Cities with odd street networks

[Buffaboy]

I'd probably go with Sounder and say that Seattle has one of the most unique networks in the US.

But I figure I'll throw in Buffalo to this as well, because it really is unique and I'm not just trying to pump it up...






Over the years the street grid in the downtown area has been mutilated by failed urban renewal projects however.

[Bickendan]

Budapest has one that actually makes sense when you work it out.

Also, I'd like to see an analysis of Portland's network.

[tradephoric]

Google "Crayon the Grids" and take a look at some of the maps.  The colors of the map show the different orientations within a city's grid.  Here are a few examples:

NYC:


Berlin:


Washington DC:


Paris:

[jwolfer]

I know many of us would be able to I'd the city based on grid alone. I can with most US cities from years of looking at Rand McNally Atlas.

My ex wife was astounded i knew cities from the air when we flew to California for her grandmas funeral

[Buffaboy]

I know many of us would be able to I'd the city based on grid alone. I can with most US cities from years of looking at Rand McNally Atlas.

My ex wife was astounded i knew cities from the air when we flew to California for her grandmas funeral

I flew to Disney World 3 years ago from Buffalo and recognized Charlotte from the air.

[Max Rockatansky]

Hell I had person next to me flip out on the place from California to Denver in June when I took my long road trip.  The plane was flying over basically US 6 and then US 50...pretty easy to track the terrain from the air if you recognize it all.  I got some really cool shots of the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers in the Canyonlands.  I guess the guy next to me didn't like the window open and was afraid of flying.

So cities, yes those are pretty easy to identify based off the road network.

[jwolfer]

Hell I had person next to me flip out on the place from California to Denver in June when I took my long road trip.  The plane was flying over basically US 6 and then US 50...pretty easy to track the terrain from the air if you recognize it all.  I got some really cool shots of the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers in the Canyonlands.  I guess the guy next to me didn't like the window open and was afraid of flying.

So cities, yes those are pretty easy to identify based off the road network.

For us it's easy... Most normal people couldn't ID their hometown from the grid

[dvferyance]

Waukesha WI is poorly laid out. You can't get from one end to the other without having to change streets. No roads lead both in and out.

[corcko]

The network in Washington, DC has always seemed odd to me. I wonder what the rationale was for the locations and angles of the Avenues?

[tradephoric]

^In July, 1790 congress passed the "Residence Act" which laid out the limits of Washington D.C.'s 10 square mile federal district.  In 1791 George Washington appointed Pierre Charles L'Enfant to layout the new city.  This was taken from Wikipedia:

L'Enfant's "Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of the United States..." encompassed an area bounded by the Potomac River, the Eastern Branch, the base of the escarpment of the Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line, and Rock Creek.[21][27] His plan specified locations for the "Congress House" (the United States Capitol), which would be built on "Jenkins Hill" (later to be known as "Capitol Hill"), which he described as a "pedestal awaiting a monument". The "President's House" at a northwest diagonal from the halls of Congress along an unusually broad Pennsylvania Avenue (later known after its 1815—1817 rebuilding and white-washing the stone walls, as the famous "White House" or "Executive Mansion"), which would be situated on a ridge parallel to the Potomac River, situated north of a riverfront marsh and canal (later known as "Tiber Canal" or the "Washington City Canal" during the 1800s).[15][28]

L'Enfant envisioned the "President's House" to have public gardens and monumental architecture. Reflecting his grandiose visions, he specified that the "President's House" (occasionally referred to as the "President's Palace") would be five times the size of the building that was actually constructed, even then becoming the largest residence then constructed in America.[16] Emphasizing the importance of the new Nation's Legislature, the "Congress House" would be located on a longitude designated as 0:0.[22][29][30][31]

The plan specified that most streets would be laid out in a grid. To form the grid, some streets (later named for letters of the alphabet) would travel in an east-west direction, while others (named for numbers) would travel in a north-south direction. Diagonal broader avenues, later named after the states of the Union, crossed the north/south-east/west grid.[31][32][33] The diagonal avenues intersected with the north-south and east-west streets at circles and rectangular plazas that would later honor notable Americans and provide open space.

