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I used to love going to the architectural salvage place in Manchester, which was displaced by the new I-293 off-ramp at Granite Street, when I was a kid. I remember when my mom bought a house in Manchester, which would come to shape my appreciation for walkable, urban neighborhoods, and she went...

More photo updates on the Municipal Complex construction from the Highway Department's page: Valley Street is mostly out of shot to the right; DPW bottom right; Maintenance garage bottom left; Police Department top right Police Department from the rear--Valley St is to the right mostly out...

I think the idea of forums for Greater Portland, Greater Manchester and so forth (or something like that) would be a great idea. The states could work, too, but there are areas where state boundaries mean less--new developments in Kittery, for instance, have a lot more to do with Portsmouth/NH...

Jurors recently selected finalists in the Nashua International Design Competition, which was sponsored by the Nashua Board of Alderman and described as: I don't know a ton about it, but the Broad Street Parkway is a proposed new street that will run along an old railroad line north of the...

That sounds like a great idea. Portland is increasingly known for its food culture, so I think something like that--and better than Quincy Hall: no Starbucks or typical mall vendors, please--that would give small cooks and restaurants a chance would be great, while also making the building...

Also, great timing on this article given the discussion here. A couple civil engineers from Boston have a column in the UL today (buried on page C7) explaining the virtues and characteristics of complete streets. I hope a few Manchester residents (and maybe some aldermen even) dig into the paper...

That's interesting to note about Burlington. I've been in the North End before, but only with a friend who was living in Burlington at the time and with the express purpose of going to Junktiques--a junk store, so the location makes sense now. I remember it being a fairly run down place, but...

It's an interesting concept and will be fun to follow. Still, one of my biggest criticisms of the New Urbanist movement has been its propensity for creating new towns rather than improving existing ones. That's obviously not always the case and it's probably more a function of developers than...

The Custom House is such a powerful building in that area--its order and granite is such a contrast to the buildings (equally charming) around it. I'm not sure there's any demand for more museum space, but it seems like it would be an ideal location for some sort of museum/interpretative center...

I think the key is connecting the areas that already look like that photo (as well as other nice areas like Hanover Street), and sprucing up nearby areas that are full of potential like the Gaslight District and even sections of the Millyard. The urban neighborhoods surrounding downtown--which...

I think the difficulty in creating a street like Exchange in Manchester stems less from the urban fabric of the place than it will from the lack of tourism. Exchange Street would be a nice place to stroll and would have wonderful buildings lining without them, but I really don't think it would...

I agree with most of the comments so far. Patrick said: I totally agree and find this incredibly frustrating. I'm not sure if this is the case everywhere, but my impression in Manchester is that the planning director and department are not the issue--they have drawn up a wonderful, pro-urban...

Illustrated skylines of Manchester and Portland by Joan Breault I just posted a column from today's Union Leader comparing Manchester and Portland, as well as a response in the Manchester Development thread that I thought might be of interest to Portlanders.

Illustrated skylines of Manchester and Portland by Joan Breault An interesting comparison of Manchester and Portland in today's Union Leader: I don't agree with all of it. I don't get a feeling of phoniness in Portland (or Boston, for the most part). Portland is certainly hipper, and maybe...

That area is never going to be very urban or desirable in my view--it's too much of an off-ramp/rotary area with a hydro plant--but the renovations are definitely an improvement. There's actually a good deal of info on the project at the website of what they're calling the Falls Center. Here's...

It sounds like Manchester is finally resuming the Neighborhood Initiatives program that Guinta let flounder after a promising start in Rimmon Heights in 2006. The focus now is on the Hollow, a more isolated and economically struggling area, but with similar density to Rimmon Heights. The area is...

Please post a link to this article if you find one--I'd love to read it.

Not too exciting, but definitely an improvement over the old Queen City Motel:

I drove by the municipal complex under construction on Valley Street a couple weeks ago, and while I can't tell whether I'll like the finished architecture yet, the project is clearly giving the area a denser, more urban feeling. Here are a few photos from the City website with project updates...

The urban context is an open piece of land at the southeast corner ofGranite & Second Streets near Granite Square and at the Exit 5 off-ramp gateway to downtown. It's a hugely important piece of land, both because of its prominence as a gateway and marker to downtown, and for its potential to...