be a few stories because it simply can’t sustain it geologically. Charleston is also rivers Marsh beaches islands. You also clearly don’t seem to recognize and understand that downtown the historic district, which is basically everything south of the crosstown, which is Highway 17 cannot go up because of city ordinances. People couldn’t build above a certain height, even if they wanted to or even if they could again geologically because the city is not gonna allow it. When New York started growing up first. Yeah it went up up Broadway. It went north. Went across the river. Only years later did it start building up. I graduated from Clemson. I have a degree in finance. I’m from Charleston. I have a masters degree in public administration. My specialization was in city and urban planning. I almost got a PhD in that. I almost studied architecture in college. Still do love it as a hobby the way I love history and other things that make me love Charleston. I’m in the mortgage and real estate industry. Work with investors and developers. I forgotten more about this and 99% of the population has ever known. so if you wanna have a debate or an argument with me, you gonna have to show up with better stuff than this.
You are missing a couple large points. Charleston is flooding on king tides and high tides with rain. Upper peninsula is affected by flooding the most as renovations to the battery has made improvements to the issue in the southern peninsula but not adequately fixed the problem. Surface level parking is desperately needed in Charleston to sustain the work force. Most of the larger projects you have mentioned require the builder to provide only one parking space for every domicile built. One space is not adequate for the amount of ppl projected to be living in the new projects. Because of this middle level and single level domicile are rarely being considered in new construction and architecturally significant buildings are being torn down to make way for large apartment building that look odd next to the smaller more culturally significant buildings they sit next to. large builders and big money is set to change Charlestons historically, black neighborhoods. They don't plan on addressing the issues that they are facing currently and making more in the future. However, interesting design maybe projected to be. It does not hold a candle to the culture that they are destroying on the upper peninsula.
Bless you for highlighting our preservation, people don't understand that preservation here is unlike anywhere else in America. not even Savannah, Nola or Boston can say the same for their architectural feats.
@@SomeDudeQC preservation is what keeps other countries alive while America falls at the hands of "diversifying" every thing amd keep up to date with the status quo. Charleston is the most historical city in America why not keep it that way. Most of European cities do what Charleston does. Just look at the way they rebuilt Dresden Germany.
The US was certainly not one of the first countries to end slavery, at least not among Western countries and one of very few to start a war to preserve it. Anyways, Charleston's architecture isn't "slavery architecture", we can love the buildings and their styles and hate their history, most heritage around the world was built upon crushing oppression and that should always be remembered.
Most Northern states were free states by 1800. The US ended their slave trade (no new slaves) in 1808, England did it in 1807. Sweden, Norway, France, Portugal, Brazil did it later in the 1800s. Most of Latin America fully abolished slavery in the mid-1800s. It all happened relatively around the same time.
@@lmlm_ Meh, few Western countries were as reluctant to abolish slavery as the US and even fewer were as inventive to continue it in other ways to this very day.
Charlestonian here- Actually from the SC Upstate and now reside in North Charleson. Great video but the real reason many African Americans have/are leaving downtown is they are being priced out. Still a great city though. What we need is more (and affordable) development like that in North Charleston
I am so grateful for this channel. In a world bombarded with ugliness - music, art, architecture - it is good to know there is a revival, a fight back against the darkness that is banal and bureaucratically soul-crushing.
with rising temperatures and ocean water levels, Charleston is one Cat-5 hurricane away from being wiped off the map. It already floods on a regular basis, and the heat/humidity is unbearable unless you're in air-conditioning.
I don't recommend coming here July thru September unless you like sweating thru your clothes by just stepping out your door and then getting carried away by mosquitoes. The pungent smells are delightful as well since we've spent millions on drainage that just looks pretty while still flooding with the slightest rainfall.
The U.S. was not one of the first countries to end slavery. When compared to other colonial powers and even their territories, the U.S. was incredibly late to abolishing slavery
I like this series, gives you hope to what remains of old American architecture that wasn’t downright destroyed during the highway boom. You should try New Orleans, I feel that the French quarter is something that is worth talking about in terms of preservation.
4:49 When you mention this, I think it harms your argument more than helps it. The horror of American slavery, and I mean this for all of the Americas, comes from the fact that it was chattel and especially cruel and dehumanizing, more than in other places of the premodernist world. In other places, slaves had rights, but in the Americas they were treated like cattle. Also, I don't know about Charleston specifically, but during Reconstruction there were many Black communities that were wealthy and had since been destroyed because of racism like Wilmington, NC, or Tulsa, OK.
I've liked your videos, but I feel like you gloss over the extremely high cost of living and skyrocketing housing crisis caused by this type of government influence. Yes, it's a beautiful downtown area. But think of how many people can't move here or have been forced out because of the cost to create such a thing. I think you should have taken some time to address this, because as pretty of a town as this is, it just isn't logistical for the whole of society. Like, this is in a display of great government, or even wonderful decision making. It's just a group of officials saying this town is only for Rich folk Now, while I do acknowledged that the colorful colonial style is light-years better than the blocky Revit designed buildings of modern america, if we do want an urban downtown like this, but at a low cost so that people can actually live there, then unfortunately that's where we need the blocky buildings
Hurricane Hugo was one of the best things to happen to Charleston in modern times. Prior to Hugo, Charleston was doing quite well. After Hugo, the pace and quality of rebuilding really took off into the new century. There is still a lot of awful modern buildings that are still there that could either be replaced or remodeled. The area where I-26 terminates at King St. used to be really, really bad but even that has improved greatly. Outside of the historic areas, North Charleston itself has improved quite a bit. It used to be a bunch of trailer parks up by the Air Force Base. Lived there in a house just off Tradd St 1994 - 2005. Listed the house and had four offers in three days over asking price. Moved west - way west. Hate the idea that the Nathaniel Russel House is being sold and may turn back into a private residence. Oh well. Charleston is a beautiful place to visit but it is too small, TOO conservative and too backwards. Visiting now feels like walking back to 1984.
