Check out Brilliant for a fun and easy way to interactively learn new things with a 30-day free trial and 20% off an annual premium membership: brilliant.org/Streetcraft/
It is so healing to see a well-designed, mixed-use, multi-modal neighborhood replace a single-story mega office building surrounded by a sea of parking
@@dragonproductions236 Walkable and bikeable neighbourhoods are planned well because they minimize distances and are flexible in use. When you say we'd have to choose you're probably talking about how thoroughly something is planned. Just because something is planned though doesn't mean it's well planned. Suburbs in the US are thoroughly planned, but flawed from the start because they are badly planned.
@@SturmZebra13 As someone who has to live with "walkable and bikeable" neighborhoods, they suck. They're bad, every place where there's a 4+ lane road that splits the town in half has been better. I'm not talking about just the US either.
I'm a lifelong Northern Kentuckian and worked in Covington a few years. This is a very exciting, once in a lifetime opportunity to make a nice mixed use development in the heart of Covington. I'm glad to see the approach the City leaders are taking in developing this the right way. It will be such a nice place to live, work, shop, eat, drink and play when it is all done. I can't wait!
@@yusufHaffejee-ql9oj I just bought a duplex right across the street from this development and ultra excited although construction noise and vibrations shake our building. Will probably have to put up with this for years.
@@timursalikov5911you’re across the street from this big project?? Yes you’ll have to put up with noise for a while, but once it’s done you’ll be able to walk to some restaurants.
Its great to see small cities in the US take massive steps like this to set a precedent for other smaller cities or bigger ones in general to follow suit.
@@valleyofiron125 This is hilariously out of touch, but also somehow not entirely wrong. West coast states had (and still have) the perfect opportunity to develop more walkable, transit oriented cities, but have failed to live up to that standard. Hopefully it gets better over the years, but it's really disheartening to see progress get squandered time and time again.
@@valleyofiron125a quick look at economic stats online suggests that your dollars will buy more in Kentucky than in Seattle. So maybe it would be a good move.
@@valleyofiron125 seattle has the fastest growing transit network in the us and has just opened up a new train line literally a few months ago. it also is completely viable to get around via bus, and has dozens of developments like this one going up. You will never find anything like that in kentucky xd
For someone that's never been in the US, gotta say the amount of space utterly wasted in parking lots is just depressing to watch. Is nice to see that things are starting to change over there.
As an American, its hard to find a successful mall or retail store in a suburb or middle-sized city. You'll have places with parking lots the size of maybe 10 city blocks but only 10-20% of the parking lot is filled cause most of the department stores in them either have low business or they've shut down. Some cities are taking action, and I think most of the US could see some changes since more attention is being brought to urbanism. Maybe.
Part if the issue was that the US has so much space to waste, so they did. It's good to see things like the Covington redevelopment start to claim that space back.
@@emkayusa Which in itself, is its own problem and only encourages more car use. But, the biggest problem is that the law requires a certain size parking lot for each building resulting in huge parking lots that go 25-50% unused. That space could be used to create dense, pedestrian-friendly areas, and parks rather than empty fields of concrete.
One under appreciated aspect of European and South American cities that we simply don’t see in the US or Canada is the city squares or city plazas. This development could have a huge pedestrian-only style square, with outdoor dining, retail shops, and apartments surrounding the square. Put a fountain in the middle of the square and viola, you have a beautiful place that people of all ages can enjoy.
and you can use that plaza/square as an outdoor venue. you can use it to host concerts, 4th of July/sports match celebrations, the options are limitless. and those events attract people from out of town who will spent money in your city, so the city will get (monetary) benefits from it too.
@@eugenetswong Roundabouts are actually a bad idea if your only goal is to reduce congestion. They work to a point but the moment they go over capacity they basically fall apart. What they're _actually_ best for is traffic flow control and pedestrianization, as they naturally reduce traffic speeds and, when designed properly, improve crossing safety.
Halifax has the same thing happening. The city is tearing down an interchange for a highway that was never built. It's in a prime location in the fastest growing downtown in Canada.
I can’t believe it took them this long to tear out the Cogswell exchange. That thing has been a nightmare since it was built. Thank god they never tore down the entire downtown to build a highway.
Came to the comments to same thing! Cogswell is a similar story and it’s really exciting to see its redevelopment finally happening… I travel through the area pretty much every day :)
@@Lafv They only didn't build the highway because they ran out of money. There was even a plan to build a third bridge across the Halifax harbor. If Halifax was in the US, there would've been enough federal funding to build the highway. Just something to think about.
We have a similar redevelopment in my city covering about 50 acres. The city realigned a highway and spent 2 years putting in utilities. The first sections to open are a new library and park, with private developments to follow. There are a lot of complaints with how long it is taking but it's better to take your time and wait for the projects you want that support the city's long term vision.
Philadelphia has this exact opportunity with the old 1,300 acre site but instead sold it to a developer that wants to use it mainly for warehouses... so sad, in the middle of one of Americas largest cities we're putting up warehouses.... it had the potential to be the greatest city park in the country possibly but now we get warehouses disconnected by streets and super small parks along the edge. The whole project seems like greenwashing as they're promoting how many new trees will be there until you realize its barely anything for how large the space is. Really wish the city was bolder and made a plan to help the city rather than bite the capitalistic bullet.
I really truly hope Philly is able to bounce back its stable right now, slowly declining but not enough to think its going to be a dying city in 5 years but man it is so sad that this old and beautiful city is still suffering from the steel collapse of the 50's and 73'
If the site was formerly an oil refinery it may have contamination that limits what can be done with it and precludes the building of things like residential, retail, schools etc.
You have quickly become one of the best city planning TH-camrs. Your design ideas and interview partners are always great choices. I love to see US cities gradually taking European style cities into account, with more mixed use and walkable areas. Your content should be watched by city planners all over the world. Greetings from Germany. 😊
I’m so happy to see this video! Covington, Kentucky has been my home for the past 12 years… it was originally supposed to be a short a term move. I love Covington so much, and even before this, the city government has done so much to improve the city since I’ve been here
Ford bought up the rail system and sold off the rights so that it couldn't be restored. The shitty car dependant culture wasn't an accident, it was deliberately forced on us all.
The NKY river cities are doing great things and are very underrated places to live. Smart leadership in place in Newport, Covington, Bellevue, Dayton. Exciting times for my region.
The leadership in Covington is crooked. I was a commissioner and saw a lot of the goings-on that would make you cringe. From the shutting down of City Heights to "evict" poor people, allowing the State to take Goebel Park's pool with inadequate compensation during the widening of the Brent Spence Bridge, the giving of federal housing funds to the company headed by Newport's ex-mayor Guidulgi (and current mayor's father), and now this, putting insane amounts of resources and liability for the development of housing for the top 1% of income earners.
@@nolannicaise9598Unfortunately, I am all too aware of the disdain some of the commissioners have for low income households in Covington. I appreciate everything you tried to do during your short time as a commissioner, especially advocating for vulnerable road users. As small as things like the 4th St road diet are in the grand scheme of things, these are the things that give me hope Covington can move in the right direction eventually.
Why is classical architecture referred to as "fake history"? If your new home is built in a traditional style, is it fake or beautiful? It seems like this development will significantly improve the area. However, opting for a modern architectural style that might look dated in 20 years is a missed opportunity, especially with a blank slate. I believe that if the public in Covington were polled on their preference for a modern versus classically inspired city center, they would overwhelmingly choose the classical plan.
As a non-disabled person myself, hearing the actual city planner say that a wheelchair user having to get off the sidewalk isn’t just “unfortunate” or “a struggle”, but instead what it really is: unacceptable. Even though it hasn’t changed yet, that mindset is the start. I truly hope more city developers have this mindset in future. Universal design is good for everybody.
@@JellyAntz well in Europe you would typically plan with as little space for cars as possible, so that walking and biking is not only possible but encouraged. Also when there are new streets they are built smaller so the cars on there have to drive slower.
@@saidabachabergschdaigamuesli well, the guy did say that they still want the space to integrate with the surrounding roads, good they at least demolished the previous monstrosity of a single behemoth facility and trying for more walkability and separated bike spaces even around the space👌
My city Bodø, Norway is doing this right now. The military is pulling out so the airport will be moved freeing 2900acres, that'll house the "new city" with approximately 15-20000 new housing units the next hundred years. As the city is located on a peninsula this land is sorely needed to be able to sustainably grow the city and avoid the growth of suburbs.
