Church Street Plaza | 28-Story Office/Hotel [Phase 1 Under Construction]

[RedStar25]

And the floor plates will be much taller! 

[Ivanhoe]

On 8/26/2018 at 4:17 PM, DreS0803 said:

18 more to go. Now that the garage is almost done. Should the construction speed up?

This is looking much wider than I had anticipated, especially the view facing north along South street. While it won’t be among the tallest downtown, it’ll still have a major impact.

[IAmFloridaBorn]

1 hour ago, Ivanhoe said:

This is looking much wider than I had anticipated, especially the view facing north along South street. While it won’t be among the tallest downtown, it’ll still have a major impact.

I'm not seeing how it will have any impact except looking North. Hope I'm wrong.

[Ivanhoe]

11 hours ago, IAmFloridaBorn said:

I'm not seeing how it will have any impact except looking North. Hope I'm wrong.

With 18 floors to go, I think it would start to peak into a few other sightlines, in particular the eastbound view from Parramore / 408 E entering downtown.  In general, I think it is just great infill, increases overall density in the CBD, and will hopefully have a positive economic impact on Church Street Station.

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, Ivanhoe said:

With 18 floors to go, I think it would start to peak into a few other sightlines, in particular the eastbound view from Parramore / 408 E entering downtown.  In general, I think it is just great infill, increases overall density in the CBD, and will hopefully have a positive economic impact on Church Street Station.

I think its most spectacular visual impact will be coming in from the north on I-4 westbound. It's really going to look like it's coming right up off the edge of the highway and loom large over everything. 

And yeah, coming into downtown eastbound on the 408 it's going to look pretty awesome too.

I won't even mention the aerial views. OK, I just mentioned them. The aerial views will be fantastic.

This is the all around best project to go up downtown in quite awhile.

[jrs2]

[IAmFloridaBorn]

4 hours ago, jrs2 said:

Gosh. It's going to be super weird not seeing the SunTrust building as SunTrust anymore.

[IAmFloridaBorn]

My goal to get some shots of everything today

[spenser1058]

On 8/29/2018 at 11:39 PM, IAmFloridaBorn said:

Gosh. It's going to be super weird not seeing the SunTrust building as SunTrust anymore.

I was thinking that SunTrust is the only named tower downtown that currently has the original anchor name. Even it changed a little, though, when Sun Bank adopted the holding company name, SunTrust. A 30+ year run is still pretty impressive, though.

Edited September 1, 2018 by spenser1058

[JFW657]

Let's just hope it doesn't get replaced with some goofy name like Camping World. 

[spenser1058]

7 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

Let's just hope it doesn't get replaced with some goofy name like Camping World. 

It could be worse: the outdoor venue at the Florida State Fairgrounds got stuck with "1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheater" from 2010-12.

[IAmFloridaBorn]

1 hour ago, spenser1058 said:

I was thinking that SunTrust is the only named tower downtown that currently has the original anchor name. Even it changed a little, though, when Sun Bank adopted the holding company name, SunTrust. A 30+ year run is still pretty impressive, though.

That is a fascinating fact. I am only 27 so I've only known it to be SunTrust. That would also explain why my mother still refers to it as SunBank

Edited September 1, 2018 by IAmFloridaBorn

[spenser1058]

1 minute ago, IAmFloridaBorn said:

That is a fascinating fact. I am only 27 so I've only known it to be SunTrust. That would also explain why my mother still refers to it as SunBank

Sun Bank (originally the First National Bank At Orlando) merged with Trust Company of Georgia (in Atlanta and most famous for holding the Coca-Cola formula in its vault) in about 1986. Sun was the bigger bank but, over time, Trust emerged as the more significant partner.

When the merger took place, Sun Bank Center had just been announced. There was a mild panic it would never get built but of course it did. The impending move just cements the idea that Atlanta won (hopefully it worked out ok for the Wells family fortune...)

