Charlotte circa 1987 from the air | CLT Blog
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Charlotte circa 1987 from the air

Posted on 21 Apr 2009 by Justin Ruckman

I found these pictures on Urban Planet this week, though I can’t find a link to the proper thread now for the life of me. It’s cool to see uptown Charlotte pre– most of what it is now. The originals were badly discolored (I forgot how yellowish-green the 80s were), so I did what I could in terms of color correction and produced the following:

Original images are included below for comparison.

Comments

  1. JamesWillamor 22 Apr 2009 at 12:52 AM

    The photos are from 1987, because 1 First Union (1 Wellschovia) was about 1/3 complete. Link to the original post on UP:

    http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?s=&am

  2. Avatar of Melissa Fortune
    Melissa Fortune 22 Apr 2009 at 12:55 AM

    Justin those pics are so cool! It is crazy to look around now. Everyday, everywhere, the landscape is changing. I wish I would have taken more pics growing up because now so many things are gone. Plus your editing skills are immpressive. You do retouching?? :)

    • Avatar of Justin Ruckman
      Justin Ruckman 22 Apr 2009 at 1:04 AM

      Enough retouching to get the above results. Though I don’t know if I’d call it “impressive”, haha. Looking it on it now from a different monitor than my own, there’s a lot I should fix.

  3. jakrose 22 Apr 2009 at 2:50 PM

    what an ugly city. looks like plenty of parking though

    • Jacob 22 Apr 2009 at 7:44 PM

      what city are you from ? Charlotte is one of the most beautiful ., clean, and developed cities in this state!

      • jakrose 22 Apr 2009 at 7:49 PM

        born and raised in Charlotte, NC. love Charlotte, but those pictures above, from 20 years ago, are of an ugly city

  4. Rhi B. 22 Apr 2009 at 7:30 PM

    Flying over the ‘burbs, it looks like the earth has stitches. It’s kinda sad.

  5. Ian on Lake Norman 23 Apr 2009 at 2:11 PM

    Justin — not sure if you saw this, but there is also a video someone made in 1986 of a drive through Charlotte. It includes Carowinds, I-77, and other areas around the city. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cYQi-J7vfQ&fe