Legacy Union (former Charlotte Observer redevelopment)

[KJHburg]

52 minutes ago, Mid South NC said:

Still no official renderings from LH? Any thoughts on when they will let us in on this, already under construction, addition LU?  

LH will release them when it is well underway.   they are just like that. 

[Hidden Valley memory]

4 hours ago, KJHburg said:

LH will release them when it is well underway.   they are just like that. 

Scaredy cats!

[carolinaboy]

13 hours ago, QCxpat said:

Today 4:15 p.m.

These construction sites always look so tiny to me when they're vacant. But once equipment and construction activities begin they magically become gigantic.

9 hours ago, KJHburg said:

LH will release them when it is well underway.   they are just like that. 

Is there no way to request one from the city? Surely Planning or Permitting or another city agency had to review elevations/renderings, right? 

[SydneyCarton]

Does anyone have a good estimate as to when steel might start rising here?

[RANYC]

12 hours ago, KJHburg said:

LH will release them when it is well underway.   they are just like that. 

Perhaps we don't know which company, but are we fairly confident LH has a commitment from an anchor tenant?

[KJHburg]

5 minutes ago, RANYC said:

Perhaps we don't know which company, but are we fairly confident LH has a commitment from an anchor tenant?

a law firm is one anchor I know that but if they have others not sure. 

[j-man]

Jason Thomas said on Instagram that he has renderings but was asked not to post them or any other details about this projects so I guess we’ll just have to wait.  But I sure do hope that there is not one ounce of beige in this one. Sure I’d like it to look cohesive but no! If anything I wish they made the parking Deck and LU3 beige because that brick is so dull to me.

Edited April 13, 2022 by j-man

[Guest]

13 hours ago, carolinaboy said:

Is there no way to request one from the city? Surely Planning or Permitting or another city agency had to review elevations/renderings, right? 

If you know a lawyer or want to take a dive into the paperwork yourself you can always submit a FOIA request to the planning department. Guarantee you won’t get anything back before it’s publicly released though. This is a real idea though, if someone had the resources they could regularly submit requests with general language that would probably net them something before public release. 

Edited April 14, 2022 by Guest

[KJHburg]

The tower is mainly glass like Deloitte tower but the lower floors seem to look bottom of the other 2 adjacent buildings.  He has some balconies which is a good thing and retail on the ground floor.  (from what I have seen) 

[15895]

Weird they asked for it not to be released. 

 

What would be the reason for not releasing it? 

[Madison Parkitect]

32 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

The tower is mainly glass like Deloitte tower but the lower floors seem to look bottom of the other 2 adjacent buildings.  He has some balconies which is a good thing and retail on the ground floor.  (from what I have seen) 

I've probably seen the same rendering. It's "fine." Better than the BofA tower and better than their SouthPark disaster.

[j-man]

[Urbs42]

Will height be similar to Deloitte? 

[Norm2]

33 minutes ago, Urbs42 said:

Will height be similar to Deloitte? 

I believe so

[KJHburg]

I believe it is 23-24 stories so a few higher and closer in height to the Ally Bank Center. 

[J-Rob]

27 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

I believe it is 23-24 stories so a few higher and closer in height to the Ally Bank Center. 

It is fun to think back on how much this project has changed Uptown. I don't love all of the LH decisions, but they took a beaten down newspaper HQ and helped transform a skyline.  The stair-step effect from 277 up to Deloitte, up to Ally and LU4, and then up to BoAT, old DEC, and new DEC is pretty incredible. 

[j-man]

4 hours ago, Urbs42 said:

Will height be similar to Deloitte? 

Taller to my understanding. By about 80 ft. So you’ll notice the difference.

[nakers2]

On 4/13/2022 at 8:12 AM, carolinaboy said:

These construction sites always look so tiny to me when they're vacant. But once equipment and construction activities begin they magically become gigantic.

I think what this effect really highlights is the fact that humans can do a lot with not much space. You're absolutely right that this lot was not that large, yet in the space that some might build a home with yard and driveway, they can build a 20+ storey (or higher if so inclined) building with multiple uses. 

[Reverie39]

On 4/14/2022 at 9:17 AM, J-Rob said:

It is fun to think back on how much this project has changed Uptown. I don't love all of the LH decisions, but they took a beaten down newspaper HQ and helped transform a skyline.  The stair-step effect from 277 up to Deloitte, up to Ally and LU4, and then up to BoAT, old DEC, and new DEC is pretty incredible. 

“Transformed the skyline” is the right choice of words. I really think the Charlotte skyline went from good to great over the course of Legacy. It is seriously impressive. 

[SydneyCarton]

On 4/16/2022 at 9:30 AM, Reverie39 said:

“Transformed the skyline” is the right choice of words. I really think the Charlotte skyline went from good to great over the course of Legacy. It is seriously impressive. 

