37 replies to this topic

[Lady Celeste]

sunshine, on Oct 25 2006, 07:36 AM, said:

How is the prices of condo in downtown Atlanta? I know houses are cheap up there in the suburb.

I would not call the housing prices in Atlanta cheap. What I do know, having worked in the industry, is that metro Atlanta (like it's counterparts metro Dallas and metro Houston) have not suffered from the overinflation of housing prices. In these very large metros housing has appreciated about 6 to 7% yearly. This is remarkable considering that all three are metros of 5 million or more. This has kept the cost of living down. This pricing restraint has also facilitated these three metros high growth rates (numerically speaking).
Even condos ITP have shown great restraint. Many who have lived in the south for years will complain about to prices because to many of us they seem higher than normal. To the northerners and westerners moving here they are a bargin. I think one can find condo pricing very varied here in Atlanta...especially in the city. You can find a nice condo starting in the 190's at Atlantic Station all the way up to a $12,000,000 7500 sq ft penthouse currently for sale in Buckhead's 2500 Peachtree St tower.

All in all, I would not call the housing here cheap....more like accurately priced. Especially when kept in prespective. Maybe even....more bang for your buck. Some would even say...considering all the amenties (arts, sports, shopping, business, entertainment)....you are getting a steal. I think you get the picture.  

[Martinman]

Allen Plaza website did a rare update of the website which was to add the rendering of the W with a view of the north side.

Edited by Martinman, 26 October 2006 - 10:26 PM.

[UrbanAtl]

I would like to see two retails additions added on either side of the motor court entrance for the W and office tower.  It would hide that giant parking garage a little better and help create a more enjoyable street scene.  That area of town is going to be awesome.  It seems odd that the developer doesn’t believe more in the viability of street retail in that area of Downtown.

[AubieTurtle]

Like most renderings, the ones of the W are taking quite a few artistic liberties.  For one, the buildings will not glow like that.  This is a building in which people are going to sleep.  You can expect that a large number of the rooms at any given time will have closed curtains, lights turned off, or lights of much lower illuminating levels than what you see here.  Plaza Midtown for example is not easy to pick out of the skyline at night unless you are close to it.  Residential buildings in general do not have large amount of exterior illumination because no one wants a spotlight shining in through their window when they are trying to sleep.  Also large amounts of exterior illumination degrades the quality of the skyline view because the building lights cause ones pupils to get smaller which reduces the amount of light coming in from the skyline.

As far as the blue band up the side of the building goes, it is hard to tell just how much, if any, of it will be actually illuminated.  It looks to be to be merely glass that is of a different color than the adjacent glass.

They also omit the concrete wall that seperates the sidewalk next to Spring Street from the ramps to the connector.  The walk through that area is somewhat uncomfortable because the wall is too close to the side walk and gives a feeling of being trapped.  Because of the large amount of foot traffic in the stretch of Spring from the homeless at the nearby Peachtree-Pine shelter, feeling trapped is that much worse.  Unfortunately the guys from Peachtree-Pine tend to be the most aggressive of the homeless population.  It is unlikely that there is going to be a lot of foot traffic up Spring Street to Midtown from people living or staying at the W.  The fact that once you make it over the connector all you have greeting you is blocks of anti-pedestrian facades and parking decks doesn't help any.  The only good thing in that stretch is Baltimore Row but because it is gated and off to the side, it doesn't help any.  The backside of Twelve facing Spring isn't going to do much for the pedestrian experience either.

Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty happy with what is being built.  It is great that so much of the parking is underground instead of creating a dead pedestal a story above the ground.

[Lady Celeste]

I'm sure everyone has seen somewhere the article in the ABC about Allen Plaza. What strikes me is that 50 Allen Plaza (potentially 48 stories) overlooking the Downtown Connecter (reportedly 450,000 cars past that location daily) would have naming rights. Talk about adverstisement to the max. Atlanta recieves alot of drive throughs from out of towners because of the convergence of I75/I85. I wonder could some F500 company be induced to relocated downtown (from either metro Atlanta or nationwide) to 50 Allen Plaza.  Okay, I'm dreaming but it would be nice.

[Martinman]

UrbanAtl, on Oct 28 2006, 10:28 AM, said:

I would like to see two retails additions added on either side of the motor court entrance for the W and office tower.  It would hide that giant parking garage a little better and help create a more enjoyable street scene.  That area of town is going to be awesome.  It seems odd that the developer doesn’t believe more in the viability of street retail in that area of Downtown.

What giant parking garage?  The parking is underground.  The structure in the middle will house a ballroom, green terrace, restaurant etc.

