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The Next Big Thing


dubone

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in charlotte, we always seem to be looking to build the next big thing that will get us to world-class city.

we have 3 of those things under construction now, a beltway, light rail and a downtown arena.

Now we are pushing for an arts plan and nascar hall of fame, and if they are approved, they will be under construction early next year.

I know there are the lingering requests for baseball and for the other rapid transit spurs...

do you all think that we will just ride out the rest of those already planned large projects, or do you think there will be a new large project that everyone will want to be funded to make us world class? what do cities our size or slightly larger have that we don't and will likely be next on the local wishlist?

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i think charlotte has all the major components...we just need to fill the cracks with culture, art, tradition. instead of looking @ what other cities have so we can follow their footsteps - we should now be forging our own path. this is the true mark of a great city. i had hoped (i still hope) that charlotte would become a city of cutting edge design and architecture... i mean we don't really have many ties to our past -so we can optimistically look toward the future w/o the baggage.

do you guys know the "transitions" lens commercial...where the family of the future walks out onto the balcony and there is this great futuristic skyline in the background... we could do that. or cloud city from "empire strikes back" - i'll take either one.

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Give me a recognizable landmark or sky needle (ie Seattle's Space Needle or St Louis's Arch). I know this does not make a city "world class", but it does tend to make it more marketable and more recognizable to the outside world. I would love to see Charlotte have a needle w/ a restraunt on top.

With Charlotte not on a body of water, we need a little extra "something" to give us that recognizeable image. JMHO.... B)

A list of cities that are always reecognized around the world are countless.

San Fran---Golden Gate

St Louis-----Arch

Seattle-----Space Needle

NYC------Statue of Liberty

Toronto----CN tower

All of these cities are easily distinguished from others because of their unique landmarks and structures.

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Note that unfortunately all of those cities are by a major body of water.

It is highly unusual to have a city neither by a body of water, an interesting rock formation, nor a capital that achieves a significant status. Dallas/Ft Worth is the only one that comes to mind.

Shoot, look at our largest cities:

New York - body of water

Chicago - body of water

LA - mountains, body of water

Washington DC - capital, body of water

Phoenix - capital

Houston - body of water

Boston - capital, body of water

Miami - body of water

Philadephia - body of water, former capital

and so on and so on... if someone got a list of the 50 largest cities in the US, Charlotte and Dallas would be the only ones not near anything and not politically important.

However, I agree that a good enough artificial landmark will distinguish the city in the same manner as a geographic/political landmark can. At this point, New York doesn't need to be near anything to be a cool, huge, important city. It has enough landmarks of its own.

The trick is what to build. Needles are becoming too common, because every city has to have one to look unique now. Obviously a problem with this is that if every city had one, none of them would be unique from it. So perhaps something different is in order.

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A while back, somebody mentioned a Southend skyline made up of multiple Arlingtons. I know the residents would whine, and I know the sales of the Arlington have sucked, but a small cluster of mid and high-rise glass buildings of various color would make for a unique signature.

I'd want the next one to be blue.

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A while back, somebody mentioned a Southend skyline made up of multiple Arlingtons. I know the residents would whine, and I know the sales of the Arlington have sucked, but a small cluster of mid and high-rise glass buildings of various color would make for a unique signature.

I'd want the next one to be blue.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I want an Orange one after they put up the Blue one.

:lol:

A2

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Note that unfortunately all of those cities are by a major body of water.

It is highly unusual to have a city neither by a body of water, an interesting rock formation, nor a capital that achieves a significant status. Dallas/Ft Worth is the only one that comes to mind.

Shoot, look at our largest cities:

New York - body of water

Chicago - body of water

LA - mountains, body of water

Washington DC - capital, body of water

Phoenix - capital

Houston - body of water

Boston - capital, body of water

Miami - body of water

Philadephia - body of water, former capital

and so on and so on... if someone got a list of the 50 largest cities in the US, Charlotte and Dallas would be the only ones not near anything and not politically important.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

well, then thats a neat place to start. we are different in that sense. god knows i'd rather be in charlotte than dallas. we are in close proxemity to many diverse vactioning hotspots.

i don't think the answer is, nessecerly, to build one landmark.

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i guess what i a trying to say is i would rather charlotte become world reknowned by some kind of cultural movement than a specific landmark. i do note that perhaps one follows the other. my wish is that we combine these two notions and have an architectual "movement" unlike anything in the u.s.

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Note that unfortunately all of those cities are by a major body of water.

It is highly unusual to have a city neither by a body of water, an interesting rock formation, nor a capital that achieves a significant status. Dallas/Ft Worth is the only one that comes to mind.

