May 2002 | Eyesore

Commentary on architectural blunders in monthly serial.

The tragedy of urban renewal can still be seen in towns and cities all over America. This roughly fifteen-acre area lies one block east of our main street, Broadway, in Saratoga Springs, New York. What ought to be evident is how our cultural values allowed this to happen: after the demolitions of the 1970s we made a fundamental consensual decision that car storage was the highest and best use of downtown land. The day is not so distant when that consensus will be overturned. By the way, you could fit most of Siena, Italy, into this inland sea of free parking.