I hope this starts a trend. Charleston, SC is doing something similar albeit on a smaller scale, but they’re clearly making moves to preserve the city’s character and livability
Completely insane to build such a big one story building in the middle of the city. 😀 But yeah, now they can fix it. In the drawings I miss buildings that have shops on the bottom, and apartments on top. I hope the city understands that's how you should build, and will encourage that.
This is the Strong Towns approach! I wish soooo bad that this was how every city did things. We would actually have competitive landlords and organic neighborhoods instead of a monopolized top-down overplanned corporate boredom.
The Great Chicago Fire was absolutely a disaster, but it also allowed the city the opportunity to rebuild in a way that many people thought was necessary for the city's health. I see the IRS buildings demolition for Covington being a similar scenario
Still way too much space for cars, but I guess baby steps are steps, too. Almost all cities in Europe start reducing or abolishing space for cars in the center, I think this is the way to got.
Totally agree!! Looked like every screenshot had cars in it, which is a big wasted opportunity. Especially the road running along the water (even if buried under a park). Just make cars go a block further from the water!
@@martinpregger A few things to unpack here. "Better" lives is entirely subjective, and therefore a meaningless metric. "Longer" lives don't matter, but rather the quality of life, which, as I said, is entirely subjective. And "healthier"? Sure, on average, but they're getting less healthier too. So they're also doing something wrong.
@@simplesimon8255 What you are saying does not reflect in any data, quite the contrary - Europeans are staying healthy, longer than ever before. Just take the worlds'' most livable cities - not a single us city in the top 20s...
I’m currently studying architecture and these kind of new mixed-use development areas get me so excited for the future of cities, I hope one day I get to be part of the creation of one
If you get please consider my idea: 2-1-1-1 buildings, which are similar to 4 over 1 buildings. Instead of using the 2nd and 3rd floors for more homes, please use the 2nd floor for office space, and the 3rd floor for flexible space. The 3rd floor could be a small warehouse, a small personal storage business, office space, or a large activity room. It should be easy for people to tear down walls to redesign all/some of the 3rd floor. The 2nd floor should be for office space, where they don't want pedestrians looking in the windows.
@@kyee1713 Instead, Cincinnati and Covington are welcoming the expansion of the I-75 corridor with open arms. The leadership really doesn't care about public health and sustainability or urbanism. Sad.
I stopped counting on Cincinnati to do anything good when they passed a ballot measure that sold off their rail line to Norfolk Southern. This would have never been a good move, but this happened within a year of the East Palestine disaster.
@@velohenchas someone who voted against selling that rail it baffles me that our mayor would tell voters to sell, the fact it worked is insane. Should never have happened for sure
This new project has still way too many streets that will still make it hard for people to have a lively downtown, in this area you need something that cars can`t get into. - an urban planning student from Europe
I have a lot of insight on this project, as someone who lived and worked only two or three blocks up the street from it for four years. The neighborhood that was there before was quite flood-prone and was majority Irish, and was a mix of housing, shops, and small industrial factories, including one that manufactured X-Rays (Kelley-Koett) and a furniture factory (Phoenix Manufacturing), which burned just before the neighborhood was cleared. The IRS facility created a huge barrier between my street and the river, and, coupled with the stroad that is 4th Street, really made that area unpleasant, and I would usually avoid it if I was walking to anywhere near the river or over to Cincinnati. The redevelopment of this site will be a major boost to Covington, and is actually one of three major riverfront redevelopment projects occurring in the Greater Cincinnati area right now, with the Ovation Development in Newport, Kentucky being currently under construction, and The Banks in Cincinnati, which has been under development for the last two decades. I did a series of graphics and a lot of research to put together a historical blog post for my former employer about the Covington Riverfront, though I will say the text editing ended up being incomplete before it was posted. You can find that here: www.hubweber.com/blogscroll/2023/5/31/ccr-history-now-and-future
One minor quibble about a missed opportunity … assuming the street layout is already fixed. Seems to me the area would benefit by using roundabouts/traffic circles. They slow auto speeds but maintain traffic flow and eliminate left hand turns across oncoming traffic. Just my 2 bits worth.
@@leonardochapman4736 Roundabouts are still bad for pedestrians and cyclists if they're big and have multiple lanes. For one, they make them take a long detour around the roundabout. And they increase the crossing distance, thereby increasing the risk of a crash. Multiple lanes pose a risk of a vehicle in one lane stopping, and a vehicle in the other lane continuing, potentially hitting a pedestrian. And they're not good for people with visual impairments, who have no way of telling if it's safe for them to cross.
Oddly, while the whole video is focused on the large-scale redevelopment (which I'm glad they're trying to make fine-grained!) I'm almost more excited for the two-way cycle track bridge. Coming from a city with a pedestrian/bicycle bridge, you'd be surprised how much that really changes things! Also, I do appreciate how the planner you interviewed is very down to earth in what he's talking about! I do disagree with some things he said (I think "fake historic" architecture is just very solidly beautiful architecture that stands the test of time, and we should start looking into it again, because our contemporary architecture is usually crap even for large projects), but I think we ultimately hope the same thing for the area.. for it to be a beautiful, organic-feeling neighbourhood for Covington. And from the renders, I genuinely believe they've achieved this. Personally I'm very impressed at how they made the contemporary architectural style feel beautiful, cozy, and even vernacular. The render feels like it's doing what renders ought to, too.. portraying the future space in a way that's as true to life as possible, not in an immaculate way to sell the idea. Wishing Covington the best!
Breaking up the lot into smaller plots is kind of brilliant. It gives the local developers who are already active in the City a chance to contribute to this new development in a way that would not be possible if the whole thing went to some venture capitol firm.
I noticed in the video of the proposed development that they show traffic lights at all the intersections. What a missed opportunity to have roundabouts at each intersection as roundabouts are documented to be substantially safer, cheaper, and much more efficient than traffic lights. What people don’t realize is that there can be traffic circles even on suburban streets to replace four-way stop signs. I lived on a street in Vancouver, British Columbia that saw the replacement of all stop signs with roundabouts. What I loved about the project was that the city allowed residents like myself to adopt a traffic circle and the city provided a small budget of $500 for planting. As you might imagine, they became beautiful gardens that provided traffic management and beauty to the neighborhood. It also dramatically reduced accidents.
Roundabouts are great in certain situations, but I think signalized intersections are the right choice here given that this area should hopefully be quite busy with pedestrians. Roundabouts can often be not as pedestrian friendly, especially for people with visual impairments.
@@micameeee8151 If there are going many pedestrians, and ideally cyclists, then we should look at how the Netherlands to see if they have great roundabouts for pedestrians. That being said, I agree that roundabouts are naturally car friendly. We should be advocating for more roundabouts as the default for highways and freeways. It could reduce a lot of congestion.
Thank you & @giantpickle for not letting me be the only person to comment about roundabouts. I agree in general. I am from Surrey. What is this Vancouver street? I'd love to see it. I'd love to see roundabouts for the north shore freeways to drain the commuter congestion faster.
Roundabouts take up a tremendous amount of valuable urban space which pushes back the building line and creates a sub or exurban feel. They are also more dangerous for pedestrians because they are intentionally designed for continuous movement of cars. This is intended to be a neighborhood.
Kentucky come up! Let's go! I live 2.5 hours Southwest, so happy to see this. And the fact that KTC was onboard to narrow KY-8, so, so happy. Gives me so much hope.
I went to school in Cincinnati when the only thing to know about Covington was that it was a “block and a bridge” away. (Raise your hand if you know what this meant.) I am so pleased to see this potential and hope to visit it someday! Thanks!
That’s such a good outlook and cool viewpoint, to look at something you make/design and hope that people 100 years from now think of it as being an iconic piece of the time
I'm from southwest Ohio originally and this is the first I'm hearing of this project. It's great to see both Cincinnati and Covington/Newport realize the Ohio River has great potential for entertainment and green spaces (Newport on the Levee, The Banks, and now this). A large amount of acreage right near downtown is super rare to reclaim and it reminds me of Westminster, CO. Essentially a Denver/Boulder bedroom community, they never really had a cohesive downtown to speak of, just sprawling neighborhoods. The Westminster mall was torn down (save for an anchor store or two) and is now being redeveloped into "Downtown Westminster." It has large apartment complexes and townhomes with bike and transit connections to Denver & Boulder. Maybe not the very best urbanist design but a much better use of space and reasonably walkable with some sorely needed density.
