Learning from Other Places

[KJHburg]

^^^ Ontario needs some AutoBells up there.  I hate to see all those salted up cars and trucks. 

[KJHburg]

Charlotte can learn a thing or two from in state rival Raleigh.  Their downtown is booming like ours and faces lots of growth pressures.   They have protected more historical buildings and facades! and I am not talking state owned buildings.   Their maps they have on Fayetteville St are great and we need something like this in uptown Charlotte on Tryon as I am always seeing people looking for something (even more so in our uptown as our high rises block view of other buildings etc)

If you are interested and want to see what is going on in downtown Raleigh and check out my copious amounts of photos.  Check out Triangle Photo of the Day, Peace (apartment tower with ground level Publix) One Glenwood, The Dillon (also a photo below of their facade save), Charter Square      Morgan St Food Hall is fantastic in the heart of the warehouse district near Citrix, the Dillon and many apartment complexes.   Photo also of the tallest building in NC outside of the Queen City the 503 foot tall PNC Plaza.  And on the edge of downtown one of my favorite places with its old school sign.   The more I go to Raleigh the better I like it.  

https://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/forum/208-the-nc-triangle/

Of course their Union Station photo below is beautiful, 

[KJHburg]

This is from our Nashville friends over at UP they posted this comedic video on the Bachelorette parties that take over downtown Nashville every weekend.  The attached photo is one from brother took in August midday Saturday in downtown Nashville .  As the country song goes they believe in Day Drinking.   Now from NashVegas..... (this is even funnier if you know your country music like I do) 

 

[QCxpat]

This story about Boston University's proposed data sciences center might better be called  - Other Places Learning from Charlotte! 

"The renderings show a massive building - the tallest on BU's campus (17 stories) - designed by Toronto-based KPMB Architects to look from the street like a stack of books piled up from a podium."  "The tower will house the interdisciplinary Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computer and Computational Science & Engineering. The facility itself will feature “a series of terraced platforms, intended for small-group interactions, that run almost the entire length of the building;..."  

Honestly,  BU's proposed data sciences center looks a great deal like UNC Charlotte's Center City building designed by Kieran Timberlake in association with Charlotte-based Gantt Huberman Architects.  So much so, that it begs the question whether, as a legal matter,  BU's design amounts to copyright infringement?  And the "stack of books" nomenclature being used by BU was first used to describe the Kieran Timberlake design for UNC Charlotte's Center City building.  Take a look:

    BU's proposed data sciences center, KPMB Architects

UNC Charlotte's Center City Building - Completed 2011 - Kieran Timberlake, Architects

Link:  https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2018/10/01/first-look-at-bu-s-proposed-stack-of-books-tower.html#g/442570/1

"First look at Boston University's proposed 'stack of books' tower," by Catherine Carlock, Boston Business Journal, October 1, 2018.

Edited October 4, 2018 by QCxpat

[JRNYP2C]

20 hours ago, KJHburg said:

This is from our Nashville friends over at UP they posted this comedic video on the Bachelorette parties that take over downtown Nashville every weekend.  The attached photo is one from brother took in August midday Saturday in downtown Nashville .  As the country song goes they believe in Day Drinking.   Now from NashVegas..... (this is even funnier if you know your country music like I do) 

 

John Christ is the comedian, and he is hysterical!!

[KJHburg]

New 27 story student housing near Georgia Tech in Atlanta designed to look like huge circuit board.  This is new Tech Square and right by the downtown connector.

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2018/10/10/new-tech-square-tower-designed-to-look-like.html?ana=e_atl_bn_breakingnews&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1539186756&j=84324191

[SgtCampsalot]

This is something that annoys my classism radar, but makes my urban/train nerdiness FREAK OUT WITH JOY, and I want one in Charlotte:

Private Club Trams!

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=958791327638573&id=355665009819

Just imagine this running between JCSU and Sunnyside on the Gold Line, funded by the Charlotte City Club 

 

Edited October 28, 2018 by SgtCampsalot

[KJHburg]

How Geekdom a tech incubator hub in downtown San Antonio started a chain of events that changed downtown SA forever including their first new high rise office tower in 30 days.  It was started by the founder of Rackspace a SA based cloud computing company.  https://therivardreport.com/geekdom-an-idea-that-changed-downtown-san-antonio/

What can we learn? support any efforts to help our tech community in Charlotte and for the most part lately the community has.  

