Quote:
Originally Posted by Jjs5056
I don't think any of the projects proposed and built by the Alliance + ORB team are improvements - or, at least, a good fit for their locations. I worked on a marketing project for Alliance, and they couldn't stop talking about how their 'urban' apartments were doing so much better than others, so it's no surprise that they keep churning them out. But, calling them 'urban' is misleading (hell, most of their projects are gated) and it's sad to see them in areas along the Central Corridor, particularly Broadstone Arts District and 3rd/Roosevelt.
Their Tempe lakeside project is probably the best, likely due to the geographic/site limitations more than anything else, and even in that, they've proposed a "co-working space" for residents (aka a business center) to appease the DRC who wanted commercial space to complement the live/work theme that has developed along 1st Street.
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I think ORB's desire to take what appears to be any project seems to be poisoning their overall work product. But each of these have specific considerations:
The Camelback East Core Specific Plan dictated a lot of the awfulness of the 26th St project by mandating a "pedestrian spine" that runs in theory from this to the Colonnade through the middle of each development rather than activate street frontages. The 2006 update didn't re-approach these broken 1980s non-urbanism design standards.
Aura on Indian School is garbage with its 76' setback on Indian School, but they had to get a dozen variances to build that and he no doubt had to juggle neighbors and parking standards.
The 8th St and Camelback project, as it turns out, is somehow very dense. I'm guessing it's a pile of one bedrooms and studios.
His project on 16th and Colter is perfect--limited front setbacks, the only side setbacks are for fire code.