NEW ORLEANS | Project/Development Thread - Page 65

annie himself · #**1281** Posted **Dec 4, 2010, 4:07 PM**

That Plaza Tower rendering is beautiful. I would kind of be a sore thumb in a city of older skyscrapers though. NO doesn't have a blend of old and new skyscrapers like other cities.

sguil1 · #**1282** Posted **Dec 4, 2010, 5:11 PM**

City Council members back off from complaints about Loyola Avenue streetcar spur

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.s..._back_off.html

sgray · #**1283** Posted **Dec 4, 2010, 6:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by annie himself

That Plaza Tower rendering is beautiful. I would kind of be a sore thumb in a city of older skyscrapers though. NO doesn't have a blend of old and new skyscrapers like other cities.

Is there a new Plaza Tower rendering? If so, please link it.

annie himself · #**1284** Posted **Dec 5, 2010, 4:37 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgray

Is there a new Plaza Tower rendering? If so, please link it.

I'm sorry, I was reffering to the older rendering a user posted. I haven't seen a serious proposal for a skyscraper in either NO or BR so I get excited when I do see it.

Nolacat157 · #**1285** Posted **Dec 5, 2010, 5:26 PM**

Nola.com finally announced the arrival of Walk-Ons today. Looks like they will open their other bar Happy's Irish Pub in the old Maylie's Restaurant site as well.

http://www.nola.com/business/index.s...y_buildin.html

sguil1 · #**1286** Posted **Dec 6, 2010, 2:28 AM**

New University Medical Center construction delayed, but should begin in 2011

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.s...al_center.html

Most of this pertaining to the LSU site. Just by crude estimation when I drive by the site, I would say the VA side is anywhere from 70-80% cleared. Very few structures left between the PanAm building and Dixie Brewery which is where the main hospital will be.

WesternSon · #**1287** Posted **Dec 6, 2010, 3:54 PM**

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.s..._money_fo.html

Love the idea. Def prefer this extension than the Convention Center line. If we could get a redevelopment of Iberville, tear down I-10 and this line, Rampart would be a completely different place and should fill up.

SlidellWx · #**1288** Posted **Dec 6, 2010, 5:01 PM**

Quote:

Love the idea. Def prefer this extension than the Convention Center line. If we could get a redevelopment of Iberville, tear down I-10 and this line, Rampart would be a completely different place and should fill up

Agreed!

tennis1400 · #**1289** Posted **Dec 7, 2010, 12:31 AM**

I really dont get the convention center line to be honest. It would be better if they ran it down Tchoupitoulas Street at least part of it because then it could actually be in the heart of the Warehouse District.

Blitzen · #**1290** Posted **Dec 7, 2010, 9:30 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by tennis1400

I really dont get the convention center line to be honest. It would be better if they ran it down Tchoupitoulas Street at least part of it because then it could actually be in the heart of the Warehouse District.

Agreed. Scrap the Convention Center line and run it the length of Magazine Street from Canal to Carrollton/St. Charles at the Riverbend.

Also, I don't like that the Loyola line is not being run in the neutral ground, where it could avoid the street traffic, instead, it is being run in the street. How is that any better than a bus? The engineers excuse is that the neutral ground is not wide enough, yet it's just as wide as St. Charles Avenue's.

Lastly, I think a cheap and quick priority can to make a Tulane Avenue extension tie into the Loyola line. There used to be a wider neutral ground running along Tulane Avenue that held streetcars, and the street was one lane less in either direction. Since I've never sat in traffic on Tulane Avenue, I assume it can do without one less car lane. Below is a picture of what it once looked like - courtesy of the Preservation Resource Center:

ardecila · #**1291** Posted **Dec 7, 2010, 10:00 AM**

I think Tulane is being reserved for use as a light-rail line (different from streetcars). That's the one that would run to the airport eventually.

It's interesting that there have been grand schemes to modernize Tulane Ave since the 1950s. I wonder if the latest scheme will fizzle out the same way?

Uptowner · #**1292** Posted **Dec 7, 2010, 2:59 PM**

Although the neutral ground on Loyola is actually wider than Canal in some places, it would cause more traffic disruption for the tracks to run in the neutral ground than in the street. You would have to do away with the left turns at Tulane, Gravier, Poydras, and Howard. Three of those intersections become heavily congested at certain times of the day and there isn't any room to build out queue lanes for left turnes. The intersection at Howard would possibly have to be redesigned. Contrast that with Canal and St. Charles where although the streets themselves are busy, turning movements at intersections aren't heavy enough to require anything more than a "u-turn + right".It would be one thing if the majority of traffic on Loyola was heading to a destination served by the streetcar, then you could try and force people to abandon cars for it; but I think the majority are headed Uptown or to JP.

On the other hand having the streetcar on the street is no different than Canal, St. Charles, or Carondelet.

