6 Highrise Towers for Portsmouth Waterfront!

[urbanlife]

not only is the city adding to a very minor skyline, but it seems that they are looking to redo their street activity which will be amazing because downtown portsmouth always felt like it had too much dead space.

[willy]

This is great news!!! I think Portsmouth has finally seen the light, either that or they are tired of seeing all the tower cranes over in Norfolk.

Let's go Portsmouth!!!!!

[hoobo]

This is great news!!! I think Portsmouth has finally seen the light, either that or they are tired of seeing all the tower cranes over in Norfolk.

Let's go Portsmouth!!!!!

I don't think it's a matter of Portsmouth seeing the light as much as it is a matter of developers seeing the light.

[GoodNews]

I don't think it's a matter of Portsmouth seeing the light as much as it is a matter of developers seeing the light.

True

[lammius]

I'm willing to bet that both will have ground level retail.

Hopefully. The city needs to move the courts so that more mixed-use can tie that retail into the ferry landing and High Street. It would be awesome to see shopping & dining opportunities on High Street AND Crawford Street.

[urbanlife]

Hopefully. The city needs to move the courts so that more mixed-use can tie that retail into the ferry landing and High Street. It would be awesome to see shopping & dining opportunities on High Street AND Crawford Street.

Seeing that those two streets should be to Portsmouth what Granby and Main are to Norfolk.

[tombarnes]

Moving the ugly court complex away from the waterfront is essential to the revitalization of the area. I still favor the idea of keeping it downtown, but the buildings are ugly and the waterfront land is too valuable.

[gosscj]

I agree those municipal buildings should be one of Portsmouth's top development priorities, but the fact is it's quite expensive to build a whole new court/jail/city hall complex and Portsmouth doesn't really have money to spare. I see the city just saying they can't justify spending $70 million to replace buildings that serve their purpose fairly well currently, so they'll just have to live with what they already have for until they're better able to afford to a new municipal center. It's unfortunate, but they probably won't be in much better shape for a while, so this will likely be a project that is left to the distant future. As much as that really is a shame becausethat land has so much potential, I would like to see the new city buildings done well and if they decided to try to tackle the project now or soon, it might not be with the best funding and so it might be a substandard development - which would be even worse than the present situation. The land that those city buildings are on will never become less valuable; maybe it would not be so bad for the city to wait on this one and make sure everything is done well on the city's part.

That said, when they do move, I would like to see them stay downtown too. I'm trying to think though, and I'm having trouble coming up with an ideal spot. Were you thinking of one specifically? I can imagine the city consolidating the courts and city hall like Norfolk and building a 15-story tower with a fairly small footprint, but even so, there's not really much developable land in downtown Portsmouth unless you want to start demolishing older structures.

[tombarnes]

The former Wachovia Bank building and the parking lots surrounding it would be ideal. Some of this land may have been used for the sports museum, but there is still open (paved) land there. Better yet, the area on the other side of High Street could be used as well. I'll have to go look at Google Earth to see if I can think of anything appropriate. I think moving the courts complex to Mid-City is a poor idea- one which would promote sprawl instead of combating it. There's also lots of empty land along London Boulevard. Again, though, this would tend to decentralize downtown rather than strengthen the core. How about just a couple of blocks inland from the current site?

[vdogg]

So I was perusing www.baskervill.com, the architect for centennial towers in Richmond, and I came across something interesting. On this page there are 3 towers. The first one and the last one I recognized as Richmond projects but the one in the middle I didn't. Desperate to find out what this project is I clicked on the properties. Low and behold what did the properties say but "Portsmouth VA RFP, Proposed Tower North Pier" Looks nice.

[urbanvb]

quite nice!

[vdogg]

Looks kinda Miami/resort-ish. I'm gonna see if I can enlarge the rendering later to get a better look. It's listed as "mixed use" but unfortunately I couldn't find any other details. Hopefully Ptown decides to release the details of the RFPs sometime soon. For an architect to put it on their website, some progress must've been made.

