Downtown Greensboro is getting a Westin Hotel

[GSOstrong]

Looks like one level of the hotel/deck section complete. They are not playing around. This is starting to go up fast. Part of the deck on the other side of the development is already up to 5 stories.

Is 5 stories the final height of the deck?


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[cityboi]

1 hour ago, GSOstrong said:

Is 5 stories the final height of the deck?


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Yes. Originally 6 stories. Unfortunately the city decided the deck was too expensive and the deck will also look less fancy. But at least it will still have street level retail.

[HRVT]

4 hours ago, cityboi said:

Yes. Originally 6 stories. Unfortunately the city decided the deck was too expensive and the deck will also look less fancy. But at least it will still have street level retail.

Street level retail is more important than the height of this deck IMO (especially with the abundance of decks already). I'm confident that when the N&R site is developed that at least one deck will be part of that as well.

[cityboi]

8 hours ago, HRVT said:

Street level retail is more important than the height of this deck IMO (especially with the abundance of decks already). I'm confident that when the N&R site is developed that at least one deck will be part of that as well.

Agreed but I am disappointed they dressed down the deck portion and it looks more plain architecturally 

They went from this

To this 

I would hope they will consider a screening system on the deck.

Edited February 26, 2022 by cityboi

[HRVT]

13 minutes ago, cityboi said:

Agreed but I am disappointed they dressed down the deck portion and it looks more plain architecturally 

They went from this

To this 

That part is a bit disappointing, I agree. Hopefully the N&R development (whenever that happens) will make up for it. That site is a HUGE opportunity. I hope it doesn't take 20 years to develop it with some row homes or a suburban style Target or something.

[cityboi]

22 minutes ago, HRVT said:

That part is a bit disappointing, I agree. Hopefully the N&R development (whenever that happens) will make up for it. That site is a HUGE opportunity. I hope it doesn't take 20 years to develop it with some row homes or a suburban style Target or something.

I think the grocery store coming downtown is a sign that the center-city is beginning to reach enough critical mass for retail establishments such as a small urban Target integrated into a mixed-use development on the news and record site. Once the Westin and parking deck are near completion, that should help entice a developer into purchasing the property. Developers need to start considering architecture in downtown Greensboro. Everything here is all about costs and the architecture suffers. Seems like any other city its the opposite. When a developer builds something its going to be there for decades. That's why I'm slightly disappointed with the Tanger Center. It doesn't look bad from the front but it could have been much better. The sides and the rear of the Tanger Center is just about as plain as the side of a Walmart.

Edited February 25, 2022 by cityboi

[HRVT]

3 hours ago, cityboi said:

I think the grocery store coming downtown is a sign that the center-city is beginning to reach enough critical mass for retail establishments such as a small urban Target integrated into a mixed-use development on the news and record site. Once the Westin and parking deck are near completion, that should help entice a developer into purchasing the property. Developers need to start considering architecture in downtown Greensboro. Everything here is all about costs and the architecture suffers. Seems like any other city its the opposite. When a developer builds something its going to be there for decades. That's why I'm slightly disappointed with the Tanger Center. It doesn't look bad from the front but it could have been much better. The sides and the rear of the Tanger Center is just about as plain as the side of a Walmart.

An urban Target as part of a bigger project would be great. Obviously downtown needs more residents before that will be feasible (some of those residents could be worked into the N&R project by building some apartments/condos on site as well... including over that Target).

The back of Tanger is a disappointment,  especially considering how visible it is. Maybe that's a hint that it won't be so visible in the near future.

[cityboi]

[nicholas]

Quick drive by

Edited March 2, 2022 by nicholas

[cityboi]

[urbanpirate]

Man, what a disappointment….

[GSOstrong]

Man, what a disappointment….

What’s the disappointment?


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[AlmaPinnix]

jumping to conclusions on unfinished construction is a disappointment.

[jthomas]

11 hours ago, urbanpirate said:

Man, what a disappointment….

 

10 hours ago, GSOstrong said:

What’s the disappointment?

