Monday, May 01, 2006

New Village Place



These are not old houses and apartment buildings. Every building in the above pictures was built in the 21st Century. Called New Village Place, this instant Short North neighborhood replaced public housing towers and townhomes along Summit Street. The buildings mostly match the housing surrounding it, except with a flair of curved buildings and color. The various apartment buildings have New York City type names for them eventhough they are the style of old Columbus.
New Village is just east of the Short North gallery district between First and Second Avenue in Italian Village. This "new old" style of construction is usually called "new urbanism". It is spreading across the city. Most major suburbs have refashioned their small downtowns with some sort of "new old" commercial development including Dublin, Gahanna, Bexley, Grandview Heights, Canal Lancaster, Grove City and Westerville.
Of course, Worthington started this decades ago with its colonial style of downtown reflecting its 1803 origins. Then you need to mention New Albany with its Georgian-style homes and early Ohio style homes build throughout the 1990's.