The Dixon on Biltmore, downtown Asheville

[orulz]

(rendering removed - evidently it is property of the Citizen-Times and not an official rendering. Check the article to see it anyway.)

Check the article in the Citizen-Times.

This is proposed on a lot on the south slope that "has had nothing more substantial on it than a large billboard" since the 1930s. The building will have four floors of retail and office on the bottom, and 8 floors of residential above. The building will be clad with brick, stone, and stucco (hopefully real stucco) and have a somewhat retro style. The rendering above is just a cheezy texture-mapped cube and the perspective is wrong, so it's kind of hard to tell what it would look like in real life. I'll keep you posted as more details come available.

Like the 10 story building on College proposed earlier this year, this building is definitely within downtown but it's going to spread out the skyline a bit. This is one step towards filling the gap on the south slope between downtown and the "secondary skyline" of the hospital district. If approved, construction would begin next year.

Some people feel that distinguished cities need an ultra-dense core with an obvious center to the skyscrapers like Trade/Tryon in Charlotte, but Asheville is nothing like that and I say great!

Check the article in the Citizen-Times.

This is proposed on a lot on the south slope that "has had nothing more substantial on it than a large billboard" since the 1930s. The building will have four floors of retail and office on the bottom, and 8 floors of residential above. The building will be clad with brick, stone, and stucco (hopefully real stucco) and have a somewhat retro style. The rendering above is just a cheezy texture-mapped cube and the perspective is wrong, so it's kind of hard to tell what it would look like in real life. I'll keep you posted as more details come available.

Like the 10 story building on College proposed earlier this year, this building is definitely within downtown but it's going to spread out the skyline a bit. This is one step towards filling the gap on the south slope between downtown and the "secondary skyline" of the hospital district. If approved, construction would begin next year.

Some people feel that distinguished cities need an ultra-dense core with an obvious center to the skyscrapers like Trade/Tryon in Charlotte, but Asheville is nothing like that and I say great!

[Lithuania]

Definately better than a billboard...

Hopefully the finished product will blend in with the surrounding architecture somewhat.

[orulz]

Something else important to note: in Asheville, as long as a building of this size is in the CBD, it does not require council approval. That means it's a LOT more difficult for the NIMBYs to topple this project.

It goes to the city's Technical Review Commission on Friday.

[urbanesq]

cool looking project!

thanks for the update

[Nindec]

Great news -- its exciting to see DT Asheville pushing south. Theres a lot of room for growth down there. Wouldn't it be great to be able to walk through a living downtown all the way from Pack Square to the Ball Park? some day...

So do you know if the citizen-times just made up that rendering? Or is it actually based on any actual plans? I feel like you can never really trust the citizen-times on anything.

[orulz]

I'm pretty sure that "simulation" is unofficial, done in-house by the citizen-times. I sincerely doubt that an architect would produce and release such an amateurish rendering. They probably took a real drawing of the facade and projected it onto four sides of a cube. That facade would probably look great on the front of the building, but it would look incredbly dumb if all four sides of the building looked exactly the same. besides, there would be no point to having the elaborate glass arch window on every side, because at most two sides will have entrances, Biltmore and Hilliard - and only the Biltmore side is visible in that rendering; the Hilliard side will probably include the entrance to the underground parking.

RE a complete, "living" downtown all the way from the ballpark to Pack Square... I know what you mean, and things are already closer than you might think. This proposed 12 story tower is catti-cornered across from the Orange Peel, and once it is built there will be at least some sort of activity along the Biltmore Avenue corridor all the way to McCormick Field. The continuous urban "valley" falls apart south of Aston Street, but there are still a bunch of galleries, shops, and restaurants in the buildings and historic homes southward along Biltmore Avenue, not to mention Lexington Station under construction one block to the west. The gas station south of S. Charlotte is a bit of a gap, but.. eh. It'll all come together soon enough.

[orulz]

So, it looks like the city's Technical Review Committee discussed the Dixon again today at their meeting. Anybody catch it? I wonder what was being reviewed about the project.

