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Proposed: Echo Harbour

Downtowner

By Downtowner
in Richmond

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Downtowner Burg

Downtowner

Posted
Posted

Just heard the plans and saw renderings of this on NBC 12 and thought I would go on and make a thread for it. Its gonna have two 18 Story Towers and Like I said I will get renderings for it.

last night's 7th dist. round table meeting

Here are notes from the first half of the meeting last night, please add more if you have anything.

A presentation was made by Joe Slay of Slay Public Relations. Echo Harbor's proposed location is at 3011 and 3021 Dock Street and will be 2 18-story buildings to house 260 condo units, a health club(open for membership to the public), and 5-star restauraunt.

The Echo Harbor project is requesting a special use permit for the land they own, currently zoned "M-2" for heavy industrial use. They want to change the zoning to RF-2, which is riverfront mixed-residential use. The project principals are:. USP Development, LLC (didn't catch the guy's name); Baskervill (Bob Tierney); KEnbridge Construction/R3Development (George Ross); Shockoe Properties(Mark Merhidge, who will manage the proposed properties); and Slay Public Relations/Martin Agency.

The key points the Echo Harbor Group made regarding the project were:

no contribution requested from the city

a direct $215 mill investment in the city in a part of town that is currently not developed

$3mill estimated net in tax revenue for the city projected, based on study done by private consulting firm - they said they will make this study public via the mayor's office)

the site that will be developed is designated as a "Brownfield"

the development will make the river more accessible - boat slips, river access from the N, E and W - currently only accessible from the South.

will donate land to the city and will extend the canal walk from 17th street to the proposed development site.

site will include portion of the Capital Bike Trail that will connect RVA to Williamsburg

Concerns were expressed by by residents (of which our diligent note-taker was only able to get a partial account):

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burt Megalopolis

burt

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Hey If I were you I would go turn on the TV to the 6 o clock news and look at the renderings looks very very modern.

Joey, the renderings DO look better, don't they, than the box-like design we saw and which is posted somewhere? All you guys watch the 6 o'clock news and hope that the presentation is repeated.

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eandslee City

eandslee

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These buildings look very 1960ish...I do not like that style or that era; not to mention, they will look very out of place in our skyline. I hope they modifiy those buildings to fit into the architectural fabric of our city. Please, no more 60s crap! Otherwise, the plans look great!

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Cadeho City

Cadeho

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These buildings look very 1960ish...I do not like that style or that era; not to mention, they will look very out of place in our skyline. I hope they modifiy those buildings to fit into the architectural fabric of our city. Please, no more 60s crap! Otherwise, the plans look great!

No more 60s! Darn it, even though I don't have a degree in architecture, they need to hire me just to show them a thing or two.

The rounded edges not bad, we need less angular stuff, but it just does not fit, not even with our modern stuff! And the height still has to come down for me to throw any support to it.

And they do look like something one would find by a bay somewhere with a bunch of sail boats... Maybe on the Occoquan, not the James.

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Cadeho City

Cadeho

Posted
Posted

Just heard the plans and saw renderings of this on NBC 12 and thought I would go on and make a thread for it. Its gonna have two 18 Story Towers and Like I said I will get renderings for it.

last night's 7th dist. round table meeting

Here are notes from the first half of the meeting last night, please add more if you have anything.

A presentation was made by Joe Slay of Slay Public Relations. Echo Harbor's proposed location is at 3011 and 3021 Dock Street and will be 2 18-story buildings to house 260 condo units, a health club(open for membership to the public), and 5-star restauraunt.

The Echo Harbor project is requesting a special use permit for the land they own, currently zoned "M-2" for heavy industrial use. They want to change the zoning to RF-2, which is riverfront mixed-residential use. The project principals are:. USP Development, LLC (didn't catch the guy's name); Baskervill (Bob Tierney); KEnbridge Construction/R3Development (George Ross); Shockoe Properties(Mark Merhidge, who will manage the proposed properties); and Slay Public Relations/Martin Agency.

