An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Urban Streetscape of Budapest's Andrassy Ut

Abstract

As Budapest's most prominent boulevard, Andrassy Ut (Andrassy Way) exhibits a variety of urban land uses designed to showcase Hungarian history and culture and provide modern housing and leisure amenities for the city's elite. Designed and constructed in the 1870s, it is anchored in by Erzsebet tor (Erzsebet Square) in the city center and extends 2.42 km (1.5 mi) northeast to Varosliget (City Park). This study, conducted in summer 2014 by students in UW-Eau Claire's interdisciplinary Central European Travel Seminar (CETS), examined the cultural streetscape of the boulevard through the lens of geography, history, and music. Teams of researchers were dispatched to designated stretches of Andrassy Ut to document the ways in which historically and musically significant buildings and institutions coincide with high-end residential and commercial land uses. Landscape analysis was then utilized to document concentrations of specific types of land uses. As the city embarks on a massive redevelopment project that will convert Andrassy Ut from mixed use corridor into the tourism-focused Andrassy Quarter, this study marks an important transition period in the boulevard's history.