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Legacy Union (former Charlotte Observer redevelopment)


Missmylab4

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I can't speak for anyone else but personally, I hate:

The color (beige)

The materials (pre-cast concrete!)

The design (dated, stubby, suburban, unoriginal, etc)

The site plan (what little we know)

The anticipated impact on the rest of the site (a boring and un-urban mini-mall that doesn't become a utilized part of uptown is what I'm envisioning)

I hate this thing to the core...

Edited by JBS
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In terms of the site design, the ideal would have been to copy the 1m sf mall at the Hudson Yards with the entrances to many stores on the periphery of the building so that it looks like street level retail.  It's not clear that there will be more than 100k sf of retail here -- if that.

I was always told 250k+ retail by a developer friend. I'm starting to doubt that because of the obvious topographic challenges of the back side of the site.


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Even 250k sf is not nearly enough.

I think that the architecture is sufficient, but the failure to develop an enomous retail center is a colossal waste.  This was the area to do it, and it could have serviced the huge demand from the thousands of new apartments along South Boulevard.

Edited by edmundblackadder1999
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2 hours ago, J-Rob said:

Is it me, or does the land elevation of this tower seem lower than that of One Wells Fargo?  Even though the height of the building is the same, in those skyline renderings One Wells Fargo seems more prominent than this building.  I think the height of 588 is great, but selfishly I wish it were 5 - 10 floors higher just to counteract what appears to me to be lower land elevation.  Any portion of that extra 10 floors that are possible would be awesome, and would help balance out the top of the skyline just a tad bit more.

 

 

According to the polaris topo map the Observer site, now identified without a building, has a ground level altitude of 734-748 feet. 

Wells Fargo One has a topo altitude for that block of 722-742 feet. At Trade and Tryon it is 760 feet. Tryon at 277 goes up to 770 feet but that is a man made embankment to support the roadway.

http://polaris3g.mecklenburgcountync.gov/#mat=559604&pid=12505101&gisid=12505101

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The rendering shows a squished, stretched, slightly fancier version of the CO building. It's even being placed centrally on the tract, as before. I imagine it looking up at DEC screaming, "I am important!!" All I see as a Levine-esque attempt to put a strangle-hold on the land. We'll see what happens during the next cycle. Eyebrows are raised in defiance right now though. 

Edited by alb1no panther
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2 hours ago, tarhoosier said:

 

According to the polaris topo map the Observer site, now identified without a building, has a ground level altitude of 734-748 feet. 

Wells Fargo One has a topo altitude for that block of 722-742 feet. At Trade and Tryon it is 760 feet. Tryon at 277 goes up to 770 feet but that is a man made embankment to support the roadway.

http://polaris3g.mecklenburgcountync.gov/#mat=559604&pid=12505101&gisid=12505101

Thanks for the information.  My eyes deceived me. 

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10 hours ago, Miesian Corners said:

Somebody lock Johnny Harris in his SouthPark office and take his intertnet and phone access away. It looks like a bad post-modern tower found along I-635 in suburban Dallas in 1985. If I worked at LS3P, I'd be embarrassed to have my name on it.

If you worked in it, at least you wouldn't have to look at it.

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19 minutes ago, DMann said:

from the initial rendering, I think the new tower needs to be on the back of the CO block more.

The low rise in front of the tower face Hill street on the picture above. So the tower could not be to the right much more..  You can slill see part of Tryon Place to the left.  which you will see when all is built.   It is not perfect but it should give you an idea how the LH tower will fill in.

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47 minutes ago, JBS said:

If they add the 10 floors and banish the beige, this will go from horrific to regrettable (assuming the rest of the site-plan is decent).  I do wonder if the architects/developers pay attention to public opinion?

Well I just turned in 1000 words of my opinion of the building :-). Hopefully it gets some shares.

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I think it's a decent building.  Its shape  reminds me of the building with the pyramid crown just off Park Ave (in the middle of the photo) which also is just under 600' and looks quite good imo.  In the far right of the second photo, One Worldwide Plaza can be seen.  I think that the new Lincoln Harris tower looks more like the Park Ave tower than WW Plaza.

I also think that the new Lincoln Harris tower is better than the BoA building that opened a few years ago on College St.  That's a short, fat box with a curved corner as its sole redeeming feature.

It sounds like Tryon Place -- not this -- is the real cause for concern.

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Edited by edmundblackadder1999
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4 hours ago, JBS said:

If they add the 10 floors and banish the beige, this will go from horrific to regrettable (assuming the rest of the site-plan is decent).  I do wonder if the architects/developers pay attention to public opinion?

They do, but I suspect the $50 million cost of adding ten floors meant more to them than public opinion.

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26 minutes ago, tozmervo said:

They do, but I suspect the $50 million cost of adding ten floors meant more to them than public opinion.

I am going to optimistically hope they pre-lease more of the building so they can justify $25 million for an additional 5 floors.

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