NC Music Factory / Uptown Village / Deco One

[dubone]

It's not a brand unless it is misSpelld.

[ah59396]

On January 15, 2016 at 0:19 PM, SgtCampsalot said:

Maybe people think having "X" in the title makes it cool. I mean, doesn't Charlotte Agenda market itself to people who grew up in the 80s/90s when XTREME was the way to go?

At the very least, they could make it "AvidXXXchange Music Factory".  If I was from out of town and saw that, I'd have to go check it out.  Because I'm a deviant.

[BullDurhamer]

On 6/30/2009 at 8:33 PM, nonillogical said:

most of that parking area is to be developed in phase 2, of course thats probably way off at this point.

 

and its hard to whine about the placement of a graveyard, but that picture makes me really wish Elmwood Cemetary wasn't there. it would be amazing if that whole area were filled in and NCMF connected to gateway.

it's 2016 now.  has there been any suggestion at all of moving this cemetery yet?  it seems pretty crazy to have this giant piece of land just sitting in the heart of it all.  i guess we haven't reached peak density yet where anybody cares, but eventually this will probably happen.  i think the cemetery would make a great park in what will be a very dense uptown corridor down the line.  

what makes more sense...a park for the dead in the middle of it all or a park for the living?    it happened here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheesman_Park,_Denver among many other places.

[go_vertical]

Never gonna happen. But I think what makes sense is letting people rest where they intended. The idea of exhuming graves just so a developer can build some apartments is pretty repulsive. A dense uptown can expand in many other directions.

Edited April 26, 2016 by go_vertical

[CLT2014]

Elmwood could be made more park like, but as far as removing the graves.... no. Families have purchased plots (current rate is $1,500) for their loved ones and this cemetery has both historical significance as well as emotional significance as they continue to bury people there today. It would be horrible PR to dig up people's loved ones and force them to move.

 

[BullDurhamer]

that all sounds nice, but this isn't sustainable.  and they're dead.

 

keep burying people everywhere then nobody would have a place to live.  i'm not suggesting we move the dead to be able to put apartments.  this should be a livable space given its location for the people actually living.  

 

cemeteries get moved all of the time and have throughout history.  i guarantee this cemetery will be moved at some point unless charlotte collapses.  it might be 200 years, but eventually somebody is going to realize that part of making cities livable is to actually have great spaces for them to live.  bearden park is nice and all, but it's just a tiny sliver and won't come close to being sufficient for the uptown area as more and more and more and more people move in.  a big elmwood park would be so rad and would obviously spawn even more development along the edges over time.  

 

at the very least, this notion of paying for a plot and expecting to hold claim on that for centuries is beyond absurd.  the earth aint big enough if for no other reason.  

[Niner National]

Charlotte has no shortage of available land to develop on. We're not an island and we aren't in the mountains or marshland where there is limited space to expand. There is no reason to move a cemetery just because we want to develop all the land within an area that is currently within a highway constraint that might not even exist in the future. I'd rather they move the highway than move the cemetery.

It would be nice to see the cemetery be more park-like though as another poster suggested.

[nonillogical]

Yeah to be clear I never favored removing/moving it, I was just daydreaming if it weren't there in the first place.

Also, can't believe I was posting here 7 years ago! I still feel like a bit of a noob.

[Guest]

Aren't there 2 apartment buildings and an office building under construction in NC Music Factory? Can someone get some snaps?
 

[videtur quam contuor]

 

Bulldurhamer:  This is from the link you offered

"The Denver Republican newspaper ran a story breaking the news, its March 19, 1893 headline read: "The Work of Ghouls!" The article described, in detail, McGovern’s practice of hacking up what were sometimes intact remains of the dead and stuffing them into children's-size coffins. The article partly described the scene:

"The line of desecrated graves at the southern boundary of the cemetery sickened and horrified everybody by the appearance they presented. Around their edges were piled broken coffins, rent and tattered shrouds and fragments of clothing that had been torn from the dead bodies...All were trampled into the ground by the footsteps of the gravediggers like rejected junk."

Mayor Rogers canceled the contract and the city Health Commissioner began an investigation. Although numerous graves had not yet been reached and others sat exposed, a new contract for moving the bodies was never awarded."

This cemetery you refer to was used mostly for pauper burials and mostly 125+ years ago.

Can ANYONE realistically believe that an active historic cemetery with graves of many significant families from Charlotte, a confederate burial section, and my own site of two plots would be thus similarly desecrated?

Before the music factory was developed the Lazes, father and son, asked the CIty Council to approve building a street through Elmwood with streetlights, street improvments and so forth to reach their property from downtown. The request reached the council meeting level and was treated with the derision it so richly deserved.

[Niner National]

2 hours ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

Aren't there 2 apartment buildings and an office building under construction in NC Music Factory? Can someone get some snaps?
 

Don't have a picture, but Deco One (I think) has the foundation poured and some framing going up, but that has just started. Not much to look at.

The office building has steel framing most of the way up and the-prefab parking garage looks to be about half completed.

[Higgs Boson]

What is Elmwood, like 70 acres?  How common are large graveyards inside of downtowns?

Not that I'm for removing any of it, to be clear.  Just curious... something I've never noticed when visiting or looking at other cities.  But then again, I'm probably constantly looking past graveyards without them ever registering in my mind.