Shoot, look at our largest cities:

New York - body of water

Chicago - body of water

LA - mountains, body of water

Washington DC - capital, body of water

Phoenix - capital

Houston - body of water

Boston - capital, body of water

Miami - body of water

Philadephia - body of water, former capital

and so on and so on... if someone got a list of the 50 largest cities in the US, Charlotte and Dallas would be the only ones not near anything and not politically important.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Your list should only contain Charlotte, the Trinity River runs adjacent to downtown Dallas & Fort Worth.

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Your list should only contain Charlotte, the Trinity River runs adjacent to downtown Dallas & Fort Worth.

heh, we rule.

I sure hope we never built a space needle. That would probably go so akwardly with our skyline. The worlds tallest building would probably go well as a landmark (put that probably would be akward too)

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Charlotte needs a big ass ferris wheel. London, Yokohama, Paris, Tokyo all have them and they are great. I'm not talking about the kind that you see in Myrtle beach, but one that has cars that hold 25 people and take 30 minutes to do a revolution. If it were the same height as the London Eye, 450 ft, or higher it would do a great deal for CLT as this would be fairly unique in the USA.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I got it. a big queen or crown statue sitting at the entrance to the city. Maybe at 85 south or 77 north. I like the queen idea though and no not a statue of liberty rip off but something classy and not to imposing. Well I take that back something that would leave a lasting impression on a visitor that this is THE queen city. I will leave it up to you guys to figure out the color. How about gold since there was a gold mine there.

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I got it. a big queen or crown statue sitting at the entrance to the city. Maybe at 85 south or 77 north. I like the queen idea though and no not a statue of liberty rip off but something classy and not to imposing. Well I take that back something that would leave a lasting impression on a visitor that this is THE queen city. I will leave it up to you guys to figure out the color. How about gold since there was a gold mine there.

OR, like the Colossus of Rhodes...but in a pinstripe suit. :P

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  • 5 months later...

Which came first. This thread, or Doug's Next Big Thing series?

:lol:

Not quite sure maybe DS should answer that. I becha anything he is a lurker on UP. How could he not be???This is the site for those "in the know". Am I right dougy :P

A2

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How about a bank museum from Bank of America or Wachovia where one lucky visitor a day could go home with some cash. Sure, they would charge for admission, but it would be worth it for the winner, and those that didn't win at least gets to see the museum. Then pick a slow time for tourism and have a one week chance of winning a $1 million for visiting. The bank makes a national commercial advertising the museum and give away on the Superbowl and bang just like that people would come in droves to Charlotte for a chance at some free cash. I bet you it would be cheaper then a space needle, arch, or ferris wheel any day to put Charlotte on the map so to speak. Little does everyone know the banks and Charlotte are making out like bandits as everyone visiting will be spending their own money on hotels, restaurants and everything else Charlotte has to offer.

I'm only joking, or am I? ;)

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heh, we rule.

I sure hope we never built a space needle. That would probably go so akwardly with our skyline.

For you old timers, I remember back in, let's see, maybe the early to mid-80's when one of Charlotte's more eccentric visionaries had proposed a Space Needle type structure in downtown. The Observer had a rendering that reminded me of the Olympic Stadium structure in Montreal, except taller (and without the stadium).

I can't remember this guys name. He had quite a few proposals for Charlotte. Had a long scraggly beard. Anyone remember his name? I assume he was an architect. I also remember him as being the one staunch supporter of the Performing Arts Center to be a separate stand-alone structure other than it's current incarnation with the BoA building.

Charlotte needs a big ass ferris wheel. London, Yokohama, Paris, Tokyo all have them and they are great. I'm not talking about the kind that you see in Myrtle beach, but one that has cars that hold 25 people and take 30 minutes to do a revolution. If it were the same height as the London Eye, 450 ft, or higher it would do a great deal for CLT as this would be fairly unique in the USA.

Back in 1997 I had a developer email me concerning my website on Charlotte's old Lakewood Park. Some of you may remember the proposal to convert Marshall Park into a Tivoli Gardens type amusement park. The developer wanted to bring back some of the charm of the old Lakewood Park as well. He even mentioned adding a giant ferris wheel to the park. I was suppose to recieve a video proposal but I never got it.

Obviously, these things never came to fruition. Charlotte lacks really good visionairies and the ones we do have usually have their ideas scoffed.

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Back in 1997 I had a developer email me concerning my website on Charlotte's old Lakewood Park. Some of you may remember the proposal to convert Marshall Park into a Tivoli Gardens type amusement park. The developer wanted to bring back some of the charm of the old Lakewood Park as well. He even mentioned adding a giant ferris wheel to the park. I was suppose to recieve a video proposal but I never got it.

Would he have moved the power substation and flooded that land to make the lake?

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