A Timeline of Two Cities

 How We've Become More Suburban

How We've Become More Urban

1950-64
Lake Norman is created. Other lakes built by Duke Power include Mountain Island and Lake Wylie.

1955-56
Park Road Shopping Center and the domed Coliseum (now Bojangles Coliseum) open at what are at the time the edges of the city.

1950s

1967-75
Interstate 77 opens. Other important highways pulling people to the suburbs include Independence Boulevard (early 1950s) and I-85 (1960s).

1960s

1964-72
Worried about suburban competition, uptown leaders use federal "urban renewal" dollars for large-scale demo. New construction includes NCNB Plaza with Overstreet Mall, which turns its back on the street.

1970
SouthPark mall opens, beginning what will become Charlotte's upscale retail and residential "edge city." Other major malls include Eastland (1975) and Northlake (2005).

1970s

1975-76
Spirit Square created in abandoned First Baptist Church; this is the beginning of uptown as an arts and culture district. Joined by Discovery Place in 1982.

1976
Reacting against "urban renewal" and other demolition, young home buyers create city's first Historic District in Fourth Ward, begin residential repopulation.

1985-86
W.T. Harris Boulevard and University Place retail/office/residential project help make the University City area (including 1965 UNC-Charlotte campus and 1968 University Research Park) a development magnet in northern Mecklenburg County.

1980s

1980s
In a low point for uptown, Belk and Ivey's department stores close (they had moved flagship stores to SouthPark a decade earlier). Landmark vintage skyscrapers Independence Building and Hotel Charlotte are demolished.

1990
First leg of Interstate 485 opens between South Boulevard and U.S. 521. By 2008 all but five miles of the sixty-five-mile outerbelt are complete.

1990s

1992
Blumenthal Center, Founders Hall, and BofA Corporate Center tower open. The major mixed-use project signals that economic and cultural leaders are committed to creating a lively center city.

1996
Transamerica Square, first major new construction oriented to the street (art galleries, outdoor cafés, pocket park), opens. It also includes first upscale new condos: 400 North Church.

2000s
Planned mixed-use suburban developments debut, notably Ballantyne and Baxter Village in the south, Birkdale and Vermillion in the north.

2000s

2000s
Significant investment in new public places including Convention Center, Time Warner Cable Arena, light rail, ImaginOn, The Green, Cultural Campus (Gantt Center, Knight Theater, Bechtler and Mint museums).