My vantage of Cottbus (pictures and explanations)

Old and New-Acupuncture Infill at it's best.

For this post, I have inserted pretty much all of the pictures I have taken of Cottbus since I arrived in the beginning of August (2011).  I don't really like taking pictures, because I don't like carrying a camera, so I walked around my neighborhood one afternoon with the intention of taking pictures of cool buildings and streets I had seen.  There really is a lot more to see than what I have here.  There is a river and an extensive biking route.  There is an old chateau on the edge of town with an expansive garden and walking route called Branitzer Park.   There is an historic district with parts of the medieval wall intact.  There are lots of cool little alleys and architectural curiosities all over!  But, those pictures aren't going to be on this post.  This post just highlights some interesting views from my neighborhood, in this small town.

The picture above was taken from my street, Karl-Liebknecht Straße.  I read once about an interesting development Infill method which allows remaining/standing buildings to survive among new development.  I believe, the need to build anew must resist the desire to demolish an entire block to build a whole area of new buildings.  Above you can see three row-houses.  All three are different in time built, architectural style and function!  I think the one on the right is a law-office, the one in the middle is residential (of course--anyone would want to live in this one, right?) and the one on the left is an architecture studio.  Such a great way to preserve place by replacing what was lost, but not replacing what remains.  But then I wonder, what was the fate of the buildings here before?

In all likelihood, these new buildings replaced row houses over 100 years old, which were dilapidated due to neglect during the GDR (German Democratic Repulic/ aka East Germany).  Did they need to be torn down?  Whose choice was that?  Before the wall came down in Germany, East German urban planners made it nearly impossible for normal citizens to gain the financial resources or investment tools to maintain older buildings.  Many citizens saw the need to battle the city and her wrecking-ball type of urban planning.  Despite this, not everything was saved from demolition and "Re-Development".  Lots of Le-Corbusier type buildings, tower in the park-type buildings, were built to replace the older street pattern of row houses common in Europe everywhere.   I will try to take a picture of one of these buildings soon.

Demolished lots, previously row houses, now recycled for industrial space

Here you can see the vast emptiness that has ensued after whatever urban decay or demolition was permitted.  These empty lots are very common in Cottbus.  However, it isn't entirely a loss because lots of smaller start-ups, smaller businesses and small manufacturing companies profit from the low-rent and use the buildings for their own purposes.

I haven't really experienced any visible zoning patterns in most of Cottbus.  For the most part I see industry, residential and other economic activities going on all at once side by side.

For example, we live in a building which is partly residential, partly small manufacturing offices and also provides space for a chemistry laboratory for the local university.  Across from my window is storage for a paint-ball gun company, an small insurance company office, and an organic food co-op.  In the same area, accessible from the same entrance, are two pizza-delivery companies and a all-women's gym.  At any given time, there is a very strange mix of people wearing either over-alls (blue-collar industry-workers), hippies shopping at the organic grocery store and cafe, geeky university students, young teenagers hanging out at the pizza places (usually drinking a beer outside; it's Germany after all) and middle-aged women going to spinning class or yoga or whatever at the gym.  Talk about diversity!  Then there are the residents.  I think we are the minority though and it is very quiet here in the evening, when everything closes.

Beautiful row-house, still gray until renovation

Another investment opportunity- Row house needed some care

This row house has been renovated and is shares a wall with un-renovated row-houses

To me, a strange building: the Opera House, also under renovation

Row-houses, now looking very loved and no longer neglected, if they ever were.

Appears to be a recent renovation-just finished.

Unique artchitecture, probably Gründerzeit Style, but I'm not sure.

A lonely row house, sitting all by itself. 

 The above row house apparently used to be surrounded by other row houses.  Now it is last remaining house and can't really be called a "Row-House" because the row has disappeared, or was demolished.  What was the history of this street?  How sad, in a way.  Commercial buildings are hidden behind the building and the sign for it is in the right side of the picture.  Mostly parking lots fill the empty lots left behind after the previous buildings.  Not my PREFERRED use for this land, if only becuase it encourages people to drive around instead of bicycling.

Lars told me that there is a new law requiring many stores to offer parking spaces relative to floor space.  I understand this logic, if I assume that people must travel by car.  But, I cannot assume this if I don't want the ensuring consequences: air pollution, demolition of bildings for parking space, etc.  Besides, a lot of people here enjoy the bike paths and it is quicker to get around like that anyway, than to park.  Plus gas for cars and car insurance are super expensive.  So why this law for parking spaces? 

By assuming that people must travel by car, we also have to get rid of valuable real estate to accommodate the possibility of car travel and parking, which is not a necessity, as I just said.  Once we give up real estate for parking though, the demand for real estate goes up if population density stays the same, but we have less space for development/real life use (not car storage).   This is probably essentially a driving mechanism of suburban sprawl.  I wonder if I am right.

Industrial vantage point from the street.

 This is an interesting picture and one of my favorites!! I was standing on the street with some remaining row houses, looking into a side allow, not a street, to take the picture.  I looks as if this is a street, but it doesn't have a street sign, so I don't think it is one.  It just appears to be an entrance to a lot of industrial buildings.  To the left is a building where lamps are manufactured or assembled and below is the store.  To the back appears to be a storage and loading facility for industrial or building materials.  Certainly with all of the renovation and new development going on in Cottbus, this new building economy is thriving, and business profits and tax-revenue are staying in-town, since the businesses appear to be mostly locally-run.  I am glad the residents have found a way to recycle space for industrial purposes as well.  In the US, I rarely saw residential buildings being reused for industrial purposes, but I often saw industrial buildings being reused for residential purposes, as in loft-living.  Where is all the industrial space in the US?

I have been reading in The Battle for Gotham that it is a hard fight for small start-ups and smaller industrial firms with 25-100 to not be zoned out of their industrial areas as the demand for loft-living in northeastern cities grows even trendier each year.

Lausitzer Straße, parallel to my street. 

The Red brick fronts of the row houses on the left face the plaster and brick fronts of the houses on the right in this mixed residential and commercial street.  The street isn't heavily commercial, though there is a bakery, a pet store, a Second-Hand store, a jewelry shop and restaurant on this short block.  The trees are young here, so the initiative to spruce up the aesthetic quality of the street must be a recent one. 

Lars at "Franky's"-the American-Diner style restaurant in the old market square

Although it is hard to see, Lars is holding up a little American flag, which came on top of his burger at this Diner-style restaurant called "Franky's", as in Frank Sinatra.

The love of "American-style" this or that never ceases to bewilder me.  On the one hand, I never feel very far from home because images and cliche's of the US are always at hand.  However, I am also regretful for the residents here because the typical style German-restaurants can be quickly replaced by American-style ones.

On the positive side again, these restaurants aren't chains.  The residents of this town really love American-style restaurants and coffee shops, so they opened them up.  Lars and I have found three such Diners already, equiped with checkered linoleum floors and red leather booths.  Pictures of American celebrities (and presidents, oddly) look down at you from the walls and hung next to the black vinyl of classic rock-n-roll music records, also on the wall, just like in a real-diner, or so I have heard.  I wouldn't even know what a real-American diner should be, since I have never experienced it.  So common an experience in Cottbus doesn't appear to me to be common in America. 

Sometimes I think to myself, wow, I would like to visit this America, which others can recreate.  I guess, I'll only visit it in Germany, where some long-lasting nostalgic remembrance of my cultural heritage has been copied and preserved, for all to experience.