Most of video is good, and like you showed though out the video, I watch a lot of foreigners react to American stuff and would like them seeing more stuff other than just NY, LA, Texas, and Florida so they get more of a understanding of the US, The US is not like France, Korea, Japan, UK that a quarter to half the population stays in a few places. So you discussing colonial cities like Charleston is great because many don't understand US history goes beyond 200 years. "The city is nearly 350 years old" or your video on the history of St Louis architecture help educated people on the diverse history of the US. Many of cities have very different styles. However the middle of video you started talking about slavery it got a little weird, though I know you mean no offense. You should had stop at nobody in Charleston believe in slavery, or the racist views of the past maybe added Charleston is very welcoming to all backgrounds and culture today, and just left it at that...... As Black American who ancestors likely came though that port it came off a little like trying to soften the events in Charleston by comparing it to other atrocious stuff like Dudai exploitation of foreign workers etc, then say we should be thankful for the US fought a war over it. Like be thankful I put out the fire..... I cause in the house....... All of that wasn't necessary, we get the point it has some shameful history, but nobody should shame the place because events of the past that's all you had to say..... but overall great video with good intentions. Especially with the attention to urbanism and architecture. And Charleston is under the radar it's metro will likely hit a million soon. As Georgian I wish Savanah was growing like that.
Certainly, Charleston's revitalization is impressive, and it's great that they have the political will and the resources to push the city in a more livable direction. However, for the sake of generalizing this sort of walkability and QoL boom, the baseline focus should be on figuring out how the government can get out of the way of people who love their towns and want to do these sorts of projects on a small scale. The best cities in the country were all initially built through incremental change, each person or family taking small steps to build something new, eventually accumulating to . . . 'the magic of the city', if you will. A period of rebuilding civic pride via individual investment and the putting down of roots will be necessary so that what keeps the city developing in a positive way is something as durable as culture, not something as transient as political machinery. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve been watching your videos for the past couple weeks and I’m amazed by your work instead of the topic being lost architecture it is the opposite im glad I found your channel
Bit slimy from you to rethorically conflate modernism and car centric urban architecture. Have your personal opinions about modernist architecture by all means but at least actually state when you propergate your own opinion. You can have a walkable eco friendly city and it all be concrete blocks.
These are great videos. I worry, that new urbanism risks being the urban renewal of the future. This, largely because the development/ownership model, as with urban renewal, is concentrated among a relatively few players. One of the things about cities like Boston or other older cities, you’ve looked at is that they grew organically via a bunch of small players who had an immediate interest in their surroundings because they worked and lived and played and owned locally. I would be curious what the ownership model is for Charleston because in the long term, commitment and investment, at least American style, seems to rely individual ownership. Beautiful architecture alone, while important can’t ultimately do all that is necessary for strong communities and thus strong urban places. Keep up the good work on your videos.! And thanks.
Some of the buildings shown are terribly designed. Their footprints and visual mass is out of kilter with the architectural styles being used. I get the requirement to use heritage materials and maximize site value but some of the proportions of these buildings look ridiculous. How some of these got past an 'architectural board' are beyond me. Well done for preserving the other built heritage though.
Let's hope this spearheads a Renaissance of American cities . I have been saddened by what I have seen taking place over the last decades, and it is happening in Britain now as well.
I couldn’t afford to live in Charleston, but I visited last summer and had a great time. Walking around I was able to visit many nice places and the architecture is beautiful. I did not expect it to be my favorite place that I visited on that trip.
Charleston is Beautiful but it's expensive and with limited land I think it's time for Charleston to so vertical or it's gonna become so unlivably expensive that it will start to resemble NYC. There's plenty of empty lots and abandoned buildings to build denser more pedestrian friendly places. We're fighting the same fight here in Columbia,SC trying to get the city to build denser places over these car centric developments.
You gotta be kidding me there is never any Serena had more historical buildings in charm and you want to terret down and build more crap shame on you PS I didn’t watch the whole video this is just my first impression but seriously have you actually ever been to Charleston
"almost noobody alive in charleston would support such a thing such as slavery or jim crow" hey real quick what happened in charleston on June 17th 2015
The problem with Charleston is the hurricanes and flood surges. In fact im wary of any coastal city. You really have to build everything with solid Concrete and elevated land to survive. This is true even if climate change wasn’t a thing.
This was a great video Alex, thank you for putting in the work! Charleston seems to be disproving the YIMBY talking point that design review boards inhibit growth and density. The city is growing up without sacrificing the character and history that make it unique. Every city in America could learn from this example: practical, beautiful design on the human scale, using durable materials and quality construction practices, is the type of growth that fosters pride in a community.
Visited Sacramento a couple times and loved it. You can feel that it's like a Agricultural and farm production Heart of California. The surrounding fields of the city low key feel like an African Savannah Lol, especially like Folsom lake. I love that NorCal also has a huge variety of Victorian era homes. I'm over in San Diego, we're like the Defense City of Cali with all the military 👋😂
Amazing! This is the kind of news that I've been CRAVING for. Bravo to the city of Charleston and South Carolina! Can't wait for movements like this to grow and improve all accross North America
oh its the place i am from, fun. to be honest i think charlreston is SUPER overated. its rated as one of the "best cities in the world" ummmm what about london, paris, rome, milan, prague..etc. charleston its pretty it has water it has churches but so do so many other places like Savannah
Charleston, NYC, and New Orleans were the major US hubs of trade in the 19th Century. Major money flowed here. Then the war, and a lot of cannon balls were volleyed into the city, relentlessly shelled for 567 days by Union forces. So much that Jefferson Davis visited Charleston in November 1863, he declared that leaving the city “a heap of ruins” was a better alternative than to surrender, a quote AH in Germany decades later would be proud of. Yet the city rebounded only to barely survive the architects whims of the 20th century.
Looks nice (looks way too expensive for the dwindling middle class), but then again, I’m not fond of urban areas. I’m not a fan of boards and councils dictating what people can do with their property either.
im a charleston native, and where did you get the first map around 0:26 ? ive been looking for maps of charleston before areas like dunes west and daniel island were developed and havent really been able to find any
Low your channel! I love what Charleston is doing aesthetically to the city...but my concern is who will afford to live in the downtown? Why does a aesthetically pleasing city and the new urbanism have to be only for the rich?
Will including wilmington, nc a rising city since is one of the fastest growing city in North Carolina? Charleston really need building density, better bus tranportation, light rail lines and downtown amtrak train station.
I was born, raised, and have lived my entire life in Charleston. I've never had any desire to live anywhere else. It's a wonderful place to grow up and live because of the people here. Southern hospitality is still alive and thriving in Charleston.
Let’s be careful about glorifying Greystar. They are among the most predatory corporate landlords in the country. They should not get credit for doing things that are in their own self interest.
If out of their own self interest they make Charleston a better place to live, then that’s a win. I agree laws and regulations have to change, but you gotta take your wins in the meantime.
There are cities in Poland, Germany, Hungary and elsewhere in Europe rebuilding back the classic architecture that was destroyed by that madman in WWII, one rebuild is the Főőrség palace next to Buda Castle in Budapest, it looks stunning and like it was always there!