[KJHburg]

Walmart town centers a new concept to use underutilized land at walmart supercenters to create a walkable enjoyable environment.   Look at the container village in a Dallas suburb or the town center proposed in Long Beach.   This is very smart of Walmart to use and develop their massive parking lots this way.   Hopefully this will come to a supercenter here in the Charlotte market.   https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2018/10/31/first-look-walmart-s-hope-for-redeveloping-its.html?ana=e_ae_set1&s=article_du&ed=2018-10-31&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1541019020&j=84753691

[asthasr]

Just got back from a little vacation in Flushing, Queens, NY (best known outside NYC for "The Nanny," I guess). In the real world, it's the home of one of New York's central business districts, largest Chinatown (far more lively than the more famous one in Manhattan), and one of the most ethnically diverse populations in the US (and the world).

The first thing you notice when walking around downtown Flushing is density of storefronts at every scale. There are large malls, department stores (Macy's), chain pharmacies (Duane Reade), restaurants and small shops in traditional buildings, and takeaways that consist of little more than a closet-sized room with a fryer and a counter. I recommend wandering around in the street view a little. Notice that many of the supermarkets "spill out" onto the streets, with street-food style food offerings and their fresh produce displayed for passersby to inspect. Sidewalks are wide to accommodate these uses.

Another thing that's notable is the sense of safety in the area. Although no high density city is perfectly safe, obviously, I can say that walking around Flushing was by far the safest that I've felt in a major US city, *including Charlotte*, at night. This mainly comes down to traffic. Criminals like anonymity and invisibility. An empty street is a scary street. Due to the density of the neighborhood, it's filled with businesses, residents, and transit users until quite late. (I didn't walk around after 11 p.m. on this trip, but I could have). Even walking to the local mall, the SkyView, was not a frightening proposition, even though it's across the street from a fairly typical NYCHA project called the "Bland Houses." There are just so many people there that the chances of a negative encounter are relatively low.

Flushing also illustrates the sheer power of transit. It's at the far end of the 7 train. We rode it into Manhattan, and can't say very much positive about the experience. New York's subway is truly sad compared to modern(ized) systems around the world. Still, the existence of the subway station has allowed Flushing to function as a true extension of the city; rush hour to Brooklyn and Manhattan is noticeable, and the stop supports commuter density and commercial density that otherwise would be impossible without it. The downtown, clustered around these transit stops, reminds me of the "daisy chain" of TOD in Arlington, VA, with much more infill and density than has been developed there (to date).

I think Charlotte could learn several things from Queens:

1. Transit stops, even far-flung ones, can support a lot of density. They don't have to be purely for the commute to the CBD, but can form a mini-CBD of their own.
2. Sidewalk life is crucial. You pay for it in petty crime, but major crime is diminished because of the lack of anonymity. Small (tiny!) retail establishments help; supermarkets that are allowed to spill onto the street help.
3. You don't have to have high-end urban fitments to have a successful urban place. Sometimes I think we focus too much on things that don't really matter that much (buried power lines, planting strips, texturized crosswalks). Flushing doesn't have any of that. Ugly, wide sidewalks, old buildings, power poles, painted and half-worn-out crosswalks: it doesn't matter, the urban fabric works.

Edited November 2, 2018 by asthasr
fixing street view link

[Matthew.Brendan]

All good points. A population of over 4x that of Uptown Charlotte probably also helps.

You could transform Uptown overnight with the greatest urban landscape around but without people it’s just not the same. Until we have the day-time population of Uptown actually living in Uptown and the immediate surrounding area, fuhgeddabouddit. 

[asthasr]

1 minute ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

You could transform Uptown overnight with the greatest urban landscape around but without people it’s just not the same. Until we have the day-time population of Uptown actually living in Uptown and the immediate surrounding area, fuhgeddabouddit. 

As always, that's a valid criticism of looking at other, successful urban places; but it's still a chicken-and-egg problem. We are growing, and we can look at places like this to see what they have that we don't. Thus the takeaways: make the areas around our TODs as dense as possible. Make sure commercial spaces can be subdivided and small spaces can be effectively used. Allow a variety of sidewalk uses. Save money, if necessary, on decoration. Just make sure the fabric is viable.

[KJHburg]

Business NC released their annual best of NC building awards for buildings completed this year.   Raleigh Durham area dominated but Charlotte will have some great completions next year Dimensional Funds, The Railyard and yes Legacy.  

Best commercial building was the 18 story Dillon in Raleigh and I agree.  Below are my photos I took October 2  and here is a link to the article.  Best new public project Raleigh new Union Station. 

http://businessnc.com/building-north-carolina-awards-recognize-states-best-new-structures/

The Dillon is a podium style building ground floor retail, then parking levels then the office building above.  You take glass elevators to the 9th floor floor for the office building lobby and skydeck which is wonderful outdoor space.  This is my favorite building in downtown Raleigh.   And they saved a historical building facade! it can be done in NC! 