[vdogg]

Well, I edited the pic but it didn't want to take so I had to resize it the cheap way. You get an idea for the scale of it though. I put it in about the 20-25 story range. I had trouble figuring out that mess at the bottom.

[rusthebuss]

Looks to be around 20 stories

[erdogs]

I can see 22-23 possibly. I hope we get a pilot article soon.

[vdogg]

I can see 22-23 possibly. I hope we get a pilot article soon.

Yeah, as I said that jumble at the bottom screwed me up. That's why I put it at 20-25. Plus that top portion could be penthouse or 2 floors or both so i'm not sure how to count that either.

It looks decently modern too, though i'd have to see a more polished rendering. Glad to see something get away from the "colonial" look.

[PeninsulaKiddo]

The architecture is pretty interesting. The variations in the roofline are pretty cool and it has a very clean, contemporary look. I like it.

[Padman]

Very nice. It's considerably better than anything else in that genaral area (IMO). I count 20 stories too. I hope it's not just a placeholder.

[hoobo]

I'd like to reaffirm my distaste of anything Miami/Vegas-like going up in HR. As for colonial/conservative styles; I prefer those in older established areas like Granby and Port Norfolk. Places like the Portsmouth waterfront like Fort Norfolk are blank slates in terms of architecture.

That said, I do like the roofline. However, I wish the panels were more angled and faced the same direction to invoke sails. I want HR to create its own identity and not copy the latest trends in other cities. Architecture that captures the heart of the area is what I seek. I love Nauticus, the new VB convention center, the proposed Ghent South Towers, Ocean Lakes HS, the flagship 17th St Surf Shop store, NNSB/VASCIC modeling center and the Hampton Air & Space museum for that reason. I like the neo-classical roof of the Portsmouth Renaissance. I'd like to see a triangular building with a flat side and reverse curving side in the form of a sail on the Portsmouth waterfront. Another crazy idea would be "twin" towers: one a sorta football-shaped building with a cheesebox roof and another more classical building with a hip-roof. I hope that image is clear. And I wouldn't mind seeing some buildings with neo-georgian influences in there as well.

[Padman]

I can accept nothing less than a neo-Tuscan chicken aesthetic imbued with wattled fenestrations and mottled with a cornucopia of frizzled columbines (make that concubines). Indeed, the facade, garnished with portraiture of Lord Dunmore and some former members of the Rhondels will add just the perfect ambience to the emerging Ptown skyline. Now that would be truly unique.

[vdogg]

OMG

[hoobo]

I can accept nothing less than a neo-Tuscan chicken aesthetic imbued with wattled fenestrations and mottled with a cornucopia of frizzled columbines (make that concubines). Indeed, the facade, garnished with portraiture of Lord Dunmore and some former members of the Rhondels will add just the perfect ambience to the emerging Ptown skyline. Now that would be truly unique.

Do you mock me? You are now my sworn enemy. I challenge you to a duel.

[Padman]

Do you mock me? You are now my sworn enemy. I challenge you to a duel.

Not a bit. I especially agree with you about the Vegas stuff. Why are they designing such witless lumps there? The Miami designs aren't much better, but at some of them have better proportions than the Vegas stuff.

It's hard to come up with a local high-rise architecture, though, it's become a relatively universal language. We're getting some nice work from out of towners like Humphreys, and some of the CMSS work is pretty imaginative too. I like the Renaissance, especially from the narrow, tall perspective. The Marriott across the river might have looked better with a curved roof, or maybe even a dome.

[vdogg]

Face lift to begin with traffic Circle

Construction on the traffic circle will begin Monday and is scheduled to be completed by May.

The road design eliminates several of the roads now feeding in and out of Crawford Street and frees up extra land on its northwestern side to make room for what will likely be a mid rise residential development.

[vdogg]

As usual, every single statement in the comments section is negative.