Hideous 1970s neo-brutalist architecture, total disregard for historic preservation in a city that professed to honor history, and outmoded thinking about rewarding the automobile in its downtown core by constructing huge and vacuous parking decks. What WERE we thinking? The implosion of the Robert E. Lee Hotel should cause every viewer of this film to weep, especially given what replaced it. The only thing more shocking than the destruction that this film documents is the 1970s "wah-wah" music that forms its funeral dirge. This film should be a textbook example of everything that was wrong about "urban renewal" in the 1960s and 1970s. If only Winston-Salem's downtown had held out for another decade or two -- we might have been spared all of this loss, and today's downtown core would have been that much more vital.
@@johndillinger8482 Happened all over the country. The prevailing wisdom of the time, in cities large and small, was you needed to "upgrade" everything downtown to compete with the suburban migration. That same modern concrete faced architecture can be found in urban renewal districts nationwide, just like the same "industrial chic" style can be found all over today.
@@keithcstone Here in Columbus,the urban center is being threatened by suburbs creating their own urban disneylands to keep the money in the suburbs.Restaurants are closing like crazy downtown.
During that time period, you had some major businesses headquarter there. Reynolds tobacco, Piedmont Airlines, Krispy Kreme, etc were founded in Winston. Now Baptist Hospital is the major employer. Eating all those doughnuts and smoking cigarettes- makes sense.
Wish the old Art Deco Greyhound bus station and Robert E Lee Hotel was still around and standing. Winston-Salem would’ve had more southern Charm if they didn’t decided to implode and “renovate” the many older buildings 🌃
+Katharyn Valier Truer words were never spoken. You are EXACTLY right. They imploded the best looking buildings in the city to put up some awful structures.
i am 55 years old so the beginning of the plans to revitalize were a little before my time, i have lived here all my life and they(winston-salem) has revitalized even more in recent years but when big corporations show interest and it makes the news they usually end up picking another city..dont get me wrong , i myself used to love my home town, but now crime and shootings and murder are out of control..I WANT OUT !!
I was delivery driver supplying plumbing pipes to the crew remodeling the Pepper building in 2018. They let me walk around inside and take as many pictures of it as possible during renovations. Back in the 30s it had a Bank in it. Vault was still intact with the original light fixtures from the early 20s stored up there. Saw all the original timbers and door frames. It struck me as odd that I was looking at wood that was almost 100 years old. I also got the chance to explore the old train station near WSSU and took pics there as well. I currently work at crystal towers and sunrise towers as private security. It's a disgrace. Absolute cesspool of crime vermin and bedbugs. I laughed as hard as could be when the narrator said "exclusive" about them
Fun fact: The city of Winston-Salem almost got an MLB team when the Minnesota Twins considered relocation in the mid to late 1990s, my Father was part of the committee that almost made it happen. After the Twins decided against relocation and stayed in Minnesota, the committee moved onto attempting to get the MLS's Florida Fusion to move to the Camel City, it almost came to fruition before the Fusion ultimately decided to pull out of the relocation and choosing to stay in Florida. My Father was also part of that committee.
Last time I was in Winston it looked like it was time to do this all over again. Most of those beautiful old buildings had been run down so bad that they were far cheaper to destroy than rebuild.
Ah, yes, the era of closing streets to make downtown malls .. and then the stores slowly vanished.. and guess what ..they reopened the streets ... Raleigh, Rock Hill, Spartanburg, Middletown, Oh... feel free to add yours here
It took millions to undo many parts of this. In my time with the city (20 years), they were always trying to make it a small New York City, when as many special events showed that they needed to try and make it a large Mount Airy. But the their biggest problem has always been they're never ending quest for more HUD grants from the federal government. While city's like Greensboro were going for research grants. By 2000, WS had applied for and received I think 20 times the HUD funding that GSO had over the years. And just about the exact opposite was true of R&D grants. So WS is packed full of people living in government housing and on welfare, while GSO is twice the size, and full of young people with high levels of education.