-----------------------------------------

DillardAlum · #**1293** Posted **Dec 7, 2010, 4:16 PM**

...Also there is a pretty substantial cancer survivors sculpture garden in the Loyola neutral ground between the Energy Centre and what will be the new Hyatt entrance. I'm sure it will work fine... Not all of our streetcars are in the neutral ground. The canal streetcar shares a lane with cars while on north carrollton, and it works practically and aesthetically.

DillardAlum · #**1294** Posted **Dec 7, 2010, 4:23 PM**

But I do agree with the Tulane comment! Light rail or streetcar, the Neutral ground should return. I imagine it was done when Tulane was heavily trafficked before the Pontchartrain Expressway/I-10 made it redundant as a gateway to the cbd and out of the parish. But it bad; that little slither of a "neutral ground" is pathetic.

ardecila · #**1295** Posted **Dec 7, 2010, 5:46 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uptowner

Although the neutral ground on Loyola is actually wider than Canal in some places, it would cause more traffic disruption for the tracks to run in the neutral ground than in the street. You would have to do away with the left turns at Tulane, Gravier, Poydras, and Howard. Three of those intersections become heavily congested at certain times of the day and there isn't any room to build out queue lanes for left turnes. The intersection at Howard would possibly have to be redesigned. Contrast that with Canal and St. Charles where although the streets themselves are busy, turning movements at intersections aren't heavy enough to require anything more than a "u-turn + right".It would be one thing if the majority of traffic on Loyola was heading to a destination served by the streetcar, then you could try and force people to abandon cars for it; but I think the majority are headed Uptown or to JP.

On the other hand having the streetcar on the street is no different than Canal, St. Charles, or Carondelet.

-----------------------------------------

I don't have a problem with the tracks being in the asphalt. They should just close off the lane to cars (easy to do with some plastic bumps, green paint, and signs).

tennis1400 · #**1296** Posted **Dec 7, 2010, 5:54 PM**

Doesnt matter to me either way. What I do like to hear is the RTA trying to focus more on neighborhoods for future expansions, also a line running back to lake would be amazing. Running all the way along Canal to the lake and perhaps down Robert E Lee and back towards the Marigny down elysian Fields. Im also not really sure why the Loyola line wont connect back to the st Charles line at Lee Circle and why the S Carrolton and N Carrolton spurs arent connected too.

Uptowner · #**1297** Posted **Dec 8, 2010, 1:11 AM**

The Carrollton tracks aren't connected because they can't cross the I-10. That's why I really can't wait to see what they come up with for the Tulane Av light rail idea. The Loyola line being connected to St. Charles line sounds like a good idea. It would probably come down to how many people are going directly from UPT to St Charles and if there's anything on Howard that people want to stop at. I would like to see a new color for the new lines, that probably would cost too much, but they have a Canal Streetcar that is painted blue and looks great.

Nolacat157 · #**1298** Posted **Dec 8, 2010, 1:38 AM**

Developer plans new complex of apartments and retail spaces in downtown New Orleans

Rebecca Mowbray, The Times-Picayune

Spurred by the future Loyola Avenue streetcar line, a local development firm plans to transform a sea of downtown parking lots into 450 apartments and 125,000 square feet of shops and restaurants that it calls the South Market District.

The Domain Cos., a New Orleans- and New York-based firm that developed successful mixed-income housing along Tulane Avenue, has four blocks of parking lots under contract in the area between Loyola Avenue and Baronne Street, Julia Street and Lafayette Street -- a largely empty area of downtown that was cleared in the mid-twentieth century to help increase automobile capacity downtown.

Matt Schwartz, principal of the Domain Cos., said he hopes to turn the area back into an intimate, pedestrian-friendly zone. His company began looking at the area in thinking about the need for upscale housing for the estimated 7,000 jobs that are expected to come with the biosciences district in the coming years, but Schwartz said it was the streetcar expansion that sealed the deal.

http://www.nola.com/business/index.s...omplex_of.html

We've been talking about this area being transformed but this would be amazing. Great to hear Domain is involved too.

Nolacat157 · #**1299** Posted **Dec 8, 2010, 1:44 AM**

Also in that same article:

"Meanwhile, commercial real estate agent Bobby Talbot said the former Plaza Tower skyscraper at the corner of Loyola and Howard avenues is now under contract for redevelopment. Talbot would not say who's buying it or what the purchaser plans to do with it, but previous plans to redevelop the building called for a mix of residences, offices and retail. "We do have a contract on it," Talbot said. "

WesternSon · #**1300** Posted **Dec 8, 2010, 2:10 AM**

So excited! I asked for something to break up all that surface parking and I got a master planned,walkable community development that will take up all of it!

Such a huge win. This project will reshape downtown... I kind of don't even know where to begin... sigh

Also, the news about the plaza tower being under contract! Might mean nothing, but still!

I know some posters worry about the sustainability of housing in the CBD, but I am beginning to worry about all these developers pinning their hopes (and hopefully not bottom lines) on large scale national retail. With this project, a possible entergy powerplant development, and the last iberville redo I heard about was heavily retail based as well. There is a void in the market- yes but that big? and who will this retail be?

My next dream for downtown/warehouse- DOG PARK!