Unbuilt Charlotte Towers Never started Never Completed Never Finished

[KJHburg]

To get the ball rolling on this topic here is the tallest tower ever proposed in Charlotte.  The 80 story 1000+ tall Four First Union Tower.  If you have others it would be great to post here so we have one place where we can easily find them.    Pictures of Mr Gellman's spire would be great proposed for N Tryon, 1 Brevard, 1000 South Tryon tower where apartments are rising today, One Charlotte condo tower etc.  

Here is one still on the Portman's website the luxurious One Charlotte condo tower where 615 Regions now sits   47 stories 577 feet tall.

https://portmanarchitects.com/project/one-charlotte/

 

 

[KJHburg]

I remember this one the Burt Gellman 1000 foot tall Space Needle where Transamerica 400 North Tryon now stands. Here is the observation deck we all dreamed of at one time or another.

Just a note this is not to be a negative thread for every city and I mean every city has towers that were announced and never built.  Charlotte usually announces them after they start  building which is good but sometimes grand plans are announced with much fanfare and never take off.  

 

[videtur quam contuor]

Burt was here in Charlotte at least in the late 70's. He opened Jonathans in the Duckworth current location. Jonathan was his son and he had him run the place as well. Burt was dating a waitress who lived across the street from me at that time and I recall him walking up the steps of the house with this woman young enough to be his daughter, he and his Abraham beard, and he reached behind her and fondled her butt as they climbed the steps. He drove a big black Cadillac and he parked in a non parking place alley one night and I pulled out of my driveway and did not look into the alley across the street and I caught my rear bumper under his and was trapped. After hopping on his car and having someone drive my car I was able to extract my car and he never knew. He was an anomaly here with the beard, overly young companions, some money, grand plans, visions of rainbows. His Professional Building, mentioned in the clipping, was later in his time an artists collective and the last building I knew of in Charlotte that had an elevator with a human operator. Draw closed the cage, turn the controller, a great experience. Somewhat like the wooden escalator in the Herald Square Macy's store (Is that still there). 

We could use some Gellman magic dust today.

[Trickbot]

Cant forget Trump Towers Charlotte. Massive set of towers that would have supposedly included retail, office spaces, hotels, and residential, in a 90+ floor new tallest. This never happened, but Trump Jr as recently as late 2017 says the company is still looking at expanding into Charlotte apart from the golf club already in Mooresville 

[DH17]

1 hour ago, Trickbot said:

Cant forget Trump Towers Charlotte. Massive set of towers that would have supposedly included retail, office spaces, hotels, and residential, in a 90+ floor new tallest. This never happened, but Trump Jr as recently as late 2017 says the company is still looking at expanding into Charlotte apart from the golf club already in Mooresville 

Maybe we will get a Trump tower after his Presidency as reward for hosting the RNC?

[King of the Queen City]

14 minutes ago, DH17 said:

Maybe we will get a Trump tower after his Presidency as reward for hosting the RNC?

I wouldn’t bet on it.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, tarhoosier said:

Burt was here in Charlotte at least in the late 70's. He opened Jonathans in the Duckworth current location. Jonathan was his son and he had him run the place as well. Burt was dating a waitress who lived across the street from me at that time and I recall him walking up the steps of the house with this woman young enough to be his daughter, he and his Abraham beard, and he reached behind her and fondled her butt as they climbed the steps. He drove a big black Cadillac and he parked in a non parking place alley one night and I pulled out of my driveway and did not look into the alley across the street and I caught my rear bumper under his and was trapped. After hopping on his car and having someone drive my car I was able to extract my car and he never knew. He was an anomaly here with the beard, overly young companions, some money, grand plans, visions of rainbows. His Professional Building, mentioned in the clipping, was later in his time an artists collective and the last building I knew of in Charlotte that had an elevator with a human operator. Draw closed the cage, turn the controller, a great experience. Somewhat like the wooden escalator in the Herald Square Macy's store (Is that still there). 

We could use some Gellman magic dust today.

One of these days I just want to camp out with a cocktail and listen to your stories. Maybe next meetup its just a @tarhoosier Ted Talk. 

"Ted Cruz, Ted Allen, Ted Danson, Ted Nugent, Ted Kennedy, Teddy Roosevelt,  Ted Ginn Jr, Ted Turner." 

Thank you, this has been my Ted Talk. 

Stolen from @SupportiveGuy

[DH17]

41 minutes ago, King of the Queen City said:

I wouldn’t bet on it.

Sorry, forgot the blue font.

[videtur quam contuor]

1 hour ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

One of these days I just want to camp out with a cocktail and listen to your stories. Maybe next meetup its just a @tarhoosier Ted Talk. 

"Ted Cruz, Ted Allen, Ted Danson, Ted Nugent, Ted Kennedy, Teddy Roosevelt,  Ted Ginn Jr, Ted Turner." 

Thank you, this has been my Ted Talk. 

Stolen from @SupportiveGuy

Charlotte was a MUCH smaller town in 1975-85 (as an example). The creative and counterculture people were concentrated in a small area. Urban pioneers had to know each other as there was no support than neighbors and friends. If one was a pioneer, kept his eyes and ears open, participated in the zeitgeist, one learned things and experienced things. Many things happened in the banking and philanthropy and established political circles and I did not participate there. You must look elsewhere for those memories.

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

The above are def some popular unbuilts, however, what's that one condo highrise? Possibly located near where intercontinental is. The one with the car elevator that lifted it to your home. Farfetched at the time but still pretty awesome to think about. There were renderings out there but havent looked. IPAs are slowing the Google search process lol. 

