The Water Campus

[richyb83]

Judging from the article from Sept 5th(Post #58) the "first building" going up will sit in the northeast corner of the block bordered by Terrace Street on the north, Arches Street on the west, Oklahoma Street on the south and Aztec Street on the east. Its physical address will be 510 Oklahoma St.

 

I would have guessed Building 6A first...but Looking at the above Site Plan & article...that looks to be located somewhere on Block "10" (bordering/north of Oklahoma St).... 10A says 3-floors...but the article says it's 4-floors..so that's not it?...it looks to be located where the parking is 10C?

 

Two other buildings planned for the first phase of development are set to house the offices for the Water Institute of the Gulf and a CPRA/LSU lab designed to study and model the lower Mississippi River basin. That would be 10B &...?

[Southron]

Hey guys, great project! Didn't see these renderings posted yet and I hope I'm not duplicating anything. What's the story with the streetcar line? Is that likely to be implemented?

 

[richyb83]

Thanks for dropping by Southron! You do a fantastic job over in Alabama threads.... Almost did not recognize you w the new Dolphins avatar!

 

Hopefully the new streetcar line will be implemented; the funding is coming into play..not sure of the timeline.  The line is to be about 7 1/2 miles; from the downtown loop at the State Capitol/new IBM Complex; down Nicholson corridor thru the Water Campus & proposed River District next door; down to LSU & the new mixed-use university village at the old baseball stadium(across from Tiger Stadium)

[Southron]

Thanks for dropping by Southron! You do a fantastic job over in Alabama threads.... Almost did not recognize you w the new Dolphins avatar!

 

Hopefully the new streetcar line will be implemented; the funding is coming into play..not sure of the timeline.  The line is to be about 7 1/2 miles; from the downtown loop at the State Capitol/new IBM Complex; down Nicholson corridor thru the Water Campus & proposed River District next door; down to LSU & the new mixed-use university village at the old baseball stadium(across from Tiger Stadium)

7 1/2 miles, wow... if we could just get a half mile done here in Gumptown from the state capitol to our riverfront, I would stand in front of Bryant-Denny on game day and scream "War Eagle" a thousand times at the top of my lungs.   Sincerely hope that your state transportation department is supportive of such projects and that this gets done as planned. Roughly a decade behind your city in adopting a master plan based on New Urbanism, we love to see these kinds of projects and hope that we'll see similar success down the road.

[richyb83]

7 1/2 miles, wow... if we could just get a half mile done here in Gumptown from the state capitol to our riverfront, I would stand in font of Bryant-Denny on game day and scream "War Eagle" a thousand times at the top of my lungs.   Sincerely hope that your state transportation department is supportive of such projects and that this gets done as planned. Roughly a decade behind your city in adopting a master plan based on New Urbanism, we love to see these kinds of projects and hope that we'll see similar success down the road.

Ha ha!   I would like to see that....we could bring camera crews to Tuscaloosa...bet it would really get interesting!   

 

It's usually Baton Rouge that is lagging in so many ways...good luck to your city...it sure looks like its headed in the right direction

[Antrell Williams]

7 1/2 miles, wow... if we could just get a half mile done here in Gumptown from the state capitol to our riverfront, I would stand in front of Bryant-Denny on game day and scream "War Eagle" a thousand times at the top of my lungs.   Sincerely hope that your state transportation department is supportive of such projects and that this gets done as planned. Roughly a decade behind your city in adopting a master plan based on New Urbanism, we love to see these kinds of projects and hope that we'll see similar success down the road.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the project chugs along according to plan, although this is Baton Rouge, not New Orleans. We don't really jump at the idea of transit unless it's a road project!

 

This is one area where Baton Rouge is doing well, like Richy said we are normally behind! Thanks for stopping by.

[richyb83]

Water Campus groundbreaking set for Feb. 11

 

Construction is set to begin next month on the first building of the Water Campus, a 30-acre riverfront research park devoted to water management and coastal issues.

 

A groundbreaking is scheduled for Feb. 11 for the $16 million building that will house a full-scale model of the Mississippi River. The 90-by-120-foot physical model will be a key tool for researchers, with more than 200 computerized, foam panels that will simulate the movement of the river.

 

In March, a second groundbreaking is scheduled for a building that will house the offices of the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. No firm date has been set yet for groundbreaking on the approximately $9 million building.

Plans for two more buildings that will comprise the first phase of the Water Campus’ development are in the design phase. An office building for private-sector firms that want to do business on the campus likely will be the third structure built. A spokeswoman for Commercial Properties says there are no signed leases yet with potential tenants.

 

A fourth building—the signature Education and Research Center that would be constructed on the old city dock and house the offices of the Water Institute of the Gulf—is still in the design phase. There is no timeline for either of those buildings.

Plans for the Water Campus were unveiled in December 2013. The project is the brainchild of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and represents a coming together of multiple interests: state and city-parish governments, BRAF, the CPRA, LSU and the Water Institute.

 

http://www.businessreport.com/article/water-campus-groundbreaking-set-feb-11

[dan326]

This could be a good opportunity for Trahan to put one of his unused design exercises to use.

[cajun]

I can't decide if I'm skeptical that this will actually happen or excited about the impact that it will have on the research community and on the Baton Rouge region.

[Antrell Williams]

Jindal will probably do everything in his power to make sure this goes forward. He wants to look not-as-bad for his presidential run. (unlike the Baton Rouge General's ER)

[cajun]

Jindal will probably do everything in his power to make sure this goes forward. He wants to look not-as-bad for his presidential run. (unlike the Baton Rouge General's ER)

 

 

Jindal will run a PAC or something.  He's not going to be president.  The buzz saw that is the republican primaries are going to real make an issue of his inability to motivate a state legislature to support a tax overhaul or to merge redundant college campuses.    

