# Your cities street layout.



## Unionstation13 (Aug 31, 2006)

Tell us about your cities street layout, and the history of it.

I'll go first.
Indianapolis was first layed out as a single square mile(no one thought it would grow farther) and in this square mile was a central traffic circle known today as monument circle but at that time(1821) was called "governors circle"(the governors mansion was on the circle but no one ever lived there due to lack of privacey) and was placed on a simple gridd with four european styled avenues going out of the circle, there is massachussetts, Indiana, virginia, and kentucky avenue, kentucky avenue today has been totally removed from the maps and filled in , but the other 3 avenues survive today.
In this blocks were several narrow allies and narrow streets used for convenience of getting around the city. The western city streets never spread to the whiteriver untill the mid-19th century due to malaria that killed an 8th of the population, cuasing people to go eastward in what we call lockerbie square today(where many structures from this era exsist today)
all in the street layout is still there, except kentucky avenue and a few less important streets. 
The original plan called for all the circles to touch the avenue, but due to traffic problems, the city decided they will touch the same block as the circle, when people complained that they would not be able to see the monument or public display from one of the avenues, they decided to have height restrictions(not lifted untill the 1960s) for the longest time, from any of the four avenues, could you look down it and see the monument(some areas still in this case)
the street layout was designed by the apprentice of the the man who layed out Washington DC. 
Due to simple asthetic thinking, Indianapolis has one of the finest city center peices in North America, and one of the better in the world.


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## Occit (Jul 24, 2005)

*The first layout of Caracas' streets were squared, this pattern is now only the downtown:*










*Then it was diversified in various different patterns at the same time the city were adding new neighborhoods*










*Now, the city has a general pattern were the main avenues and highways are in a "east-west" direction in northern and a "north-south" direction in southern, following the form of the valley:*


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## Slartibartfas (Aug 15, 2006)

Vienna:

The whole history would be a bit too long for this thread I guess. So I will make it short:

The Roman city of Vindobona had a military town and a civil one. the military one had a rectangular shape with ractangular blocks inside (barracks, bath etc) surrounded by walls outside of it the irregular civil town followed mostly the streets that left the military town.

During the time of the Völkerwanderung most of that roman time had been destroyed, but the outlines of the roman military city, can be seen up today in the street layout of the innver city. 
The medieval construction of Vienna did not follow a large plan. The only important outline was the city wall. 

Outside the city wall and the surrounding glacis (plain area in order to spot enemies before they stand in front of the wall), soon more settlements were created due to a lack of space inside, the so called "Vorstädte" (suburbs).

After the first Turkish siege against Vienna that could be only one with lots of luck and due to very bad weather, the city wall was torn down and replaced by a renaissance fortress structure, that made a little more space inside, but not too much. The form of the inner city was mostly circular by then. They destroyed suburbs were restored.

The next Turkish siege and last Turkish siege came, and this times the Turks did not want to take any risks of loosing another time. A large army stationed itself on the hillls surrounding the city. And the miners began their work to blow up the city fortress. In the last seconds, after weeks of siege a Polnish-German Entsatzheer could surprise the turks and beat them forcing them to retreat once again.

This time the even had a more long lasting effect on the city design. The suburbs were restored another time encircling the city.

The most important time for the city layout came in the 19th century. After 1848 the emperor announced that its his will to tear down the city wall and abolish the Glacis. During those days the Wall was already entirely surrounded by suburbs. 

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/vienna_1858.jpg
Follow the link to see the city map right before the demolision of the walls.

The area city wall was turned into the largest construction site in Europe, if not the world. On its place a new imperial city was constructed, encircling the old baroque city core and bordering the "Vorstädte" that were incooperated into the city by then and through this connecting the old heart with the new districts.

But the exploding number of inhabitants made another large plan necessary. the "Vorstädte" had an wall on their outside already as well, and outside of that wall, the "Vororte" were located. (meaning somewhat "suburban villages") 
That wall was torn down as well and a second circular boulevard was raised, unlike the noble Ring it was designed to be the boulevard of the bourgoisie. That boulevard was called Gürtel (=belt). Outside of the Gürtel the Vororte were soon afterwards incooperated into the city and the city expanded beyond the Gürtel with large appartment blocks. and industry. 

