Maybe if I put it in bold red text, people will finally process the renderings of the Alliance project on the CANVAS site that I have posted 2x already. I even embedded the renderings in my last post, but too lazy to do that now.
LINK: http://orbarch.com/index.php/mies_po...on-the-boards/
What I'm not too lazy to do is to say...
It is an amazingly shitty project. 5 stories with "arts plazas" all around the building, and an even larger one on the corner of 3rd/Roosevelt. In other words, there will be concrete setbacks to add even more dead space to the 20' wide Roosevelt sidewalks, and the most important corner of this project will literally be nothing except maybe some shitty sculpture.
And, typical of Alliance, the Roosevelt frontage is garbage. One retail space on the corner of 5th, followed by an "arts plaza," followed by the 2nd, and last, retail space. The other 70% has been set aside for leasing and lobby, which will mirror exactly what Baron is proposing for their two corners of this gateway intersection.
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Circles/Micro-Units Tower: Honestly, I can't believe what's happening with the Circle building. It adds fuel to the narrative forming around Roosevelt Row and bad developers gentrifying an area that apparently only belongs to those who bought blighted buildings decades ago. Unlike many historic buildings left that are merely 'old,' this one is distinct and its size gave it potential for affordable business space.
On the plus side, towers moving south will look great, and hopefully residents directly on top of Central will lead to a variety of retail in that dead spot in downtown, though the depressing Ho at its terminus sucks. Also on the plus side is the micro-unit tower. That lot is the type that need to be filled in! If built, its ground level retail will be adjacent Ale House, immediately across from Cobra Arcade and Antique Sugar, and catty-corner to Moira (which is catty-corner to MilkBar), etc... that's how retail succeeds. And, if these end up being truly affordable, it will open up downtown to a much larger audience to live in what I think would be the best part.
Biomedical Garage - Yes, there is ground level retail in the garage. It's minimal (2,000 square feet) and the filled in area where 5th used to veer east will be turned into a plaza, whatever the hell that is since it's apparently the buzz word for making a project sound urban.
Glad that the garage isn't totally single-use, but the developers added the retail because they were forced (they told me 2 years ago to write to my representative about how this requirement would increase the cost of parking for potential users of the garage; um, NO.), and I feel like its design is almost spiteful. There is barely enough room for one restaurant, which would need to survive on its own at the edge of the PBC and next to AZ Center parking, Skyline leasing center, and an empty lot.
The fact that there is a standalone on city-owned land (meaning the City should have been able to easily follows its own urban form guidelines) structure is very indicative of the built environment the City has created in this part of downtown. Picturing those buildings on 4th/Garfield-McKinley, and 4th/McKinley-Polk is so frustrating considering how hot that area is. It could've expanded Roosevelt Row and brought more residents close to the cool businesses in that area between Roosevelt and Fillmore.
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I was thinking the same thing.
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