To me, it is very disappointing that Davie Street will be lined by ugly parking decks for over two long blocks. It totally kills any hope of a pleasant pedestrian experience, regardless of whatever retail gets stuck into the cheap-looking snap-together deck. I spent a lot of time walking around downtown recently. Elm Street is fantastic, but if you go even a block off Elm in any direction it's like the twilight zone - nothing but parking craters. It's almost like Elm Street is Main Street at Disney World, and the rest of downtown is the back-of-house stuff that nobody is supposed to see. Downtown has a LONG way to go to be a true urban neighborhood, and projects built in the manner of the Westin (parking-dominated, poor street interaction) are not going to help it get there.

[urbanpirate]

Seriously??  Pretty sure that’s the finished design with that parking deck facade; pre engineered wall panels with zero architectural features. Looks like a bush league copy of Carroll’s deck on Eugene/Bellemeade.  

[cityboi]

Aerials of Westin 

Edited March 25, 2022 by cityboi

[rancenc]

As usual @cityboiyou have great pictures of Greensboro!

[cityboi]

They are on floor 3 so they are a quarter of the way up. 

Edited April 17, 2022 by cityboi

[urbanpirate]

That parking deck..

[HRVT]

On 3/17/2022 at 7:54 AM, jthomas said:

 

To me, it is very disappointing that Davie Street will be lined by ugly parking decks for over two long blocks. It totally kills any hope of a pleasant pedestrian experience, regardless of whatever retail gets stuck into the cheap-looking snap-together deck. I spent a lot of time walking around downtown recently. Elm Street is fantastic, but if you go even a block off Elm in any direction it's like the twilight zone - nothing but parking craters. It's almost like Elm Street is Main Street at Disney World, and the rest of downtown is the back-of-house stuff that nobody is supposed to see. Downtown has a LONG way to go to be a true urban neighborhood, and projects built in the manner of the Westin (parking-dominated, poor street interaction) are not going to help it get there.

Looking at the pictures, are we sure that the retail element is still there? Or was it quietly removed?

[jthomas]

4 hours ago, HRVT said:

Looking at the pictures, are we sure that the retail element is still there? Or was it quietly removed?

Yeah, I'm not sure. I've driven past the site a couple times in the past week. It certainly still seems possible that retail could be integrated into the street frontage. But it wouldn't surprise me in the least if there has been a bait-and-switch in this department.

What bugs me the most about the overall design of the project is that while parking is integrated into the base of the hotel structure itself (as far as I can tell), the vehicular circulation ramps are located in the standalone deck portion. Which means the standalone portion can't be demolished without abandoning the parking directly under the hotel, which means we are probably stuck with this cheap piece of crap for a very long time. It wouldn't have been so bad if the deck had been built to the quality of the original design, instead of the monument to mediocrity that is actually going up.

[AlmaPinnix]

10 hours ago, HRVT said:

Looking at the pictures, are we sure that the retail element is still there? Or was it quietly removed?

 

6 hours ago, jthomas said:

Yeah, I'm not sure. I've driven past the site a couple times in the past week. It certainly still seems possible that retail could be integrated into the street frontage. But it wouldn't surprise me in the least if there has been a bait-and-switch in this department.

What bugs me the most about the overall design of the project is that while parking is integrated into the base of the hotel structure itself (as far as I can tell), the vehicular circulation ramps are located in the standalone deck portion. Which means the standalone portion can't be demolished without abandoning the parking directly under the hotel, which means we are probably stuck with this cheap piece of crap for a very long time. It wouldn't have been so bad if the deck had been built to the quality of the original design, instead of the monument to mediocrity that is actually going up.

v v v This v v v

 

v v v Can still be this v v v
We just have to wait and see what is still to be constructed.

[urbanpirate]

It’s 2022.   Architecturally this looks like something from the 1960’s. That’s Greensboro for ya!

[cityboi]

On 4/19/2022 at 10:06 PM, urbanpirate said:

It’s 2022.   Architecturally this looks like something from the 1960’s. That’s Greensboro for ya!

The parking deck needs a screening system for sure.

[cityboi]

Westin photo update. 1/3 the way up

Edited May 17, 2022 by cityboi