Ballantyne Village

[DigitalSky]

Some updates:

[cltheel.sdl]

Wow, is it topped out yet? This area has changed so much over the past 10 years - it's ridiculous! Even in the past 2 years there have been lots of changes. My gf used to live in Ballantyne, and if she and her family could see this development I think it would even surprise them!

[Raintree21]

Are there any zoning restrictions that would prohibit buildings taller than these ~10 story office parks that are being built down there?

[revitalize]

An interesting new rendering of the future condo tower(s?) at Ballantyne Village is posted on the ballantyne village website. See a quick blurb about it on ballantynedaily.blogspot.com

[Guest]

Not too shabby, its just too bad ballantyne is getting this and downtown is not.

[atlrvr]

There is a webcam up for Ballantyne Corporate Park (or whatever the official name is)

The 2 10-story LEED certified buildings are almost topped out.

http://oxblue.com/pro/open/?webPath=coxschepp/ballantyne

[Raintree21]

W Hotels has announced that they will break ground in April with a new 135 room hotel as part of Ballantyne Corporate Place.

[AuLukey]

W Hotels has announced that they will break ground in April with a new 135 room hotel as part of Ballantyne Corporate Place.

[rjp212]

Its aLoft by W. We still haven't gotten a full fledged W hotel.

[AuLukey]

I see that now. I withdraw my previous statement. I'm cool with another aLoft, I thought that uptown was loosing a W to Ballantyne for a minute there.

[eastsider]

Went through Ballantyne over the weekend for the first time in a long time. Looks like the new office buildings are about ready to open, if there not already?

aloft hotel construction

[Guest]

Went through Ballantyne over the weekend for the first time in a long time. Looks like the new office buildings are about ready to open, if there not already?

aloft hotel construction

[49er]

At least the newer stuff in Ballantyne has graduated to smaller lots, taller buildings and structured parking. When you look at aerials of the main corporate park area at Johnston Rd and Ballantyne Commons it is just plain depressing. Fully 75% of the land appears to be paved over.

[Spartan]

Thanks for sharing these pictures. I think they are as good as they can be, given the subject.

Isn't it great that we've created an urban environment where people never have to venture outdoors?

House - garage - car - parking deck - tube - office

[InitialD]

Thanks for sharing these pictures. I think they are as good as they can be, given the subject.

Isn't it great that we've created an urban environment where people never have to venture outdoors?

House - garage - car - parking deck - tube - office

[DigitalSky]

Thanks for those photos! I'm so glad we're getting another Aloft, the IKEA of hotels

[aceboogie]

Did this Ballantyne project get built? I saw on the internet it was a propsed project. Just curious about the progress.

[krazeeboi]

Isn't it a bit ironic to have suburban office park buildings be LEED-certified?

[JayGee]

Isn't it a bit ironic to have suburban office park buildings be LEED-certified?

[tozmervo]

Because suburban office parks do not generally represent a sustainable mode of living. IE, they almost exclusively require cars to get to. Hell, there is at least one parking garage (in Santa Monica I believe) that has a LEED plaque.

FWIW, the lower certification levels of LEED - "Certified" and "Silver" - are relatively easy to obtain by most buildings, especially under earlier versions of LEED. Having said that, LEED 2009 has substantially upped the ante and rebalanced the points with an emphasis on preventing climate change. Basically that means some of the "easy" points are worth less and the more important credits - energy optimization, etc - are worth more.

[JayGee]

Because suburban office parks do not generally represent a sustainable mode of living. IE, they almost exclusively require cars to get to. Hell, there is at least one parking garage (in Santa Monica I believe) that has a LEED plaque.

FWIW, the lower certification levels of LEED - "Certified" and "Silver" - are relatively easy to obtain by most buildings, especially under earlier versions of LEED. Having said that, LEED 2009 has substantially upped the ante and rebalanced the points with an emphasis on preventing climate change. Basically that means some of the "easy" points are worth less and the more important credits - energy optimization, etc - are worth more.

[UrbanFuture]

Well like it or not, suburban office parks will be around for a long, long time, so one cannot say it is not sustainable.

[JayGee]

That is not a correct statement. Just because something will be around for 50 or so years does not automatically make it sustainable. Sustainable is something that will last hundreds of years with minimal updating in terms of materials used to keep it functioning and in good condition. Sustainable is creating the highest energy efficient and quality use-version of a building, event, lifestyle, etc.

Suburban office parks do none of these in their current form. We don't even know how many people will require huge non-descript offices in 50 years (think about how many people already work from home, small offices, etc.), so the business model might not even be sustainable.

However, with a little creative thinking and a good chunk of money, they could be made much more sustainable. Alternative modes of transportation, rip up the impervious surface lots, if they must be replaced, build a deck with a truly green roof and energy efficient exterior cladding or solar panels. Put green roofs on the office buildings or at least change the roofing materials to a white roof. Add in operating windows every other curtain wall panel. Replace old HVAC systems with more efficient ones. etc etc etc.

There is no reason why Ballantyne can't do some of these things. As it stands right now, Ballantyne is one of the more unsustainable office clusters in Charlotte.

[Spartan]

From the transportation standpoint, a development like Ballantyne ideally should be designed with its own internal transportation system, so a large live/work development can at least approach being truly auto-independent. And if it is designed in from the start, it is far less expensive than going back and retro-fitting.

[JayGee]

So everyone can get from their cul-de-sac to their sprawling office complex? Ballantyne, if designed in that mixed use sense, which is what I think you are getting at, would not even remotely resemble Ballantyne. Baxter Village in Fort Mill is a great example of the type of large scale urban development that we need to be seeing across the Carolinas.