Awesome video! My former hometown Santa Clarita is doing something similar down the road. The Westfield Mall really lost traction because of the Pandemic. I visited not long ago and it felt like a literal ghost town. Originally there were plans to convert a sears in the mall to a Costco, but now those plans have been scrapped. The city is now looking to redevelop the mall and surrounding area to mixed use developments which makes me excited! It’s in a pretty decent location as it’s not far from the Metrolink Antelope Valley Line, and the McBean Regional Transit Center is also relatively close. It will be very easy to access transit to this area which I usually can’t say about anywhere else in Santa Clarita since it’s mostly single family homes. Hopefully we see this more in other areas of the city!
I feel like this would've been a great opportunity to extend the Cincinnati Streetcar over the river into Covington. It could serve the new development and then run a little further south to the cathedral or even beyond. The existing streetcar vehicles are tiny, so even if per-trip-ridership isn't super high, it would make for a very attractive and modern public transport connection, that could tie the new development in nicely with the big neighbour to the north.
That parking garage should include at least one level that is off limits to cars and designated for cyclist parking. They also need to ensure those bike lanes are protected and connected to a wider bike lane network that is also equally safe, and well maintained during the winter. Otherwise, I don’t see that there will be much incentive to use them for anything other than recreational use on weekends and afternoons.
You're absolutely correct. The city doesn't even have a semi-functional system of bike lanes currently and has had major safety incidents with bikers. This is just posturing and not a real effort to decrease motor vehicle traffic and foster walking and biking.
Our cities were built the same way. Post WWII "urban renewal" funded by lobbying by auto manufacturers and oil companies demolished them. European cities weren't immune to this, many just corrected the mistakes sooner. This didn't happen in the US due to corruption, racism, etc.
There's still more cars than I'd like to see, but wow, this is an amazing project and I'm really impressed with the city's ambition. It looks like it can really be a real cultural center and great space to be in!
Nice plan, but the absolute KING of large-tract redevelopment/repurposing was Denver in the 1990s. A closed amusement park, a decommissioned Air Force base, and a relocated airport would all become vibrant mixed-use New Urban neighborhoods in the early 21st century. As decades passed, adjoining neighborhoods also upped their game (adjacent to the former Elitch Gardens), a rail station was built (at Stapleton), and dozens of colleges repurposed existing barracks and office buildings (at Lowry). Austin did some interesting things, too: a decommissioned Air Force base became the new airport and the old airport became a New Urban mixed-use neighborhood. These were all VERY large urban and suburban tracts, with the smallest of the five (Elitch) being 28 acres.
A key aspect to cultural hubs like this one is variety; both in the types of zoning but also a building's design. Engaging multiple development companies should break up the cookie-cutter template of every single building looking the same or very similar. It also keeps revenue and jobs within the community rather than outsourcing it to, as mentioned, large "out of state" development firms.
Hard to believe NA cities haven't been designing their road layout for decades, they were just letting developers do whatever and rubber stamping whatever met regulations. I thought it was more like Cities skylines.
My city has a very similar situation as Covington. In the 90s, a large shopping center with lots of surface parking, and it was very out of place, as on both sides (across the river and up the hill) of it were 2 historical downtowns (theyre 2 seperate cities). There is a plan they have on our county's website, and it is very similar to what Covington is doing.
This same exact thing is happening at a slightly smaller scale in Xenia, Ohio just an hour north of Covington. Xenia is famous for its F5 tornado that ripped out half of downtown in 1974, and when they decided to rebuild, they turned it into a giant suburban strip mall. Now they are demolishing it and turning it into the Market District (Market Street runs directly through the site, hence the name). I wish Xenia had the market interest that Covington has to be able to make the Market District a little more dense, but the vision is similar. Mixed-use, walkable streets with a return of the historic street grid. Literally just today, the city approved more legislation towards making it a reality. Probably the biggest difference between Covington’s plan and Xenia’s is that Xenia is doing the whole project with one local New-Urbanist developer, Dillin Inc., rather than multiple smaller developers. During one of the in-person meetings I attended for the project, I brought up to the developer’s CEO that I was really hoping it wouldn’t look like it was all built buy the same person, and he assured me it wouldn’t. Unfortunately, as they release more information about the project, I am still a little worried about that “fake” feeling as the project progresses, but as they say, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Overall, it is still a massive improvement over what is currently there today, and I am excited to see it start to come to life.
What is missing is ornament. A hundred years ago modernists have said that ornament is bad and architects just believed them. But ornament is great. Ornament is the soul of architecture. Ornament gives places character, it can connect us with old traditions but can also tell new stories. A place without an abundance of ornament will feel cold, anonymous and will look like any other modernist project. The plans shown in this video show cold, boring places that could be anywhere, Tokyo, Stockholm. This is very bad.
hard to illustrate without pictures, but these developmetns feel very american and not like tokyo or stockholm at all. the lack of ornamentation may be an issue for you, but in my opinion these look like really comfy american spaces and cities with ornamentation like paris generally don't have architecture that inspires a similar feeling of comfort.
@@bahaman19901 Are you serious? Older development in the US have ornament and it feels comfortable, welcoming, interesting. All the new development looks like faceless, nameless corporate schlock. Then again, that IS so very American😖
I actually live in Covington! Many of the streets near this development have a lot of historic architecture with lots of ornamentation. Quite a few Italianate buildings built by German immigrants in the mid 1800s that make for some beautiful streets. It’d be nice if they used a similar style at least in part
@@bahaman19901 Maybe skip through this video of an Amsterdam neighborhood and imagine all the ornament removed and everything rebuild as minimalist modernist. How would that be better? th-cam.com/video/pJNJn5MYttk/w-d-xo.html
The renderings shown are simply to give a feel of what the layout and scale will be, not final architectural designs by any means. They're just placeholder buildings to give a general idea of what it will be like.
Having grown up in Northern Kentucky, it's amazing to see how Cincinnati and the NKY river cites have finally learned to embrace the Ohio River and build up around it. When I was a kid, you only had Riverfront Stadium, on the Cincy side, and nothing much at all in Covington and Newport, much of it run-down. All those tall buildings by the Suspension Bridge in Covington weren't there at all! Since then, Cincinnati has torn down its old cookie-cutter stadium, replaced it with two much nicer stadiums with the Banks development between them, and refurbished the whole area along the river with parks. Covington has a skyline now, and now there's this development in planning. Newport has built up Newport on the Levee. It's a completely different feel from the run-down areas of my youth. Cincy really does need to cover that huge highway trench that is Ft Washington Way though (and they built supports into it to support such a covering when they re-constructed the highway decades ago), to really connect the city back to the river.
looks good, maybe roudabouts, near pedestian zones, insteat of stop lights with cars yeilding for slower traffic. ( pededstrian and bicycles. ) just a thought, lesser changes for fatalities
Covington is my home and its a tremendous city. I can't wait to see what happens with the site! It's one of the most underrated small city's in the United States and this project will only add to it
There's a similar project happening in Sterling Heights MI that I'm super excited about, they're getting rid of an unprofitable mall and trying to build a much nicer urban center! Would love to hear a deep dive on it too
@@timmccabe4654 I think roundabouts are safer to pedestrians then cars doing left turns, if they didn't see the pedestrian in time they either hit them or need to stop in the middle of the intersection. A roundabout has you in a 90 degree angle to the crosswalk at some point while you are moving in it. This neighborhood probably being a low traffic area wouldn't require you to set the crosswalks further back, to not hinder traffic within the roundabout but it's an option you could choose. Roundabouts aren't perfect, but they are one of the best tools to reduce speeds, let people flow naturally and reduce injuries in collisions.
@@JanSuerth it doesn't even look busy enough for aroundabout going by the main road of W4th St although the good point of traffic stops you can let groups of people pass at a time instead of waiting for each person to cross
The only roundabout I would support is one that is similar in size to the one at the Cincinnati side of the Roebling Bridge. That one makes a lot of sense and is pedestrian friendly.
@@nolannicaise9598 Agreed, but even that thing is a bit big. I was thinking more about a neighborhood sized roundabout or also known as mini roundabout.
I live nearby. I always thought that building was a waste of space. There’s no shortage of people who want to move into the downtown area and this new development could be very helpful.
Cincy resident here that's driven past that site weekly since 2009. I don't know how I was so disconnected about this happening, but this is the first time I've seen a full plan for this land. I love the way you broke it down and this definitely got me to subscribe to the channel. I certainly hope we see more of the optimism you shared about dead malls - The memes of Spirit Halloween are one thing, but it'd be nice to see something besides decaying buildings. Great video!