After the fall down of the monarchy Vienna entered a phase of decline again, and after 2 World Wars, the number of inhabitants were instead of above 2 mio only 1.6 mio anymore. 

The sole things that happened were the reconstruction of destroyed building as (mostly ugly) post war blocks and later on by some large commie block projects in the periphery of the city.

In the last decades things have changed again, the city is growing once again. And its expanding, high rise clusters are being risen on the other side of the Danube and in the south periphery. Old industrial areas, and center near abandoned railwaystations are transformed into new city quarters.


The result out of this design is that unlike for example the Hausman's Paris, Vienna looks more like a spider web. Whereas the two major ciruclar roads are designed as large boulevards.










The subway map might highlight the design the best:


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## gappa (Mar 13, 2007)

From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoddle_grid :




























*Hoddle Grid*

The Hoddle Grid is the layout of the streets in the central business district of Melbourne. Named after its designer, Robert Hoddle, the Grid was laid out in 1837, and later extended. It covers the area from Flinders St to Queen Victoria Market, and from Spencer St to Spring St.
*
History*
While the survey plan has proved, in time, to be far-sighted for public utility, serving Melbourne to this day, at the time Hoddle's instructions from Governor Gipps were more prosaic. Land allotments for sale at public auction were to be produced as quickly as possible to deliver to the market. Gipps also insisted that all towns laid out during his term of office should have no public squares included within their boundaries, being convinced that they only encouraged democracy.

The wide main streets were also to accommodate the large number of bullock carts that would ride through the centre of town preventing them from holding up horse drawn traffic when making right turns.

In the 1860s, surveys extended the district, incorporating the region of similarly laid out streets bounded by Victoria Street, Dudley Street and the Queen Victoria Market.
*
Specifications*
All major streets are one and half chains (30 m) in width, while all blocks are exactly 10 chains square (10 acres, 201 m × 201 m). It is one mile long by half a mile wide (1.61 by 0.80 km), and oriented with its long axis rotated 28 degrees counterclockwise of the east-west direction, to align better with the course of the Yarra River.

*Melbourne's lanes and arcades*



















Although not part of Hoddle's original plans, Melbourne has a number of significant lanes which the city has become notable for. The lanes have evolved from the early days of the Hoddle Grid out of necessity as accessways from the minor streets, many themselves known by the name of "lane".

Many of these lanes are used for commercial purposes, some have become covered arcades. Some lanes have been lost to the consolidation of urban blocks and developments such as Rialto Towers. Others have become enclaves of historic buildings spared from consolidation of blocks facing the major streets, appearing as hidden trails that burrow their way through the city.

Among Melbourne's more significant lanes is Bank Place, a small enclave of heritage listed buildings including Mitre Tavern. Block Place, Degraves Street and Centre Place are popular for their funky cafe culture. Hardware Lane and McKillop Street towards the financial district are popular with office workers, and Punch Lane is one of the more popular lanes at the Eastern end of the city. ACDC Lane was recently named after the popular rock band AC/DC. Others are known for their outstanding examples of modern mural, graffiti and stencil art. The Melbourne City Council has commissioned several quirky art installations in a few of the lanes.

Collectively they have become a major tourist attraction to the city and been used as a model for new urban developments such as the Queen Victoria Village, Federation Square and the re-development of Melbourne Central as well as commercial developments in established heritage laneways.

Melbourne also features many covered arcades. Some began their life as lanes, others began as new shopping malls.

Although the popularity of arcades in Melbourne waned in the 1950s, they experienced a revival in the late 1980s. Many of Melbourne's more popular arcades did not survive during these decades, however. Queens Walk on the corner of Collins and Swanston Streets is one such example. It was demolished in the 1970s to make way for the Melbourne City Square.

Significant arcades include Royal Arcade, one of Melbourne's earliest Victorian arcades, which is heritage registered, Block Arcade, a major arcade which coined the Melbourne phrase "doing the Block". Centreway Arcade in the heritage Centreway building connects to several of the lanes in the centre of the city, whilst Campbell Arcade which connects to Degraves Street is Melbourne's most significant 1950s arcade. Other heritage arcades of note include Howey Place and, Cathedral Arcade. In 2005, Melbourne GPO's heritage postal hall was converted into shops and became a new addition to the arcades of the city.