The fact the present day photos STILL make it look appealing despite the horrendous HDR deep-frying is a true testament to the actual beauty they've achieved.
I like how this is the part of the East coast where you see a clash of French, English, and somewhat Dutch type of Row houses 😂 That's what really makes it American A clash of cultures Lol! Meanwhile over here in San Diego there is a heavy influence of Spanish hacienda even some Greek style architecture
Which city should I do next?
Maybe look at cities that managed to go from modernist car centric to traditionalist human centric design successfully and how they done it. How did they manage to convince people to demolish modernist architecture/neighborhoods in replacement of traditional architecture/neighborhoods?
Santa Barbara?
Boston
Portland, Oregon ;)
Grand Rapids. A city that is fighting like hell to preserve its walkability and transit-friendliness, which is better than average, but gradually being eroded by increasing suburban development. The big highway through town, US-131, is nearing the end of its operational lifetime, and there is a big push from the local urbanist community (including the Strong Towns chapter) to replace it with a pedestrian-friendly boulevard of some kind. Currently, Grand Rapids' downtown preserves a lot of the original architecture, and it is a charming place to walk through. But even that is under threat by institutions like Corewell Health and which have begun turning lots of valuable space into parking lots/garages and eroding the walkability of neighborhoods.
ok but seriously I never thought there was a town/city in the USA that is restoring the damage that was done in the 50s and 60s from poorly planned urban renewal, the fact that people are moving in the city mainly because of the architecture and friendly pedestrian infrastructure shows that beauty is beneficial for cities, cities like Buffalo, St Louis and Cincinnati that got damaged can be beautifully revived in buildings and infrastructure, not just for cities but maybe the USA as a whole should go back to focusing on beauty
Yeah been to both Buffalo and Charleston, night and day difference
san antonio NEEDS this
Neither did I
Doesnt he say in the Cincinnati video that it is recovering?
I'm European who always wanted to live in the US, but the lack of 'pretty' cities kinda keeps from achieving this dream. You feel so much better, even you have a bad day, when you can walk through a nice looking city. When every building makes you happy that you're here.
Charleston is expensive because people want what Charleston has. The solution is not to change Charleston-and get rid of the very thing people want in the process. The solution is build more places like Charleston.
exactly
One of the best places to visit.
@@abrahambendavid.7474 I agree entirely. Also, take note of the people in Charleston who actually constitute the town. Look at the manner of them, the things which they busy themselves about. This is what effectively makes Charleston what it is. This must never be forgotten.
“Charleston is expensive”…compared to where? Aiken SC? 😂
Yeah but you don’t have to repeat Europe’s mistakes, where regulations are so strict that they cause a lack of housing, making prices to become unaffordable for everyone.
Actual good government-funded urbanism in a North American city? Never thought I'd see the day! Now, let's hope this urbanism is anchored by new public transit sometime in the future!
Let's hope so indeed
There is a BRT project in development that is desperately needed going up into north charleston where lower income workers live. Service industry workers cannot afford to live in any of the places shown in this video unfortunately.
You want to toss your freedom in the trash and replace it with government-controlled mass transit??? No thanks.
I’m a resident and architect. The vast majority of projects touched on here are not government funded and are privately developed luxury apartments and short term rentals.
I've been to Charleston and Savannah, GA. The U.S. has some beautiful and fascinating historical architecture and a distinctly American design language when constructed like we see in Charleston. It's really a shame that we still build what we build today. Charleston would be a great place to move to, but the cost of living downtown is still very high, and many amenities are located in the North suburbs. I hope that modernism eventually fades, and the general public realizes what we can achieve when we properly plan our cities.
You do NOT want to live downtown! Trust me, I did and loved it and hated it. Difficult parking, flooding, tourists and people peeking into your windows and over the garden wall.
Car culture and carbrain mentality need to fade too.
@@kennixox262 Difficult parking is always an issue in downtown areas though, isn't it?
@@leDespicable Yeah, downtown Charleston really needs to rebuild its old trolley network. And they also need to move the amtrak station downtown. That will help immensely with the number of cars going into the city.
@@leDespicable Yes and so in Charleston that that was built long before the car. However, I could park on my property and had a carriage house to park my cars. Most did not have that luxury. Living in Charleston downtown has a lot of issues that people may or not be aware of like the frequent flooding a high tide.
What a beautiful city, I truly hope that a comeback like this happens to Hartford one day.
I saw a video on Hartford, that town needs it the most!
I think that starts with removing the corrupt political class at the state and city levels.
And Bridgeport, New Haven
The sad part is that because downtown is now a historic district, the city has become heavily gentrified. The city is currently unaffordable to everyday American. All the more reason to make this a trend. And I don't think those modernist buildings are bad at all. They have unique symmetrical form with masonry facades, which is way better than brutalism and glass monoliths.
Brutalism is one of the worst styles ever invented. The enormous amount of glass monoliths aren't particularly appealing either. I think modernism isn't that great, it's just better than some of the worst things we have ever invented.
@@MatthewGraham027It's subjective
@@SomeDudeQC The main reason this channel exists is because most people think that stuff is ugly and want to make beautiful architecture again. Most people agree that brutalism is ugly and traditional architecture is beautiful.
@@MatthewGraham027 the main reason this channel exists is to subjectively call an entire architectural movement ugly?
Edit:Also traditional means nothing and is of itself subjective.
As someone whose family has been in Charleston for a very long time, I want to give some thoughts on your video and take. First the US was one the last of the western countries to abolish slavery. It is amusing to me how your pictures in the beginning are almost empty of cars whether parked or driving when in reality downtown is in near gridlock all the time and finding street parking is almost impossible. You didn't mention how the College of Charleston keeps growing and can take any building by eminent domain--and they have, over and over again. Up until maybe 20 years ago there was housing for lower and middle income people available downtown, now because of ever rising property taxes---Charleston re-asseses every year, and sky-high home prices only the rich can live downtown. And just like anywhere else if you have enough $ you can tear down any building you want and build any monstrosity you want, BAR or no BAR
As someone who lives in the outer suburbs of Charleston, it's hard to have seen it change like this. Admittedly, it is beautification, and it appears so if you only see what these areas are now versus what will be. However, it really is just very slow gentrification. The areas developed now used to be the older shotgun houses where people lived before the interstate came through.
Wow. Fail. America was among the first places to end slavery. Read a history book. Less than 20 percent of African slaves came to America and the African slave trade outside of America persisted for more than 20 years. FYI there is more slavery today then ever per the UN.