Maybe my sense of scale is a bit off, but this still seems a bit too car-centric to me. Seeing a park squished between two roads is always a bit disheartening; and that street running down the middle of the area feels unnecessary too. And the whole thing is built on top of a giant parking lot, but there was no mention of any kind of public transit... So I guess this whole area is intended as a place where you drive to, walk around, and then drive home; it's basically an outdoor mall.
You have to start somewhere, you cannot go from zero to hero at once. Making it more inaccessible with cars, can be such a big leap for the people living there that it might be valued as failed and loses money. The thing is, you have to have a big public transit network ready and working. Right now car might be the only viable way to get to work. But slowly improving and adding one thing at a time will slowly change things for the better.😀
@@itzjacke492 This is true, and I'm sure they had various reasons for going with this plan. Still, just from my perspective I felt like they didn't need to put that road right down the middle: that's an entirely new road, so clearly the network currently works without it, so it could have been made an entirely pedestrian street.
Quite a few bus lines run through the area, so there is that at least. And there's been talk of running the Cincinnati streetcars across the river to Covington and Newport.
@@thomasrinschler6783 The City has REFUSED to advocate for a streetcar-ready bridge going to Newport during the State-led reconstruction of the bridge. The City has over and over refused to advocate for cyclists and their safety. I don't have much hope. But keep urging them. With a new mayor coming in, there may be a new chance for real urbanism.
Glad to see that the US is finally coming around from its decades long box mall and skyscraper fetish. This could have very easily been turned into another office block or mall or some such, but they're choosing to take a risk. Ironically this 'different' approach they're using is pretty much how things are done by default in the Netherlands. The city is responsible for infrastructure and the general layout of the site, architects come in to fill in the details, and building companies come in to build the vision. That's how you keep control over how land is used. Selling it to some massive real estate developer and hoping something decent pops up has been a proven track to disaster.
1:01 Holy shit, I have seen downgrades and glowdowns in urban areas as a result of urban renewal many times before, but this is especially egregious. That building is HIDEOUS. I couldn't even try to make a facility or even a part of a city look this horrific.
Yeah, it's incredible how low effort some North American architecture is. Massive waste of space too when it could've just been taller. Don't understand why they build them like that.
This is how most urban redevelopment projects are done here in europe, or at least NW-europe. 1. Make a plan with an architect or urban planner after extensive study of the sity, approved by the existing population. 2. Demand a mix of functions, minimal requirement of public space areas, and a minimum of social housing integrated. 3. Build the infrastructure. 4. Put rough urban codes and guidelines in place to create some minimal uniformity in the neighborhood. 5. Let each lot be developed by a different architect and developer to create variety and diversity in the new neighbourhood. Done.
enjoying your videos! this one is real good. its awesome to see the US adapting from parking lotts to people. Lets hope the trend continues. ITs actually a blessing in disguise that most cities have so much redevelopment potential from useless parking spaces.
I used to live in Covington and work on the Cincinnati newspaper occasionally and have heard about this site in passing a couple times, so getting this vid on my front page and getting to learn more was so cool!
That's cool. The cycle infrastructure definitely needs to run past the shops though - that's where you get the most value out of it. It'd also be a good idea to preserve some ROW for a tram or light rail.
This brings back the concept of "the village". Which is what mankind was designed to live like. I dig it. The pride flag in the background was cringe but the development of this village site is promising.
Super interesting! What did you use to create the illustrations? It's really well done. I am currently preparing a similar project with another city that was also built from scratch but doesn't necessarily have the same objectives. Thank you!
Sounds like they’re largely doing this the right way. However, I still don’t understand why not one single American city can imagine even a tiny sub-portion existing without cars. It is truly ridiculous. Looks like yet another lost opportunity to keep motor vehicles around the edges of this neighborhood and walkability within. Sure you can maintain foot traffic areas, but COME ON America, cars do not have to be able to go to every single square foot of your city. Do better.
"We're not going to do fake historic buildings." Interesting statement. If it's in a style that happened to be used often historically, how is it "fake"? Gothic revival buildings of the 19th century were "fake mediaeval" yet are really beautiful and usually much loved today. I suspect it's an excuse to go with the most disconcerting "modern" style possible, ie. disconnected from anything except 1960's utopias and made of useless curves and squares of concrete and glass. Seems like a good development, and I hope to be proven wrong, I know there are other styles besides that and gothic revival.
This is all well and good and I have hopes it will be good for everyone in Covington, however the major downside of this huge development is that the housing plans don't specifically address the affordability issues in the area for residents and could lead to the housing costs on existing homes to also be affected. Covington as a city has residents that are by and large being priced out by developers (whether big or small as the director implies) while historic homes and buildings continue to sit and deteriorate. There need to be plans for affordable housing within the city's planning, rather than simply revenue generating spaces that cause a ripple effect of price hikes.
We have this exact problem where I live, we have a huge mall that serves no use at all with massive parking lots that takes up about 58 acres of land. This is a very well made video and I learned a lot from it, hopefully my city does the exact same that they're doing in Covington. Keep up the good work!
Sounds amazing. Wish more cities would take similar approaches. So many of the infrastructures in our cities or past their expiration dates. Did you know the Golden gate bridge is past its expiration date. But we're so indoctrinated to believe these things are permanent when the people who built and designed them designed them to be replaced eventually
Above all, these new developments are so much nicer to live and spend time in. Because they are build for people with a diverse set of needs and potentials, not for squeezing out profits.
Check out Brilliant for a fun and easy way to interactively learn new things with a 30-day free trial and 20% off an annual premium membership:
brilliant.org/Streetcraft/
Which mall in Michigan?
@@The_Dweazelshut up bro you ain’t on to anything
Since there are too many Covingtons in the US, I am placing the exact location for those who are interested - maps.app.goo.gl/MZQqLKwFC3FvUN6f7
It is so healing to see a well-designed, mixed-use, multi-modal neighborhood replace a single-story mega office building surrounded by a sea of parking
If you like that, you should look at the Neue Altstadt (New Old Town) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Indeed healing; may we begin to see this type of project happening everywhere.
>Well designed
>Walkable/Bikeable bs
Pick one.
@@dragonproductions236 Walkable and bikeable neighbourhoods are planned well because they minimize distances and are flexible in use. When you say we'd have to choose you're probably talking about how thoroughly something is planned. Just because something is planned though doesn't mean it's well planned. Suburbs in the US are thoroughly planned, but flawed from the start because they are badly planned.
@@SturmZebra13 As someone who has to live with "walkable and bikeable" neighborhoods, they suck. They're bad, every place where there's a 4+ lane road that splits the town in half has been better.
I'm not talking about just the US either.
I'm a lifelong Northern Kentuckian and worked in Covington a few years. This is a very exciting, once in a lifetime opportunity to make a nice mixed use development in the heart of Covington. I'm glad to see the approach the City leaders are taking in developing this the right way. It will be such a nice place to live, work, shop, eat, drink and play when it is all done. I can't wait!
Why did I read it as I’m a lifelong North Korean
@@dannymclennan1947 idk bro 💀💀💀💀
So you tell people you’re from Cincinnati
@@colinbalzer4423 when out of town yes since it is considered the Cincinnati Metro region.
@@dannymclennan1947yikes 😮
You just got me excited for a development over 5000 miles from my house lol
I live in South Africa and it excites me 😭
@@yusufHaffejee-ql9oj
I just bought a duplex right across the street from this development and ultra excited although construction noise and vibrations shake our building. Will probably have to put up with this for years.
@@timursalikov5911 well you'll be happy with your resale value in a couple of years!
I'm excited for it and I barely even thought about it when I drove past it last week and I live in Canada
@@timursalikov5911you’re across the street from this big project?? Yes you’ll have to put up with noise for a while, but once it’s done you’ll be able to walk to some restaurants.
Its great to see small cities in the US take massive steps like this to set a precedent for other smaller cities or bigger ones in general to follow suit.
Yep, im want to move from seattle to kentucky. More forward thinking than car brain seattle. Seattle has turned into a car sewar.
@@valleyofiron125 This is hilariously out of touch, but also somehow not entirely wrong. West coast states had (and still have) the perfect opportunity to develop more walkable, transit oriented cities, but have failed to live up to that standard. Hopefully it gets better over the years, but it's really disheartening to see progress get squandered time and time again.
@@valleyofiron125a quick look at economic stats online suggests that your dollars will buy more in Kentucky than in Seattle. So maybe it would be a good move.
@@valleyofiron125 seattle has the fastest growing transit network in the us and has just opened up a new train line literally a few months ago. it also is completely viable to get around via bus, and has dozens of developments like this one going up. You will never find anything like that in kentucky xd
For someone that's never been in the US, gotta say the amount of space utterly wasted in parking lots is just depressing to watch. Is nice to see that things are starting to change over there.
