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Dominion Resources: New High-rise Building Planned for Downtown


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55 minutes ago, Ty0326 said:

I don't know if this right but on wiki it still says 40-50 stories. Hopefully this is a separate tower. 

No that was the tower we were hoping that dominion would build. It should say that it is 20 stories and 413 feet tall.

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Chiming in from Hampton Roads...

I like the design, very slick. But I agree it needs another 5 or 10 stories. Other than that, really nice. Hopefully we can get a building boom in Norfolk within the next few years.

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Ok I couldn't help it, 

Looked at the elevation profile for Monroe Tower, it sits roughly at 53 feet above sea level, so it appears to be 502 feet tall from sea level;

The new Dominion Tower as they've said will be 506 feet above sea level, so, it will indeed appear the same height or if you can even tell 4 feet taller than the Monroe Tower. 

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Asce88 does photoshop renderings, but he hasn't been on this site since 17 March (not sure why cause we could really use him now).  Can anyone else out there take on the photoshop rendering challenge?  I feel like Burt used to feel where you're too old to know how to work these sort of programs or I'd do it myself...and I'm not even old!  Frustrating.

Edited by eandslee
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8 hours ago, eandslee said:

Asce88 does photoshop renderings, but he hasn't been on this site since 17 March (not sure why cause we could really use him now).  Can anyone else out there take on the photoshop rendering challenge?  I feel like Burt used to feel where you're too old to know how to work these sort of programs or I'd do it myself...and I'm not even old!  Frustrating.

 

Just been waiting in the weeds...

 

RichmondNew.jpg

 

Not sure exactly how it will look in reality but I would imagine something like this.  James River Plaza is 310' and the new building is 413' at it's peak so it would probably be in this range.  I added the Locks at 321 for good measure.

 

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2 hours ago, Asace88 said:

 

Just been waiting in the weeds...

 

RichmondNew.jpg

 

Not sure exactly how it will look in reality but I would imagine something like this.  James River Plaza is 310' and the new building is 413' at it's peak so it would probably be in this range.  I added the Locks at 321 for good measure.

 

Yes!  Thanks Asace88 (sorry, misspelled your named by one letter earlier)!  You HAVE been waiting in the weeds, but you showed up just in time!  This looks great and probably pretty close to what it will look like. You're so good at this!

Well, Dominion and the Locks at 321 certainly beef up the skyline, but my personal opinion is that Richmond still needs that one signature tower...[sigh]....one day....maybe. 

Edited by eandslee
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22 minutes ago, eandslee said:

Yes!  Thanks Asace88 (sorry, misspelled your named by one letter earlier)!  You HAVE been waiting in the weeds, but you showed up just in time!  This looks great and probably pretty close to what it will look like. You're so good at this!

Well, Dominion and the Locks at 321 certainly beef up the skyline, but my personal opinion is that Richmond still needs that one signature tower...[sigh]....one day....maybe. 

Both buildings definantely beef up the skyline. When looking at this there is a huge hole in the skyline right where gateway is. Maybe the next big tower could come on a lot behind gateway plaza and be RVA's signature tower

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18 hours ago, Asace88 said:

 

Just been waiting in the weeds...

 

RichmondNew.jpg

 

Not sure exactly how it will look in reality but I would imagine something like this.  James River Plaza is 310' and the new building is 413' at it's peak so it would probably be in this range.  I added the Locks at 321 for good measure.

 

I love the density -- just need some more height.  We have one beautiful city!

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4 hours ago, changingskyline said:

Thank you for making this rendering. After seeing this I REALLY hope they only build one building. With the Riverfront Towers I think two Dominion near twins would be too much repetition. 

I agree, I don't think our skyline is big enough to get away with having two sets of twins.

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1 hour ago, drayrichmond said:

I agree, I don't think our skyline is big enough to get away with having two sets of twins.

Then they should just make the one tower 36 stories and call it good.  Sell the One James Center to a private investor and let them renovate it or tear it down and rebuild something else.  Easy peezy!

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On 5/23/2016 at 8:48 PM, drayrichmond said:

I agree, I don't think our skyline is big enough to get away with having two sets of twins.

At least they appear to be perpendicular to each other in the rendering; that along with the difference in height would probably make it better than you think. I agree, if it wasn't done right it would be a disaster for our skyline aesthetic. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
38 minutes ago, eandslee said:

Ah damn ya beat me to the punch by like half an hour.

Interestingly enough, I kind of agree. I feel that instead of creating two Gateway-sized towers (and believe me, I've become grumpy about Gateway's height since it was completed), I don't understand why not just create one large signature tower for downtown (which the company did say at one point I think). The Richmond Plaza should be the signature site, and One James River Plaza should remain in place until the demand pents up for another large tower. But not half-assed like this is. It would be a bit of a waste imo.

Edit: considering they also do mention the height (413 ft), it won't even be the tallest in the city. Makes you wonder what goes through the heads of the planners on this one.

