More Greenville, SC - Main Street

Now getting back to Main Street and out of the park...the building in the photo below on the corner is new, but it fits in perfectly.

The large building on the right (above) is the Westin Poinsett Hotel, my favorite building in Greenville. I realize this is almost the same picture as the previous one, but you can see all of the hotel in this one.

   
The next few pictures below came as a complete shock to me - when I worked here the area to the left was simply a boring concrete plaza. Now it's a hotel with a large grassy area in front and fits in perfectly.

The stone wall is a fountain that trickles water - in the opening to the right are public restrooms (and they weren't creepy)

I think this sunken plaza owes it success to the hotel and more important, the hotel bar that is located on the ground floor where the awnings are. We had drinks there one night and it was packed..

Some whimsical things along Main Street:

The last thing I have to say about Main Street is that you can always find you way - the city has done an amazing job with signage.

Signs pointing the way to businesses off Main Street

Map of downtown

The street signs in Greenville are great! You can clearly read what street you're on and its neatly incorporated into the stop light. 

I wish I had more shots of Main Street, but we got there the night before and had to leave after lunch that day for the Clemson game!

Greenville, South Carolina - the best small city you probably haven't been to

Recently I headed down to Greenville, SC for a school alumni event. I worked in Greenville when I was in grad school and it was great to be back! Greenville has an awesome downtown - Main Street has lots of great restaurants and shops, there's a minor league baseball team that feeds in the Red Sox and a professional hockey team.

The Reedy River runs through downtown Greenville, which the city has turned into a beautiful landmark and amenity, Falls Park. The one thing I always notice about Greenville is how they use many different materials in the streetscaping and landscaping. This may seem like a little thing, but it really enriches the built environment. It would be much cheaper to just build using plain old concrete.

First up: Falls Park at the Reedy River

the falls

The Liberty Bridge

The next couple of pictures are looking down from the bridge onto the park land next to the falls:

Our lunch spot, one of my favorites:

The pocket park in the background in the above picture is beautiful.  Taking a closer look...

The ledge of the fountain above is the perfect height and width for sitting - that may seem like such a simple thing, but it's a simple thing many cities overlook or discourage, so that people can't loiter. But isn't loitering the point of a park?

 

 The use of stone makes all of the difference in this park - it wouldn't be the same without it. Can you imagine if it was just plain concrete step and paving? It would be so boring. The landscaping is also lush and gorgeous. 

The Outer Banks - all of the new construction

There's not much to say about most of these houses because they're just plain ugly. They do not fit in with the character of the area - they have no sense of place. They could be from anywhere, nothing about them says "Outer Banks" the way a Nags Head cottage does. They are also ridiculously expensive because they're so large and a lot of them have upscale appliances and finishes - which is exactly what I do not want in a beach house, personally. Give me a beach shack any day!

Have fun boarding up those windows for a hurricane...

There's too much to pick at with this house, so I'm going to keep it simple. Look at that lawn. Really, at the beach?  It's supposed to sandy and full of prickly spur things and cacti.

While this isn't as large and tacky as some of the others, it's still not pretty.

 

I have to end my rant on a good note, which includes this new construction below. The design is nice and simple and reminiscent of the vernacular style. My only complaint - the vinyl or fiber cement siding - it should be a natural cedar shingle. 

The Outer Banks - The Nags Head Cottage

 Last month my family went down to the Outer Banks for a week. The Outer Banks is one of my favorite beaches, the Kitty Hawk to Nags Head area in particular. Driving down the beach road there are many reminders of the small beach town it used to be, and still somewhat is. There has been a lot of new construction in the 1990s - 2000s and most of it, sad to say, ruins the character of the Outer Banks. The construction of the earlier decades is not as offensive because it is more modest in size and was constructed with a natural, unpainted wood siding, instead of the brightly colored vinyl (and possibly some fiber cement siding) that is more commonly built today. And while the houses of the 1970s and 1980s aren't terrible, the historic cottages of the late 19th and early 20th century are my personal favorites.

The Nags Head Cottage was one of the predominant vernacular building types in the area, and now there are not many left. These houses were built with broad overhanging eaves over wrap around porches to take advantage of the sea breezes, but protect itself from the harsh sun. The houses were all sided in a natural cedar shingle. Keep in mind these houses were built before the advent of the air conditioner, when houses were built specifically to their surroundings. The hurricane shutters provide protection from hurricane winds when necessary, but shade the windows from the sun, while still allowing light into the rooms. The beach houses of today, with the ridiculous amount of windows (without hurricane shutters) and decks (not porches because there is no roof) are built knowing there will be two or more air conditioning units in the house, so there is no need to worry about allowing for a good breeze through the house.


Below is a classic Nags Head cottage. Unfortunately I didn't get a good shot of a row of them, it's a bit difficult to stop along the beach road.

 

Other vernacular cottages:

A good row except for the obvious one that stands out..

 

One of my favorites

We drove past some newer construction that was built in the historic style, it's too bad more people don't build this way...

Notice the depth of the porch and the roof?

Another good example of newer construction:

These are all some good examples of the vernacular style of the area. It's sad to say I found it easier to take pictures of houses I hated than houses I liked....which I'll save for next time.

A look back at the blizzard...

Tropical Storm Nicole just pounded the east coast with rain, and Baltimore received it's fair share and had some flooding. I'm glad I wasn't in Wilmington, NC - they got 21 inches of rain! Can you imagine if that rain was snow? The blizzards last winter were bad enough. But taking a look back at the last set of blizzards (two in one week), I have to say that I'm incredibly glad I was in the city. Restaurants, bars, Royal Farms and the corner stores were all pretty much open and I could walk to all of them. It sounds like this winter might be just as bad...but lets take a look back at this past winter....

Check out the picture below - there was too much snow and nowhere for the plows to put it...so they made a wall in the street....

Another wall of snow in the middle of the street...

Streets they didn't bother plowing for a few days...

The only way out....

Ending at my destination that night...

It was fun the first couple of day, but I could go several years without a repeat...