As an American, its hard to find a successful mall or retail store in a suburb or middle-sized city. You'll have places with parking lots the size of maybe 10 city blocks but only 10-20% of the parking lot is filled cause most of the department stores in them either have low business or they've shut down. Some cities are taking action, and I think most of the US could see some changes since more attention is being brought to urbanism. Maybe.
Its starting
Part if the issue was that the US has so much space to waste, so they did. It's good to see things like the Covington redevelopment start to claim that space back.
It’s not wasted, it’s for parking cars.
@@emkayusa Which in itself, is its own problem and only encourages more car use. But, the biggest problem is that the law requires a certain size parking lot for each building resulting in huge parking lots that go 25-50% unused. That space could be used to create dense, pedestrian-friendly areas, and parks rather than empty fields of concrete.
One under appreciated aspect of European and South American cities that we simply don’t see in the US or Canada is the city squares or city plazas. This development could have a huge pedestrian-only style square, with outdoor dining, retail shops, and apartments surrounding the square. Put a fountain in the middle of the square and viola, you have a beautiful place that people of all ages can enjoy.
and you can use that plaza/square as an outdoor venue.
you can use it to host concerts, 4th of July/sports match celebrations, the options are limitless.
and those events attract people from out of town who will spent money in your city, so the city will get (monetary) benefits from it too.
Also, they are already envisioning traffic lights, instead of just using round abouts to reduce congesion.
Thing is, some cities in the US and Canada _do_ have plazas like you describe. But a lot of them are part of an office or mixed commercial property.
@@eugenetswong
Roundabouts are actually a bad idea if your only goal is to reduce congestion. They work to a point but the moment they go over capacity they basically fall apart. What they're _actually_ best for is traffic flow control and pedestrianization, as they naturally reduce traffic speeds and, when designed properly, improve crossing safety.
@@VestedUTuber Or in small towns.
Massive respect for Covington city hall. Their incremental approach will absolutely set them up for success for decades to come!
I was recently in Maple Grove, MN and they have a huge mixed-use district that was built in four phases and works beautifully.
Halifax has the same thing happening. The city is tearing down an interchange for a highway that was never built. It's in a prime location in the fastest growing downtown in Canada.
I can’t believe it took them this long to tear out the Cogswell exchange. That thing has been a nightmare since it was built. Thank god they never tore down the entire downtown to build a highway.
Came to the comments to same thing! Cogswell is a similar story and it’s really exciting to see its redevelopment finally happening… I travel through the area pretty much every day :)
@@Lafv They only didn't build the highway because they ran out of money. There was even a plan to build a third bridge across the Halifax harbor. If Halifax was in the US, there would've been enough federal funding to build the highway. Just something to think about.
@@pauldiamond1481 it lied there like a corpse of some ancient extraterrestrial spider, lol.
I hope that that trend continues throughout Canada
We have a similar redevelopment in my city covering about 50 acres. The city realigned a highway and spent 2 years putting in utilities. The first sections to open are a new library and park, with private developments to follow. There are a lot of complaints with how long it is taking but it's better to take your time and wait for the projects you want that support the city's long term vision.
Which city?
if cities build for outsiders most locals want benifit from it build for locals first
Philadelphia has this exact opportunity with the old 1,300 acre site but instead sold it to a developer that wants to use it mainly for warehouses... so sad, in the middle of one of Americas largest cities we're putting up warehouses.... it had the potential to be the greatest city park in the country possibly but now we get warehouses disconnected by streets and super small parks along the edge. The whole project seems like greenwashing as they're promoting how many new trees will be there until you realize its barely anything for how large the space is. Really wish the city was bolder and made a plan to help the city rather than bite the capitalistic bullet.
where was this?
@@emperor192 The old oil refinery site, bordering the Schuylkill River
@@FountainChannel thx
I really truly hope Philly is able to bounce back its stable right now, slowly declining but not enough to think its going to be a dying city in 5 years but man it is so sad that this old and beautiful city is still suffering from the steel collapse of the 50's and 73'
If the site was formerly an oil refinery it may have contamination that limits what can be done with it and precludes the building of things like residential, retail, schools etc.
Great video, it warms my heart to see that cities are adapting to create beautiful environments for people.
0:01 Please don’t use that ringtone without a proper warning, I almost died of a heart attack 😭😭
You might want to go and see someone about that.
@@ImperialKnight86i dont know if this was a low key offense or just a helpful coment but i love it fjskaakskaka
U prolly avoiding debt from someone 😂😂
@@ImperialKnight86idk why but every time the ringtone starts there’s a very brief moment of me feeling really anxious. Anyone experiencing this?
You have quickly become one of the best city planning TH-camrs. Your design ideas and interview partners are always great choices. I love to see US cities gradually taking European style cities into account, with more mixed use and walkable areas. Your content should be watched by city planners all over the world. Greetings from Germany. 😊
I’m so happy to see this video! Covington, Kentucky has been my home for the past 12 years… it was originally supposed to be a short a term move. I love Covington so much, and even before this, the city government has done so much to improve the city since I’ve been here
I love Cincinnati architecture it’s a shame what happened to the city in the 1950s and 60s so much was destroyed and streetcars were removed
Also have lived in the area for my whole life. It’s extremely sad. I dedicated my life to restoring history and doing historical preservation work.
Ford bought up the rail system and sold off the rights so that it couldn't be restored. The shitty car dependant culture wasn't an accident, it was deliberately forced on us all.
The NKY river cities are doing great things and are very underrated places to live. Smart leadership in place in Newport, Covington, Bellevue, Dayton. Exciting times for my region.
Totally agree
The leadership in Covington is crooked. I was a commissioner and saw a lot of the goings-on that would make you cringe. From the shutting down of City Heights to "evict" poor people, allowing the State to take Goebel Park's pool with inadequate compensation during the widening of the Brent Spence Bridge, the giving of federal housing funds to the company headed by Newport's ex-mayor Guidulgi (and current mayor's father), and now this, putting insane amounts of resources and liability for the development of housing for the top 1% of income earners.
@@nolannicaise9598Unfortunately, I am all too aware of the disdain some of the commissioners have for low income households in Covington. I appreciate everything you tried to do during your short time as a commissioner, especially advocating for vulnerable road users. As small as things like the 4th St road diet are in the grand scheme of things, these are the things that give me hope Covington can move in the right direction eventually.
Why is classical architecture referred to as "fake history"? If your new home is built in a traditional style, is it fake or beautiful?
It seems like this development will significantly improve the area. However, opting for a modern architectural style that might look dated in 20 years is a missed opportunity, especially with a blank slate. I believe that if the public in Covington were polled on their preference for a modern versus classically inspired city center, they would overwhelmingly choose the classical plan.
As a non-disabled person myself, hearing the actual city planner say that a wheelchair user having to get off the sidewalk isn’t just “unfortunate” or “a struggle”, but instead what it really is: unacceptable.
Even though it hasn’t changed yet, that mindset is the start.
I truly hope more city developers have this mindset in future. Universal design is good for everybody.
This video was genuinely encouraging to watch. For people wondering how we fix our situation in the US, this is it!
One (a few) blocks at the time.
I get that this is better than what was before, but to a Guy from Germany the new proposal still looks bad
@@saidabachabergschdaigamuesli please elaborate
@@JellyAntz well in Europe you would typically plan with as little space for cars as possible, so that walking and biking is not only possible but encouraged. Also when there are new streets they are built smaller so the cars on there have to drive slower.
@@saidabachabergschdaigamuesli well, the guy did say that they still want the space to integrate with the surrounding roads, good they at least demolished the previous monstrosity of a single behemoth facility and trying for more walkability and separated bike spaces even around the space👌
My city Bodø, Norway is doing this right now. The military is pulling out so the airport will be moved freeing 2900acres, that'll house the "new city" with approximately 15-20000 new housing units the next hundred years. As the city is located on a peninsula this land is sorely needed to be able to sustainably grow the city and avoid the growth of suburbs.
I hope this starts a trend. Charleston, SC is doing something similar albeit on a smaller scale, but they’re clearly making moves to preserve the city’s character and livability
Completely insane to build such a big one story building in the middle of the city. 😀 But yeah, now they can fix it.
In the drawings I miss buildings that have shops on the bottom, and apartments on top. I hope the city understands that's how you should build, and will encourage that.