Edited by RVA-Is-The-Best
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While I love height, I completely agree with the article. It doesn't seem like these towers will do much for street presence or creating a great urban appearance or environment from street level. This is how pretty much every high rise project in most cities in the US are though. Outside of NYC anyways. These projects really aren't super urban or dense, they are one building per block with space around. It follows the 'skyscrapers in the park model' which really isn't a great way of making safe, walkable and dense cities. However I don't want Dominion to leave downtown and would much rather them build this building here than out in the suburbs. 

Also: a great example of how different our modern development of high rises are can be seen directly in downtown Richmond. Stand at 8th or 9th and Main, look around and then walk one block south to Cary Street. The difference is glaring. The wasted space that surrounds all of these new high rises vs. the condensed (and much better in my opinion) and usually much more lively Main Street. The new Dominion buildings are definitely here to contribute to the new (worse) model, not the old model.

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58 minutes ago, tparkerzut said:

While I love height, I completely agree with the article. It doesn't seem like these towers will do much for street presence or creating a great urban appearance or environment from street level. This is how pretty much every high rise project in most cities in the US are though. Outside of NYC anyways. These projects really aren't super urban or dense, they are one building per block with space around. It follows the 'skyscrapers in the park model' which really isn't a great way of making safe, walkable and dense cities. However I don't want Dominion to leave downtown and would much rather them build this building here than out in the suburbs. 

Also: a great example of how different our modern development of high rises are can be seen directly in downtown Richmond. Stand at 8th or 9th and Main, look around and then walk one block south to Cary Street. The difference is glaring. The wasted space that surrounds all of these new high rises vs. the condensed (and much better in my opinion) and usually much more lively Main Street. The new Dominion buildings are definitely here to contribute to the new (worse) model, not the old model.

Found something interesting in the article.... The writer had an idea that instead of tearing down the current Richmond plaza building, they could remove the existing facade and expose the brick facade underneathand building a tower where the parking garage for the building currently stands. I absolutely love this idea!! They could put retail on the ground floor and have offices above. This would give them the office space that they want and add pedestrian activity to that part of downtown.

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I agree with the article. Dominion's plans are incredibly unimaginative. Contrast this with Devon Energy's commitment to the improvement of downtown Oklahoma City (same architect of Pickard Chilton):

There seems to be a great deal of potential in the dead zone that is currently Kanawha Plaza and the incredibly wide, vacant 9th Street. Not that long ago, I was on 9th Street near the entrance to the bridge, standing between the Federal Reserve Tower and the Riverfront Towers. It was not hard to imagine a grand civic square fed by light rail lines and surrounded by shops and condos. It could be a truly beautiful, vibrant space similar to Oklahoma City's Myriad Gardens with Devon's glass atrium. OK, maybe it would still be an "urban park." The Devon project is certainly more isolated than a tower in New York or San Francisco. It could even be called "suburban," with all those trees, fountains and open lawns. But at least make it a monumentally beautiful urban park…something that would be spectacular enough to attract condo dwellers in the future. With the right kind of vision, the park-like appeal of the canal walk could move right into the spine of downtown. 

It seems that Devon invested in downtown Oklahoma City with the philosophy that young people will not want to locate to/stay in an unattractive city. Richmond has so much going for it, but civic leaders could really move more in this direction. We should ask ourselves, why do people want to live in places like Portland? It's quality of life and character. Really too bad these local companies lack imagination or civil involvement. 

Edited by changingskyline
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1 hour ago, changingskyline said:

I agree with the article. Dominion's plans are incredibly unimaginative. Contrast this with Devon Energy's commitment to the improvement of downtown Oklahoma City (same architect of Pickard Chilton):

There seems to be a great deal of potential in the dead zone that is currently Kanawha Plaza and the incredibly wide, vacant 9th Street. Not that long ago, I was on 9th Street near the entrance to the bridge, standing between the Federal Reserve Tower and the Riverfront Towers. It was not hard to imagine a grand civic square fed by light rail lines and surrounded by shops and condos. It could be a truly beautiful, vibrant space similar to Oklahoma City's Myriad Gardens with Devon's glass atrium. OK, maybe it would still be an "urban park." The Devon project is certainly more isolated than a tower in New York or San Francisco. It could even be called "suburban," with all those trees, fountains and open lawns. But at least make it a monumentally beautiful urban park…something that would be spectacular enough to attract condo dwellers in the future. With the right kind of vision, the park-like appeal of the canal walk could move right into the spine of downtown. 

It seems that Devon invested in downtown Oklahoma City with the philosophy that young people will not want to locate to/stay in an unattractive city. Richmond has so much going for it, but civic leaders could really move more in this direction. We should ask ourselves, why do people want to live in places like Portland? It's quality of life and character. Really too bad these local companies lack imagination or civil involvement. 

I completely agree. I would love to see the area around Kanawha become a bustling urban hub. It easily has the potential to achieve this, however, our city planners seem to be naive as they keep approving these buildings that make downtown less and less pedestrian friendly. They really need to look at cities like Portland that have high density and are very pedestrian friendly. I could see Kanwha being the heart of Richmond, if only developers and planners could realize its potential.

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