Elements of Urbanism: Champaign/Urbana

[Metro Jacksonville]

Elements of Urbanism: Champaign/Urbana



Shahid Khan, the most prominent figure that links Champaign/Urbana, Illinois to Jacksonville, proudly flies a Jacksonville Jaguars flag outside of his Flex-N-Gate corporate headquarters in Urbana.  The twin cities lie less than five miles from one another, creating a close-knit community the locals refer to as ââ,¬Å"Chambanaââ,¬Â.  Both cities have maintained several of the older buildings in their downtown sectors, remodeling them into modern office buildings, condos, bars, and restaurants, which has preserved the history of the cities and helped to sustain the close feeling the communities share.  They also display art statues throughout downtown.  Today, Metro Jacksonville's Kelsi Hasden provides us with a brief tour of downtown Champaign and Urbana.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-jul-elements-of-urbanism-champaignurbana

[Noone]

Very nice.

[jcjohnpaint]

The county courthouse is quite lovely

[spuwho]

Born in Urbana, Illinois myself. Lived in Champaign for awhile too.

The C-U area is quite unique. Very midwestern, yet very urbane due to the existence of the University of Illinois.

I could tell so many stories about C-U. I am surprised nothing was mentioned about Lincoln Square, one of the first urban malls ever built. Not suburban, it was an urban mall. Not a mall anymore since the suburban one (Market Place) kind of ran them off by the end of the 90's. Now they are an excellent example of urban repurposing in commercial RE.

http://www.lincolnsquareurbana.com/

The old IC train station is called "Illinois Terminal" now and is a intermodal facility for Amtrak and buses.  Named after the former electric interurban (later a freight RR) which used to be called Illinois Traction.  I still remember when I asked my dad why C-U had so many railroad tracks running down the middle to the street.

What is great about C-U is that they have embraced their older buildings in their 2 urban cores and found great new uses out of them. When you go into either downtown, you don't find these gaping holes where a city once stood.

I remember shopping at Robeson's. They also had a great Sears downtown, and once they left for the mall in 1977, downtown was never the same. Much less foot traffic.

The one thing it has in common with Jacksonville is while we know which way the wind blows thanks to Maxwell House, Champaign knows due to the Kraft plant on the NW side of town. I can still remember that aroma of processed soy blowing through town.

The lesson for Jacksonville in C-U is not to be in such a hurry to destroy your heritage. They seem to embrace it.