Travel observations and new developments of other cities and countries

[markhollin]

Denver:

[markhollin]

The 31 tallest buildings in the world:

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/design/g1705/21-tallest-buildings-in-the-world/

[KJHburg]

Since I am visiting Nashville today here is my city Charlotte on Sunday night all lit up for the Panthers game  (and win!) 

from my pro friend @Mgelbach   from the CLT airport. 

[nashvylle]

12 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Since I am visiting Nashville today here is my city Charlotte on Sunday night all lit up for the Panthers game  (and win!) 

from my pro friend @Mgelbach   from the CLT airport. 

Charlotte has one of the best skylines in the country. Just gorgeous. Charlotte is also one of the cleanest cities I have ever visited too. Beautiful city all around. 

[BnaBreaker]

This has probably already been addressed many times on this forum before, but my question about the Charlotte skyline is this.  How are they allowed to build such tall buildings when their core is that close to their airport?  It has to be at least as close as ours are, I would think, and yet we have a strict FAA height restriction?

[smeagolsfree]

Probably not in the flight path of any of the runways.

[smeagolsfree]

Looking at the distance it is about the same, but when looking at the degree of separation from the end of the 23 runway in Nashville vs Charlotte, the Charlotte downtown is about a 90 degree offset while the center of downtown Nashville is only about 45 degrees offset.

So the Downtown Charlotte skyline is almost due east of the similar runway set up while ours is NW instead of due west, if that makes sense.

You have to look at it on a map and understand the landing paths of the plane’s.

[KJHburg]

2 hours ago, smeagolsfree said:

Looking at the distance it is about the same, but when looking at the degree of separation from the end of the 23 runway in Nashville vs Charlotte, the Charlotte downtown is about a 90 degree offset while the center of downtown Nashville is only about 45 degrees offset.

So the Downtown Charlotte skyline is almost due east of the similar runway set up while ours is NW instead of due west, if that makes sense.

You have to look at it on a map and understand the landing paths of the plane’s.

Correct the flight paths north and south and a new runway is planned to eliminated the cross runaway which runs NE to SW.   Right now Charlotte has 3 parallel runways all pretty much north and south and yes uptown and tall skyline is to the east.   Our airport has 700 flights a day and we manage the traffic well but they want a 4th parallel runway for so planes can be waiting to take off while others are landing. 

Edited September 21, 2021 by KJHburg

[bnacincy]

https://youtu.be/oJQ1brZgCYc

Somebody stole our Siggy!

[MLBrumby]

That’s too bad but that design would not stay on the shelf for too much longer. Someone was bound to snag it. 

[BnaBreaker]

That one is WAY taller than the version proposed here... wowzers!

[KJHburg]

I visited Memphis for the first time ever today.  So this completes my visit to all 4 of the largest Tennesses cities.  Love the older historical buildings, the Peabody, yes the Pryamid and its observation deck.  What it is lacking as many of you know is energy.  I saw one crane downtown I think it was hotel.  Plus lots of vacancies on the street level and of course their tallest building is completely vacant.  If Memphis had 1/4 of the new jobs Nashville is getting these days it would be a very different city.   There is plenty of land downtown that could be developed but is not.  However I felt their highways and freeways were better than Nashville's.    Anyway here are some photos of things I thought were nice.  I do wish the major corporations based there would commit to downtown like FedEx and I heard Raymond James moved out to the suburbs.  It is exactly the opposite of what is going in Nashville with tons of investments and jobs coming to the central core.  Did like their trolley.   I know most of you have been to Memphis but I had not until today.  I think I read where the Memphis area is growing at 1% vs 20% for the Nashville metro and you can really tell. 

I do think it is interesting they have the only IKEA in the state and in a multistate region. 

[MLBrumby]

Memphis is a fun place to party but it’s a sad place to live. It has suffered from decades of poor civic and corporate leadership. The potential was there but I fear it is now shrinking. If you’re not growing you’re dying. There were a handful of hopeful projects proposed before COVID but they didn’t make it. Now it appears we’re heading into recession. 

Edited September 22, 2021 by MLBrumby

[donNdonelson2]

There is SO much potential in Memphis, and plenty of individual buildings & neighborhoods that are noteworthy. Your observation that it lacks “energy” is spot-on. I hope that the civic leaders of that area will someday come together to put Memphis back into a healthy (and friendly) competition with Nashville for bragging rights about who’s the “king of the hill” in Tennessee.

(As for Memphis getting an IKEA store, they subsidized the project with a $9.5 million tax incentive.)

[BnaBreaker]

2 hours ago, MLBrumby said:

Memphis is a fun place to party but it’s a sad place to live. It has suffered from decades of poor civic and corporate leadership. The potential was there but I fear it is now shrinking. If you’re not growing you’re dying. There were a handful of hopeful projects proposed before COVID but they didn’t make it. Now it appears we’re heading into recession. 

I agree that it has suffered from some poor leadership over the years and, I think, just a general lack of civic pride and confidence amongst the populace even though they honestly to have SO much to be proud of.  That being said, if the Memphis section of the forum is to be believed, there seem to still be several fairly large scale projects either in progress or bubbling just under the surface.  Hopefully they all come to fruition!