This is the Strong Towns approach! I wish soooo bad that this was how every city did things. We would actually have competitive landlords and organic neighborhoods instead of a monopolized top-down overplanned corporate boredom.
The Great Chicago Fire was absolutely a disaster, but it also allowed the city the opportunity to rebuild in a way that many people thought was necessary for the city's health. I see the IRS buildings demolition for Covington being a similar scenario
Still way too much space for cars, but I guess baby steps are steps, too. Almost all cities in Europe start reducing or abolishing space for cars in the center, I think this is the way to got.
Totally agree!! Looked like every screenshot had cars in it, which is a big wasted opportunity. Especially the road running along the water (even if buried under a park). Just make cars go a block further from the water!
Here we go again. Europe, Europe, Europe. Why are we trying so hard to please the Euros?
@@simplesimon8255 They lead better, longer, healthier lives. We are not trying to please the Euros, but we should try to please ourselves.
@@martinpregger A few things to unpack here. "Better" lives is entirely subjective, and therefore a meaningless metric. "Longer" lives don't matter, but rather the quality of life, which, as I said, is entirely subjective. And "healthier"? Sure, on average, but they're getting less healthier too. So they're also doing something wrong.
@@simplesimon8255 What you are saying does not reflect in any data, quite the contrary - Europeans are staying healthy, longer than ever before.
Just take the worlds'' most livable cities - not a single us city in the top 20s...
I’m currently studying architecture and these kind of new mixed-use development areas get me so excited for the future of cities, I hope one day I get to be part of the creation of one
If you get please consider my idea: 2-1-1-1 buildings, which are similar to 4 over 1 buildings. Instead of using the 2nd and 3rd floors for more homes, please use the 2nd floor for office space, and the 3rd floor for flexible space. The 3rd floor could be a small warehouse, a small personal storage business, office space, or a large activity room. It should be easy for people to tear down walls to redesign all/some of the 3rd floor. The 2nd floor should be for office space, where they don't want pedestrians looking in the windows.
Still bummed that the Cincinnati area failed to get regional rail transportation but it’s always great to see little improvements like this.
Well, it’s still like that unfortunately but I do hope there will be more efforts for better transportation planning sooner rather than later
@@kyee1713 Instead, Cincinnati and Covington are welcoming the expansion of the I-75 corridor with open arms. The leadership really doesn't care about public health and sustainability or urbanism. Sad.
I stopped counting on Cincinnati to do anything good when they passed a ballot measure that sold off their rail line to Norfolk Southern. This would have never been a good move, but this happened within a year of the East Palestine disaster.
@@velohenchas someone who voted against selling that rail it baffles me that our mayor would tell voters to sell, the fact it worked is insane. Should never have happened for sure
This new project has still way too many streets that will still make it hard for people to have a lively downtown, in this area you need something that cars can`t get into. - an urban planning student from Europe
I have a lot of insight on this project, as someone who lived and worked only two or three blocks up the street from it for four years. The neighborhood that was there before was quite flood-prone and was majority Irish, and was a mix of housing, shops, and small industrial factories, including one that manufactured X-Rays (Kelley-Koett) and a furniture factory (Phoenix Manufacturing), which burned just before the neighborhood was cleared. The IRS facility created a huge barrier between my street and the river, and, coupled with the stroad that is 4th Street, really made that area unpleasant, and I would usually avoid it if I was walking to anywhere near the river or over to Cincinnati.
The redevelopment of this site will be a major boost to Covington, and is actually one of three major riverfront redevelopment projects occurring in the Greater Cincinnati area right now, with the Ovation Development in Newport, Kentucky being currently under construction, and The Banks in Cincinnati, which has been under development for the last two decades.
I did a series of graphics and a lot of research to put together a historical blog post for my former employer about the Covington Riverfront, though I will say the text editing ended up being incomplete before it was posted. You can find that here:
www.hubweber.com/blogscroll/2023/5/31/ccr-history-now-and-future
I love this channel!
*THE STREET(Craft) MASTER IS BACK*
One minor quibble about a missed opportunity … assuming the street layout is already fixed. Seems to me the area would benefit by using roundabouts/traffic circles. They slow auto speeds but maintain traffic flow and eliminate left hand turns across oncoming traffic. Just my 2 bits worth.
Yeah this was my first thought, "why traffic lights not roundabout?"
Tbh as a pedestrian, I feel like roundabouts can really damage walk ability
@@quadcorelatte8217 ever seen a Dutch - style roundabout?
pedestrians and bikes have right of way on entrances and exits
@@quadcorelatte8217Many roundabouts in the UK have light-controlled crossings on roundabouts, they aren't mutually exclusive infrastructure.
@@leonardochapman4736 Roundabouts are still bad for pedestrians and cyclists if they're big and have multiple lanes.
For one, they make them take a long detour around the roundabout. And they increase the crossing distance, thereby increasing the risk of a crash. Multiple lanes pose a risk of a vehicle in one lane stopping, and a vehicle in the other lane continuing, potentially hitting a pedestrian.
And they're not good for people with visual impairments, who have no way of telling if it's safe for them to cross.
Oddly, while the whole video is focused on the large-scale redevelopment (which I'm glad they're trying to make fine-grained!) I'm almost more excited for the two-way cycle track bridge. Coming from a city with a pedestrian/bicycle bridge, you'd be surprised how much that really changes things!
Also, I do appreciate how the planner you interviewed is very down to earth in what he's talking about! I do disagree with some things he said (I think "fake historic" architecture is just very solidly beautiful architecture that stands the test of time, and we should start looking into it again, because our contemporary architecture is usually crap even for large projects), but I think we ultimately hope the same thing for the area.. for it to be a beautiful, organic-feeling neighbourhood for Covington. And from the renders, I genuinely believe they've achieved this. Personally I'm very impressed at how they made the contemporary architectural style feel beautiful, cozy, and even vernacular. The render feels like it's doing what renders ought to, too.. portraying the future space in a way that's as true to life as possible, not in an immaculate way to sell the idea.
Wishing Covington the best!
Breaking up the lot into smaller plots is kind of brilliant. It gives the local developers who are already active in the City a chance to contribute to this new development in a way that would not be possible if the whole thing went to some venture capitol firm.
Everything is cool and great, but where's a plan for public transport?
I noticed in the video of the proposed development that they show traffic lights at all the intersections. What a missed opportunity to have roundabouts at each intersection as roundabouts are documented to be substantially safer, cheaper, and much more efficient than traffic lights. What people don’t realize is that there can be traffic circles even on suburban streets to replace four-way stop signs. I lived on a street in Vancouver, British Columbia that saw the replacement of all stop signs with roundabouts. What I loved about the project was that the city allowed residents like myself to adopt a traffic circle and the city provided a small budget of $500 for planting. As you might imagine, they became beautiful gardens that provided traffic management and beauty to the neighborhood. It also dramatically reduced accidents.
I agree, some (small) roundabouts would be nice, but at least they're making a lot of progress.
Roundabouts are great in certain situations, but I think signalized intersections are the right choice here given that this area should hopefully be quite busy with pedestrians. Roundabouts can often be not as pedestrian friendly, especially for people with visual impairments.
@@micameeee8151 If there are going many pedestrians, and ideally cyclists, then we should look at how the Netherlands to see if they have great roundabouts for pedestrians.
That being said, I agree that roundabouts are naturally car friendly. We should be advocating for more roundabouts as the default for highways and freeways. It could reduce a lot of congestion.
Thank you & @giantpickle for not letting me be the only person to comment about roundabouts. I agree in general.
I am from Surrey. What is this Vancouver street? I'd love to see it.
I'd love to see roundabouts for the north shore freeways to drain the commuter congestion faster.
Roundabouts take up a tremendous amount of valuable urban space which pushes back the building line and creates a sub or exurban feel. They are also more dangerous for pedestrians because they are intentionally designed for continuous movement of cars. This is intended to be a neighborhood.
Kentucky come up! Let's go! I live 2.5 hours Southwest, so happy to see this. And the fact that KTC was onboard to narrow KY-8, so, so happy. Gives me so much hope.
I went to school in Cincinnati when the only thing to know about Covington was that it was a “block and a bridge” away. (Raise your hand if you know what this meant.) I am so pleased to see this potential and hope to visit it someday! Thanks!
It's exciting to see! Thanks!!
That’s such a good outlook and cool viewpoint, to look at something you make/design and hope that people 100 years from now think of it as being an iconic piece of the time
They really squandered the opportunity to build 4 single family houses for 3 million each and 4 lane roads
Holy shit that's my neighborhood!! That's crazy! Thanks for covering this!!! I love Covington and Cincinnati so much 😄
I'm from southwest Ohio originally and this is the first I'm hearing of this project. It's great to see both Cincinnati and Covington/Newport realize the Ohio River has great potential for entertainment and green spaces (Newport on the Levee, The Banks, and now this).