[KJHburg]

Speaking of saving historic buildings San Antonio is a national leader (they don't like to tear anything down)  look at this renovation of  a 1931 building and new addition in an area north of the downtown core and the Pearl redevelopment area.     Can you say Polk Building? 

https://saheron.com/city-council-approves-2-5-million-incentive-for-light-building-rehab/

[videtur quam contuor]

Oh, to have that kind of building, even a façade to preserve. Good on them.

[Vitamin_N]

Kinda cool: a subway vent disguised as a house.

[asthasr]

Yesterday I used an architectural term which, as far as I know, is unique to me: "modernistic humanism." This is how I think of it:

1. Human-scaled detailing. This means that windows are a good size but are not, generally, glass curtains. If they are, they are very transparent and the floor divisions are obvious. This is the most important point.
2. Textured, less "artificial" claddings.
3. Often very dark trim.

There are often similarities to the "Structural Expressionist" style of architecture, but with more naturalistic textures and trim and human scaling of the structure.

Examples that I group into this style:

Small-paned windows, textured finish, obvious floor divisions. Dark trim. More info.

Small, distinct windows. Obvious, humanistic floor divisions. Textured (brick) finish. Dark trim. More info.

Distinct windows, obvious floor divisions, textured finished, dark trim. More info.

And another at the tower scale, although this one has brutalist and more distinct modernist elements.

Obvious floor divisions, dark trim, wood details. More info.

By the way, I'd take any of these in Charlotte in a heartbeat. I really like this style! I hope that I'm right in my reading of the elevations of the new building... and I hope that they don't cheap out on the materials.

[deleted]

1 hour ago, asthasr said:

Yesterday I used an architectural term which, as far as I know, is unique to me: "modernistic humanism." This is how I think of it:

1. Human-scaled detailing. This means that windows are a good size but are not, generally, glass curtains. If they are, they are very transparent and the floor divisions are obvious. This is the most important point.
2. Textured, less "artificial" claddings.
3. Often very dark trim.

There are often similarities to the "Structural Expressionist" style of architecture, but with more naturalistic textures and trim and human scaling of the structure.

Examples that I group into this style:

Small-paned windows, textured finish, obvious floor divisions. Dark trim. More info.

Small, distinct windows. Obvious, humanistic floor divisions. Textured (brick) finish. Dark trim. More info.

Distinct windows, obvious floor divisions, textured finished, dark trim. More info.

And another at the tower scale, although this one has brutalist and more distinct modernist elements.

Obvious floor divisions, dark trim, wood details. More info.

By the way, I'd take any of these in Charlotte in a heartbeat. I really like this style! I hope that I'm right in my reading of the elevations of the new building... and I hope that they don't cheap out on the materials.

I'll take a hard pass on the second building, the rest I like.

[elrodvt]

I kind of like the second one. But even if you don't at least it is different so good 'nuff for me. Cool pics.

[asthasr]

This is more of a national/regional scale than just urbanism, but it's an interesting video nevertheless.

 

[Matthew.Brendan]

China is top 3 on my travel list for sure. The scale and scope of their building over the last 25 years has been nothing less than astounding. Entire cities replete with subways and high-speed trains. 

[KJHburg]

Here is just one thing I learned on my multistate multi-city tour of the South.   The Battery at Sun Trust Park is the model for all future stadium developments with its retail, office space, restaurants and apartments and hotels.   This has been a major home run for the Braves and Cobb County.   Some photos from today.   It has totally activated a very suburban office park location into a town center concept.  Any new stadium of any kind in my opinion would need this type of activation.   They have large parking garages surrounded by retail office and apartments.  Free for a couple hours non game days for the retail and restaurant tenants.  If you have not seen this you should make the journey south to Atlanta.   They even have coworking space with Spaces.  

[Matthew.Brendan]

Thank you for that. We just bought a home in Cobb co. Have been to the stadium once so far. It’s interesting for sure but seemed to me to be a forced attempt to re-create what originally came naturally. In terms of what we now call “mixed use”. 

I cant imagine anyone but college age kids or those still clinging to those days to rent the apartments. Office matters less as it’s 9-5. 

Edited November 16, 2018 by Matthew.Brendan

[elrodvt]

Nice photos KJH. No surprise but think you're 180 off on this being a model. It belongs in the urban core. It's like an old fashioned case of white flight. Atlanta is such a mess. Transit to the park sucks.

[KJHburg]

I agree it belongs in a more urban setting but I was saying the close in development around the stadium all orchestrated by the team owners is a good model to follow.  In Durham the Durham Bulls and their stadium is surrounded by retail and 3 office buildings all developed by the same owner.