mcashlv

I'm a little stunned that anybody could seriously perceive that Berkeley in any way resembles Florence, SC. Anyone lucky enough to live in the SF Bay area with a good job should thank their lucky stars and forget about Florence. You have opportunities before you in the Bay Area that are undreamt of in Florence. I hope you can realize that, and make the most of it.

Looks like 2 consecutive parking structures. Worst possible plan. Until the city requires some integrated retail, nothing will change.

"Hillbilly Linthead Pseudo-Italianate"--a new architectural movement! You gotta love it! They don't call it the Piedmont for nothing...

I wonder how many interesting buildings were demolished to make way for that parking lot.

Devoid of pedestrians. No streetscape retail. Looks rather cold and uninviting to me. But it's all nice and orderly. Another lost opportunity, IMO.

That looks good.

"Crime and poverty is a direct result of this lack of assistance from the county." Do you really believe this?

Does anyone know if these Main St. food business make much money, generally speaking? Are there enough customers to support them?

The river would look a lot nicer if they demolished that old mill dam and returned it to as close to it's natural state as is now possible.

Could it be any uglier? What were they thinking?

They're ok, nothing special.

Ugly and totally unoriginal.

Looks awful, a throwback to 1972 cheap prefab.

New Orleans has contributed far more to American culture than Charleston ever will.

Charleston provides the high-end luxury living environment that appeals to senior corporate executives and their spouses. Can't say that about most of the rest of South Carolina, or the South as a whole. Expect more corporate relocations in the future. The downside of this will be Charleston overrun by that most hated of all species: the rich, educated, and productive Yankee. Mythical Charleston lost forever, like a haughty old spinster gone in the teeth.

And you would quickly go broke.... " If I had the finances, what I personally would do is buy one of the delapidated lots downtown, raze it, and then build a 5 story streat front friendly venue... first floor or two consists of middle to high end shops/reseraunts, mayby a borders, top 3/4 floors would consist of middle to luxury condos/apartments. In other words, create a destination. "

The man made dam/falls should be demolished. An eyesore. The river would look much better if returned to it's natural state.

Dismal isn't it? An honest representation of the city. No wonder the suicide rate is so high there.

They face an impossible challenge. Similar to many small Southern towns, the best, brightest, and most ambitious young people are forced to leave, simply to make a living. This is what really kills these places. FMU, being remotely located in the countryside, on the "wrong" side of town, is disconnected from the rest of the city. There are no attendent businesses such as bookstores, cafes, retailers, etc. that one finds in every other college town. No definable college "district". Only a convenience store, trailer parks, and some sub-standard slum apartments that would have been condemned and demolished long ago in any other city. Add to this a huge (and growing) unassimilable welfare population, and you have a recipe for inevitable decline.

Poor analogy. Greenville and Florence have little in common. No one is talking about restoring historic buildings, which I wholeheartedly support. I didn't say "Florence is retreating into the mythological golden age", only that the leadership class seem to be. Florence and the Pee Dee region is facing economic decline, for a variety of reasons.

I can understand how a lot of people might like this building--expensive materials, symmetrical, grand, etc. Good intentions. My first impression was that looked like a mausoleum, which in a metaphorical sense it is. A funeral monument to the lost opportunities for the future of Florence. It might have worked had it been tried in the '50s or '60's. Now it's too late. Am I negative towards the Magic City? No, I don't care that much. The Florence leadership class appear determined to go backwards to a mythological golden age, which probably never really existed, instead of trying to tackle the future, with the inherent risk of failure. For $40 million dollars they could have hired one of the world's best architects and gotten a building that would have received some international trade press, and good PR for the dying little town. I know it's easy to criticise. Could I have done better? Yes.

A great old building. Thank God "they" didn't tear it down to build a parking lot.

Most of the population of Florence County is semi-literate, at best. A building full of books is not high on their list of attractions (unless they have free video games). It looks like a building from the 19th century, not the 21st. If I were the architect, I'd be embarrassed. More re-hashed Greco-Roman cliches, totally unoriginal. An aged Southerner's idea of "good taste", reflecting a wistful nostalgia for a bygone era. Not that that's a bad thing, but if that's the best they can do, it doesn't bode well for the future of the city. Would be more beneficial for the community to scatter the money over Florence from an airplane.

You should have seen it in the 1950's.