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## RawLee (Jul 9, 2007)

This is the approximate layout of Budapest's main roads. City limits area approx. edge of pic,highway ring is(will be) further out.


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## Oaronuviss (Dec 11, 2002)

Windsor Ontario, settled since 1749, roads are mainly in the form of long lots, or ribbon farms the French set up long ago. Out streets still follow their farms, and many of the street names in Windsor retain the names of the farms that used to be there, hence all the French street names in the city still. Once under the protection of a fort at Detroit, Windsor which was part of Quebec and New France was won by the British in 1763... so it's a mainly grid/long lot street pattern.


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## Xelebes (Apr 1, 2007)

Edmonton began chaotically. At the start, Edmonton was expanding outside of the trading fort and streets were haphazardly set, according to the geography of the village. This is noted by Boyle Street (which goes more like an avenue) and Bellamy Hill. Soon, it became a town and a plan was made to lay out the streets - a simple grid was chosen. East-west avenues were chosen to be the main walking streets probably due to the fact that the sun rose so low in the winter that north-south became problematic. Also, it was probably chosen to break the north-winds in winter which are extremely cold. Thus, there is a bias towards the avenues versus the streets. The fort was demolished to make way for the legislature and an army base was placed north of the Hudson Bay lands.

Surrounding villages were like that too as they slowly became amalgamated by the city - Strathcona, Beverly, Duggan and Jasper Place.


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## Northsider (Jan 16, 2006)

Chicago's is pretty easy. The land was divided up into equal plots of land for easy selling and buying. Chicago was pretty much bought and sold on the east coast by wealthy businessmen who had never even seen the land. Because of this division of plots, a very organized grid developed, with major streets every mile and minor streets every half mile. A few diagonals (old Indian trails), the river, and the Lake break up the grid.

0/0/0/0, N/S/E/W is at State and Madison and block numbers go up from this point on the grid. Every block is 100 block numbers (addresses), so one block north of 0 N would be 100 N. Simple? The grid was designed to be able to extend way out into the hinterland, and flying above the city and outwards you can clearly see how the streets extend well into farmland areas, keeping the grid consistent...this also makes it very easy for tourists, as it's easy to navigate the city's streets.


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## Myrtonos (Jun 4, 2012)

Actually, the Hoddle grid, by extension, extends as far as Victoria street, which in turn follows one of the axis of what I call the general Melbourne grid. Streets perpendicular to it, such as Swanston street, Carlton are only oriented 8 degrees from true-north, this being the horizontal position of the sun at solar noon.
Part of the grid also extends south of the Yarra, with St. Kilda road being oriented like Swanston street. Streets like Clarendon street and roads like Queens Road run parallel to St. Kilda road.


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## RicardoNolazcoC (Jan 3, 2014)

*Guadalajara was originally a grid in 1542, pretty much the same as most Spanish cities in The Americas.
*
In the 1800's it looked like this.










It was in the middle of the twentieth century that the growth became faster and faster.

In 1943:










In 1950, seven years later.










And nowadays, the original grid coexists with the "chaos" :lol:


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## garoa10 (Oct 30, 2010)

Oaxaca City in 1771










Oaxaca City in 1868


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## Mr_Dru (Dec 15, 2008)

Amsterdam. First they built canals along with roads.


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## roballan (Aug 23, 2009)

*Mexico City*​

*Prehispanic Era*
The city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan (simply referred as Tenochtitlan) was founded by the Mexica people in 1325 on an island in the center of the inland lake system within the Valley of Mexico. Legend says, the Mexicas' god Huitzilopochtli indicated the site where they were to build their home by presenting an eagle perched on a nopal devouring a snake (depiction which latter became the Mexican coat of arms).

Between 1325 and 1521, Tenochtitlan grew in size and strength, eventually dominating the other city-states around Lake Texcoco. When the Spaniards arrived, the Aztec Empire had reached much of Mesoamerica, extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean.




Here's a depiction of Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire as found by the spaniards around 1519.




















*Spanish Conquest*

After landing in Veracruz, Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés advanced upon Tenochtitlan with the aid of other native peoples, arriving there on November 8, 1519. Cortés and his men marched along the causeway leading into the city, and after being greeted by the Emperor Moctezuma II (for some reason known as Montezuma in some countries), they exchanged gifts, but the camaraderie did not last long, as Cortés put Moctezuma under house arrest, hoping to rule through him.