[SgtCampsalot]

This cemetery is one of the coolest things ever. I love walking or riding through Elmwood when I'm in that part of town. It's also a great picnic spot (no joke). It's peaceful.

Ethics of removing a cemetery aside, I see it as a wonderful feature to have as a city in downtown.

Edited April 26, 2016 by SgtCampsalot

[atlrvr]

Green-Wood cemetery in Brooklyn is 475 acres.

Arlington National in DC is ~650 acres

Laurel HIll in Philly is much more similar to Elmwood at ~70 acres and adjacent to a similar size more recent cemetary.....

I like it, and would hate to see it ever get removed.  I find it peaceful back in there, and nice green space, and you find some cool old gravestones.

It would be nice to see Cedar St extended as  a pedestrian only connection, which a nice strolling promenade and a ped-bridge over the rail to connect.  That ROW pretty much exists, and would just be an expensive cosmetic upgrade, but with some good lighting, could probably help connect NCMF and Gateway Village.

[Guest]

29 minutes ago, atlrvr said:

Green-Wood cemetery in Brooklyn is 475 acres.

Arlington National in DC is ~650 acres

Laurel HIll in Philly is much more similar to Elmwood at ~70 acres and adjacent to a similar size more recent cemetary.....

I like it, and would hate to see it ever get removed.  I find it peaceful back in there, and nice green space, and you find some cool old gravestones.

It would be nice to see Cedar St extended as  a pedestrian only connection, which a nice strolling promenade and a ped-bridge over the rail to connect.  That ROW pretty much exists, and would just be an expensive cosmetic upgrade, but with some good lighting, could probably help connect NCMF and Gateway Village.

you mean like this?

[atlrvr]

I was thinking of just extending Cedar St straight.  There are no graves in the way.  There is a pathway the already extends, its just an un-glamorous asphalt path.

[Bikeguy]

Or there's this >>>   http://www.oaklandcemetery.com/events/

[Niner National]

6 hours ago, Higgs Boson said:

What is Elmwood, like 70 acres?  How common are large graveyards inside of downtowns?

Not that I'm for removing any of it, to be clear.  Just curious... something I've never noticed when visiting or looking at other cities.  But then again, I'm probably constantly looking past graveyards without them ever registering in my mind.

71.86 acres.

When it was built though, it wasn't really in downtown, it was on the fringes of downtown. The city grew up around it and now it is encompassed in what is considered the downtown area.

I do wish the city integrated it better and used it as a connector to the Music Factory, but I'd hate for anything to ever be developed in its place.

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

Here is a mini pano from the side parking lot (taken from phone). Since there is no height around this area, you can definately feel the presence of the buildings. (ESP from the vbgb side)

[BullDurhamer]

On 4/26/2016 at 3:55 PM, atlrvr said:

Green-Wood cemetery in Brooklyn is 475 acres.

Arlington National in DC is ~650 acres

Laurel HIll in Philly is much more similar to Elmwood at ~70 acres and adjacent to a similar size more recent cemetary.....

I like it, and would hate to see it ever get removed.  I find it peaceful back in there, and nice green space, and you find some cool old gravestones.

It would be nice to see Cedar St extended as  a pedestrian only connection, which a nice strolling promenade and a ped-bridge over the rail to connect.  That ROW pretty much exists, and would just be an expensive cosmetic upgrade, but with some good lighting, could probably help connect NCMF and Gateway Village.

Green-Wood cemetery in Brooklyn is also right next to Prospect Park.  Charlotte has no place uptown for its residents to play.  Every great city has places where the urban residents venture to get sun and relaxation.  This space would be absolutely perfect.  Oh well, I guess I'm alone.  You all want to have even more space uptown isolated forever to protect the dead.

 

Anyway, here's an interesting little piece about how the dead in New York have been moved all around over the years.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-young/manhattans-forgotten-graveyards_b_4171691.html

[15895]

That's what Romare Park is for.

 

and can you cite another example that isn't New York City? Just curious.

Edited April 28, 2016 by AirNostrumMAD

[Higgs Boson]

Food Truck Friday in Elmwood!!!

[kermit]

While I appreciate the desire to improve the city, I gotta say y'all are profoundly misunderstanding what it means to be Southern. Moving the cemetary is just not an option.

The Oakland Cemetary (Atlanta) model is a great thing to aspire to.

Edited April 28, 2016 by kermit

[SgtCampsalot]

9 minutes ago, Higgs Boson said:

Food Truck Friday in Elmwood!!!

Maybe, brah, maybe. Personally, I feel that cemeteries are a vastly under-utilized form of de-facto public space. You get the greenery and landscaping, you get the beautiful architecture in the form of headstones and mausoleums, and, maybe most importantly, you see that you can still respect people who have passed while enjoying their legacy.

At least in the 21st century cemeteries. 

Edited April 28, 2016 by SgtCampsalot

[alb1no panther]

yeah that cemetery isn't going anywhere.  60 years from now?  maybe.  if a park is what you're after, there's this piece of land:

that sits literally 5 feet away.

 

besides, if your argument holds, should we also tear up Settlers Cemetery and the adjoining old building?