The Pinnacle building comes to mind since it sticks out like a sore thumb every time I go to Mount Plastic via the Ravenel bridge. Have you seen the 'high rises' that were poorly built on Coleman and Ben Sawyer Blvd that completely ignored the height restrictions for the town? Someone's palms got heavily greased during those builds.
@@zionosphere
Much of what you said is simply not true. People don’t understand what gentrification means. Most people use words today because they’re told those words because they’re told how to think. Just outside the gates of the citadel is Hampton Park and Wagner Terrace. Those were white middle-class neighborhoods before the interstate. All of those houses have been there since well before the interstate. These houses are not being replaced. Those neighborhoods went to hell when the interstate was built and people moved out to the suburbs. Over time suburbs get expensive and prices are cheaper in the city so people start moving back in the other direction. Cities actually need gentrification and want it because they desperately need property values to go back up because they desperately need the property taxes. Charleston and Boston are extreme examples of historic cities where over 50% of the real estate is except from taxes because they’re either churches or owned by a government agency. A city can’t survive like that. People often Champion the interstate system as possibly the best thing America ever did. The best thing the federal government ever did. Actually it’s one of the worst things the government ever did. It destroyed cities all across America. The reason you have so many poor crime and drug infested inner cities across America is because of the interstate.
@@pxn748
This is a very ignorant take. First, you clearly don’t know a damn thing about the history of slavery. You think slavery means the African slave trade. Slavery has existed since humanity has existed. Every country every culture every race has been involved in slavery, both as the oppressor and the oppressed. Slavery has never ended. In fact there is more slavery today than at any point in history. Also, people really don’t understand Europe’s place in historical slavery. Yes. The UK and other European countries ended the importation of slaves into Europe. But they occupied and controlled other countries long after they ended domestic slavery. What do you think the Vietnam war was? That was Vietnam wanting their independence from the French.
America was actually one of the first countries to end slavery. Less than 20% of slaves from Africa came to America. Most of them went to the Caribbean and South America. The African slave trade persisted for more than 20 years after slavery ended in America. It should also be noted that the African slave trade could not have existed without African countries and African tribes being an integral part. Europeans weren’t running around Africa with nets Catrin slaves the way people were brainwashed believe by the miniseries Roots. In fact, Alex Haley admitted that Roots was a lie. He made it up. He said black people needed a narrative. Most what you are taught in school in history class is total bullshit. For example, America was not created in 1776. The declaration of independence did not create America. It was simply the 13 colonies, deciding to work together to overthrow the king. It wasn’t until the 1780s when the constitution was ratified, did we actually have a government. All 13 colonies independently had to ratify the constitution. America today is a fascist country. Do a little research on fascism. We are straight up absolutely a textbook fascist country. Over 90% of what the federal government does is unconstitutional. Project 2025 has a lot stupid stuff but the founding fathers would absolutely love at least half of it if not more. Including Alexander Hamilton. Everything tank has their own version of a project 2025. This is what they do. This is why they’re called think thanks. Nothing these people have ever done truly gets implemented. Administrations simply takes some of the ideas and use them to craft legislation. And about half of what project 2025 calls for should be done. And again if you go and read it and then read the constitution and especially if you read the federalist papers, you would see that the founding fathers would love it. Because it gets rid of enormous unconstitutional authoritarian agencies in the federal government. It does not give any power to the president that the president doesn’t already have. It does not shift the balance of power at all. This is the media doing what they do. Lying about anything and everything regarding Republicans while burying anything negative about a Democrat.
Speaking of slavery, the Civil War was not actually about slavery. Yes it was a part of succession. But the south were not traitors. They had every right to use the legislative process to leave the union and they did. Because America was created to be 50 sovereign states not Canada with the federal government controls the provinces. What we have right now is the exact opposite of what the founding fathers created. The federal government is supposed to be very small, very weak and very limited. Now it is authoritarian and the states are controlled by the federal government. Like I said, America is a fascist country. The founding fathers would be horrified if they saw America today.
But the Civil War was not a Civil War. It was the second American revolution. The south was not fighting the federal government for control of America. They simply wanted out because America had become tyrannical and Lincoln was in fact the first tyrant. Lincoln shit all over the constitution. The chief justice of the Supreme Court brought this to Lincoln‘s attention and Lincoln threatened to throw him in jail. The emancipation proclamation did not free a single slave. It was two years into the war, and Lincoln was deeply concerned because the north was getting their ass kicked, and he did the emancipation proclamation hoping it would cause a slave revolt, which would interrupt the southern war efforts. Even if Lincoln wanted to free the slaves, which he did not, he could not have done it. Slavery was legal. Only Congress can reverse legislation. Which is why the Civil War did not end slavery. Slavery ended six months after the Civil War with the 13th amendment.this is one of the many reasons why Juneteenth is so stupid and completely made up.
Google Abraham Lincoln‘s letter to Horace Greeley, and read it. In the letter he states that his objective for the war is to force the south back into the union. Ending slavery was not his priority and it was not the reason for the war. The African slave trade was already coming to an end before the Civil War anyway. The industrial revolution was in its infancy. Technology was going to make slaves in America unnecessary. Slaves were actually expensive. I love when people say plantations had free labor. Good Lord, that is just beyond stupid. Slaves were very expensive. The reason slavery ended in states up north before the south was purely economic. Immigrants getting off the boat from Europe would work for pennies a day, which is where the term slave wages comes from. It was easier to hire immigrants than to buy slaves, and if they got hurt or sick, you could get rid of them because they were always more. And they had to provide their own healthcare, etc. Slaves were not only expensive to buy but expensive to maintain. And who do you think bought all that cotton and all that tobacco and indigo and tea and everything else that came from those plantations? The people up north. The textile meals up north. The north needed the plantations in the south. So did Europe. It was all one very interconnected system.
We need skyscrapers. Glassy ones and with stilts just like in Hartford. JUST KIDDING. CHARLESTON IS BEAUTIFUL ❤❤❤ Thanks for featuring it!
Had me in the first half, lmao
Got a chuckle out of this as a Hartford area native
skyscrapers can be beautiful too… the art deco ones are great
I’m against high rises, they look good in NYC but everywhere else it’s just an eyesore
@@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606 Me too, I was kidding, and a midsized city like Charleston needs midrises height limit up to 15 floors max. with different European, Art deco, neoclassical, and Beaux-Arts Archi styles.
