Broadview Apartments

[spartanburgh]

I saw a sign up today at the site of Andrew Babb's new building on Kennedy St. The Design Review Board

will meet September 1st for its approval. I am anxious to see what this development will look like. In any

case its positive that more residential options are coming soon.

[Spartan]

The Andrew Babb project is moving a long, and we now know it's name: Broadview Apartments. The DRB will consider the 28-unit project today. Is anyone able to get renderings?

http://www.goupstate.com/article/20150831/NEWS/150839959/1083/ARTICLES?Title=City-board-will-mull-new-downtown-apartment-proposal

 

 

[roads-scholar]

I saw the article in this morning's H-J and tried to picture this property.  I've also viewed Google Maps to verify.  Southwest corner of Converse Street at Kennedy?  If so, a real sliver of land up against the parking deck.

[drexel]

Yep. Green space right beside parking deck. Think Meeting Street Academy uses that space some. Guess wants free land from the city. Mixed emotions on this. So many other empty lots and eyesores in downtown.    

[roads-scholar]

Thanks.  I like density so that is a plus.

[westsider28]

I can understand the free land concern, but there aren't many of these opportunities, so other lots/buildings will be the only options soon.  The advantages of this site are obviously convenient deck parking and location on the Rail Trail extension (protected bike lane).  And the City will get tax revenue from a lot they get nothing from now.  And more residents on this end of Main will hopefully help support more businesses on East Main (like hopefully restaurants).  I'm going to try to make it to the DRB meeting to see what it looks like.

[roads-scholar]

I'd love to get your take on the design from what you see at the DRB meeting.

[westsider28]

I figured I'd make a separate thread for this project.  If Spartan or another mod could move the other posts about it here, that'd be great.

I went to the DRB meeting.  The building is actually 5-floors on Kennedy because of the site's slope (4-floors elsewhere).  No retail, but there are two 2-story units which open to the street on Kennedy as well as the primary building entrance to the other apartments.  Renderings and site plan are below.

Long story short, the DRB didn't like the scale/mass of the retaining wall, so they told the architects to come back next month with changes.  There's a water retention system underneath, the site's slope is tricky, it allows for stoops on Kennedy and a tenant gathering space, and it allows them to line up the floors with the parking deck floors for direct access, so those are the practical reasons for it.  I definitely agree that they could make the wall less imposing.  Otherwise I like the modern design; it's something different for Spartanburg.

[spartanburgh]

Looks great! I hope that this gets underway soon.....

[GvilleSC]

This is nice! I really like the corner. Projects of this scale are perfect! 

[Spartan]

The project overall is great. The lack of retail in that spot doesn't really bother me since it's not in the core area where retail needs to be. The giant wall on Converse, however, does bother me. Mostly because that "courtyard" will only hold a bocce court. That doesn't seem like a good use of space to me. I also don't care for the aluminum siding that they are showing on the top portion of the building. It's a material combination and choice that is super popular right now, but that will look dated in a relatively short time frame.

Given that we probably have to live with the wall, I would rather them make the sidewalk wider or use a planting strip / tree wells to allow for greater separation of pedestrians from traffic. The current sidewalk is 4-5ft at back of curb which isn't pleasant to walk on.

[mainonmain]

Don't think that's aluminum, actually. Think it's actually hardiplank.

[Spartan]

Even worse!

[hub-city]

The retaining wall doesn't really bother me too much depending on how far it is off the road.  The Denny's retaining wall on S converse is much higher that a person's head also.  That being said, if they could terrace it down some and add some water falls then I would really be on board...

[roads-scholar]

The retaining wall might be there to reassure potential residents who may think this location unsafe.  There is a Hot Spot across the street.

[Spartan]

If that's the case then they probably shouldn't have units that open up onto Kennedy St.

[westsider28]

The DRB approved this project tonight after their concerns were addressed by changes made to the retaining wall to make it slightly less imposing by lowering the brick around the courtyard (particularly the right side) and using more fencing instead.  Also, a built-in bench was included at the corner of Kennedy & Converse.  City Council still needs to approve transferring the land to the developer (and at what price, if any) before work can begin.  Here's the comparison--old on top; new on bottom (sorry for the low-res new one):

[Spartan]

That's marginally better. I will give the DRB credit for making an improvement, but I still think they should have required more.