Downtown Memphis

[sleepy]

Sterick Boy indicated this about the Sterrick Building on another thread:

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.ph...028&qpid=253085

thanks, i'm about to get started on rehabing the building. I am the descendant of the family who lived on the site where the sterick now stands

It would be nice to get some clarification.

[jmduke]

I agree with the other posts about the high-rise development coming in time. I'd like to see some 600'+ tall buildings in downtown, but as a previous poster stated, having good foot traffic downtown is more important, and Memphis has a viable downtown which is only getting better with all the residential development.

Added downtown (and metro area, for that matter) viability will only encourage more and larger corporate relocations. Our major corporations made decisions to spread out or locate in multiple buildings. For instance, FedEx decided on a 1.1 mil. sq. ft. corporate campus out east and they have at least another 500K sq. ft. of corporate ops. in other areas of town. In one building, that would amount to over 70 stories, and even more if they brought the corporate ops. of Ground, Custom Critical, Freight, and Kinko's to town. International Paper is in three mid-rise towers out east, plus Lenox Park. They occupy enough space to fill 40-50 stories. If Regions were to ever move its corporate HQ here (a worthy cause), they'd have no problem replacing the Morgan-Keegan building with a 50+ story building.

The medical center will probably get some towers as the bio research park gets going. Anyone up for a Schering-Plough HQ relocation back to where it all started? Another worthy cause.

It would be great to see North Downtown/Uptown get in on the mid/high-rise condo action. Some parts of the Pinch Dist. and the area between Wolf River Harbor and Main north of Auction would be great locations for mixed use residential and retail such as the new One Beale project. That would make any future Pyramid use (groan) have a better chance of success.

Saw the Sterick Bldg. mentioned in previous posts. A mixed-use hotel/condo/ground-floor retail project would be excellent. Something upscale along the lines of a Ritz-Carlton or a Fairmont would be a great addition to downtown and some upscale shopping would keep all the added thousands of downtowners happy.

[Hankster]

After reading all the posts on this thread, I think my take may be a little different. I love the wonderful architecture and feel of the Memphis downtown. However, the truly vibrant growing cities that have a long gloried history in America, have great diversity in there skyline. You see wonderful old structures, and boxy glassy 70's and 80's style and a mix of the current day more imaginative yet glassy style structures. Memphis has plenty of the first two varieties, but very little, if any of the new. I really like the One Beale proposal. It gives Memphis some if this new style architecture. For the short term, I think residential construcion will comprise most of the new downtown construction in Memphis. I see tremendous strides being made with thousands of new downtown residents moving in. This will spur demand for several new downtown residential towers in Memphis, IMO.... maybe even a Signature Tower like project. Hopefully these projects will incorporate an imaginative architecture like One Beale.

I don't see any big office towers there until the office vacany rate drops to a relatively low level. Does anyone know what the current rate is downtown? Some corpoate relocations are likely, and lord knows, when they do happen, I hope they decide NOT to locate in a suburban office park. If that's the case, a round of new office construction will begin. If so, I personally hope the new construction is very glassy and very modern. If that happens, I think the Memphis skyline will be a sight to behold and a source of pride for everyone.

[Clobber]

I agree with the other posts about the high-rise development coming in time. I'd like to see some 600'+ tall buildings in downtown, but as a previous poster stated, having good foot traffic downtown is more important, and Memphis has a viable downtown which is only getting better with all the residential development.

Added downtown (and metro area, for that matter) viability will only encourage more and larger corporate relocations. Our major corporations made decisions to spread out or locate in multiple buildings. For instance, FedEx decided on a 1.1 mil. sq. ft. corporate campus out east and they have at least another 500K sq. ft. of corporate ops. in other areas of town. In one building, that would amount to over 70 stories, and even more if they brought the corporate ops. of Ground, Custom Critical, Freight, and Kinko's to town. International Paper is in three mid-rise towers out east, plus Lenox Park. They occupy enough space to fill 40-50 stories. If Regions were to ever move its corporate HQ here (a worthy cause), they'd have no problem replacing the Morgan-Keegan building with a 50+ story building.

The medical center will probably get some towers as the bio research park gets going. Anyone up for a Schering-Plough HQ relocation back to where it all started? Another worthy cause.

It would be great to see North Downtown/Uptown get in on the mid/high-rise condo action. Some parts of the Pinch Dist. and the area between Wolf River Harbor and Main north of Auction would be great locations for mixed use residential and retail such as the new One Beale project. That would make any future Pyramid use (groan) have a better chance of success.

