Optimist Park / Belmont Projects

[KJHburg]

I though about that too as my family dad, grandparents, great grandparents all were "Lintmen" or Lintwomen from Saxapahaw to Greensboro to Concord to Charlotte.  My relatives not only picked cotton but weaved into cloth or hosiery or jeans. 

[videtur quam contuor]

I wonder how many knew about byssinosis. Also known as brown lung. The nobility of the labor was in retrospect. There was little to celebrate in the midst.

[Guest]

Yup. The developer and architect need to remove elements on the facade. I think it looks better simplified.

It's like the architect panics and tries to add as many colors and elevation changes as possible and it just back-fires. Less is More.

I did this screwing around in photo-affinity, hopefully they can change a couple facade details. I care this much because it's a good missing middle project and then to hatchet the facade is like grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory.

[tozmervo]

1 hour ago, mazman34340 said:

Yup. The developer and architect need to remove elements on the facade. I think it looks better simplified.

It's like the architect panics and tries to add as many colors and elevation changes as possible and it just back-fires. Less is More.

I did this screwing around in photo-affinity, hopefully they can change a couple facade details. I care this much because it's a good missing middle project and then to hatchet the facade is like grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory.

You should enjoy McMansion Hell.

[videtur quam contuor]

I am with her:

https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/29/15896146/zillow-will-not-sue-mcmansion-hell-blog

[Guest]

Bruh, don't trigger me. The igits already are trying to build a 1,000,000$ home in Belmont. They built and sold a 700,000$ home a block from me. Blegh.

[Urban Cowboy]

Yeah I’ve noticed several tear downs in Optimist Park recently sold for $300K. Several homes under construction and for sale in the $550-$750k range. 
 

$1,000,000 in Belmont sounds crazy, but the location of OP and Belmont is going to keep driving people in. Super accessible and quick to get anywhere.

[KJHburg]

Highest priced house sold so far has been $700,000 in Belmont neighborhood a new house.  New homes being built are substantially higher in price. 

[UPNoDa]

This market is long overdue for a correction. These home prices won't sustain themselves with the amount of unemployed folks we have out there. 

After the forebearances and moratoriums are up in Dec, the banks will be flooded with millions in inventory. 

"Buy low, sell high"    -  Warren Buffet

[KJHburg]

Prices may come off their highs but this market is very different than 2007/08/09 where there was a HUGE oversupply of homes. there is not this time the supply is about 1.5 months in Mecklenburg with 6 months being equilibrium between buyers and sellers.   Not saying this makes it any better unemployment is bad at any level but many of the unemployed were mostly renters not home owners.  Most of the job losses have been in the retail and restaurant and hospitality industries.   Airline woes and layoffs would have more impact on the Charlotte market.  There is no housing inventory being built below $250K in this city or very little of it and the bottom of the pyramid of home prices is the biggest.  Maybe high end properties will come off their highs but not so sure that will happen under 400,000 in this city. 

[HighRiseHillbilly]

On 9/8/2020 at 3:24 PM, mazman34340 said:

Okay so I saw the facade to 2020-05 and I don't like it. It's not ugly, it's just really generic and I think Belmont deserves a little better.

It looks appropriate for garden apartments farther from the core of the city than in a neighborhood like Belmont. Worse, it's the vanguard for the main-street that might be forming on Parkwood.

The biggest problem is the roof, it's too large and throws the building's proportions off, especially on the multi-family section of the building. A flat roof is completely appropriate for a three-four story building. I also talked to some architects or folks with design backgrounds. There's too much visual clutter. One of the biggest secrets of architecture is that simplicity can look gorgeous. The developer might actually save a little money by reducing the details on the building and yet it will still look okay if not better.

Finally, most developers screw up the brick portions of their apartment building. The brick detailing should have a consistent height across the facade. This tip given to me by a lovely architect. I'm not very good at affinityphoto but I'll show what a few small changes can do.

I think adding something like this closer to the core of the city gives the area a more "family friendly" (for lack of a better term) feel. While the style may not be great architecturally, it will, prices permitting, attract more "regular folk". It's the regular folk that bring in those neighborhood, lived-in atmospheres we want in these areas. As much as today's youths drive me bananas, seeing them walking around these core neighborhoods means we have reached new levels of the places people call "home". I see them trickling in to uptown and Noda and this will increase them to Belmont as well. They'll go out with their crappy music, ridiculous slang, unoriginal outfits, dad's money, and signify that this is a good place to live and invest. 

As long as the whole area doesn't turn into this, a little drop here and there is good yeast.

[Desert Power]

^I'd much rather have this type of housing added than a couple of mini-mansions. We do not have enough missing middle housing like this, but Parkwood between Plaza and N Davidson is going to have a good amount built. This is a good thing!

In other news, snapped a pick of the 25th St bridge:

 

[Guest]

On 9/21/2020 at 7:01 PM, Desert Power said:

^I'd much rather have this type of housing added than a couple of mini-mansions. We do not have enough missing middle housing like this, but Parkwood between Plaza and N Davidson is going to have a good amount built. This is a good thing!

In other news, snapped a pick of the 25th St bridge:

I still approve of the project even with the mediocre façade. I am in a 100% agreement. Just trying to push the developer to make a few changes. If not, then the battle is across the street with the proposed commercial building.