 

My concern is the declining oil revenue impacting the state budget so badly that projects like this may not get off to a good start.  

 

I think that the WC research could be valuable to the state and the gulf coast, and I think it could really help both LSU and the city.

Edited February 9, 2015 by cajun

[Antrell Williams]

Yeah that budget is really going to put a damper on things. The Water Campus is extremely important to what could be Baton Rouge's future. These are the exact type of jobs and industries we need to attract a professional population.

[richyb83]

Jindal president?   Dude jumped all up into Common Core w/o checking the details now backing out when he found out the deal....has really created a mess!

 

BTW the leaders for 2016' have already been appointed to us...it will be ANOTHER Bush/Clinton(Jeb & Hillary) status-quo ...the rest just makes for good threatre...but that's for another time.

 

Looking forward checking out the progress at the Water Campus & the old City Dock!

[Mr. Burnham]

Jindal for President? Guys, April is still a few months away. 

[greg225]

The water campus will happen I truly believe that. If Im worried about anything is the south medical district because of the cuts to healthcare.

[dan326]

BTW the leaders for 2016' have already been appointed to us..

Lolol! But yeah, the only way Mr. Jindal'll get closer is of he's chosen as the wacky sidekick a la Sarah Palin.

[Mr. Burnham]

Lolol! But yeah, the only way Mr. Jindal'll get closer is of he's chosen as the wacky sidekick a la Sarah Palin.

Choosing him would not just be national political suicide, but international political suicide? Muslim no-go-zones? WTF?

 

The water campus will happen I truly believe that. If Im worried about anything is the south medical district because of the cuts to healthcare.

Um...The big players in the BRHD are private entity's. 

[richyb83]

The model of the Mississippi River is so cool! Had the pleasure of checking it out a few years ago when it was at LSU

[greg225]

Now that water campus will be built on the old city dock. I would love to see a new dock built beside the water campus. Different from the old dock it would be more of a commercial development like the one in Green Bay. 

Edited February 16, 2015 by greg225

[Mr. Burnham]

The-CityDeck-Stoss-main.jpgNow that water campus will be built on the old city dock. I would love to see a new dock built beside the water campus. Different from the old dock it would be more of a commercial development like the one in Green Bay. 

The old dock will become the new headquarters of the Water Institute and 'icon' building for the development. 

[greg225]

The old dock will become the new headquarters of the Water Institute and 'icon' building for the development. 

The whole development will be call the the water campus and it will sit in the river district. Well the point I was making on the water campus a deck like Green Bay have can be build south of the water campus.

[Mr. Burnham]

The whole development will be call the the water campus and it will sit in the river district. Well the point I was making on the water campus a deck like Green Bay have can be build south of the water campus.

Oh, sorry about that. What your saying would be really cool or maybe something similar to the Thames banks in London. 

[greg225]

Haven't heard anything about the streetcar in a minute. Hope its still planned wish it was in development already.

[Mr. Burnham]

Haven't heard anything about the streetcar in a minute. Hope its still planned wish it was in development already.

It is very much still planned, but it has to wait for more Water Campus and River District buildings to be built and used or else it will be a streetcar to no where.

[greg225]

River District, Water Campus want out of historic overlay district                                                                                                                    The Planning Commission later this month will consider a request by the Lafayette-based developers of the River District, a planned mixed-use development on Nicholson Drive, to exempt the project from the overlay zoning district that governs the area. The nearby Water Campus—up for approval this month as well—also plans to ask to be removed from the district, which is called the Old Town Redevelopment Overlay.

An overlay district is a special zoning district in which additional standards are superimposed over existing regulations to protect the character and feel of an area. The Old Town overlay district was created 10 years ago to help preserve the Nicholson corridor.

Attorney Charles Landry, who is representing both projects on the matter, says because both projects are large planned unit developments, or PUDs, they already are subject to their own set of stringent design guidelines regulating such issues as setbacks, parking and landscaping.

“An overlay district is a law that has design criteria,” he says. “A traditional neighborhood development or PUD is also an ordinance with design regulations so you don’t want to have two conflicting ordinances governing a project. This is simply a way to clarify things so that only one law is governing each project.”

Planning Director Frank Duke says the matter amounts to little more than a technicality. The Old Town overlay district was never intended to regulate large developments like the River District or Water Campus, he says. Rather, it was created to regulate small, infill projects and ensure they fit in with their surroundings.

“The Water Campus and River District are by no stretch of the imagination infill developments,” Duke says. “They’re big PUDs and when you have a PUD you basically write the ordinance for what you want it to be. You set your own standards for setbacks, parking, landscaping. You’re designing the uses you’re going to have.”

It remains to be seen whether developers of smaller projects within the overlay district will oppose the move to exempt the River District and Water Campus from the regulations that have, in some cases, hamstrung their projects. Also unclear is whether they might try to push to repeal the overlay district.

Marc Blumberg, who is trying to develop the River House multifamily complex on Nicholson Drive at the site of the old Prince Murat Hotel, says he isn’t sure yet what position he’ll take. He just learned of the proposed exemptions late Wednesday. But Duke says the existing overlay district serves a good purpose in regulating small infill developments and should remain in place as is.

“People may say it’s unfair that if you’re small you have to meet these standards but if you’re big you don’t,” he says. “But if you’re big you’re going to be spending more money and you’re going to be defining your own character for an area through a PUD ordinance, whereas if you’re small you need to fit in with the surrounding area.” http://www.businessreport.com/article/river-district-water-campus-want-historic-overlay-district