[dxfret]

Memphis seems to be caught in a time warp. The city and mid south region are simply not growing.  The downtown skyline looks almost identical to 35 years ago.  A couple of the largest downtown buildings (100 Main and the Sterrick Bldg.) have been vacant and closed for years.  Taxes and crime rates are high, leadership is weak, and the economy is tepid.  The airport has only 80 daily passenger flights which hurts business and tourism. Memphis has needed a major reboot for years, but it never seems to catch a break.  Lots of new projects have been planned but very little development seems to actually happen.  Memphis has potential but a lack of energy is a good way to describe the Bluff City.  

[Rick Dalton]

If you’re a developer, why invest in Memphis? It’s given you no reason to.

[VSRJ]

It will always be Memphis vs. the world. Does Memphis have a smorgasbord of problems? Absolutely, some of which certainly hold the city back. But I hesitate to call Memphis stagnant or dying. There are so many exciting redevelopment projects in the works, but none of them are as flashy as the glass towers popping up all over Nashville. From talking with people who are active in the city's development community, there are developers who are taking note of Memphis. And as people continue to be priced out of Nashville, I believe Memphis will benefit from that. I'm excited to see what the city looks like in 10 years.

[nashvylle]

@VSRJ and others- what is this gorgeous building with the green roof in the background? I'd be thrilled if Rutledge Hill or Pie Town got that building in Nashville.

[VSRJ]

2 minutes ago, nashvylle said:

@VSRJ and others- what is this gorgeous building with the green roof in the background? I'd be thrilled if Rutledge Hill or Pie Town got that building in Nashville.

It's the Lincoln American Tower, a 1/3 scale replica of the Woolworth Building in New York. There's lots of good info on its Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_American_Tower

[MDC26]

4 hours ago, dxfret said:

Memphis seems to be caught in a time warp. The city and mid south region are simply not growing.  The downtown skyline looks almost identical to 35 years ago.  A couple of the largest downtown buildings (100 Main and the Sterrick Bldg.) have been vacant and closed for years.  Taxes and crime rates are high, leadership is weak, and the economy is tepid.  The airport has only 80 daily passenger flights which hurts business and tourism. Memphis has needed a major reboot for years, but it never seems to catch a break.  Lots of new projects have been planned but very little development seems to actually happen.  Memphis has potential but a lack of energy is a good way to describe the Bluff City.  

The 100 N Main was bought by a NY company that was going to develop it as a hotel with Loew's, but Loew's decided that wanted another city owned site instead.  The NY company got mad, sued (which was thrown out) and has now sold 100 N Main to the city.  The city has received 11 proposals to develop the building as well as the entire block.  The Sterick building is a different situation.  The building is currently owned by a Life Insurance company.  However, the original builders did not buy the land, just signed a 99 year lease in 1926.  The land is stilled owned by the original family, and when the lease runs out in 3 1/2 years, the building will revert back to the property owners.  Because of that, no one will spend money to buy the building, or renovate it if they will just have it completely taken away in a few years.  Also, the family isn't going to just sell the land to someone when if they wait a few years, they will acquire the building and can sell it for more.  As far as the airport, having Northwest Airlines merge with Delta, and then Delta shutting down Memphis as a hub was catastrophic.  Daily flights and passengers plummeted after that.  However, it has been climbing back up, as Destination and origination passengers are at higher numbers than when Memphis was still a hub.  

Edited September 22, 2021 by MDC26

[Licec]

On 9/20/2021 at 8:00 PM, KJHburg said:

Since I am visiting Nashville today here is my city Charlotte on Sunday night all lit up for the Panthers game  (and win!) 

from my pro friend @Mgelbach   from the CLT airport. 

The pictures posted over the years all seem to look the same. Do you know why there are so few new buildings going up ?

Edited September 22, 2021 by Licec

[KJHburg]

3 hours ago, Licec said:

The pictures posted over the years all seem to look the same. Do you know why there are so few new buildings going up ?

Not true.   That photo was taken from the airport visit our UP site and see the rest of those buildings.  Our uptown skyline is very tight and compact not spread out and it is easy to miss buildings especially a photo taken from 5 miles away. 

In the last 3 years downtown what we called uptown has these completions:  33 story 632 foot high Bank of America Tower 2019. 26 story 427 foot high Ally Bank Center 2021,  18 story 650 South Tryon  Deloitte tower 2020, 22 story JW Marriott hotel 2021,  23 story Honeywell Corporate HQ 2021, Uptown 550 apartment tower 2019,  29 story 384 FNB Tower 2021, 33 story Ellis apartment  tower2021,  15 story Grand Bohemian Hotel 2020.     The office towers alone represent over 2.6 MILLION sq ft of office space.   

Right now  under construction  is 41 story 620  foot high building underway  Duke Energy Plaza   This tower is 1 Million sq ft.  So that would be 3.6 Million sq ft of office space in the last few years uptown. 

We have an area called Southend that has multiple towers including this one 23 story Lowe Technology Tower photo attached.   45 towers are planned or about to get underway at latest count. 

Photo 1  and 2 new 41 story 620 foot high Duke Energy Plaza  Photo 3 23 story Lowes tower in Southend.  

Plan a trip to Charlotte and I will show you around or anybody else by light rail train, streetcar, toll express lanes etc.  

[nashvylle]

Charlotte certainly has, IMO, the advantage over Nashville in large, corporate office towers, and of course, mass transit (I think even Chattanooga has better mass transit than Nashville). 

 

[Rick Dalton]

Charlotte guy very offended