[Urban Cowboy]

I heard some real encouraging news regarding the Yandle Witherspoon site on Brevard. I didn’t know this, but apparently there’s an old 1800s/early 1900s yarn factory that’s covered up by the current metal facade. And white point plans to restore it similarly to how they restored Optimist Hall. There’s obviously room for other buildings on the site - but if this news holds true it will be great for additional character in Optimist Park.

[SgtCampsalot]

43 minutes ago, Urban Cowboy said:

I heard some real encouraging news regarding the Yandle Witherspoon site on Brevard. I didn’t know this, but apparently there’s an old 1800s/early 1900s yarn factory that’s covered up by the current metal facade. And white point plans to restore it similarly to how they restored Optimist Hall. There’s obviously room for other buildings on the site - but if this news holds true it will be great for additional character in Optimist Park.

...Where is this?

[Urban Cowboy]

3 minutes ago, SgtCampsalot said:

...Where is this?

1001 N Brevard St, Charlotte, NC 28206
https://goo.gl/maps/EtKjUQrzy6HQLHFWA

[Desert Power]

9 hours ago, Urban Cowboy said:

I heard some real encouraging news regarding the Yandle Witherspoon site on Brevard. I didn’t know this, but apparently there’s an old 1800s/early 1900s yarn factory that’s covered up by the current metal facade. And white point plans to restore it similarly to how they restored Optimist Hall. There’s obviously room for other buildings on the site - but if this news holds true it will be great for additional character in Optimist Park.

This would be really cool. OP has a long ways to go on the walkability.

[slipperypete]

16 hours ago, Urban Cowboy said:

I heard some real encouraging news regarding the Yandle Witherspoon site on Brevard. I didn’t know this, but apparently there’s an old 1800s/early 1900s yarn factory that’s covered up by the current metal facade. And white point plans to restore it similarly to how they restored Optimist Hall. There’s obviously room for other buildings on the site - but if this news holds true it will be great for additional character in Optimist Park.

This would be great. But the 1938 aerial view shows a cluster of small buildings in the footprint of the current one:

http://timemachine.mcmap.org/#17.25/35.232468/-80.829624

If there is an old mill building in there it must be pretty small, and they would have had to go to a lot of extra effort to preserve it since it would have been fully encapsulated at the time the current building was built in '72.

[Prodev]

Yeah, I'm not buying it. Nothing there that can be seen from the naked eye would lead me to believe that any of those buildings date back any earlier than the 1960s or 70s. 

[ertley]

47 minutes ago, slipperypete said:

This would be great. But the 1938 aerial view shows a cluster of small buildings in the footprint of the current one:

http://timemachine.mcmap.org/#17.25/35.232468/-80.829624

If there is an old mill building in there it must be pretty small, and they would have had to go to a lot of extra effort to preserve it since it would have been fully encapsulated at the time the current building was built in '72.

All I can say is, Pshew, because my humble proposal* to have the spur between the Silver Line and the Blue Line through the 13th Street right of way then goes right around the corner of this building, and may require a little... ahem... modifications to said structure.

*I recognize that this is all in my head and will likely remain there.

[kermit]

4 hours ago, slipperypete said:

This would be great. But the 1938 aerial view shows a cluster of small buildings in the footprint of the current one:

http://timemachine.mcmap.org/#17.25/35.232468/-80.829624

If there is an old mill building in there it must be pretty small, and they would have had to go to a lot of extra effort to preserve it since it would have been fully encapsulated at the time the current building was built in '72.

No need to doubt the air photo. But here is the Sanborn map supporting it (map does not have North at top of page). The map is based on 1929 data collection and was republished in 1953 (I believe that the 1953 version simply copied the 1929, I don't believe any updates occured):

Edited October 2, 2020 by kermit

[CLT Development]

Based on my research the oldest building on site is from 1972. There are two distinct structures that appear to be connected by the corrugated steel building in the center, one of which looks to be from the 70s and one of which looks to be much older, I just haven't found record of anything retained on site being older than 50 years.

Edited October 3, 2020 by The Real Clayton

[Urban Cowboy]

Yeah I was surprised when the info was shared with me, and I even responded to the developer that I was surprised since the warehouse doesn’t appear to be old at all - and he said that Optimist Hall looked the same way (especially along parkwood where they demolished part of the additions) before it was restored.

The developer that shared the info with me is not affiliated with White Point, but is active in OP. And is in the know. Thank you to everyone for digging into this - it does seem that if it is true - the historical structure/footprint would be small and likely incorporated into a larger site plan.

He also shared that the Duke Energy lot (north of the hall) future development will be  “big and bulky,” but is a couple years out still. And he didn’t specify or share what’s going there.

[Urban Cowboy]

https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/mixed-use-development-planned-optimist-park/53MZF7OYBREPZDL3KWF3MD434U/

[archiham04]

On 10/2/2020 at 9:45 PM, The Real Clayton said:

Based on my research the oldest building on site is from 1972. There are two distinct structures that appear to be connected by the corrugated steel building in the center, one of which looks to be from the 70s and one of which looks to be much older, I just haven't found record of anything retained on site being older than 50 years.

Welcome to UP The Real Clayton... watch out for the fake Claytons out there....