The Locks at 321

[flaneur]

Personally, it's better than what might be the worst building in that area--the awful Riverside on the James I building (home of Troutman Sanders). The bigger problem with that whole swath of downtown from Cary to the river and Tredegar to the turning basin, is that it has a completely suburban office park feel with large lots, a focus on getting cars in and out, deep setbacks from streets that lead to a weak urban wall, and more difficult pedestrian connectivity than you find when you get to denser parts of downtown such as Main, Franklin, Grace, and Broad. Anything that can improve this larger urban challenge and improve density, active streetscapes,  and connectivity, such as this new building and the Williams Mullen infill (again, not an architectural stunner, but filled a key gap and added some street life), is still largely positive.  And once they remove the Reynolds building, I think this will serve as a critical hub along the canal between the riverfront and the Bottom.

Edited April 2, 2019 by flaneur
typo

[Brent114]

Here’s  what a terrible apartment building looks like.    I do t get this one at all.  Early 70’s Fairfax office building with a Circuit City store grafted to it.  I hated the white textured brick and the arches but the grey and red panels  with it really take the cake! 

 

The parking structure looks good though.    The infill is great, of course. 

 

 

 

[rjp212]

I think once the new building at the Locks is painted white and the windows are in, it'll be an attractive building. This one in Scotts Addition always dumbfounds me when I drive by.   I only hope the street level presence will make up for it.

Edited April 3, 2019 by rjp212

[RVA-Is-The-Best]

^^ Of course. That's because NIMBYs poo-pooed it (that's apparently a real verb meaning to dismiss/lampoon) back onto the drawing board where it became shorter, stumpier, and blander. And now we get this.

Edited April 3, 2019 by RVA-Is-The-Best

[wrldcoupe4]

13 minutes ago, rjp212 said:

I think once the new building at the Locks is painted white and the windows are in, it'll be an attractive building. This one in Scotts Addition always dumbfounds me when I drive by.   I only hope the street level presence will make up for it.

It won’t be painted...

[georgeglass]

3 hours ago, Brent114 said:

Here’s  what a terrible apartment building looks like.    I do t get this one at all.  Early 70’s Fairfax office building with a Circuit City store grafted to it.  I hated the white textured brick and the arches but the grey and red panels  with it really take the cake! 

 

The parking structure looks good though.    The infill is great, of course. 

 

 

 

Yeah, not a fan of how this one is turning out and I had kind of high hopes. I didn't mind the lighter brick, but none of it goes together IMO. 

[wrldcoupe4]

The color scheme is odd. 

[Downtowner]

Yeah I have no idea what they were thinking with that top floor but it definitely doesn’t go with the rest of the building.


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[georgeglass]

Taken last night. I was glad to see more of the canal side being developed, but it's still hard to tell how it will look and how it will tie in to the canal walk.

 

 

 

Edited July 16, 2019 by georgeglass