The key points the Echo Harbor Group made regarding the project were:

no contribution requested from the city

a direct $215 mill investment in the city in a part of town that is currently not developed

$3mill estimated net in tax revenue for the city projected, based on study done by private consulting firm - they said they will make this study public via the mayor's office)

the site that will be developed is designated as a "Brownfield"

the development will make the river more accessible - boat slips, river access from the N, E and W - currently only accessible from the South.

will donate land to the city and will extend the canal walk from 17th street to the proposed development site.

site will include portion of the Capital Bike Trail that will connect RVA to Williamsburg

Concerns were expressed by by residents (of which our diligent note-taker was only able to get a partial account):

Is that from channel 12 or CHPN?

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wrldcoupe4 Metropolitan Area

wrldcoupe4

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Very interesting guys! I go to class and to a lecture by Dr. Richard Florida on the Creative Class and look what I miss! :)

I actually don't mind the design, though it does kind of seem like its out of Miami or something like that. I'd like to see how drastically the view from Libby Hill would be affected.

IMO, everything except for the height seems perfectly fine to me.

One issue that baffles me is that the developer said he would extend the canal walk from 17th east, but the city already has secured funding for that, according to William Harrell earlier this year.

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burt Megalopolis

burt

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At the risk of starting another war, I like the designs. They may smack a little of Miami Beach, but I like the curves and glass. It looks as if there will be duplex units on certain floors.

By the way - like American/British spellings of Center/Centre, Egg Harbour is spelled in the English style with a "u".

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Shakman Burg

Shakman

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At the risk of starting another war, I like the designs. They may smack a little of Miami Beach, but I like the curves and glass. It looks as if there will be duplex units on certain floors.

By the way - like American/British spellings of Center/Centre, Egg Harbour is spelled in the English style with a "u".

I like the design as well. It will add to the collection of architecture within Richmond's skyline.

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burt Megalopolis

burt

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Guy, can you change the titles on this thread to reflect the spelling of "harboUr"? We may as well get it right. :)

Coupe, wasn't an announcement made some time ago that the city HAD extended Canal Walk East?

All I've seen in pictures are some shorn-up levies and a re-filled canal. Maybe Echo Harbour will really do some first-class landscaping.

And who knows? Maybe we'll get our ship shops on Echo Harbour's wharf. :thumbsup:

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wrldcoupe4 Metropolitan Area

wrldcoupe4

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Coupe, wasn't an announcement made some time ago that the city HAD extended Canal Walk East?

All I've seen in pictures are some shorn-up levies and a re-filled canal. Maybe Echo Harbour will really do some first-class landscaping.

Work has not begun yet on the Canal Walk extension. The city said they hoped to begin by this fall and complete it sometime next year. The canal was drained to address what seemed to be a couple infrastructure issues. When they refilled it after that work was complete, I don't think they then said "okay, the canal walk expansion's complete!" :thumbsup:

Oh, and I'll say this. I like the idea of this project, and even the design. But I'd like to see how it would impact the view from Libby Hill that game Richmond its name. If it does impact the view substantially, I'd be opposed to the currently proposed heights.

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burt Megalopolis

burt

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It goes east almost to the Lehigh silos.

Seems to me the designers are doing their best to preserve Libby Hill views. 18 floors translates to about 180 feet, plus the site elevation. So I guess we're talking approximately 215 feet. The silos rise a little more than 150 feet + site elevation. The east Echo Harbour tower might block views of the slave wharf on the south river bank and that would be a shame. But it's clear that neither of the towers will obstruct views of the city's namesake river bend. Photos of the view with the silos confirms that.

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burt Megalopolis

burt

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Well, we each have our preferences, but I'm pleased to see EH artchitects get away from the brick "Richmond look" in favor of a little modernity. Did you notice in Joey's picture how the plate glass slants on the rounded balcony of an apartment?

But then I guess I'm the only one who preferred the Bam design for a building where the "safe" Vistas is rising.

Tommy, in what city is the flat-roofed Excelsior? Eventhough it has nice roof plantings, I find it rather mundane.

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