A large amount of acreage right near downtown is super rare to reclaim and it reminds me of Westminster, CO. Essentially a Denver/Boulder bedroom community, they never really had a cohesive downtown to speak of, just sprawling neighborhoods. The Westminster mall was torn down (save for an anchor store or two) and is now being redeveloped into "Downtown Westminster." It has large apartment complexes and townhomes with bike and transit connections to Denver & Boulder. Maybe not the very best urbanist design but a much better use of space and reasonably walkable with some sorely needed density.
Yay new video
This is so exciting as a local. This development is gonna stitch together the 3 main neighborhoods of our city! Can’t wait to watch this evolve.
Awesome video! My former hometown Santa Clarita is doing something similar down the road. The Westfield Mall really lost traction because of the Pandemic. I visited not long ago and it felt like a literal ghost town. Originally there were plans to convert a sears in the mall to a Costco, but now those plans have been scrapped. The city is now looking to redevelop the mall and surrounding area to mixed use developments which makes me excited! It’s in a pretty decent location as it’s not far from the Metrolink Antelope Valley Line, and the McBean Regional Transit Center is also relatively close. It will be very easy to access transit to this area which I usually can’t say about anywhere else in Santa Clarita since it’s mostly single family homes. Hopefully we see this more in other areas of the city!
Too bad they’re allowing cars in.
I feel like this would've been a great opportunity to extend the Cincinnati Streetcar over the river into Covington. It could serve the new development and then run a little further south to the cathedral or even beyond. The existing streetcar vehicles are tiny, so even if per-trip-ridership isn't super high, it would make for a very attractive and modern public transport connection, that could tie the new development in nicely with the big neighbour to the north.
Would love to see that eventually!
They tried but uh I guess there’s not enough support or political will for now unfortunately
That parking garage should include at least one level that is off limits to cars and designated for cyclist parking. They also need to ensure those bike lanes are protected and connected to a wider bike lane network that is also equally safe, and well maintained during the winter.
Otherwise, I don’t see that there will be much incentive to use them for anything other than recreational use on weekends and afternoons.
You're absolutely correct. The city doesn't even have a semi-functional system of bike lanes currently and has had major safety incidents with bikers. This is just posturing and not a real effort to decrease motor vehicle traffic and foster walking and biking.
Funny when Americans learn that European cities were built that way for a reason...
Oh they knew even back then, they just didn’t care because car go vrroooooom, right over minority properties
Our cities were built the same way. Post WWII "urban renewal" funded by lobbying by auto manufacturers and oil companies demolished them. European cities weren't immune to this, many just corrected the mistakes sooner.
This didn't happen in the US due to corruption, racism, etc.
When he said “traditional development “ and showed car centric sprawl you know how big of a win this really was.
There's still more cars than I'd like to see, but wow, this is an amazing project and I'm really impressed with the city's ambition. It looks like it can really be a real cultural center and great space to be in!
Nice plan, but the absolute KING of large-tract redevelopment/repurposing was Denver in the 1990s. A closed amusement park, a decommissioned Air Force base, and a relocated airport would all become vibrant mixed-use New Urban neighborhoods in the early 21st century. As decades passed, adjoining neighborhoods also upped their game (adjacent to the former Elitch Gardens), a rail station was built (at Stapleton), and dozens of colleges repurposed existing barracks and office buildings (at Lowry). Austin did some interesting things, too: a decommissioned Air Force base became the new airport and the old airport became a New Urban mixed-use neighborhood. These were all VERY large urban and suburban tracts, with the smallest of the five (Elitch) being 28 acres.
Man, if every plot of land that's taken up by an out of business big box store was repurposed for mix-use, that'd already make such a huge difference.
A key aspect to cultural hubs like this one is variety; both in the types of zoning but also a building's design. Engaging multiple development companies should break up the cookie-cutter template of every single building looking the same or very similar. It also keeps revenue and jobs within the community rather than outsourcing it to, as mentioned, large "out of state" development firms.
Hard to believe NA cities haven't been designing their road layout for decades, they were just letting developers do whatever and rubber stamping whatever met regulations. I thought it was more like Cities skylines.
I'm just across the river. Glad to see such positive changes being planned!
My city has a very similar situation as Covington. In the 90s, a large shopping center with lots of surface parking, and it was very out of place, as on both sides (across the river and up the hill) of it were 2 historical downtowns (theyre 2 seperate cities). There is a plan they have on our county's website, and it is very similar to what Covington is doing.
Yes! Cincy Metro Area!
We need more walksble mixed used development
If they kept doing this they could maybe restore service to the train station a couple of blocks away.
This same exact thing is happening at a slightly smaller scale in Xenia, Ohio just an hour north of Covington. Xenia is famous for its F5 tornado that ripped out half of downtown in 1974, and when they decided to rebuild, they turned it into a giant suburban strip mall. Now they are demolishing it and turning it into the Market District (Market Street runs directly through the site, hence the name). I wish Xenia had the market interest that Covington has to be able to make the Market District a little more dense, but the vision is similar. Mixed-use, walkable streets with a return of the historic street grid. Literally just today, the city approved more legislation towards making it a reality. Probably the biggest difference between Covington’s plan and Xenia’s is that Xenia is doing the whole project with one local New-Urbanist developer, Dillin Inc., rather than multiple smaller developers. During one of the in-person meetings I attended for the project, I brought up to the developer’s CEO that I was really hoping it wouldn’t look like it was all built buy the same person, and he assured me it wouldn’t. Unfortunately, as they release more information about the project, I am still a little worried about that “fake” feeling as the project progresses, but as they say, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Overall, it is still a massive improvement over what is currently there today, and I am excited to see it start to come to life.
What is missing is ornament. A hundred years ago modernists have said that ornament is bad and architects just believed them. But ornament is great. Ornament is the soul of architecture. Ornament gives places character, it can connect us with old traditions but can also tell new stories. A place without an abundance of ornament will feel cold, anonymous and will look like any other modernist project. The plans shown in this video show cold, boring places that could be anywhere, Tokyo, Stockholm. This is very bad.
hard to illustrate without pictures, but these developmetns feel very american and not like tokyo or stockholm at all. the lack of ornamentation may be an issue for you, but in my opinion these look like really comfy american spaces and cities with ornamentation like paris generally don't have architecture that inspires a similar feeling of comfort.
@@bahaman19901 Are you serious? Older development in the US have ornament and it feels comfortable, welcoming, interesting. All the new development looks like faceless, nameless corporate schlock.
Then again, that IS so very American😖
I actually live in Covington! Many of the streets near this development have a lot of historic architecture with lots of ornamentation. Quite a few Italianate buildings built by German immigrants in the mid 1800s that make for some beautiful streets. It’d be nice if they used a similar style at least in part
@@bahaman19901 Maybe skip through this video of an Amsterdam neighborhood and imagine all the ornament removed and everything rebuild as minimalist modernist. How would that be better? th-cam.com/video/pJNJn5MYttk/w-d-xo.html
The renderings shown are simply to give a feel of what the layout and scale will be, not final architectural designs by any means. They're just placeholder buildings to give a general idea of what it will be like.
*I wish my suburb in Charlotte, North Carolina had this one of kind opportunity, but I'm so happy and excited for this project!*
Having grown up in Northern Kentucky, it's amazing to see how Cincinnati and the NKY river cites have finally learned to embrace the Ohio River and build up around it. When I was a kid, you only had Riverfront Stadium, on the Cincy side, and nothing much at all in Covington and Newport, much of it run-down. All those tall buildings by the Suspension Bridge in Covington weren't there at all! Since then, Cincinnati has torn down its old cookie-cutter stadium, replaced it with two much nicer stadiums with the Banks development between them, and refurbished the whole area along the river with parks. Covington has a skyline now, and now there's this development in planning. Newport has built up Newport on the Levee. It's a completely different feel from the run-down areas of my youth. Cincy really does need to cover that huge highway trench that is Ft Washington Way though (and they built supports into it to support such a covering when they re-constructed the highway decades ago), to really connect the city back to the river.
looks good, maybe roudabouts, near pedestian zones, insteat of stop lights with cars yeilding for slower traffic. ( pededstrian and bicycles. ) just a thought, lesser changes for fatalities
Covington is my home and its a tremendous city. I can't wait to see what happens with the site! It's one of the most underrated small city's in the United States and this project will only add to it
Good start but why can cars even enter? There is an undergound parkinglot. Just have the acces outside of the block
Your content is what we've been missing in the urban planning space.
