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Dominion Resources: New High-rise Building Planned for Downtown


TBurban

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From the renderings, it looks like they carried over the plaza design from Gateway Plaza to the new Dominion towers and Kanawha plaza, which would be nice to keep things consistent. For those that haven't had an up close look at the plaza, here is a picture. This whole area could use more foot traffic so hopefully the new building(s), plaza and some potential retailers would liven things up.

FullSizeRender_7.thumb.jpg.b01a73990affa

Edited by evanf
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I really hope that this is NOT the final design. I think Richmond deserves much better than this.

First, look at the way it meets the street. The Devon Energy Tower in Oklahoma City, with its winter garden and public amenities like restaurants functions as a civic gathering space. This appears to (at least on one side) to rise off a fortresslike parking garage podium. Gateway Plaza offers the same blank wall. As was mentioned above, street life is an issue with such spaces. A building of this size, height, and importance should do so much more for the city at ground level. I don't see a civic space here on the level of Devon.

Look at the bulk of this building. You might be hard pressed to call it a "skyscraper" because it doesn't soar. It seems as if it might make the smaller high-rises in the surrounding blocks look overshadowed and out of scale. At the same time, it seems designed to look as small as possible, with the break in the middle, which visually separates it into two stubby structures piled on top of each other (Pickard Chilton's Houston tower has the break much farther up, by contrast). In fact, it almost looks like a banal suburban development plopped down in the center of Richmond. It looks like someone gave the Gateway Plaza a shot of steroids and we ended up with a large version of "Gateway Plaza."

I know there must be challenges in dealing with such large floor plates, but we should expect so much more than this from what will become an important structure in the city. This is neither an elegant, beautiful form nor an exciting civic space at street level. I hope this is the beginning and not the end of the design process!  

Edited by changingskyline
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6 minutes ago, blopp1234 said:

Alright, I'm almost 100% sure this isn't the actual project. When reading this article, it says that hourigan will be in charge of design, not forum studios. As stated earlier, I think these plans were rejected.

http://richmondbizsense.com/2016/02/03/dominion-enlists-builder-developer-as-it-readies-for-new-tower/

Not so sure about that. Hourigan is the construction company, but I don't get the sense from the article that they're actually the architect.

6 hours ago, changingskyline said:

Look at the bulk of this building. You might be hard pressed to call it a "skyscraper" because it doesn't soar. 

Traditionally, 500ft has been the cutoff height for the actual "skyscraper" term in modern times (This certainly seems to meet that criteria), but there was a time when 10 stories was considered a skyscraper.  In reality, it is all about proportion to the surrounding area. In a city where the majority of buildings is around 5 stories, many would consider a 20-story building a skyscraper. In NYC, a 20-story building is a midrise. Found this cool calculator from CTBUH. http://www.ctbuh.org/TallBuildings/HeightStatistics/HeightCalculator/OnLineCalculator/tabid/1068/language/en-GB/Default.aspx. If we can get this to 35 it should hit 508ft minus that huge crown up top, which probably gives it another 50ft (558ft total).

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What I meant was how we perceive the building as a "skyscraper." You can read the Central National Bank tower as a "skyscraper" because of the aspect ratio you mentioned above in a way that you can't with his building, because of its bulk.

Does anyone know if Pickard Chilton is still involved with this project? I believe their process is to always collaborate with an "architect of record" on projects. 

I would love to see a public aspect to this, like the Devon rotunda/winter garden. It would become a new anchor for that area, which now seems to be mostly parking garages.

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Certainly, the article in Richmondbizsense this morning sounds like the design of this building(s) is not complete, so it is possible that these renderings above are not the chosen design or is the final design.  It was weird how the Forum Studio suddenly took down the web page featuring this project, so there may be some design elements contained in these renderings that may be finalized.  With that said, there is still hope that this project will look better, be more functional on the street level, and be taller!  Holding out hope!  I would love to be a fly on the wall at Hourigan!

Edited by eandslee
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13 minutes ago, Icetera said:

I am certainly enjoying Kendall-Heaton's portfolio.

http://www.kendall-heaton.com/projects/

It looks like they have a long relationship working with design architects Pickard Chilton (Calgary 8th Ave. Place, Devon, 1180 Peachtree). And there are also the Pelli buildings that the Pickard Chilton principals also worked on at that firm (Society Center in Cleveland, Norwest in Minneapolis. 

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Could we possibly see a tower the size that we envisioned originally? When looking at the amount of square footage for each tower designed by Kendall-Heaton, I realized that they had towers that were under the proposed square footage of the buildings in the renderings. If they follow the trend in Richmond, we could see up to a 50 story icon tower!!!!