Tensions increased until, on the night of June 30, 1520 – during a struggle known as "La Noche Triste" (the Sad Night) – the Aztecs rose up against the Spanish intrusion and managed to drive out the Europeans and their native allies. The Aztecs thought the Spaniards were permanently gone and elected a new king, Cuitláhuac, whom soon died; then electing Cuauhtémoc, who became the last Aztec emperor.

Cortés began a siege of Tenochtitlan in May 1521. For three months, the city suffered the lack of food and water as well as the spread of smallpox brought by the Europeans. Cortés and his allies landed their forces in the south of the island and slowly fought their way through the city. Finally the city was taken on August 1521, marking the fall of the Aztec Empire. The Spaniards practically razed Tenochtitlan during the final siege of the conquest.


Now, this is how the city might have looked between its heyday in and conquest.











*Colonial period*

Cortés first settled in Coyoacán (on the south shore of the lake), but decided to rebuild the Aztec site hoping to erase all traces of the old order. He did not establish a territory under his own personal rule, but remained loyal to the Spanish crown. The first Spanish viceroy arrived in Mexico City fourteen years later. By that time, the city had again become a city-state, having power that extended far beyond its borders.

Although the Spanish preserved Tenochtitlan's basic layout, they built Catholic churches over the old Aztec temples and claimed the imperial palaces for themselves. Tenochtitlan was renamed "Mexico" because the Spanish found the word easier to pronounce.

The city had been the capital of the Aztec empire and in the colonial era, Mexico City became the capital of New Spain and crown jewel of the Spanish colony.


The city in 1524, now under Spanish rule. By this time the city had been renamed Mexico City, capital of the New Spain viceroyalty



















Preconquest Tenochtitlan was built in the center of the inland lake system, with the city reachable by canoe and by wide causeways to the mainland. The causeways were rebuilt under Spanish rule with indigenous labor.

Colonial Spanish cities were constructed on a grid pattern, if no geographical obstacle prevented it. In Mexico City, the main square (which is now known as Zocalo) was the central place from which the grid was then built outward. The Spanish lived in the area closest to the main square in what was known as the traza, in orderly, well laid-out streets. Indian residences were outside that exclusive zone and houses were haphazardly located.


By 1715 most Aztec buildings and temples had already been torn down. The city experienced fast growth and most of the channels were replaced with avenues. 











The city grew as the population did, coming up against the lake's waters. As the depth of the lake water fluctuated, the city was subject to periodic flooding. So a major labor draft to build infrastructure began in order to prevent floodings, which were not only an inconvenience but also a health hazard, since during flood periods human waste polluted the city's streets. By draining the area, the mosquito population dropped as did the frequency of the diseases they spread. However, draining the wetlands also changed the habitat for fish and birds and the areas accessible for native's cultivation close to the capital.


By 1794 the lake that once surrounded the city was dried as a measure to prevent floods, which often were a problem for the new city.











*The Republic*

Events such as the War of Independence, the Mexican–American War, the French Intervention and the Reform War left the city center relatively untouched as it continued to grow, especially during the rule of President Porfirio Díaz. During this time the city developed a modern infrastructure, such as roads, schools, transportation and communication systems.


This is how the city looked in 1881, capital of the new independent Mexican Republic. Most of this layout still survives to this day with few changes as part of the city's Historic Downtown.


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## poshbakerloo (Jan 16, 2007)

Manchester 1945 plan - only partly built though!


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## Slartibartfas (Aug 15, 2006)

^^ What a crime.


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## poshbakerloo (Jan 16, 2007)

Slartibartfas said:


> ^^ What a crime.


If it had been built exactly like the plan suggests - a beautiful Art Deco city then I agree! But then the 1960s happened, and it was all up scaled. The tree lined boulevards became huge motorways hno:


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## Barragon (Dec 26, 2004)

*Lisboa Downtown*

*Before que 1755 Quake*



















*After*


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

^^

Nice :drool:


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## LeooAlvarez (May 6, 2010)

Whow, didnt know Mexico was in middle of a lake


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