[spenser1058]

A peek at the old Sun Bank logo:

From YouTube

[JFW657]

I remember the voice over from a lot of commercials in the 70's and 80's.

I think the guy was a popular character actor in several TV shows back then, too.

If I'm correct about that, I can almost place the face, but I couldn't tell you his name.

[spenser1058]

Sun Bank was one of the most aggressive retail banks in Florida and their marketing reflected that. In the throes of the 1974-75 recession (which almost killed Orlando, Sun's hometown), their jingle, "Let's Get Up With the Sun, Florida," became almost an anthem that bad times would indeed pass.

That's why the merger with the uber-conservative Trust Company was such a shock. The corporate cultures could not have been more different.

[spenser1058]

2 hours ago, JFW657 said:

I remember the voice over from a lot of commercials in the 70's and 80's.

I think the guy was a popular character actor in several TV shows back then, too.

If I'm correct about that, I can almost place the face, but I couldn't tell you his name.

I think it may have been Mason Adams, who did all kinds of ads in the '70's. He was also the boss on Lou Grant.

From MTM/YouTube

The other cool thing from that intro is that it reminds us of what a minor miracle daily delivery of the newspaper used to be. I haven't bought a dead tree version of the Slantinel or NY Times in 20 years but I still miss them.

Edited September 1, 2018 by spenser1058

[JFW657]

Yeah, I think you're right about it being Mason Adams. That was one of my favorite shows back when it was in production. Strange thing though, I'd have sworn that it first aired in the early 70's, around '73 or '74 because I thought I watched it in high school. The video says it ran from '77 to '78, which I know is wrong, and IMDb says '77 to '82. Either way, the posted clip had to be from one of the first three episodes because Linda Kelsey playing the iconic role of Billie Newman was not on board yet.

I could still swear that show was on about three or four years earlier, though.

My memory must be going... 

[spenser1058]

Yep, Ed Asner played Lou Grant on the Mary Tyler Moore show from 70-77 and then spun off into his own show the following season once MTM ended (remember, everyone got fired from WJM except Ted.)

Lou Grant ran for 5 years until CBS canceled the show, not because of low ratings but due to Asner's politics over Nicaragua and El Salvador. The Reagan administration balked and CBS founder William Paley showed Asner the door. Not a great time for free speech (remember that the next time someone says the networks are run by liberals.)

Edited September 1, 2018 by spenser1058

[JFW657]

BTW, I love that intro. The way it started out with the chirping bird in the wild about to have his home tree cut down, then after the complex process of producing the paper,  it ended up as cage liner for a different bird who, we assume, crapped all over it. Kind of like the birds' revenge.

You rarely see anything that clever on TV anymore.

[spenser1058]

38 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

BTW, I love that intro. The way it started out with the chirping bird in the wild about to have his home tree cut down, then after the complex process of producing the paper,  it ended up as cage liner for a different bird who, we assume, crapped all over it. Kind of like the birds' revenge.

You rarely see anything that clever on TV anymore.

Being the nerd I am, I always loved that theme music and still hum it. Just like Cosby always had his music to keep him safe as a kid when walking through graveyards at night, that was mine. I was finishing up high school in the days of Woodward & Bernstein and worked on my high school papers and as an intern at the old Pine Hills Sun.

Needless to say, a show about newspapers was destined to be a favorite and I rarely missed it.

Talk show host Gene Burns (at WKIS 740, if you remember that), used to say when asked to run for office, that "he'd rather be the gadfly on the horse's behind than the horse's behind." Oddly, I did just that and veered off into politics instead of journalism.

Oops, let me apologize to Jernigan for hijacking the thread. I promise to do better!

Edited September 1, 2018 by spenser1058

[IAmFloridaBorn]

Few photos from today.

 

[gibby]

Great shots.  Thanks.

[jrs2]

[RedStar25]

That floor plate is much taller than the previous 10.