Charleston is okay. the historic city center/peninsula is charming and very walkable but there so much sprawl on the periphery. Great place for biking but public transportation leaves a lot to be desired
It's weird too, when I was in college around 2016 biking was pretty prevalent. We even had cool bike auctions.
I think it really dropped off after a major bike accident. Idk what happened, but it seemed like everyone just... stopped biking?
Yes. Rich people live in the historic city center. Working-class people live in the sprawling suburbs where life is affordable. Think about that.
@howtubeable That's the cringe factor of city beautification people. It's geared for gentrification and getting rid of the "undesirables." See Atlanta.
Well hopefully the rest of Charleston will eventually be like the historic center after they see how successful it is.
Indeed!
What really irks me is that architecture schools are still teaching modernism NOW. They still say it is important to build "of this age" while showing buildings from the 1950s.
But the American College of the Building Arts, based in Charleston, is bucking that trend. I suspect that has something to do with the preservation and expansion of beautiful urban design in Charleston.
@@fresholiveoil6490 That's very encouraging. I will read more about them.
I follow a guy on YT that talks about architecture and how nothing of aesthetic significance has been built since WWII. How architecture changed radically after the war. Tucker Carlsson has talked about this as well. That no great buildings have been built since the war. How America seems to have radically changed and lost its soul after being in the war.
Clemson has an excellent school of architecture and they own a few buildings in downtown Charleston and Genoa, Italy and you can spend a semester in both places.
I visited Charleston this year and I was absolutely floored at how beautiful it is. I think a lot of why it is successful is because there are no highways going through the historic district. The sprawl outside of it is quite bad though!
That parking lot on Market St stuck out like a sore thumb in an otherwise incredible area, that is great news that they are doing something with it!
I agree it's crazy how beautiful it is, also the food is good and the people are super kind
These things are amplified by the fact that Charleston is a peninsula with I-26 running through the middle and completely surrounded by islands and beaches, marsh, rivers and creeks. Over 1/3 of downtown is landfill. Former marsh and creeks. The entire area is a fragile ecosystem that can't handle the infrastructure and population we have mow much less the insane growth. There can be only so many bridges and they create massive bottlenecks.
Want to have your mind blown? Pull up Google Earth or maps in satellite view and zoom out to see SC from I-95 to the Atlantic. The entire eastern portion of SC is dark green. Why? Because it's almost all swamps, creeks, marsh, rivers, lakes, etc. A few years ago a fighter jet crashed on the eastern portion of SC and it took a few weeks to find it and people were laughing and mocking. I told them to watch the movie The Patriot, or the proposal scene in The Notebook, and the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back when Luke is in the swamp looking for Yoda. That's the overwhelming majority of South Carolina from 95 to the ocean. You could lose a squadron of jets in SC that might not get found until some good ole boy is in the swamp hunting or fishing.
Imagine what you could do with all of those empty lots in Buffalo. You could build such nice low/medium density buildings and make it a very nice place again
If the planning costs weren't so high, it would be such a low-cost, high-impact transformation to the area. And it wouldn't take very long to materialize; maybe 1-2 years until the first buildings are completed, with residents flooding in over the next decade.
We need a couple of mixed use buildings of 20 to 30 floors on a couple of those empty lots. Our skyline needs a couple of major additions. Something designed in good aesthetic taste and not some drab uninviting chunk of concrete with tiny windows or the cheap crappy low rises with the painted aluminum and vinyl siding that are popping up around Buffalo.
@@r.pres.4121 I would put those within the downtown area. I think the city needs more density along the more major roads (Broadway). I'm seeing on the map that some 3+ story apartments are being built, but they have a pretty boring design. I was looking at a some new buildings in a different city and they have a European design which looks very nice.
Buffalo has so much potential. Unfortunately progress is glacially slow there 🐌 But it is happening ✌️ #buffalove
Many blacks left Charleston during the Jim Crow era for cities like NYC for example but Charleston still had a black majority well into the 1990s. It's only been in the last 20-30 years where the black population has decreased as a percentage of the total population dramatically. Unfortunately many of those families have been priced out of the city with the new growth. U can barely even find anyone with a native Charleston accent. The city has improved a lot but it has lost some of its uniqueness and culture in the last 30 years
I appreciate that you are one of the few urbanist channels who also care about architectural beauty, as modernist car-centric infrastructure and modernist architecture are inextricably tied together. I think the reason many people are dissuaded from going back to traditional city planning is because in the minds of some people, walkability is now associated with soulless, modernist urban cores.
However, I would like you to look into "architectural illiteracy", which is the fashioning of buildings to appear a certain style without the architect actually being informed in that style. In terms of traditionally inspired buildings being erected today, fake classical massively outnumbers genuine classical. I know it doesn't seem that important, but it leads to tacky and fake looking traditional buildings that people also hate and call it things like Disneyland architecture, and further drives people towards modernism. The Gaillard Center at 2:20 is authentic, as were some other structures, but many of the other examples you showed were not . The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art has a great article on this subject. I don't see classical architecture making a full recovery unless the architectural world is cognizant of this issue.
Modernist architecture I think can be used to build new buildings in centre cities, even historic areas, provided the buildings respect the surrounding architecture and conform to the proportioning referred to by books like _The Golden Section_ and _The Old Way of Seeing._
I am a little surprised he didn't mention i'on in Mt. Pleasant. I know it's a different city, but same MSA and a really awesome project.
Charleston needs a light rail that goes from Downtown to the Airport.
Light rail would be great, but it'd be nice if they even had slightly ok bus service
And a downtown train station.
every American city needs a light rail
@F4URGranted There are plans for a rapid bus system which would have it's own lane but there's a lot of opposition to it
One problem though: in order to fit the model of an urbanist city, you need to have good public transit
Lol like that'll ever happen. CARTA's gonna ignore everything outside of Charleston/Mt. Pleasant
Wrong. That is always an epic fail unless enormous populations are concentrated on a central urban center. It only works in huge cities.
@@shabushabu5319 Even they do that wrong. They should be operating smaller vans and shuttle buses. But government never solves problems, only create them or make them worse.
Charleston isn’t really growing fast. It has annexed 100’s of square miles in recent decades and then built suburban sprawl. The low country is a sprawled out suburban nightmare with traffic congestion that rivals much bigger cities.
Indeed !
@@trontron4372 Wrong. That is still growth and they are now building up downtown and everywhere else. Mount Pleasant just over the bridge had under 20,000 in the early 80s, now over 100,000. \
NY city sprawled north before going up. That's how ALL growth evolves due to land prices until traffic makes higher urban land prices more affordable with condos and going up.