[UrbanCharlotte]

14 minutes ago, CharlotteWkndBuzz said:

The above are def some popular unbuilts, however, what's that one condo highrise? Possibly located near where intercontinental is. The one with the car elevator that lifted it to your home. Farfetched at the time but still pretty awesome to think about. There were renderings out there but havent looked. IPAs are slowing the Google search process lol. 

 

That would be the ‘Encore at Carolina Theater’ 

Description: 20 Story, mixed-use, high rise with luxury condos, 3 theater levels, 3 office levels, a restaurant level, and a roof-top terrace pool. Internal car elevator for direct garage access to condos. Structure consists of cast-in-place post-tensioned slab and beam concrete floors, shear wall core with moment frame interaction lateral system, and core mat foundation and pile caps supported on mini piles.

[DownEast]

I still want that Encore design done somewhere uptown. The Intercontinental treats the theater much nicer though.

[JorgiPorgi]

9 hours ago, KJHburg said:

I remember this one the Burt Gellman 1000 foot tall Space Needle where Transamerica 400 North Tryon now stands. Here is the observation deck we all dreamed of at one time or another.

Just a note this is not to be a negative thread for every city and I mean every city has towers that were announced and never built.  Charlotte usually announces them after they start  building which is good but sometimes grand plans are announced with much fanfare and never take off.  

 

I remember being an almost 8 year old kid, seeing this on WBTV news, ONCE. I was nuts for buildings and architecture back then as well. For years  I wondered whatever came if this, and even thought I may have imagined it- until now lol. Thanks for sharing. 

[KJHburg]

8 hours ago, CharlotteWkndBuzz said:

The above are def some popular unbuilts, however, what's that one condo highrise? Possibly located near where intercontinental is. The one with the car elevator that lifted it to your home. Farfetched at the time but still pretty awesome to think about. There were renderings out there but havent looked. IPAs are slowing the Google search process lol. 

I remember that one luxury condos with car elevator to bring your parked vehicle to your level.  The guy who was proposing that development had something to do with Emerson Joseph uptown 

Edited July 25, 2019 by KJHburg

[J-Rob]

15 hours ago, KJHburg said:

I remember this one the Burt Gellman 1000 foot tall Space Needle where Transamerica 400 North Tryon now stands. Here is the observation deck we all dreamed of at one time or another.

Just a note this is not to be a negative thread for every city and I mean every city has towers that were announced and never built.  Charlotte usually announces them after they start  building which is good but sometimes grand plans are announced with much fanfare and never take off.  

 

I hadn't heard of this before.  While very unrealistic in today's world, something like this would be pretty great.  Just a random thought, but if there was ever a Charlotte influencer that could make something like this happen through a private/public partnership, it would be one David Alan Tepper.  Imagine some version of this as part of an entertainment complex where the practice fields are today.  Or if a new stadium is built at Pipe and Foundry to accommodate NFL/MLS, this could be a draw making the entire complex an every day tourist destination.  Besides, if you are going to spend $1.5 to $2B on a new stadium, why not throw down an extra $1/2B to really make a mark? I need this man's number to share all my great ideas on how to spend his fortune.

Edited July 25, 2019 by J-Rob

[KJHburg]

Here is a more recent unbuilt tower the 28 story 1 Brevard cancelled due to lack of presales at their very lofty prices.   Boston money man proposed again with limited high rise experience if any.   Also I can not find a good rendering to share of the origin 300 South Tryon which was a 32 story office and condo tower that was proposed in 2007 or so and later scrapped during the deep recession.  Then revived as a 25 story office only high rise that we have today.

 

5 minutes ago, J-Rob said:

I hadn't heard of this before.  While very unrealistic in today's world, something like this would be pretty great.  Just a random thought, but if there was ever a Charlotte influencer that could make something like this happen through a private/public partnership, it would be one David Alan Tepper.  Imagine some version of this as part of an entertainment complex where the practice fields are today.  Or if a new stadium is built at Pipe and Foundry to accommodate NFL/MLS, this could be a draw making the entire complex an every day tourist destination.  Besides, if you are going to spend $1.5 to $2B on a new stadium, why not throw down an extra $1/2B to really make a mark? I need this man's number to share all my great ideas on how to spend his fortune.

Not sure how much one of these space needles would cost to build but it would just be so expensive to try to get tourists and maybe diners to pay for.  A better option for Charlotte would be a public observation deck atop one of our buildings with space for events as well.  

[rancenc]

If I am not mistaken, there were at least 2 tower proposals for the site that is currently occupied by the Barings "Sail" Building on South Tryon.  The first proposal was sometime in the late 1980's and there was one proposal in the mid to late 90's.

[Scribe]

5 minutes ago, rancenc said:

The first proposal was sometime in the late 1980's and there was one proposal in the mid to late 90's.

Then there was the 3rd proposal for condos around 2008...

[Guest]

31 minutes ago, Scribe said:

Then there was the 3rd proposal for condos around 2008...

Office + Condos

[RaleighHeelsfan]

What's the building the had like Greek columns at the time? It was like 30 floors...2006ish?

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, RaleighHeelsfan said:

What's the building the had like Greek columns at the time? It was like 30 floors...2006ish?

615 East Morehead. 

Edited July 25, 2019 by Guest

[turbocraig]

This was the last pre-Barings version of 300 South Tryon from 2007.  There was an earlier version still from around 2000 that looked sort of  like a stretched all white version of the old AT&T building on Brevard.   It was about 28 stories and had a slightly semi-circular projection facing Tryon that terminated with some elongated windows at the top.  I can’t find a pic of it anywhere.  It was underwhelming.   

[CarolinaDaydreamin]

Should we put this in the Coffee House?

[UrbanCharlotte]

Let's not forget the Epicentre condo tower. 

 

 

[j-man]

Hasn’t this thread been done before...