Quote:
Originally Posted by mikevbar1
This is what I would expect. The owners of the lot know what they have, and know what they can-and will- do with it. 30 stories is a given for any downtown lot in my books at this point, given that we can’t go taller in some places to make others shorter elsewhere. That said, setbacks are more than called for on the lot in question, and not just to bring visual attention to King William, but also to respect James’ street wall. The question I always ask is if the city actually has the competence to ensure that the eventual development considers these things. There are too many instances already where there is no conventional urban design wisdom considered. While it’s created an “organic” charm that exemplifies the raw market interest in the Hammer rather than some artificially induced ‘growth’ (Yknow those small districts in rust belt cities that end as quick as they start) , sometimes we need that attention to detail, and the city hasn’t provided it thus far. Sometimes it feels like it would literally kill us (or a project, I suppose) to make such small asks.
Still, developers have shown before that the more valuable their lot, the more they’ll put into bells and whistles to make it nice. This isn’t the edge of downtown, this is the part of the core that’s been desirable since before I was born AFAIK. I expect a quality brick treatment (or something of similar quality) on the podium at a minimum for anything proposed on James for the foreseeable future. In short, a developer couldn’t get away with the Vranich (“ikea”) treatment!
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I certainly hope not - if core urban were to design this it would be perfect, I just know it. Stuff on the james st stretch generally seems to get a bit of a nicer treatment - at least so far. I would honestly prefer everyone that is sitting on plots (like the one beside the bank) to wait until someone who can respect the plot will build something on it.
I am curious about.. how someone could connect to the plot we are discussing though, since there is literally crumbling brick and pieces of rebar sticking out of it - would they but right up to it like cobalt did and jus swallow and repair the imperfections on the edge? But like I said, I question if I will ever see this developed in my lifetime..
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In reference to the picture above - it's looking great but i still don't know how I feel about the white stone, esp. in the cornice area where it feels.. disjointed.. but just personal gripes.. I feel the part under the cornices should have uniformly been the same type of stone that topped them, to give it a feeling of its own separate building, not one that's connected at the top, thus imo destroying that illusion they are trying to go for. Still this is probably their first stab at something like this so you live and you learn.
I am still unsure.. what the top floors of the podium are though, is this entirely disneyland and its entirely an illusionary facade? Or are actual businesses behind them... I can't remember what the floorplans showed..
also I remember another person on another project commenting how they did the little bevel on each floor even though it was original brick, making it look like precast - looking at this podium there is a metal lintel that goes entirely across on each floor under the windows stretching all the way across - that bevel most likely is simply to cover that lintel up - you can actually see it as a slight gap in the pictures above. I seriously hope they cover it up so it doesn't rust and run down the brick..
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