Charleston is growing exponentially and SC especially when adding the edges of NC and GA is the fastest growing part of the country.
@@nedhill1242 Charleston is never going to grow tall like NYC. That’s the point of my comment. Charleston as a city has gobbled up thousands of acres of forested land and for not a lot of growth. whenever people speak of Charleston’s growth, they show you downtown and the peninsula, which has had some decent growth and urban development recently. But the majority of Charleston’s growth is suburban sprawl. Have you seen the plans for west of the Ashley in upper Charleston/Dorchester county?
@@retrojordans5
I’m 58 years old. I live in Charleston. My family is from Charleston. My grandfather laid the telephone lines over the original Cooper River Bridge. When people say Charleston, they’re not talking about the city limits of Charleston. They’re talking about Charleston in general. That includes the beaches and the surrounding area. Very few people are talking about specifically the city of Charleston. That’s your little narrow view because you want to sound like an intelligent enlightened person. When you talk about growth, it’s always gonna be the entire metropolitan area. Because the growth around the city of Charleston drives what happens in Charleston. And there’s a reason why the city of Charleston can’t grow. Do you know what those reasons are? I bet you don’t. Part of it is, Charleston is like Boston. They are the two cities by far in America with the least amount of taxable real estate. The city cannot tax anything owned by the federal government or the county or the state. They also can’t tax churches. Significant portions of Charleston are owned by churches and other nonprofits. The college of Charleston. Medical university of South Carolina. Roper Hospital. Public schools. Government buildings with the state the county and federal government. You’re talking about any enormous percentage of the landmass of the city of Charleston that they cannot tax. But around Charleston is dependent on in one way or another downtown Charleston and they have to pay for all of that infrastructure. People in Mount Pleasant downtown. People James Island work downtown. The port. I could go on and on. That’s reason number one
Reason number two. Charleston doesn’t have bedrock like up north. You can have high rises right by the ocean in Florida because they have bedrock. You can have that up north. Because they have bedrock. You can’t have that in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. There’s nothing to put a foundation on For very tall buildings.
At least 1/3 if that more of downtown is landfill. So much of what is in and around downtown Charleston can’t be built on beyond may be a few stories because it simply can’t sustain it geologically.
Charleston is also rivers Marsh beaches islands.
You also clearly don’t seem to recognize and understand that downtown the historic district, which is basically everything south of the crosstown, which is Highway 17 cannot go up because of city ordinances. People couldn’t build above a certain height, even if they wanted to or even if they could again geologically because the city is not gonna allow it.
When New York started growing up first. Yeah it went up up Broadway. It went north. Went across the river. Only years later did it start building up.
I graduated from Clemson. I have a degree in finance. I’m from Charleston. I have a masters degree in public administration. My specialization was in city and urban planning. I almost got a PhD in that. I almost studied architecture in college. Still do love it as a hobby the way I love history and other things that make me love Charleston. I’m in the mortgage and real estate industry. Work with investors and developers. I forgotten more about this and 99% of the population has ever known. so if you wanna have a debate or an argument with me, you gonna have to show up with better stuff than this.
STOP COMING TO CHARLESTON, thank you.
What a triumph! And it's not just blocky five-over-ones. Any city can do the same if they have the guts to!
You are missing a couple large points.
Charleston is flooding on king tides and high tides with rain. Upper peninsula is affected by flooding the most as renovations to the battery has made improvements to the issue in the southern peninsula but not adequately fixed the problem.
Surface level parking is desperately needed in Charleston to sustain the work force. Most of the larger projects you have mentioned require the builder to provide only one parking space for every domicile built. One space is not adequate for the amount of ppl projected to be living in the new projects.
Because of this middle level and single level domicile are rarely being considered in new construction and architecturally significant buildings are being torn down to make way for large apartment building that look odd next to the smaller more culturally significant buildings they sit next to.
large builders and big money is set to change Charlestons historically, black neighborhoods. They don't plan on addressing the issues that they are facing currently and making more in the future. However, interesting design maybe projected to be. It does not hold a candle to the culture that they are destroying on the upper peninsula.
Bless you for highlighting our preservation, people don't understand that preservation here is unlike anywhere else in America. not even Savannah, Nola or Boston can say the same for their architectural feats.
NIMBYs
@@SomeDudeQC preservation is what keeps other countries alive while America falls at the hands of "diversifying" every thing amd keep up to date with the status quo. Charleston is the most historical city in America why not keep it that way. Most of European cities do what Charleston does. Just look at the way they rebuilt Dresden Germany.
The US was certainly not one of the first countries to end slavery, at least not among Western countries and one of very few to start a war to preserve it. Anyways, Charleston's architecture isn't "slavery architecture", we can love the buildings and their styles and hate their history, most heritage around the world was built upon crushing oppression and that should always be remembered.
Yeah that was a weird thing to say haha
Most Northern states were free states by 1800. The US ended their slave trade (no new slaves) in 1808, England did it in 1807. Sweden, Norway, France, Portugal, Brazil did it later in the 1800s. Most of Latin America fully abolished slavery in the mid-1800s. It all happened relatively around the same time.
@@lmlm_ Meh, few Western countries were as reluctant to abolish slavery as the US and even fewer were as inventive to continue it in other ways to this very day.
Great video man, I love your stuff. I think you should really cover Nashville or Pittsburg next.
I live in Charleston and it is really great but we do struggle with public transport but we a BRT like in the planing stage
Charlestonian here- Actually from the SC Upstate and now reside in North Charleson. Great video but the real reason many African Americans have/are leaving downtown is they are being priced out. Still a great city though. What we need is more (and affordable) development like that in North Charleston
Thank you because left? More like pushed out but as you’ve said it here 🙌🏾
This happened everywhere in the 60’s and 70’s. During that period there was a clear contempt for historic buildings.
I am so grateful for this channel. In a world bombarded with ugliness - music, art, architecture - it is good to know there is a revival, a fight back against the darkness that is banal and bureaucratically soul-crushing.
with rising temperatures and ocean water levels, Charleston is one Cat-5 hurricane away from being wiped off the map. It already floods on a regular basis, and the heat/humidity is unbearable unless you're in air-conditioning.
Wow, it all looks so well designed and beautifully urbanist. I will deff have to plan a trip to Charleston in the near future.
I don't recommend coming here July thru September unless you like sweating thru your clothes by just stepping out your door and then getting carried away by mosquitoes. The pungent smells are delightful as well since we've spent millions on drainage that just looks pretty while still flooding with the slightest rainfall.
