AWESOME: Gainesville North Main St. & 4th Ave

AWESOME: Main Street in Gainesville FL is undergoing a "road diet" - a process that makes terrible roads into Complete Streets. A photo of the improved roadway shows two lanes instead of four, a center shared turn lane, bike and parking lanes. This process started on North Main, and will, over the next year, continue South to Depot Ave - all the way through Downtown to the soon to be built Cade Museum.

So, why choose this particular corner for some AWESOME? Well - its simple really - this corner features one of the Downtown area's simplest and most elegant mid-century buildings: Rip's Cleaners. Its a simple arrangement of angles, post and bean construction, and plate glass. Classic late 50s roadside drive thru design and a nifty angular steel sign combine to make a corner that many wouldn't ever notice, but there it is.

And what else makes this corner rock? Well, the NW corner features the Williams-Thomas funeral home. Nothing special there... and yet....

..... look at THAT! Some history minded business person decided to honor the horse drawn past of their trade, and built this little glass box to house the old hearse. How cool is that? A late 19th c. horse drawn wagon and a late 1950s dry cleaners building on the same corner... on a road that was just given a 2010 road diet makeover. That, my friends, is an intersection of eras that makes cities great places.

AWFUL. Alachua County Courthouse. Implode & recycle please.

AWFUL. Truly one of Downtown Gainesville's most horrible moments. This massive ungainly lump of post-lego block design has it all. This is the Alachua County Courthouse, Family & Civil Division.

• Three elevations calculated to prevent pedestrians from approaching it?  Check!
• Gigantic slabs of poured concrete that say: "Fortress - Keep Out!" ?  Check!
• A massive deficit of glazing on the side facing the downtown plaza?  Check!
• An entry that is hard to locate and singularly unimpressive and uninviting?  Check!
• Vast slabs of pebble textured concrete, to complete that hideous 1970s ambiance?  Check!
• Prominent location so you can't ignore its massive ugly bulk?  CHECK AND MATE!

In short, this is the single most hideous building in the downtown. It contributes nothing to the streetscape, and exhibits all of the very worst habits of 1970s architecture. Plus, it eats up one side of the most visible public space in downtown. Of course, the downtown plaza is a horror in and of itself, but we'll deal with that one another time. 

Pedestrian view from a prominent corner in the downtown. Breathtakingly awful in its composition.

This plaque fingers those responsible for this carbuncle on the face of downtown. May the shame of Craig Salley & Associates never be forgotten. Oh - and this firm still exists. Check out their website to see the kind of structure these guys are proud to occupy.


Added: Now that I've checked out their website, it seems they have graduated to public schools that look like cheap strip shopping centers.


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