L'Enfant laid out a 400 feet (122 m)-wide garden-lined "grand avenue", which he expected to travel for about 1 mile (1.6 km) along an east-west axis in the center of an area that would later become the National Mall.[32] He also laid out a narrower avenue (Pennsylvania Avenue) which would connect the "Congress House" with the "President's House".[22][32] In time, Pennsylvania Avenue developed into the capital city's present "grand avenue".
Andrew Ellicott's 1792 revision of L'Enfant's plan of 1791—1792 for the "Federal City" later Washington City, District of Columbia.

L'Enfant's plan additionally laid out a system of canals (later designated as the Washington City Canal) that would pass the "Congress House" and the "President's House". One branch of the canal would empty into the Potomac River south of the "President's House" at the mouth of old Tiber Creek, which would be channelized and straightened.[32]

L'Enfant secured the lease of quarries at Wigginton Island and further southeast along Aquia Creek off the lower Potomac River southern bank in Virginia to supply well-regarded "Aquia Creek sandstone" for the foundation and later for the wall slabs and blocks of the "Congress House" in November 1791.[34] However, his temperament and his insistence that his city design be realized as a whole, brought him into conflict with the Commissioners, who wanted to direct the limited funds available into construction of the Federal buildings. In this, they had the support of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson.

During a contentious period in February 1792, Andrew Ellicott, who had been conducting the original boundary survey of the future District of Columbia (see: Boundary Stones (District of Columbia)) and the survey of the "Federal City" under the direction of the Commissioners, informed the Commissioners that L'Enfant had not been able to have the city plan engraved and had refused to provide him with the original plan (of which L'Enfant had prepared several versions).[35][36][37] Ellicott, with the aid of his brother, Benjamin Ellicott, then revised the plan, despite L'Enfant's protests.[35][36][37][38]

Shortly thereafter, having along with Secretary Jefferson grown increasingly frustrated by L'Enfant's unresponsiveness and headstrong ways, President Washington dismissed the architect. After L'Enfant departed, Andrew Ellicott, Benjamin Banneker, and several of Ellicott's assistants continued the city survey in accordance with the revised plan, several versions of which were engraved, published and distributed. In addition, Benjamin Banneker, placed on the planning committee at Thomas Jefferson's request, saved the project by reproducing from memory, in two days, a complete layout of the streets, parks, and major buildings. Thus Washington, D.C. itself can be considered a monument to the genius of this great man.[39] As a result, Ellicott's revisions subsequently became the basis for the Capital City's development.[35][36][40][41][42][43]

L'Enfant was initially not paid for his work on his plan for the "Federal City". He fell into disgrace, spending much of the rest of his life trying to persuade Congress to pay him the tens of thousands of dollars that he claimed he was owed.[6] After a number of years, Congress finally paid him a small sum, nearly all of which went to his creditors.[4][44]

[NE2]

The network in Washington, DC has always seemed odd to me. I wonder what the rationale was for the locations and angles of the Avenues?

The channeling of Masonic energy into the seat of government.

[epzik8]

Anyone willing to explain to Philadelphia mess please feel free. I've been in the area multiple times in the past month to clinch highway segments.

[Brandon]

The network in Washington, DC has always seemed odd to me. I wonder what the rationale was for the locations and angles of the Avenues?

To facilitate getting around in the city.  Remember, when DC was first platted, people walked, rode horses, or rode in carriages/wagons.  Having avenues that cut off the angles would help cut down the distance required to walk.

[Rothman]

Never thought of Philadelphia as that much of a mess.  It was one of the first planned-out cities in the U.S.  You can see the original central grid.

[jeffandnicole]

Anyone willing to explain to Philadelphia mess please feel free. I've been in the area multiple times in the past month to clinch highway segments.

This isn't a Philadelphia mess. You're looking at a huge area of Southeast Pennsylvania.  It's just a regional road network, just like one you'll find in any suburban area of any city throughout the country.

[wphiii]

Brasilia:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bras%C3%ADlia,+Brasilia+-+Federal+District,+Brazil/@-15.8074585,-47.9090676,13z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x935a3d18df9ae275:0x738470e469754a24!8m2!3d-15.7942287!4d-47.8821658!6m1!1e1?hl=en

Canberra, Australia to some extent, too.

[tradephoric]

This is an updated rendering of the 1807 Woodward Plan for Detroit.

[silverback1065]

This is an updated rendering of the 1807 Woodward Plan for Detroit.

This reminds me of paris, france.  Why wasn't this completely built?  Or was it and it was changed over the yrs?