The U.S. was not one of the first countries to end slavery. When compared to other colonial powers and even their territories, the U.S. was incredibly late to abolishing slavery
Magnificent piece about a superb response to devastation. Charleston is on my list now, with the art deco glory of Napier in NZ, as must-see.
charleston is beautiful and theres a decent amount of things to do if your visiting, i live around here u shld definitely peep cs this city is fire
Treat us like a forest or nature reserve come and visit but please dont move here, and if you do leave your politics wherever you came from.
I like this series, gives you hope to what remains of old American architecture that wasn’t downright destroyed during the highway boom. You should try New Orleans, I feel that the French quarter is something that is worth talking about in terms of preservation.
The Garden District and Canal Street too
4:49 When you mention this, I think it harms your argument more than helps it. The horror of American slavery, and I mean this for all of the Americas, comes from the fact that it was chattel and especially cruel and dehumanizing, more than in other places of the premodernist world. In other places, slaves had rights, but in the Americas they were treated like cattle.
Also, I don't know about Charleston specifically, but during Reconstruction there were many Black communities that were wealthy and had since been destroyed because of racism like Wilmington, NC, or Tulsa, OK.
I've liked your videos, but I feel like you gloss over the extremely high cost of living and skyrocketing housing crisis caused by this type of government influence. Yes, it's a beautiful downtown area. But think of how many people can't move here or have been forced out because of the cost to create such a thing. I think you should have taken some time to address this, because as pretty of a town as this is, it just isn't logistical for the whole of society. Like, this is in a display of great government, or even wonderful decision making. It's just a group of officials saying this town is only for Rich folk
Now, while I do acknowledged that the colorful colonial style is light-years better than the blocky Revit designed buildings of modern america, if we do want an urban downtown like this, but at a low cost so that people can actually live there, then unfortunately that's where we need the blocky buildings
Hurricane Hugo was one of the best things to happen to Charleston in modern times. Prior to Hugo, Charleston was doing quite well. After Hugo, the pace and quality of rebuilding really took off into the new century. There is still a lot of awful modern buildings that are still there that could either be replaced or remodeled. The area where I-26 terminates at King St. used to be really, really bad but even that has improved greatly. Outside of the historic areas, North Charleston itself has improved quite a bit. It used to be a bunch of trailer parks up by the Air Force Base. Lived there in a house just off Tradd St 1994 - 2005. Listed the house and had four offers in three days over asking price. Moved west - way west. Hate the idea that the Nathaniel Russel House is being sold and may turn back into a private residence. Oh well. Charleston is a beautiful place to visit but it is too small, TOO conservative and too backwards. Visiting now feels like walking back to 1984.
If they get more public transport like lightrail and busses the city would be perfect
I dream of a day when Carta is properly funded.
Most of video is good, and like you showed though out the video, I watch a lot of foreigners react to American stuff and would like them seeing more stuff other than just NY, LA, Texas, and Florida so they get more of a understanding of the US, The US is not like France, Korea, Japan, UK that a quarter to half the population stays in a few places. So you discussing colonial cities like Charleston is great because many don't understand US history goes beyond 200 years. "The city is nearly 350 years old" or your video on the history of St Louis architecture help educated people on the diverse history of the US. Many of cities have very different styles.
However the middle of video you started talking about slavery it got a little weird, though I know you mean no offense. You should had stop at nobody in Charleston believe in slavery, or the racist views of the past maybe added Charleston is very welcoming to all backgrounds and culture today, and just left it at that...... As Black American who ancestors likely came though that port it came off a little like trying to soften the events in Charleston by comparing it to other atrocious stuff like Dudai exploitation of foreign workers etc, then say we should be thankful for the US fought a war over it. Like be thankful I put out the fire..... I cause in the house....... All of that wasn't necessary, we get the point it has some shameful history, but nobody should shame the place because events of the past that's all you had to say..... but overall great video with good intentions. Especially with the attention to urbanism and architecture. And Charleston is under the radar it's metro will likely hit a million soon. As Georgian I wish Savanah was growing like that.
Certainly, Charleston's revitalization is impressive, and it's great that they have the political will and the resources to push the city in a more livable direction. However, for the sake of generalizing this sort of walkability and QoL boom, the baseline focus should be on figuring out how the government can get out of the way of people who love their towns and want to do these sorts of projects on a small scale. The best cities in the country were all initially built through incremental change, each person or family taking small steps to build something new, eventually accumulating to . . . 'the magic of the city', if you will. A period of rebuilding civic pride via individual investment and the putting down of roots will be necessary so that what keeps the city developing in a positive way is something as durable as culture, not something as transient as political machinery.
Thanks for sharing.
I’ve been watching your videos for the past couple weeks and I’m amazed by your work instead of the topic being lost architecture it is the opposite im glad I found your channel
based.
Bit slimy from you to rethorically conflate modernism and car centric urban architecture. Have your personal opinions about modernist architecture by all means but at least actually state when you propergate your own opinion. You can have a walkable eco friendly city and it all be concrete blocks.
I live here, it's a dump that's trying to 'modernize too quickly'.
These are great videos. I worry, that new urbanism risks being the urban renewal of the future. This, largely because the development/ownership model, as with urban renewal, is concentrated among a relatively few players. One of the things about cities like Boston or other older cities, you’ve looked at is that they grew organically via a bunch of small players who had an immediate interest in their surroundings because they worked and lived and played and owned locally. I would be curious what the ownership model is for Charleston because in the long term, commitment and investment, at least American style, seems to rely individual ownership. Beautiful architecture alone, while important can’t ultimately do all that is necessary for strong communities and thus strong urban places. Keep up the good work on your videos.! And thanks.
Love this series, can’t wait to see what other cities are full of history and beautiful architecture.
Charleston is one of the best cities in the US hands down
Some of the buildings shown are terribly designed. Their footprints and visual mass is out of kilter with the architectural styles being used. I get the requirement to use heritage materials and maximize site value but some of the proportions of these buildings look ridiculous. How some of these got past an 'architectural board' are beyond me.
Well done for preserving the other built heritage though.
Charleston is also mind-meltingly expensive to visit or live in. It’s a playground for snowbirds.
Let's hope this spearheads a Renaissance of American cities . I have been saddened by what I have seen taking place over the last decades, and it is happening in Britain now as well.
I lived in downtown Charleston for a few years. It truly is a very walkable, beautiful, safe city.
You’re giving the us too much credit for going to war to end slavery. They went to war to get the south back, it seceded.
