Show us your city!

[x52]

Hi everybody! And now... some pictures from my hometown! 



Well, I've been living in Latina for twenty years, but I was actually born in Rome, and I'm currently studying there too... I think Rome doesn't need any presentation, I will only say it has 3,500,000 inhabitants and it's the capital of Italy!  The city has been improving a lot and growing faster and faster in the last 6-7 years, thanks to the actual mayor's good work, I must say! 



Here are some more pics (a collage made by me, with photos taken from the web...my thanks go to the authors, whose names I can't remember!): the city, the Coliseum, Castel Sant'Angelo, the Roman Forum and St. Peter's Church!



And here we come to Latina, the little city about 50 Km from Rome where I live! Latina is the capital of the province of Latina in the region Latium, in central Italy. The city has about 110,000 inhabitants (and as much as 32 roundabouts!!) and is thus the second largest city of the region. It was founded by fascist dictator Mussolini in 1932 under the name Littoria when the area surrounding it, which had been a swamp since antiquity, was drained!



In the pics you can notice Latina's most curious monument (an airplane installed in the middle of a roundabout!) and the central square of the city, Piazza del Popolo, with the City Hall Tower facing a round big fountain...and, you know, there's a legend about a truck that would be buried underneath, when Mussolini in 1932 unexpectedly announced his visit to inspect the construction works!    A truck had fallen down in the excavations, but there was not enough time to retrieve it before the dictator's arrival, so the excavation was filled up to conceal it, and the truck... is still there nowadays! 
Of course, in the dark and stormy nights,  you can still hear the noise of its engine, the imprisoned truck trying to free itself from down there...! 

And here are Latina's sorroundings! The city is located near the sea, and 5 minutes by car from Circeo National Park and its many coastal lakes: the mountain you see in the pictures is named "Circeo", and takes its name after Circe: right here the legendary witch would have withheld the Greek hero Ulysses for many years, preventing him from going back home, like Homerus wrote in his most famous epic poem Odyssea! 



And finally, Sardinia (Sardegna, in Italian): this is the exact place I spend my summer vacations in every year... about two months of complete relax! 



Well, I think that's all for now; hope you've enjoyed the pictures and sorry if they're too many, or too big! 

Luca!

[sebes]

The eternal city - beautifull. And the collage that you make realy does the city right    I was lucky enought to be there a couple of times, and will definately come back. I remember a walk from Sta Maria Magiore to Piazza Spagna via Via delle Quatro Fontane.... bellissima 

[x52]

Thank you very much sebes!!  I'm glad that you liked Italy and Rome, and that you'll definitely come back! 
But next time you have to take the train and come visit me in Latina, so I can welcome you and perhaps show you the most hidden (and most wonderful, though left aside by the official touristic tours.. ) corners of Rome! I'm waiting for you, ok?! 

[DFire870]

Here are some shots I took of the downtown skyline of Austin, Texas. They were taken a couple of weeks ago.

This picture shows the 360 Condominiums that are currently under construction. This and the other shots of it are outdated because they've placed part of the spire on top of the roof already. When completed it'll be the tallest building in Austin. This is just one of the many condominium towers under construction (I think there's like 3 or 4 other tall ones).



This one is of the 360 Condos (right) and the Monarch (left). The Monarch is an apartment tower, versus 360 which are condos.



Here is the Austin skyline. Because of where these shots were taken, I couldn't get the entire skyline in, but this could be considered the most important because by 2010 there will be 3 or 4 other tall buildings in this shot.



This shot shows the Palmer Events Center (white roof in the foreground), one of Austin's two convention centers. The one in the background is the Long Center for the Performing Arts, which will open in March.



Here's a closer shot of the Monarch and the Seaholm Power Plant, the whitish-gray building in the foreground with the smokestacks. The plant has been closed for some time, but the city is renovating it and converting the plant into a hotel, condos, and shops. Close up the plant looks cool because it's done in an Art Deco style, and there are several signs on it that say "City of Austin Power Plant", which are very Gotham-esque.



Another shot of downtown Austin's skyline. The glass building to the right is the Frost Bank Tower, which was completed in 2004. The "crown" at the top is its distinguishing feature. Oddly enough, while it's the tallest building now, in 2010 it'll only be the 6th or 7th tallest.



Hope you enjoyed these pictures!

-- John

[wir3d]

My city is rated in the top 20 safest cities in the U.S.  That's  one thing I have to bragg about this city.   It is very nice here, since I am close to San Diego, home of the best weather in the world.  So the weather here is an A+.

[N1_2888]

I live in Vienna. The following pictures are taken by myself (except the second one).


View of the Votivkirche from the two-storied tram loop "Schottentor".


The turning loop. This picture is from Wikipedia.


Entrance of the underground station "Karlsplatz".


Karlskirche


Somewhere in the 1st district ...


The back side of the Vienna State Opera.


Municipal tenements in the 13th district.


Some houses built in the late 19th century, the so-called "Gründerzeit".


Tram stop "Spittelau".


Schönbrunn castle.

That will do.

[abracadabraz85]

Wollongong Australia





Thanks

[jonoboo]

Well the nearest city to me is Nottingham, England.

Heres a pic of the NET.


Trent Bridge (obviously going over the River Trent)


Robin Hood Memorial


The City Ground, Nottingham Forest Football Club's homeground. They are better than Derby County who have beaten a record (look it up, its quite shocking really.)


And because Im a train freak, heres a picture of Nottingham Midland Station with a HST (Class 43) in the foreground and a Turbostar (Class 170) in the background.

[XiahouDun]

Downtown Mishawaka

Downtown South Bend with Notre Dame

Notre Dame

The airport

[jonoboo]

How long have American Cities been built with grids? You dont find them much in the UK, only Milton Keynes and the new side of Edinburgh. Not sure if there is many other places its been done.