[UrbanAtl]

Good news that it's not a parking garage but I would still like to see as much streetscape as possible dedicated for retail.  Having that gap on the sidewalk open up to the motor court is my problem.  It's not like it is a pedestrian oriented plaza.  Overall it’s a great design and I’m excited about how that area of the city is changing.  But we are past the point of being excited for just SOMETHING to happen.  We have got to step up the quality all around.  There’s always room for improvement.

[Martinman]

UrbanAtl, on Nov 7 2006, 06:38 PM, said:

Good news that it's not a parking garage but I would still like to see as much streetscape as possible dedicated for retail.  Having that gap on the sidewalk open up to the motor court is my problem.  It's not like it is a pedestrian oriented plaza.  Overall it’s a great design and I’m excited about how that area of the city is changing.  But we are past the point of being excited for just SOMETHING to happen.  We have got to step up the quality all around.  There’s always room for improvement.

Given the site however, there really is no othere place to put the entrance to the underground deck.

[Kenneth Disraili-Jean]

I think Allen Plaza is going to be a wonderful addition to the city as far as retail, and a nice addition also to the skyline.

[Neo]

kennethdisraili, on Jun 13 2007, 04:38 PM, said:

Several? I disagree that making a comment that press info has not been released on a project is idle chit chat. And what led you to leave the Boston Forum and come over to the Atlanta Forum in the first place?

Atlrvr is a part of the staff here at UP and has the authority to do so if nothing else than by my permission.  I suggest you leave out the questions to the staff here at UP and stick to the forum topics.  We strive for high quality conversation here on UrbanPlanet.org and non-sense off-topic discussion ads nothing but unreadability to the threads for other members and guests.

Under your illusion that saying something hasn't happened isn't idle chit-chat then I could make posts every day for eternity that the world hasn't ended and that would be ok?  I'm sure when a press release has been giving that it will be posted, but regardless it adds nothing to the topic.  No staff member deletes a post like this with knife in hand for a particular user but does so only to clean up the thread to make it more readable and to the point for other members and the hundreds of thousands of guests that peruse these forums each month.

For you in particular, posts like this: "I know!!!!, I told you so." add absolutely nothing to these forums and if you disagree there are other forums on the net where this is allowed.  We choose to keep a higher standard by not having posts like this on our forums and it is your choice to abide by those standards or go elsewhere.

[ironchapman]

kennethdisraili, on Jun 13 2007, 04:38 PM, said:

Several? I disagree that making a comment that press info has not been released on a project is idle chit chat. And what led you to leave the Boston Forum and come over to the Atlanta Forum in the first place? Oh carefull, don't accidentally hit that Report button. It's ok, I know.... and I forgive you.

If I recall correctly, Atlrvr used to live here in the South until recently, so he has a bit of an interest in this area. He's been around here in the Atlanta forum a few times before.

But basically, it is the moderator's job to maintain the forum. In other words, keep it free of anything that goes against the rules, and it doesn't really matter where they live.

For more info, I refer you to Neo's post above.

[Kenneth Disraili-Jean]

The most interesting aspect to Allen Plaza so far is the new 28-story W Hotel and Residences tower. The building is going to have a heliport on top of the tower. Is that not cool or what. So just think, you can land in your private jet at Dekalb-Peachtree or Charlie Brown Airport, then get on a helicopter and fly downtown to the W Tower, land on the roof, then just simply get off, get on the elevator and go down to your floor and your home or in your hotel room. That is just so awesome!!!!!!!

[JerseyBoy]

A bit over excessive and a waste of fuel, but still cool nonetheless!

[Kenneth Disraili-Jean]

DaAchiever, on Jun 21 2007, 04:15 AM, said:

A bit over excessive and a waste of fuel, but still cool nonetheless!

I totally agree with you DaAchiever on this. It is cool having the heliport on the roof of the W, but how often do you think they would actually use it, I just feel it wouldn't be that often, but the architecture is really good in my opinion.

[Kenneth Disraili-Jean]

Sorry about the blank post I seemed to be having tech problems with my controls.

Anyway does anyone have any lattest updates on the Allen Plaza complex?

Edited by kennethdisraili, 26 November 2007 - 11:19 PM.

[JerseyBoy]

W Hotel

Update 4-3-08

[perimeter285]

Gosh I hope those solid black window panes in the Westin are only temporary while they order mirrored glass.  Those look awful.

[GRguy]

What a great new addition to the skyline. That view from the Connector was always ripe for some additional buildings. It never showed Atlanta to its fullest with the Merchandise Mart and some other low buildings in prime view. This makes it look much more like the city it actually is.