Who will become Charlotte's John Portman

[Rickydavisfan21]

John Portman was born in 1924, and spent most of his life in atlanta, attending college there also. He built the peachtree center, which includes the altanta merchandise mart, Hyatt Regency, Sun Trust Plaza (at that time One Peachtree Center) , INFORUM, atlanta Apparell mart, marriot marquis, and a vast number of hotels, retail and office buildings within that complex, he also built the westin atlanta, and did alot of work at each of the colleges in atlanta, designing new buildings and doing massive renovations.

John Portman also designed our largest hotel, the westin charlotte.

So I post my new topic, who will be Charlotte's John Portman, we have a number of people on the table, and I'm Leaning (of course) towards Furman, anyone else have a different idea.

[Rickydavisfan21]

http://www.portmanusa.com/project_list.html

here is a list of all his projects

[dubone]

David Furman is the only obvious choice in my mind. He is a name brand architect, and is developing so much of our downtown, he is really becoming important here.

Over the next 30 years, Furman will have a unfathomable impact on this town and many others.

The only thing, though, is I'm not sure if large projects, like hotels or office towers will tap Furman as architect as they have with Portman. Maybe that'll change in ten years.

[Charlotteman]

In the past it seemed to be Hugh McColl, who was at the very least the visionary force behind Uptown's remarkable development for many years!

[monsoon]

I think Atlanta and Charlotte are so different this would be a hard question to answer. If anything its the corporations and government who have built downtown. Furman has thrown up a few condos, but I don't see where he has built much that could be considered public space. And given what he did with Courtside, I am not so sure that you could call his work particularly high quality.

[Rickydavisfan21]

I mean this doesn't haveta be an architect it could be a developer, or a visionary like charlotteman said, you could say levine could play a huge role with all his land he plans to develop, anyone,

very good point tho metro

[MZT]

Levine may succeed in getting a building or street named after him, but I don't think future people will identify any type of building or trend as being "Levine-esque".

[A2]

Maybe Murdock can throw some more bucks our way before he passes on. I still think that the former CEO's of the the largests banks in the US really did most of Charlotte's work. From the arts to skyscrapers they are truly the ones who stuck it out and poured money into the community to allow it to thrive.

Without McColl and Crutchfield Charlotte would be w/out the Ghazi's and Furman's of the world.

Now Charlotte needs to continue the relationships with our existing Corporate and Civic leaders and work on ways to involve others (ie other Fortune 500 Firms leaders) to pony up.

We also need thank small busness leaders. We need them to continue to prosper in Charlotte since what they add is so vital to creating a unique urban mix.

It is not always the Great sea of Skyskrapers that make a city, but rather the unique and eclectic mix of restraunts and shops that add to the vitality of our beautiful city. Thank you Mr. and Mrs small business leader I appreciate your contribution sincerely !

A2

[monsoon]

It is not always the Great sea of Skyskrapers that make a city, but rather the unique and eclectic mix of restraunts and shops that add to the vitality of our beautiful city.

Indeed. My favorite cities, Tokyo, DC, & London are not known for their skyscrapers, but rather, how well they have handled their urban environment.