I agree.  I think that Charlotte's skyline is among the best in the US, along with NY, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, LA, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Austin, Denver,  Minneapolis, and Nashville.  Considering that its metro population is far smaller than most of those cities, it's a pretty impressive feat.  Also, it keeps getting better.

Charlotte's skyline is so vastly superior to similarly-sized (or even larger) metros like Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Phoenix, San Diego, San Antonio, Orlando, New Orleans, Raleigh, Portland, Cincinnati, Indy, etc.  However, the "Rust Belt" cities (and Portland) have some really gorgeous, old low-rise buildings.

For a metro of 2.8m people, this is VERY impressive.   I wish I could visit more than 5 or 6 times per year.

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by SydneyCarton

[j-man]

7 hours ago, Reverie39 said:

“Transformed the skyline” is the right choice of words. I really think the Charlotte skyline went from good to great over the course of Legacy. It is seriously impressive. 

I see your point but I think the skyline went from lackluster to decent. I’ll just pull it back some. Sure in recent years this project and others have transformed the skyline but for a metro and city this large I think it’s still in a sense lacking. Looking at the skyline I (a person with great guessing ability) if I didn’t live here or know, would guess that this is a city of about 300 to 400,000 people. I know skylines dont determine population but there is somewhat of a correlation. I still feel like it’s a city with just a few blocks full of density. Let’s be real. This city has grown tremendously but most of the growth has been spread out and hasn’t created that much density as most people may think. I would assume that like 90% of the apartments built in the last 10 years have been no taller than 6 stories. And office for the most part has been below midrise. Not saying skyscrapers haven’t been built because it’s obvious but it’s still not really making center city feel or look that much more dense. I feel like Nashville, Atlanta and Austin are cities where they are truly becoming more dense centrally while Charlotte is kind of semi-dense. I think it’s going to take the proposed Dillworth/SouthEnd and a few more North side of Uptown developments for Charlotte to actually feel and visually look that big of a difference bigger. 

Edited April 16, 2022 by j-man

[Blue_Devil]

4 minutes ago, j-man said:

I see your point but I think the skyline went from lackluster to decent. I’ll just pull it back some. Sure in recent years this project and others have transformed the skyline but for a metro and city this large I think it’s still in a sense lacking. Looking at the skyline I (a person with great guessing ability) if I didn’t live here or know, would guess that this is a city of about 300 to 400,000 people. I know skylines dont determine population but there is somewhat of a correlation. I still feel like it’s a city with just a few blocks full of density. Let’s be real. This city has grown tremendously but most of the growth has been spread out and hasn’t created that much density as most people may think. I would assume that like 90% of the apartments built in the last 10 years have been no taller than 6 stories. And office for the most part has been below midrise. Not saying skyscrapers haven’t been built because it’s obvious but it’s still not really making center city feel or look that much more dense. 

I mean if they keep building the way they are in SouthEnd, down Morehead and Midtown, and that growth flows into uptown, it is going to feel as dense as any great metro. I mean, the Real Clayton said there are 8500 units planned or in progress between Morehead and SouthEnd alone right now. That translates into close to 10,000 new residence in a very small area.

[j-man]

2 minutes ago, Blue_Devil said:

I mean if they keep building the way they are in SouthEnd, down Morehead and Midtown, and that growth flows into uptown, it is going to feel as dense as any great metro. I mean, the Real Clayton said there are 8500 units planned or in progress between Morehead and SouthEnd alone right now. That translates into close to 10,000 new residence in a very small area.

That’s an exciting thing to hear. But I think my point is more so speaking to how right now most of the skyline is comprised of just Uptown, and Uptown right now is not really leading development that is noticeable to the average person or the naked eye. Lots of developments are filling in undeveloped areas and not really changing the skyline or stretch of it. You see what I’m saying. And yes it will take all the surrounding center city developments to connect to make it feel bigger. 

[go_vertical]

I agree with j-man in that the CBD/central core is and has been pretty darn decent for the size the city was at any given time and now it's better than ever.  While I love the skyline I still think it is missing that fanning out and tapering off in regards to density.  Most cities with a comparable size central skyscraper grouping have several blocks of 8, 10, 15 story structures transitioning out in many directions until you start to get into the SFH old suburbs.  Charlotte doesn't really have that.  I mean, we're starting to get that but that CBD-supporting density just isn't quite there yet.  It's like driving through uptown.  Great sun-shaded density when you're carving the canyons, but there isn't that multi-block stretch of urbanity leading up to or away from it.  It's mostly small scale buildings and surface lots surrounding everything.  Now I'm sure ten to fifteen years from now will be very different.  A sizeable amount of lots have been consumed, but there is still so much more to go. 

[deleted account]

On 4/16/2022 at 12:24 PM, SydneyCarton said:

Charlotte's skyline is so vastly superior to similarly-sized (or even larger) metros like Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Phoenix, San Diego,

San Diego's skyline ain't bad, despite height restrictions and too many near duplicate buildings...definitely wouldn't say vastly inferior to Charlotte:

Edited April 17, 2022 by JBS