Quote:
Originally Posted by colemonkee
Two California Plaza and Gas Company Tower are just as far east on the downtown grid, and if you look at true north, Library Tower and every tower on Bunker Hill are further east than this site. But even on the perceived grid, this site is within the eastern visual plane of highrises. It just continues the plane established by 2 Cal Plaza, Gas Company and tower on 6th and Olive further south. Or rather it would have if the original proposal survived the economic crash.
I myself am torn on the revised proposal. On one hand I'm thrilled that something is moving forward with decent density (though I think it can be higher density), and how this fills in one of the missing links between 7th Street and South Park (Grand between Olympic & 11th is the other gross offender).
On the other hand, I'm mildly disappointed to lose height and a potential skyline changer (though this can admittedly be achieved on adjacent parcels down the road). I'm far more concerned about design, though. A 7-story building will be a Type III wood frame over concrete base (2 story) building, which downtown doesn't have a very good record of. I remain cautiously optimistic, though, as Sonni Astani's previous low-rise buildings (Vero and the low rise at Concerto), are somewhat better than other buildings we seen. But one has to take into account that those buildings were planned and built at the height of the residential boom, when prices were going up, up, up; so they designed with more expensive materials. I'm hoping that design attitude prevails here, and that we get something decent, that avoids the stucco mess we've been in for far too long.
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Well, since I'm not an astronaut I'll stick to the "perceived grid".
I may be confused, but what taller buildings are there east of Olive? And south of 8th isn't very tall either. This area doesn't strike me as probable for more than, say 20-30. This development seems to me to be right at the edge of what is likely to yield a true highrise and therefore not as significant a loss as lots on Flower, Fig, Hope, etc.
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