1:03 Looks to me more like they were demolished mostly to build a car park
There's a similar project happening in Sterling Heights MI that I'm super excited about, they're getting rid of an unprofitable mall and trying to build a much nicer urban center! Would love to hear a deep dive on it too
Wow! What an awesome dose of good news!
Please don't build a traffic light at 3rd and russell! That's a perfect spot for a roundabout.
Roundabouts are good for vehicular flow but are they practical at a pedestrian intensive intersection?
@@timmccabe4654 I think roundabouts are safer to pedestrians then cars doing left turns, if they didn't see the pedestrian in time they either hit them or need to stop in the middle of the intersection.
A roundabout has you in a 90 degree angle to the crosswalk at some point while you are moving in it.
This neighborhood probably being a low traffic area wouldn't require you to set the crosswalks further back, to not hinder traffic within the roundabout but it's an option you could choose.
Roundabouts aren't perfect, but they are one of the best tools to reduce speeds, let people flow naturally and reduce injuries in collisions.
@@JanSuerth it doesn't even look busy enough for aroundabout going by the main road of W4th St although the good point of traffic stops you can let groups of people pass at a time instead of waiting for each person to cross
The only roundabout I would support is one that is similar in size to the one at the Cincinnati side of the Roebling Bridge. That one makes a lot of sense and is pedestrian friendly.
@@nolannicaise9598 Agreed, but even that thing is a bit big. I was thinking more about a neighborhood sized roundabout or also known as mini roundabout.
I live nearby. I always thought that building was a waste of space. There’s no shortage of people who want to move into the downtown area and this new development could be very helpful.
Cincy resident here that's driven past that site weekly since 2009. I don't know how I was so disconnected about this happening, but this is the first time I've seen a full plan for this land. I love the way you broke it down and this definitely got me to subscribe to the channel.
I certainly hope we see more of the optimism you shared about dead malls - The memes of Spirit Halloween are one thing, but it'd be nice to see something besides decaying buildings. Great video!
Maybe my sense of scale is a bit off, but this still seems a bit too car-centric to me. Seeing a park squished between two roads is always a bit disheartening; and that street running down the middle of the area feels unnecessary too.
And the whole thing is built on top of a giant parking lot, but there was no mention of any kind of public transit... So I guess this whole area is intended as a place where you drive to, walk around, and then drive home; it's basically an outdoor mall.
You have to start somewhere, you cannot go from zero to hero at once. Making it more inaccessible with cars, can be such a big leap for the people living there that it might be valued as failed and loses money. The thing is, you have to have a big public transit network ready and working. Right now car might be the only viable way to get to work. But slowly improving and adding one thing at a time will slowly change things for the better.😀
@@itzjacke492 This is true, and I'm sure they had various reasons for going with this plan. Still, just from my perspective I felt like they didn't need to put that road right down the middle: that's an entirely new road, so clearly the network currently works without it, so it could have been made an entirely pedestrian street.
Quite a few bus lines run through the area, so there is that at least. And there's been talk of running the Cincinnati streetcars across the river to Covington and Newport.
@@thomasrinschler6783 The City has REFUSED to advocate for a streetcar-ready bridge going to Newport during the State-led reconstruction of the bridge. The City has over and over refused to advocate for cyclists and their safety. I don't have much hope. But keep urging them. With a new mayor coming in, there may be a new chance for real urbanism.
Glad to see that the US is finally coming around from its decades long box mall and skyscraper fetish. This could have very easily been turned into another office block or mall or some such, but they're choosing to take a risk. Ironically this 'different' approach they're using is pretty much how things are done by default in the Netherlands. The city is responsible for infrastructure and the general layout of the site, architects come in to fill in the details, and building companies come in to build the vision. That's how you keep control over how land is used. Selling it to some massive real estate developer and hoping something decent pops up has been a proven track to disaster.
My dad and I really like your channel. Really good videos! 😮
Thanks!
1:01 Holy shit, I have seen downgrades and glowdowns in urban areas as a result of urban renewal many times before, but this is especially egregious. That building is HIDEOUS. I couldn't even try to make a facility or even a part of a city look this horrific.
Yeah, it's incredible how low effort some North American architecture is. Massive waste of space too when it could've just been taller. Don't understand why they build them like that.
This is how most urban redevelopment projects are done here in europe, or at least NW-europe.
1. Make a plan with an architect or urban planner after extensive study of the sity, approved by the existing population.
2. Demand a mix of functions, minimal requirement of public space areas, and a minimum of social housing integrated.
3. Build the infrastructure.
4. Put rough urban codes and guidelines in place to create some minimal uniformity in the neighborhood.
5. Let each lot be developed by a different architect and developer to create variety and diversity in the new neighbourhood.
Done.
enjoying your videos! this one is real good. its awesome to see the US adapting from parking lotts to people. Lets hope the trend continues. ITs actually a blessing in disguise that most cities have so much redevelopment potential from useless parking spaces.
Love most of this, but I hope I misunderstood that there will be detached single family housing in a downtown development?
What better way to pocket 850k+ on out of towners for the developer on a quick build while they let the other historic homes in town sit decrepit?
i hope this brings Covington's downtown to life and sets an example for the rest of the city❤
I used to live in Covington and work on the Cincinnati newspaper occasionally and have heard about this site in passing a couple times, so getting this vid on my front page and getting to learn more was so cool!
Its so great seeing our cities very slowly healing
Im going to completely forget about this and then in 3 years when my event in calendar about this pops up im gonna be so happy
That's cool. The cycle infrastructure definitely needs to run past the shops though - that's where you get the most value out of it. It'd also be a good idea to preserve some ROW for a tram or light rail.
7:38 yoooo somebody managed to squeeze a gtr in there
i would MAKE A WALLMART AND A PARKING LOT
This brings back the concept of "the village". Which is what mankind was designed to live like. I dig it.
The pride flag in the background was cringe but the development of this village site is promising.
For the love of God, PARKING IS THW WORSE THING WE EVER DID TO OUR CITIES.
Super interesting! What did you use to create the illustrations? It's really well done. I am currently preparing a similar project with another city that was also built from scratch but doesn't necessarily have the same objectives. Thank you!
Sounds like they’re largely doing this the right way. However, I still don’t understand why not one single American city can imagine even a tiny sub-portion existing without cars. It is truly ridiculous. Looks like yet another lost opportunity to keep motor vehicles around the edges of this neighborhood and walkability within. Sure you can maintain foot traffic areas, but COME ON America, cars do not have to be able to go to every single square foot of your city. Do better.
I bet they make it 90% affordable housing, 5% amusement park, and 5% retail shops.
"We're not going to do fake historic buildings." Interesting statement. If it's in a style that happened to be used often historically, how is it "fake"? Gothic revival buildings of the 19th century were "fake mediaeval" yet are really beautiful and usually much loved today. I suspect it's an excuse to go with the most disconcerting "modern" style possible, ie. disconnected from anything except 1960's utopias and made of useless curves and squares of concrete and glass. Seems like a good development, and I hope to be proven wrong, I know there are other styles besides that and gothic revival.
This is all well and good and I have hopes it will be good for everyone in Covington, however the major downside of this huge development is that the housing plans don't specifically address the affordability issues in the area for residents and could lead to the housing costs on existing homes to also be affected. Covington as a city has residents that are by and large being priced out by developers (whether big or small as the director implies) while historic homes and buildings continue to sit and deteriorate. There need to be plans for affordable housing within the city's planning, rather than simply revenue generating spaces that cause a ripple effect of price hikes.
I live 15 minutes from lakeside mall, would love to hear you talk more about the redevelopment of malls
As european im happy to see that some US cities start to see how dumb this typical to them urban planning is and how they re trying to change it
We have this exact problem where I live, we have a huge mall that serves no use at all with massive parking lots that takes up about 58 acres of land. This is a very well made video and I learned a lot from it, hopefully my city does the exact same that they're doing in Covington. Keep up the good work!
Sounds amazing. Wish more cities would take similar approaches. So many of the infrastructures in our cities or past their expiration dates. Did you know the Golden gate bridge is past its expiration date. But we're so indoctrinated to believe these things are permanent when the people who built and designed them designed them to be replaced eventually
Above all, these new developments are so much nicer to live and spend time in. Because they are build for people with a diverse set of needs and potentials, not for squeezing out profits.