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I am in agreement with those who think this is not the final design concept. It seems to me that while Clayco was working with Forum Studios on the design for Gateway Plaza, they essentially had them continue their master plan to extend to Dominion and Richmond Plaza; purely conceptual. I think that's why the link was brought down in a panic as to not overshadow, for lack of a better term, the future release of the final, approved design. Here's hoping for more height and an iconic spire.

Edited by TBurban
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Haven't seen this posted yet. Goes into detail about who the general contractor is/architect etc. Says not to expect designs till this summer so the renderings we have may just be conceptual and not final.

http://www.virginiabusiness.com/all-headlines/article/dominion-resources-will-build-a-new-office-tower-in-downtown-richmond

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  • 1 month later...

well since there has been little news on this and the last I heard we aren't suppose to get design announcements until the the summer, why don't we, just for fun, post what design you'd like to see. 

What type of architecture, a similar building, post some examples?

Personally I'm a big fan of ArtDeco but since it's not 1930 I seriously doubt that will happen. But I do hope that the building has a nice topper. Maybe a dome, personally I really like this buildings topper in Winton Salem NC. I think its a nice clean look that will look good in any decade. (just to give an idea of size, this tower is 34 floors, 460ft)

2beff0a0ef26af1971a0f940b361f48c.jpg

But as for modern architecture, something like this would be my choice:

Tour Generali (46 floors, 869ft spire)

generali_modified.jpg 

Realistically my only request is for it not to be a flat top, we already have plenty of flat tops. 

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3 hours ago, eandslee said:

I know I'm going to get a lot of "hate mail" for this, but I really Devon Tower in OKC. Sorry, but to me she is beautiful and just the right height that Richmond needs!  Love it!

DevonTower.jpg

That's a good one, I think most of the hate that tower gets isn't because of the design, but because it just doesn't fit in the skyline at all, not even close. The tower itself looks great, just not the whole picture, I'd be ok with a scaled down version of this in RVA

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Heck, I'll even take something like this, but about 10 more stories taller.  What's interesting to note is that people (right now) are in the throes of deciding what Richmond's signature tower is going to look like!  I mean really, there is a small group of people deciding what Richmond's skyline will be known for!  Just so cool to think. Wish I was on that committee.  Anyway, here's the tower I mentioned at the beginning of this post (just imagine at least 10 more stories):

Pickard%20Chilton%20Arch%20-%20Bass%20Ba

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  • 3 weeks later...
20 minutes ago, hikendesign said:

Things may be happening - what did I see – a poem to diffuse.

Pleased with the arrangement whilst not for how high - one’s about twenty five and the other a tad shy, together transforming, softly illuminating the sky. Consider an ellipse, spliced down the center, each side offset , yes, that is it - one side straight and one side another – add a curve, look up and you’re on to something. Will the images drop – it’s out for review -  it will be tempting to upload for all to view.

Is there an announcement  - can demolition begin – come on Dominion we’re waiting on you. 

 

Are you saying that the highest we get to hope for is only 25 stories?!  Pssssst!  I spit on that idea!  I would be completely devastated!  Ugh!  Please tell me no!

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I also get a mental picture of an all glass ellipse shape that is split down the middle by the street (one half of the building on one block, the other half on the other block)....probably connected by some sort of bridge way.  It sounds very creative, but I can't stomach only 25 stories...I just can't.  I'll be sick. However, it sounds different enough to be iconic - that's for sure!

 

Oh, nice poem. You come up with it yourself?!

Edited by eandslee
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On 4/22/2016 at 3:54 PM, hikendesign said:

Things may be happening - what did I see – a poem to diffuse.

Pleased with the arrangement whilst not for how high - one’s about twenty five and the other a tad shy, together transforming, softly illuminating the sky. Consider an ellipse, spliced down the center, each side offset , yes, that is it - one side straight and one side another – add a curve, look up and you’re on to something. Will the images drop – it’s out for review -  it will be tempting to upload for all to view.

Is there an announcement  - can demolition begin – come on Dominion we’re waiting on you. 

 

Quite the wordsmith! So it's a pair of towers, one 25 and another a little less. I will take density and design over height anyday. Looking forward to hearing more details when it's publicly released.

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1 hour ago, NFKjeff said:

Very well crafted hikendesign. I like the idea of a bisected ellipse, with the two halves offset. Do you think both buildings will be undertaken simultaneously? I wonder how much demand for space Dominion has currently, and how much they are setting aside for future growth. Do you think all of the space in both buildings will be taken by Dominion, or that some will be leased out.

I know most people on urbanplanet, no matter the city in which they live, are in favor of the tallest building, but the market should always drive the space being built, and whether it's office space, hotel rooms, or retail, there is always a danger of overbuiling and devaluing.

I think this will be a great looking addition to the Richmond skyline. 

Based on the explanation I suspect one building would be on the site of the current tower.  If that is the case, they would build the taller tower on the Richmond Plaza block then demo the current tower for the second half.

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