How Tasteless Suburbs Become Beloved Urban Neighborhoods (Pittsburgh, Allentown: 2015, apartment)

[tclifton]

Interesting article. What goes around, comes around.

How Tasteless Suburbs Become Beloved Urban Neighborhoods - The Atlantic

The problem with the immaculate-conception theory is that, like parents swearing that they would never have behaved the way their kids do, it is conveniently forgetful about what actually happened in the past. Taking, just as an example, the kind of housing that this theory romanticizes—the early 20th century bungalow boom—a closer look reveals that it was defined not by mass affordability, efficiency, and respect for traditional communities, but something very nearly the opposite.

To begin with, many of the arbiters of taste of the bungalow era believed those new bungalow neighborhoods “ruined” the character of the places they were built, just as new apartment buildings are maligned today. They even had a snappy put-down for it: “bungalow disease.” “Tradition has broken down,” wrote the British planner Thomas Sharp, describing a proliferation of bungalows on both sides of the Atlantic, and “taste is utterly debased … The old trees and hedgerows … have given place to concrete posts and avenues of telegraph poles, to hoardings and enamel advertising signs.” Architectural Record reviewed Seattle’s building boom in 1912 and, in an otherwise positive article, pronounced the quality of its new homes “disappointing.”

[MountainDewGuy]

What are some examples of Pittsburgh suburbs that become beloved urban neighborhoods?

[Goinback2011]

Oakland was developed as a suburb after the 1845 fire. Eventually, the city annexed it.

[ny789987]

I moved from NYC. Most urban Pittsburgh neighborhoods look like the suburbs to me.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by MountainDewGuy

What are some examples of Pittsburgh suburbs that become beloved urban neighborhoods?

Sheraden and Esplen used to be suburbs, ditto for Beltzhoover and Montooth boroughs which were absorbed into the city back in the day.

Chartiers Twp., Westwood, Elliot, Temperanceville, West Pittsburgh, Allentown, Carrick, Brushton, Sterrett, etc., were all founded as parts of suburbia.

[Mtl-Cns]

Originally Posted by ny789987

I moved from NYC. Most urban Pittsburgh neighborhoods look like the suburbs to me.

Moved here from NYC too. Looking at all five boroughs as the city and generally urban that's really a stretch. That said I would agree that the quality of NYC suburbs greatly surpasses the quality of PGH suburbs

[gg]

Originally Posted by ny789987

I moved from NYC. Most urban Pittsburgh neighborhoods look like the suburbs to me.

True! The only neighborhoods that are "urban" really are downtown and maybe the South Side, due to density. I would hardly call most places in Pittsburgh, "urban". Shadyside? Point Breeze? Squirrel Hill? Really? Spinal is more dense than any of those I mention. Even the Northside isn't really urban in comparison to large eastern cities.

[sealie]

This really is an interesting article, if people can avoid being distracted by the nonsense above about whether Pittsburgh is "urban" compared to nyc and read the article talking about the current perception of bungalow construction vs the perception at the time the then new neighborhoods were being built.

[eschaton]

I don't think there's any question that bungalows were a step down in terms of urbanity and elaborate design (at least in terms of the facade) compared to late Victorian styles which immediately preceded them. IMHO they were still better than what came around a generation later, but of course opinions differ.

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

Oakland was developed as a suburb after the 1845 fire. Eventually, the city annexed it.

I don't think this is right. Pittsburgh was limited to Downtown and the modern day Strip, Uptown, and the Hill District until essentially the entire East End was annexed in the late 1860s. At that time Bloomfield and Lawrenceville already existed as independent "villages" but Oakland was still mostly undeveloped farmland. By 1872 there was a small urban neighborhood right down by the Mon around the modern Birmingham Bridge. There were also knots of denser housing around S Craig and Oakland Avenue, but most of Oakland was still houses with large acreage (mostly farmland). Oakland was only really built out between 1890 and 1910 - arguably the last major "urban neighborhood" the city built before it turned to streetcar suburbia (indeed, it was built out roughly contemporaneously with more suburban-styled areas like Highland Park and Friendship).

If you go far enough back in Pittsburgh history, you'll see that even beloved urban neighborhoods like Allegheny West and Manchester were originally built out as "suburbs" of the city in the mid 19th century. Well-to-do people didn't want to live Downtown because it was filthy and noisy, but once there was a reliable bridge crossing the Allegheny, they could take a horsecar to quieter, more residential digs.

[Goinback2011]

All suburbs started out as farmland in our area. Before that, they were uninhabited wilderness.