There’s nothing west African about the architecture 😂
I couldn’t afford to live in Charleston, but I visited last summer and had a great time. Walking around I was able to visit many nice places and the architecture is beautiful. I did not expect it to be my favorite place that I visited on that trip.
Congratulations to Charleston
Charleston is Beautiful but it's expensive and with limited land I think it's time for Charleston to so vertical or it's gonna become so unlivably expensive that it will start to resemble NYC. There's plenty of empty lots and abandoned buildings to build denser more pedestrian friendly places.
We're fighting the same fight here in Columbia,SC trying to get the city to build denser places over these car centric developments.
even with how much i hate living in south carolina and its cities overall, i can't lie charleston is very walkable and gorgeous
You gotta be kidding me there is never any Serena had more historical buildings in charm and you want to terret down and build more crap shame on you PS I didn’t watch the whole video this is just my first impression but seriously have you actually ever been to Charleston
How can citizens take action in their cities to fight for prettier buildings? Isn't everything is owned and developed by private organizations?
Create a strong board that dictates how things get built
@@alexanderrotmensz What board exactly? I'm not really versed in these things, haha.
@@IkeSpeaksUpI think he called it an architectural review board
Now it will be made into a 15 minute city according to WEF demands.
"almost noobody alive in charleston would support such a thing such as slavery or jim crow" hey real quick what happened in charleston on June 17th 2015
Uh I don't know
You are scaring me
*What happened on June 17th 2015*
@@Mr.happy689a funny little get together of a certain group of angry guys.
@@flytrapYTP well I'm scared 😃
@@flytrapYTPonly one guy who wasn’t from Charleston
The problem with Charleston is the hurricanes and flood surges. In fact im wary of any coastal city. You really have to build everything with solid Concrete and elevated land to survive. This is true even if climate change wasn’t a thing.
Love the channel, would love to know what you think about Denver
With a whack rowdy-dow, and Charleston is taken!
This was a great video Alex, thank you for putting in the work! Charleston seems to be disproving the YIMBY talking point that design review boards inhibit growth and density. The city is growing up without sacrificing the character and history that make it unique. Every city in America could learn from this example: practical, beautiful design on the human scale, using durable materials and quality construction practices, is the type of growth that fosters pride in a community.
You should do a video on everything wrong with Detroit.
Cities to do next: Savannah, Ann Arbor, Santa Fe, Asheville NC, and Cincinatti
Do Carmel Indiana
So in short we need more hurricanes
Not sure how one fixes that flooding
Can do Sacramento
Visited Sacramento a couple times and loved it. You can feel that it's like a Agricultural and farm production Heart of California. The surrounding fields of the city low key feel like an African Savannah Lol, especially like Folsom lake. I love that NorCal also has a huge variety of Victorian era homes. I'm over in San Diego, we're like the Defense City of Cali with all the military 👋😂
Amazing! This is the kind of news that I've been CRAVING for.
Bravo to the city of Charleston and South Carolina! Can't wait for movements like this to grow and improve all accross North America
Do Detroit please
Then, everything changed when a Battle Flag ruckus attacked.
"One of the first to end [slavery]" lol
I agree with your argument but that was kinda hilarious, USA was pretty late in fact.
oh its the place i am from, fun. to be honest i think charlreston is SUPER overated. its rated as one of the "best cities in the world" ummmm what about london, paris, rome, milan, prague..etc. charleston its pretty it has water it has churches but so do so many other places like Savannah
Charleston, NYC, and New Orleans were the major US hubs of trade in the 19th Century. Major money flowed here.
Then the war, and a lot of cannon balls were volleyed into the city, relentlessly shelled for 567 days by Union forces. So much that Jefferson Davis visited Charleston in November 1863, he declared that leaving the city “a heap of ruins” was a better alternative than to surrender, a quote AH in Germany decades later would be proud of.
Yet the city rebounded only to barely survive the architects whims of the 20th century.
Looks nice (looks way too expensive for the dwindling middle class), but then again, I’m not fond of urban areas. I’m not a fan of boards and councils dictating what people can do with their property either.
im a charleston native, and where did you get the first map around 0:26 ?
ive been looking for maps of charleston before areas like dunes west and daniel island were developed and havent really been able to find any
Low your channel!
I love what Charleston is doing aesthetically to the city...but my concern is who will afford to live in the downtown?
Why does a aesthetically pleasing city and the new urbanism have to be only for the rich?
Weird way to learn there destroying your parking lot for an old people's home
Been in Charleston since 1988 - We’re full. Go away.
Will including wilmington, nc a rising city since is one of the fastest growing city in North Carolina?
Charleston really need building density, better bus tranportation, light rail lines and downtown amtrak train station.
Charleston South Carolina need skyscrapers like Charleston West Virginia
I was born, raised, and have lived my entire life in Charleston. I've never had any desire to live anywhere else. It's a wonderful place to grow up and live because of the people here. Southern hospitality is still alive and thriving in Charleston.
Too bad Charleston is going to get lost beneath the waves from rising sea levels. The city floods at least once every year.
Let’s be careful about glorifying Greystar. They are among the most predatory corporate landlords in the country. They should not get credit for doing things that are in their own self interest.
If out of their own self interest they make Charleston a better place to live, then that’s a win. I agree laws and regulations have to change, but you gotta take your wins in the meantime.
Well done and thoughtful
Recommended to watch video at 1.75x-2x speed
a city with nothing but art-deco is gonna be hilarious
That's not at all what's happening anywhere, though? Do you know what art deco is?
I'd love to bring a similar model to Pueblo, Colorado. I think we really need this!
Came here for architecture not a historical lesson on White guilt.
Charleston, WV: 😭
RAAAAAA CHARLESTON MENTIONED!!!!
There are cities in Poland, Germany, Hungary and elsewhere in Europe rebuilding back the classic architecture that was destroyed by that madman in WWII, one rebuild is the Főőrség palace next to Buda Castle in Budapest, it looks stunning and like it was always there!
The fact the present day photos STILL make it look appealing despite the horrendous HDR deep-frying is a true testament to the actual beauty they've achieved.
I came here for an architectural review, not a lecture on slavery. Do better
I had to cover it because it’s the most common argument you’ll see against this stuff
It's so funny to me that by virtue of restoring what was destroyed in the 60s, the city starts looking European.
I like how this is the part of the East coast where you see a clash of French, English, and somewhat Dutch type of Row houses 😂 That's what really makes it American
A clash of cultures Lol! Meanwhile over here in San Diego there is a heavy influence of Spanish hacienda even some Greek style architecture
Charleston is a sinking city...