I couldn’t think of a good way to explain my question in the thread title, so maybe a word of explanation will help.
I’m looking for buildings, monuments, sports stadiums, theme parks, etc. (things that you wouldn’t expect to find in a residential area) that are in essentially residential areas, or at least very near private homes.
For example, look up Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL on Google Earth and you’ll see that it’s almost literally right next door to people’s houses. The guy who lives in that house to the southeast could throw a rock and hit a fan’s head.
Ditto for Wrigley Field. Also Disneyland appears to be right up against a residential area to the southwest (looks like there’s a neighborhood there on W Katella Avenue, west of Disneyland Dr).
Fenway park is an a very urban area of Boston. There is everything all around it including businesses and apartment buildings. In contrast, Gillette Studium )Patriots: Foxboro) is in a semi-rural area without much around it at all except they just had a huge building frenzy around it it to build all kinds of entertainment and shopping complexes. You can still be just a mile away on the road and think you are in very outer suburbia.
Up until they finally closed it last year Santa’s Village in Dundee IL was essentially in a regular residential area, however Santa’s Village was there first. It was the worlds creepiest and most run down amusement park ever.
Then the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre (AKA the Tweeter Center, AKA The World Music Theatre AKA The Worst Concert Venue Of All Time) in Tinley Park IL was once kind of in the middle of nowhere, but now there are houses all around it. It’s a 30k seat concert venue.
I live about half a block away from Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Google maps shows that it’s mostly surrounded by residential areas, although there is a LRT transit station and parking lot to the east and a little bit of commercial/industrial to the east/south.
Do you care about the order of construction? A lot of the examples are instances where the residential long followed the non-residential. Disneyland, for example, was pretty much in the middle of nothing when it was built back in 1953-55.
I can think of lots of examples of that (the workloft fad particularly brought residential into close contact with non-residential uses), but am having more trouble where new non-residential uses were built inside a predominantly residential area.
Though the plans for the new stadium for the Oakland Athelitcs actually contains residential housing.
The Menil Collection in Houston is a big museum right in the middle of a residential district. All of the houses that face it are owned by the museum and used as offices. They’re painted gray and white to match the main building!
What are these “residential” and “non-residential” areas of which you speak? In most of Europe there doesn’t seem to be much of a distinction. Commercial and residential buildings are usually in close proximity to each other, which makes it easy to shop for essentials (and even many non-essentials) without having to drive or take public transportation. Stadiums, offices, hospitals, stores, monuments, museums, bars, gymnasiums, restaurants, and a host of other enterprises are often found near, opposite, or behind houses and apartments. It’s also quite common for a building to have shops on the ground floor and apartments on the upper floors.
This arrangement is hardly uncommon in many North American cities as well. Toronto has many tourist attractions flanked by houses or apartment buildings (e.g., Casa Loma, New City Hall); residential housing can be found Regina’s football stadium and museum. There’s no way you’re going to compile an exhaustive list.
I’m sure our Beloved Unzoned Metropolis can offer more examples. The Menil actually blends into the neighborhood pretty well. Partly since, as you pointed out, some of the “neighborhood” is part of the Menil holdings.
My favorite is the Williams Tower (still called Transco Tower by many old-timers.) Now in a cluster of mid-rise office & residential buildings, it’s still pretty noticeable. Noticeable for many miles, due to Houston’s flat terrain.
Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field - home of Piffles Taylor, Regina Saskatchewan. And, I suppose the CPR railyard south of the stadium. I wonder if this is not somewhat common in the case of sports stadia.
