First Post! 5th and Congress

At the corner of 5th and congress is a juxtaposition of very different buildings. This was the corner from which I observed this intersection.

The landscape is rather flat, as most urban areas are, to facilitate buildings and expansion. The skyline is peppered by skyscrapers as well, as you can see in the above-photo.

The vegetation of the area is rather sparse. The only plants in sight are bare or almost-bare trees that are carefully spaced across the sidewalks.

The side of the intersection I stood upon was a string of bars and restaurants.

I stood on the corner with The Geisha Room. The building itself was a small cocktail lounge with darkened windows. The building itself was very closed off. However, from prior experience, I know that it is the complete opposite at night. The doors are left open, the place packed, and the window to the left of the above- picture is opened to let the music of live musicians inside flow into the street. However, none of that is evident when I visit this place during the day. The only adornment is a small and unassuming bench to the side of the building.

Looking across the Congress Ave, I spy a completely different kind of building: The Mexic Arte Museum. Its simple lines, bold color contrast, and red geometric detailing at the top of the building seem to draw on the artwork housed in the museum for architectural inspiration.

 Directly across Congress Ave, I see a Mexican Art Museum and expensive retail stores. 

The buildings along the same street also cater to the same type of crowd as the art museum: affluent cultured young people. The rest of the buildings are higher-end stores for specialty goods.

Diagonally across the street sit large business buildings: banks and skyscrapers.

Then, across the intersection is the dramatically different financial area. At the corner is the Fidelity building and the Bank of America skyscraper.These imposing buildings are in stark contrast to its surroundings.

Then, lastly across 5th street is a CVS. An interesting thing about this branch of the chain is that this is in a renovated building from 1829.

I chose this intersection because I thought it was a good representation of the incredibly different types of buildings that can stand so close together as a result of the competitive and physically close situation that it present in downtown areas of very developed cities. This kind of city planning would probably not happen in the suburbs, or even a less-developed city.