Fort Norfolk Plaza Progress

[urbanvb]

Not sure how I feel about this but I'm trying to have a wait-and-see attitude.

[cpeakesqr]

It has slightly evolved into something a lot less objectionable.

[Padman]

That building is the most awful chain of mismatched motifs I've ever seen. It's like a musical suite composed from unused cell phone jingles.

[andyfried]

I still hate it.

[vdogg]

LOL. I didn't say it looked good, just that they added color, which helps them slightly. Considering what they started with, I'm still highly dissappointed with the crap they're putting on us.

[Glassoul]

It has slightly evolved into something a lot less objectionable.

A polished turd? The more I think about what use this building will fulfill, the less upset I am with it. Originally, it was to be an upscale hotel and condo with some possibly some form of medical research and office space. Now it just appears to be a decent hotel and an expansion of the hospital/doctor's office space. In this regard, the building is not as objectionable as to its original purpose.

[vdogg]

I'd love to agree with you but ugly is ugly, no matter what the purpose. I agree that for its now stated purpose it doesn't look any worse than anything else across the street. That said, the design doesn't have to be as mediocre as it is and I am disappointed that Clark Nexsen, an architecture firm with normally outstanding designs, would lay such a stale and uninspiring structure on our waterfront.

[mistermetaj]

I'd love to agree with you but ugly is ugly, no matter what the purpose. I agree that for its now stated purpose it doesn't look any worse than anything else across the street. That said, the design doesn't have to be as mediocre as it is and I am disappointed that Clark Nexsen, an architecture firm with normally outstanding designs, would lay such a stale and uninspiring structure on our waterfront.

I dont understand the city. It forces belmont at freemason to resubmit for materials quality control, yet something like this with a horrible design and no details of materials to be used gets accepted? I would understand if this was an inland building being built by the hospital, but this is right on the water and will be a permanent eye soar on the coast. I don't understand why they wont force them to make it less wide and save some coast for nicer development.

[cpeakesqr]

It looks better than before in my opinion. Ideal...? Of course NOT!

[mikeas]

It looks better than before in my opinion. Ideal...? Of course NOT!

It just looks like two people had something in mind for what they wanted the building to look like and they decided they should just combine them both. It would be much better as two seperate buildings.

[erdogs]

The new rendering looks like the old Norfolk Airport Hilton before they remodeled the outside. This thing belongs in an office park.

[wrldcoupe4]

It does look a little less Soviet Union-esque. Who's the architect for this???

[okinawatyphoon]

Way better than before. The hotel looks a lot more like a hotel, but the garage still needs to be covered up more. The brick looks a lot better.

[PeninsulaKiddo]

I think the brick looks a lot better, too... But it just looks odd. It should be two separate buildings ('towers') with maybe a one or two story retail/office space connection. The right half should DEFINITELY cover up the garage a bit more (but let's be optimistic guys -- there was a collective heart attack at the sight of the parking garage in the Westin Hotel renderings but now it's not so... objectionable I think it's at-worst acceptable...).

Oh, I think I know why I like it better now! The right half of the building, at the very top, looks like it's emulating the Royster Building somewhat (my favorite in Norfolk by far). Nevertheless, they have a bit of a ways to go...

[vdogg]

Oh, I think I know why I like it better now! The right half of the building, at the very top, looks like it's emulating the Royster Building somewhat (my favorite in Norfolk by far). Nevertheless, they have a bit of a ways to go...

Actually. I think the addition of brick is designed to make it mesh better with Harbors edge, literally it's next door neighbor. Also, at 14 floors it won't be a behemoth but since it is an office tower it'll probably match Harbor Edge (which is 17 floors) in overall height.

[Padman]

The brick is an improvement, unless it's Briq--that economical mix of red dye and Bisquick. It still needs some more changes to give it the unification that it needs. Those garage openings are probably the biggest problem. I believe that they are overly horizontal, and that makes them stand out more than they might.

[vdogg]

Fort Norfolk Plaza hotel and development agreement Warning! .pdf file

This goes before city council tommorrow.

[lammius]

It does look a little better. It looks like it's red EIFS panels, not brick (like the panels going up on HH, but red in color), with bright white EIFS panels on the top two floors. Buildings I've seen with this contrasting EIFS color scheme don't end up looking great. Yet another scheme that looks better on an image rendering than in real life.

Also, as others said, this thing would look much better as two buildings rather than one. If they MUST be connected, use a skywalk a floor or two up. The space between the two buildings should provide pedestrian access to a waterfront promenade that will go along the entire Ft Norfolk waterfront.

Ok, so below I took the newest Ft Norfolk Plaza rendering. I removed the "leftmost" parking area and added two floors to the "rightmost" parking area, thereby increasing the taller half's height by two parking floors. I then connected the two buildings with a skywalk. Still not great, but does this look at least a little better?

[okinawatyphoon]

oh yeah, that's a LOT better!

[vdogg]

It does look a little better. It looks like it's red EIFS panels, not brick (like the panels going up on HH, but red in color), with bright white EIFS panels on the top two floors. Buildings I've seen with this contrasting EIFS color scheme don't end up looking great. Yet another scheme that looks better on an image rendering than in real life.

Also, as others said, this thing would look much better as two buildings rather than one. If they MUST be connected, use a skywalk a floor or two up. The space between the two buildings should provide pedestrian access to a waterfront promenade that will go along the entire Ft Norfolk waterfront.

Ok, so below I took the newest Ft Norfolk Plaza rendering. I removed the "leftmost" parking area and added two floors to the "rightmost" parking area, thereby increasing the taller half's height by two parking floors. I then connected the two buildings with a skywalk. Still not great, but does this look at least a little better?

It's incredible how much of a difference that one change makes. It looks almost attractive now.

[gosscj]

I might be alone but I prefer the older gray rendering to this new brick-colored one they're now using. The old one was a bit "institutional" but at least it was interesting.

[Sky06]

I dont understand the city. It forces belmont at freemason to resubmit for materials quality control, yet something like this with a horrible design and no details of materials to be used gets accepted? I would understand if this was an inland building being built by the hospital, but this is right on the water and will be a permanent eye soar on the coast. I don't understand why they wont force them to make it less wide and save some coast for nicer development.

The obvious difference is that Belmont is next to a national historic neighborhood. This project is next to . . . what's that ugly concrete thing next to Peta?

[spiker3]

The obvious difference is that Belmont is next to a national historic neighborhood. This project is next to . . . what's that ugly concrete thing next to Peta?

A parking garage shaped former freezer building, available for sale from Bobby Wright (seriously)

[vdogg]

Plaza subisdy approved

[vdogg]

Ughh. I hope this is a typo but it looks like it shrunk again

The land is set to be the home of Fort Norfolk Plaza, a nine -story, $84 million project that will have an extended-stay hotel and medical office space.

I can't think of anything more bland, mediocre, and insignificant than this project and we are paying for it why? For that money we could build a stellar public park on that land that might actually draw people to Fort Norfolk in the first place.