GSO has a hideous crime rate, couldn't pay me to live there. I really don't like the Triad and can't wait to relocate out west. Grew up here & feel suffocated. WS is an ugly city.
I finally got around to watching this, now that I'm living near Wilmington and missing my hometown a bit. I was a toddler when this film was created, and it surprised me as I watched to see so many landmarks that are still part of the cityscape today.
George Hege Hamilton IV (July 19, 1937 - September 17, 2014) 12:42 Neal Anderson Bedinger Jr, age 91, of Winston-Salem, N.C., died Wednesday, May 6, 2015
The logo is called the Speedbird. It first appeared in the late 1940's and was redesigned in 1974 by Graphiden, Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio. Originally it was red. In the redesign, the Speedbird came out of the circle and was changed to Piedmont blue. It represents a bird with 3 "feathers".
Damn and not even 20 years after building piedmont plaza, and most of those places were shut down and the street was razed and turned back into a functional street. Smh.
Hideous 1970s neo-brutalist architecture, total disregard for historic preservation in a city that professed to honor history, and outmoded thinking about rewarding the automobile in its downtown core by constructing huge and vacuous parking decks. What WERE we thinking? The implosion of the Robert E. Lee Hotel should cause every viewer of this film to weep, especially given what replaced it. The only thing more shocking than the destruction that this film documents is the 1970s "wah-wah" music that forms its funeral dirge. This film should be a textbook example of everything that was wrong about "urban renewal" in the 1960s and 1970s. If only Winston-Salem's downtown had held out for another decade or two -- we might have been spared all of this loss, and today's downtown core would have been that much more vital.
David Klinger I agree urban renewal was a disaster for the city. It lost its charm and great buildings during the 70s
David Klinger true
@@richmindstv2974 same thing is happening in Columbus Ohio
@@johndillinger8482 Happened all over the country. The prevailing wisdom of the time, in cities large and small, was you needed to "upgrade" everything downtown to compete with the suburban migration. That same modern concrete faced architecture can be found in urban renewal districts nationwide, just like the same "industrial chic" style can be found all over today.
@@keithcstone Here in Columbus,the urban center is being threatened by suburbs creating their own urban disneylands to keep the money in the suburbs.Restaurants are closing like crazy downtown.
During that time period, you had some major businesses headquarter there. Reynolds tobacco, Piedmont Airlines, Krispy Kreme, etc were founded in Winston. Now Baptist Hospital is the major employer. Eating all those doughnuts and smoking cigarettes- makes sense.
Wish the old Art Deco Greyhound bus station and Robert E Lee Hotel was still around and standing. Winston-Salem would’ve had more southern Charm if they didn’t decided to implode and “renovate” the many older buildings 🌃
Couldn't agree more. In the interest of "revitalization," Winston-Salem destroyed much of its history, on purpose. Sad.
@@airpiedmont Agreed, the real Winston-Salem literally died during those times and things from there haven’t been the same. It’s sad 😢
@@airpiedmont now it’s the city of Parking Garages 🤦
George knew music but he sure didn't know good architecture. This made me sick.
+Katharyn Valier Truer words were never spoken. You are EXACTLY right. They imploded the best looking buildings in the city to put up some awful structures.
i am 55 years old so the beginning of the plans to revitalize were a little before my time, i have lived here all my life and they(winston-salem) has revitalized even more in recent years but when big corporations show interest and it makes the news they usually end up picking another city..dont get me wrong , i myself used to love my home town, but now crime and shootings and murder are out of control..I WANT OUT !!
Thanks to all of this "progress," it's even less of a place to be remembered.
crystal and sunset towers are dangerous as hell now not what they had in mind
Awww!! The old bus station. What an amazing and cool building. And all those old theaters... :(
I was delivery driver supplying plumbing pipes to the crew remodeling the Pepper building in 2018. They let me walk around inside and take as many pictures of it as possible during renovations. Back in the 30s it had a Bank in it. Vault was still intact with the original light fixtures from the early 20s stored up there. Saw all the original timbers and door frames. It struck me as odd that I was looking at wood that was almost 100 years old. I also got the chance to explore the old train station near WSSU and took pics there as well.
