[westender]

I am currently visiting the Australian Capital of Canberra which can be critisied as being too abstract looking in terms of architechture. But I particuarly notice the suburban town centres such as Woden to be extremely dull, abstract and totally lacking in town character.

Disregarding the main central business district of larger cities such as; the City of London, down-town Manhatton. I would like to know if you think that any suburban or regional town centre (CBD) you have been to you would consider to be dull looking.

Canberra being a planned city can be too over planned. Both Canberra Civic and the new towns such as; Woden, Tuggeranong and Belconnen are so typical modern day government designed commercial areas from the 60's. Think of ugly concrete buildings (home of many governement departments) and lack of green space. Oh and the main shopping centre is a big shopping mall. Otherwise there are really no shops outside that.

This is far different to the town I was born in which has grown slowly over time. The town centre there comprises of many shops and buildings which have been established at different times (and renovated at different times) giving them all individual looks. While there is a small shopping centre there are vast opportunities for shoppers to get outside and do some high street style shopping.

 

[Taller Better]

This type of thread rarely lasts long, as it winds up being City A slagging City B for being dull.

 

[westender]

This type of thread rarely lasts long, as it winds up being City A slagging City B for being dull.

Well it could even be your own suburban CBD. Perhaps both your local and higher level governments as well town planners and others such have in recent years since the 70's concentrated more on housing in new suburban areas. Then they'v just wacked in some big shopping mall or neighbourhood shopping centre as an excuse for a central business district.

It's happened all over Sydney where for one example the Hills District (north-west) has in recent years been filling with Mcmansions basically to accommodate people wanting to live in Sydney. Of course people have to drive to local shops which have been wacked in with local planning.

 

[Faith+1]

Here in America every suburban town center is dull. Whats the point? They build all these homogenous nicer extermely long strip malls with huge parking lots, and then call them ________ Towne Center. They add the E at the end to make it sound like, "Edgewood's Ye' Olde Towne Center". It is so lame.

 

[Jardoga]

Here in Melboure, some twon centers like St Albans, or Werribee care extremely crap, with old and rusting awnings

 

[Justme]

Here in Melboure, some twon centers like St Albans, or Werribee care extremely crap, with old and rusting awnings

Must be a bit embarrasing for the Mayor of say St. Albans when they travel to the original St Albans (outer London Urban Area) and see how lovely that town center is ;O) I often think when I see a town which is pretty crap and has a name sake somewhere else in the world which is really nice if the locals of the ugly town realize exactly how wrong they have it.

Here's some photos from the original. I guess it's the opposite of the thread title here as although St. Albans is not exactly a racy town center, it's not athestically dull. To keep this in line with the thread it would be interesting to see the Melbourne St Albans.

Photo by:http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/

Winter scene. The building at the end is an old pub which is close to 1000years. The Ye olde Fighting ****. Photo by:

Inside the pub: Photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickwill/

The town church. Photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/liverpoolpictorial/

More Town Center photos: Following by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/

A couple of shots of the lively market street by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robinhamman/

 

[Jardoga]

lol saint albans in melb is nothing like that

 

[Taller Better]

I LOVE those old pubs...

 

[Oaronuviss]

If my basement was like this, I'd be the happiest man on Earth:

AWEsome.

 

[xXFallenXx]

Here in America every suburban town center is dull. Whats the point? They build all these homogenous nicer extermely long strip malls with huge parking lots, and then call them ________ Towne Center. They add the E at the end to make it sound like, "Edgewood's Ye' Olde Towne Center". It is so lame.

Here in Temecula we have a "Town Center". it consists of a very large strip mall, a Target, a CVS, and a small 3 story office building. hno:

 

[tuten]

Here's some photos from the original. I guess it's the opposite of the thread title here as although St. Albans is not exactly a racy town center, it's not athestically dull. To keep this in line with the thread it would be interesting to see the Melbourne St Albans.

I live literally 5 miles away from here, its a great place and there are loads of good bits, but further up the town it turns into a bit of a concrete fest.

 

[El Mariachi]

Here in America every suburban town center is dull. Whats the point? They build all these homogenous nicer extermely long strip malls with huge parking lots, and then call them ________ Towne Center. They add the E at the end to make it sound like, "Edgewood's Ye' Olde Towne Center". It is so lame.

Thats assuming that all suburban town centers are one big strip mall, with all modern buildings. I can think of quite a few suburban town centers here that are not dull. They aren't exciting, but they certainly aren't dull architecturally or culturally.

 

[dmarney]

I lived in st albans for 3 years, it was a nice place to live in although a bit quiet, but you had the centre of London a short train ride away, so that wasn't a problem.

 

[el_norte]

Downtown Vancouver sucks! The West End and Commercial drive are reasonable, though. And then there's the Downtown Eastside, which isn't just dull - it's been dying for a hundred years of a heroin overdose... scary.

 

[BearCave]

^^
Looks so scary! But at least it's not "dull". lol

 

[CrazyAboutCities]

Wow... That is very interesting and shocking... I went to Vancouver before but I didn't see something like that.

 

[GTR22]

Some "downtowns" in the suburbs of San Francisco aren't so dull. Lots of small restaurants and shops like in downtown San Mateo or Walnut Creek.

It may not be exciting but its a great place for the locals to go to. There are other cities however that center around some giant strip mall, like San Leandro.

 

[Severiano]

Beijing is dull as there is no city center. This is why I moved to Shanghai

 

[CrazyAboutCities]

Here in Seattle, we have some unique town centers... It is more like hub. It has characters and charms. Some neighborhoods in Seattle have hubs such as Ballard, Fremont, West Seattle, Capital Hill, First Hill, University District, Wallingford, Queen Anne, and Green Lake.

 

[foadi]

Some "downtowns" in the suburbs of San Francisco aren't so dull. Lots of small restaurants and shops like in downtown San Mateo or Walnut Creek.

that's more a california thing