[orulz]

Noticed an update on the architect's webpage.

It includes this tiny rendering:

There is also a broken link to the project page for the Dixon. Watch this space, folks!!

[Nindec]

If this little rendering actually turns out reflect the actual building at all, I think I may like it a lot. I like the art deco feel of the two towers, and he big arched doorway seems nice as well. It'll be interesting to see if this is remotely what the actual building will be.

An improvement over the Citizen-times rendering, that's for sure. heh.

[hauntedheadnc]

Holy crumbs! That rendering really gives off an incredible art deco vibe... it looks like a miniature version of those New York apartment buildings, or something out of Miami. I'm digging it.

[orulz]

The broken link is no longer broken - see the details here.

A slightly larger version of the Biltmore Avenue elevation:

A small (basically unreadable) ground-level floor plan:

And a slightly newer (?) version of the awful rendering that was in the Citizen-Times several months ago. They completely botched the perspective on this rendering which makes me think it's not official. Does this mean I'm wrong?

[hauntedheadnc]

I really like that. I can see now what they meant by the building having a "retro" look -- but who expected retro to mean 75 years ago when it usually means 10-20? This looks to have been very heavily inspired by art deco architecture, so this is immediately a winner in my book.

[rooster8]

Does this building seem out of place to anyone else?

[hauntedheadnc]

No more out of place than the S&W Building or City Hall. One of the best things about Asheville's best art deco buildings is that they usually contrast wildly and beautifully with the other ornate buildings nearby. Look at City Hall next to the courthouse, or the S&W Building next to the Drhumor Building with its friezes.

[rooster8]

I should probably clarify. I think the architecture is great, but it seems odd when seen next door to two story houses.

[orulz]

I think the houses are what's out of place there. There's a small cluster of 4 or 5 of them along Biltmore Avenue, and they're surrounded on both sides by commercial buildings. Either let them stay and be "standouts" in the urban environment, which can be neat like the Mellow Mushroom, or move them somewhere else where they fit in. Like Church or Ravenscroft, for example. But don't let them be the defining (read limiting) context for the scale and style of building that gets built on the South Slope along Biltmore Avenue.

[rooster8]

The next time I'm up there, I'll make it a point to stop by. I probably shouldn't judge the area based on that little picture.

[orulz]

Thought I'd point out that the project's website has been improved again, including better renderings, plus floor plans for all 13 levels). The website is now also accessible from www.dixononbiltmore.com.

[Nindec]

Wow. This is going to be an awesome project. It'll be interesting to here the pricing -- hopefully they aren't too 'luxury'. But with a building like that, I don't know if I'd blame them. I can't wait to see this get under construction.

Does it strike anyone else as odd that they're calling some of the condos 'townhomes'? Are they just trying to appeal to people who may still be torn between suburbs and downtown, or do I have a skewed definition of the word?

[orulz]

I think a townhome is any multi-story unit in a multi-unit building. The exception of course being duplexes etc.

[orulz]

Just wanted to point out that a new website for this project with some new renderings is up. Actually the new renderings aren't very well done, but hey, they're new. I'd really like to see something as precise and professional as what's been done for 60 North Market.

The only news is that now, instead of 48 residential units, the building is advertised as having 64 units. If this means smaller units at lower price points with greater density, that's awesome. Or, if it means a couple floors were added, that's cool too. Looking forward to hearing more about this project in the future.

[RiverwoodCLT]

A nice looking project for Asheville. I like it.

[Nindec]

A nicer rendering would be great, but after seeing so many Raleigh and Charlotte projects there's something kind of charming about the website's lack of latte drinking urbanites or laughing groups of interacial cafe patrons.

[orulz]

The website for this project is down again. I e-mailed the architects to find out what was up, and Rick Reinhardt replied, saying that the project is moving ahead, but the website is off for site revisions.

Sounds OK to me. Perhaps this project is a little further down the road than some of the other ones that have been discussed lately (60 N. Market, Zona Lofts, etc).

[artworks1437]

I e-mailed the company involved in this project and they said that right now they are securing financing for it.