[GaryV]

This is an updated rendering of the 1807 Woodward Plan for Detroit.

// image snipped//

This reminds me of paris, france.  Why wasn't this completely built?  Or was it and it was changed over the yrs?

It probably wasn't implemented completely because of the old French land grants.  Farmers were given long narrow strips of land perpendicular to the Detroit River which came to be called corridors (e.g the "Cass Corridor").  It gave each land owner access to the river.

Campus Martius and the south half of Grand Circus Park ended up being in these configurations.  But probably it would have involved taking out too many private buildings which had developed over the past century to complete this fully in the 1800's.

I find it interesting that Grand River Avenue is completely missing from the proposed plan, and there's nothing showing how Gratiot Avenue meets up with Monroe.  Grand River and Gratiot, along with Jefferson, Woodward and Michigan, form the main spokes of the Detroit surface streets and all became state and US highways.

[silverback1065]

Where does grand circus get it's name from?

[tradephoric]

This reminds me of paris, france.  Why wasn't this completely built?  Or was it and it was changed over the yrs?

Augustus Woodward came to Detroit in 1805 just a few weeks after a fire burned the city to the ground (there was only one building left standing).  Before coming to Detroit, Woodward lived in Washington D.C. and was friends with Thomas Jefferson and Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the designer of Washington D.C.'s street plan.  Woodward was inspired by L'Enfant's street plan for Washington D.C. and incorporated many of the same design elements in Detroit.  East-west and north-south avenues that radiated out from the Grand Circuses were to be 200 feet wide, even wider than the widest avenues of Washington D.C.  Some examples of these 200' wide avenues include Washington Blvd, Madison Street, and Cadillac Square.  One potential reason Woodward proposed such wide avenues was to prevent another large fire in the city from leaping across the street and burning the entire city to the ground like the 1805 fire did.  Here's a great picture showing the 120' wide Woodward Avenue to the left and the 200' wide Washington Blvd to the right (Woodward is only 120' wide because it doesn't run straight E-W or N-S). 



Woodward's plan was followed for the first 11 years before being abandoned.  North of Adams Street the width of Woodward was reduced and rectangular plots were sold.  This proved to be problematic when in the 1920's Detroit voted to widen Woodward Avenue to 120 feet from Adams Street to Highland Park in order to fit 4-subway lines under Woodward Avenue.  The first major widening of Woodward was complete in 1935 but it took another few decades before it was completely widened to 120 feet all the way to 6 mile (North of 6 mile, Woodward became a suburban boulevard and had an even larger ROW of 204').  They literally cut out the middle sections of churches and rolled the front facade 30' back to make room for the wider Woodward:




As to why the Woodward plan was abandoned, this is what i could find:

While Judge Woodward was away in Washington (not sweeping his office) in 1817, Governor Lewis Cass and fellow Judge James Witherell conspired to undo Woodward's plan.  The new plan reduced the size of the massive streets proposed by Woodward and redirected certain streets so that they would avoid cutting across certain farms, including Cass'.  One street was renamed to Witherell Avenue, which was typical among officials seeking to immortalize themselves.  Woodward protested to Withrell declaring ominously,

You have well named the main avenue as Witherell, for you have withered my beautiful plan of Detroit and have spoiled the beauty and symmetry of the city of Detroit for all time!

[silverback1065]

I've always wondered why the roads are so wide over there!

[Rothman]

I've wondered about city plans that only take into consideration how they look like from the air.  Something that looks like a garden from above translates into an efficient or even aesthetically pleasing city at ground level?

[tradephoric]

Where does grand circus get it's name from?

Woodward took inspiration from the Greeks and Romans. He named one of the major areas in his plan Campus Martius after an open space in classical Rome. To the other major space in his plan for Detroit, Woodward gave the name Grand Circus Park because that name was used for circular areas in Rome where games and public spectacles were held. By about 1808 or so, streets were laid out according to Woodward's plan. 

Grand Circus Park (1920):


Campus Martius panorama (1907):

[tradephoric]

I've wondered about city plans that only take into consideration how they look like from the air.  Something that looks like a garden from above translates into an efficient or even aesthetically pleasing city at ground level?

I doubt Judge Woodward's plan would be efficient if it had been fully implemented but I'm glad at least some of his plan was realized.  Grand Circus Park looks pretty interesting today compared to what it could have been if they just built up the city in a rectangular grid.