Saw the Sterick Bldg. mentioned in previous posts. A mixed-use hotel/condo/ground-floor retail project would be excellent. Something upscale along the lines of a Ritz-Carlton or a Fairmont would be a great addition to downtown and some upscale shopping would keep all the added thousands of downtowners happy.

There are many opportunities out there for someone with pockets who has vision and is boosterish about the city. Nissan didn't happen overnight for Nashville. Neither did IP for Memphis. Schering Plough, ServiceMaster, Regions, etc, they should all know that we would love to have them here. In conjunction with fueling homegrown startups which we're doing at a rapid pace.

After reading all the posts on this thread, I think my take may be a little different. I love the wonderful architecture and feel of the Memphis downtown. However, the truly vibrant growing cities that have a long gloried history in America, have great diversity in there skyline. You see wonderful old structures, and boxy glassy 70's and 80's style and a mix of the current day more imaginative yet glassy style structures. Memphis has plenty of the first two varieties, but very little, if any of the new. I really like the One Beale proposal. It gives Memphis some if this new style architecture. For the short term, I think residential construcion will comprise most of the new downtown construction in Memphis. I see tremendous strides being made with thousands of new downtown residents moving in. This will spur demand for several new downtown residential towers in Memphis, IMO.... maybe even a Signature Tower like project. Hopefully these projects will incorporate an imaginative architecture like One Beale.

I don't see any big office towers there until the office vacany rate drops to a relatively low level. Does anyone know what the current rate is downtown? Some corpoate relocations are likely, and lord knows, when they do happen, I hope they decide NOT to locate in a suburban office park. If that's the case, a round of new office construction will begin. If so, I personally hope the new construction is very glassy and very modern. If that happens, I think the Memphis skyline will be a sight to behold and a source of pride for everyone.

I agree. I'd love to see something along the lines of a One Liberty Place here. It's exactly as you said; Memphis is wealthy with the more historic structures, more so than many cities in the south its size or larger; but there's nothing wrong with an all-glass structure or something either. Diversity would really help round out the skyline.

[northernbizzkit1]

Diversity would really help round out the skyline.

EXACTLY! That's the big thing in Memphis...diversity and minorities having a presence...What is more diverse and more of a minority than having a 70-story all glass structure amongst the 35-story buildings???

[ricky_the_great]

EXACTLY! That's the big thing in Memphis...diversity and minorities having a presence...What is more diverse and more of a minority than having a 70-story all glass structure amongst the 35-story buildings???

no i think those outrageously over bearing towers look retarted.

for example. the new worlds tallest in asian and what not i really dont like many of them too much because theres nothing around them of similer height or even close for that matter.

[bluff2085]

If anyone bothers to read the original posts in this topic, you would see that most of the memphians posting in this forum, myself included, were frowning upon the idea of large, all-glass skyscrapers going up downtown. With that being said, I still think good things could come out of "diversifying" our skyline. Like others have recently pointed out, many larger cities have a smorgusboard of really old, fairly old, and newer buildings. I think cities like Detroit and Pittsburgh are really good examples of that.

But especially in Memphis's case it's important to draw a line between diversity and obserdity. A massive 70 story 'scraper going up downtown would be ridiculous. I'm not against larger towers going up, but I don't think they should stray from the GRADUAL progression of size and height that has defined our skyline over the years. Maybe a few more 30-something story buildings, or even one day a 50 story building. But that might be many years from now. Also, I think future towers should come with combinations of modern and traditional elements,. Buildings that are modern in functionality but cater to the historical context of Memphis architecture would be the most successful IMO. I'm not trying to glorify postmodernism but I think the entertainment building in Hong Kong is a good example of this

[Bears]

Looks like by next year, downtown will look much diffrent. The Westin, Beale Street Landing, One Beale, Vue on Main, and the Horizon Towers should be done or almost done. Hopefully none of them are delayed, Southend, SoFo and Main Street clean up, and these kinds of developments keep on coming. Heres Decembers downtown update...

http://www.downtownmemphis.com/domain/news.../developer.html

What else is expected by this time next year?

[TennBear]

Do you have any pictures of the King Cotton hotel? I can't find any on the net. What about the Falls building thats adjacent to Morgan Keegan? It looks old from afar, but looks rather new upclose and on the inside. Anyone know around when the building was constructed?

Mandrws, Rent the movie "Heathers". The building that is imploded is the King Cotton. That way if you stop it you can see before and you can see the implosion.