[szarkoz]

I live in a small town named Myślenice, 20 kilometres south from Cracow, Lesser Poland.

[Shadow Assassin]

Nice pics, all.

How long have American Cities been built with grids? You dont find them much in the UK, only Milton Keynes and the new side of Edinburgh. Not sure if there is many other places its been done.

Interesting fact: a number of European cities are actually built in a grid. For instance, some parts of Barcelona. It dates back to the Roman Empire... but the whole concept of the grid dates back even further, to Ancient Greece (or possibly even Ancient Babylon).



The grid has been a hallmark of American cities: they were cheap and easy to layout and construct, and most parts of the US are actually quite flat, so there's little in the way of obstacles for roads to follow. It just depends on the situation that it's used in.

[CasperVg]

I live in a rural area, but the nearest city is Ghent, which I will show here.










The "Book Tower" (Boekentoren), probably the tallest structure in Ghent, and used as a University Library.

[sincitybaby]

Many people think Omaha, Nebraska is a sleepy small town "somewhere" in middle america.

But with almost 1 million people how can it be confused with such?





Omaha is a very industrial city.


Downtown is quite modern however, with three new highrise's over the last few years.


This includes the tallest building between Denver and Minneapolis


Here is Omaha's Midtown, where Mutual of Omaha and Kiewit coroporations are HQ'ed


Downtown peer's over Midtown.



Photos courtesy of eomahaforums.com, which is a forum dedicated to development in the Omaha metro.

[CabraBuitre]

How long have American Cities been built with grids? You dont find them much in the UK, only Milton Keynes and the new side of Edinburgh. Not sure if there is many other places its been done.

In addition to SA's comment...

The Northwest Territory (present day Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, and part of Minnesota) were separated into square plots of land (townships) with the Land Ordinance of 1785.  These were then separated further into square and rectangle plots of land.  That has a lot to do with land north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi.  Interestingly, if you fly over those Midwestern states, the square plots are very evident as you fly over.  If you go south to Kentucky, and Tennessee, or to the east, there wasn't any particular rhyme or reason for plots of land, other than the topography.  The Midwest is largely flat as a pancake.  The east and south are more hilly and it affected where people could plant crops... so their plots of land were different, too.  Once the farms were turned to towns and the towns cities, they used the already formed plots of land, that, by and large (for most non-Eastern cities) was along gridlike plots.

Another thing to note is that American cities, by and large, are new.  Whereas European cities have been around for hundreds, or thousands of years, U.S. cities are almost entirely less than about 200 years old... with most under about 150, and many under 100 years.  That sets them in the age of the automobile and modern city planning.

And, finally, if you think back to the towns of the Old West (and that era, specifically), towns would have a main street, with some cross streets.  As they expanded, they just did it at right angles, like the main street/side street pattern.

[Sheep49]

Ok, here's my hometown. (I'm too lazy to make pictures myself, so I use the ones I found in net )

I live in Gdynia, one of the youngest cities in Poland. It has one of the most busy seaports in Europe.

I'll start with some overviews:





Gdynia is part of the Tricity, which also includes Sopot and Gdańsk. Gdynia is the 2nd largest (250k people). It also has its own distinctive achitectural style, which is known as 'Gdynia's Postmodernism'. Here are som examples:



As you can see, it's rectangle and the half of the oval.

More to come later (probably )
Piotr

[WC_EEND]

I live in a rural area, but the nearest city is Ghent, which I will show here.










The "Book Tower" (Boekentoren), probably the tallest structure in Ghent, and used as a University Library.

i live there lol

[A200]

Hello all

Here are some pics of my hometown, BRISBANE

Brisbane is located in Australia, in the east:
















A200

[tcx]

This is Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. Just a few pics of my hometown I hope you like!! Xalapa is the state capital of Veracruz, there are nearly 400,000 people, including me and my family, living in this beautiful city.

Aerial View.

http://atenasxalapa.nireblog.com/post/2008/04/08/xalapenos-distinguidos

Palacio Municipal. (City Hall)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/onofre/

Palacio de Gobierno. (State Government Palace)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/onofre/

Catedral. (Cathedarl)


http://www.flickr.com/photos/onofre/

Paseo de Xallitic. (Xallitic square)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/onofre/

Torre Hakim. (Hakim Tower).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/onofre/

I don't know the name of authors of the following pics.

Paseo de los Lagos. (The Lakes Park).






Parque Juarez. (Juarez Park)






Parque Francisco Javier Clavijero. (Francisco Javier Clavijero Park)




Plaza Lerdo, (Lerdo Square)


Calle Centro Histórico, (historic core street)


Edificios Centro Historico, (Historic Core buildings)








Another one of Xallitic

----

[MandelSoft]

I live in Zoetermeer, a medium sized city (120,000 inhabitants) near The Hauge, the Netherlands.

Map:


The Dorpstraat (Village Street), one of the oldest streets in Zoetermeer in the old village center.


The old windmill de Hoop


The watertower de Tien Gemeenten, a monument of the city. The building is not in use.


Zoetermeer has grown much in the previous 50 years. Here's a picture from Zoetermeer in 1954


The city center:


The city hall:


The old sprint cityline (above) and its replacement the RandstadRail (below). I travel to school with the RandstadRail every day 


Zoetermeer Station:


And here's one of the reasons why I love highways...


Skiing? No problem! In Zoetermeer is a large indoor skicenter SnowWorld:


Another great project of Zoetermeer: Dutch Water Dreams:


Zoetermeer is a green city, with a lot of parks. And there's a forrest at the southwest of the city (which is about ten minutes walking from my place):


And last, but not least: the logo of the city:


Best,
Maarten