I currently work at crystal towers and sunrise towers as private security. It's a disgrace. Absolute cesspool of crime vermin and bedbugs. I laughed as hard as could be when the narrator said "exclusive" about them
Fun fact: The city of Winston-Salem almost got an MLB team when the Minnesota Twins considered relocation in the mid to late 1990s, my Father was part of the committee that almost made it happen.
After the Twins decided against relocation and stayed in Minnesota, the committee moved onto attempting to get the MLS's Florida Fusion to move to the Camel City, it almost came to fruition before the Fusion ultimately decided to pull out of the relocation and choosing to stay in Florida. My Father was also part of that committee.
The Trade Street Mall ended up with very little traffic. At the end, it's "anchor" was a por n theater. Eventually, it became a regular street again.
Correct. One of the many architectural mistakes the city made in the 70s.
@@airpiedmont Greenville SC did the same with the "Coffee Street Mall". 😑
@@elliotdryden7560 I didn't realize that. Seems like it was a trend back then. I was recently in downtown Greenville and it looks great.
Last time I was in Winston it looked like it was time to do this all over again. Most of those beautiful old buildings had been run down so bad that they were far cheaper to destroy than rebuild.
+SGTJDerek
hey! come back by. folks are fixin' this place up.
They turned the old factories into lofts
Ah, yes, the era of closing streets to make downtown malls .. and then the stores slowly vanished.. and guess what ..they reopened the streets ... Raleigh, Rock Hill, Spartanburg, Middletown, Oh... feel free to add yours here
And then Charlotte said, "Hold my beer"
Man, you got that right. Did they ever!
It took millions to undo many parts of this. In my time with the city (20 years), they were always trying to make it a small New York City, when as many special events showed that they needed to try and make it a large Mount Airy. But the their biggest problem has always been they're never ending quest for more HUD grants from the federal government. While city's like Greensboro were going for research grants. By 2000, WS had applied for and received I think 20 times the HUD funding that GSO had over the years. And just about the exact opposite was true of R&D grants. So WS is packed full of people living in government housing and on welfare, while GSO is twice the size, and full of young people with high levels of education.
GSO has a hideous crime rate, couldn't pay me to live there. I really don't like the Triad and can't wait to relocate out west. Grew up here & feel suffocated. WS is an ugly city.
I finally got around to watching this, now that I'm living near Wilmington and missing my hometown a bit. I was a toddler when this film was created, and it surprised me as I watched to see so many landmarks that are still part of the cityscape today.
Chad Douglas was 16 years old by then 😮😮😮😮
haaaaa. it's funny how overly ambitious all this is. the new city plans sound much more practical. i think...
It’s called Camel City!!
George Hege Hamilton IV (July 19, 1937 - September 17, 2014)
12:42 Neal Anderson Bedinger Jr, age 91, of Winston-Salem, N.C., died Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Mr. Airpiedmont what does Piedmont's emblem mean? I've tried to draw it and had not much drawing it. What is it supposed to represent?
The logo is called the Speedbird. It first appeared in the late 1940's and was redesigned in 1974 by Graphiden, Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio. Originally it was red. In the redesign, the Speedbird came out of the circle and was changed to Piedmont blue. It represents a bird with 3 "feathers".
Thanks and Happy Holidays!
@@stitch-xx2oo Happy Holidays!
Came back for the Music
Damn and not even 20 years after building piedmont plaza, and most of those places were shut down and the street was razed and turned back into a functional street. Smh.
Piedmont Plaza was (thankfully) never built. You may be thinking of the ill-fated Trade Street Mall.
@@MooPotPie piedmont plaza was built….
that comb over