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St. Paul's Quadrant (Phase 2-Under Construction)


Aughie

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A discussion concerning the Development of Brambleton Avenue as a "entrance corridor" (From the Campostella bridge at east end, the Midtown tunnel at the west end).

I've heard talk in the Pilot, PortFolio, and the regional business papers about proposed massive redevlopment of the public housing properties (Tidewater Park, Bowling Park, etc.) that are at the eastern rim of downtown. This includes and goes past the Church street corridor, all the way past Park Ave around NSU, up to the Campostella Bridge.

Does anyone want to talk about Downtown East development into Norfolk's historic Brambleton neighborhood?

I found this planned project on the page for Humphreys & Partners Architectural firm. They're calling it the Brambleton Tower.

12166_1_big.jpg

This is a residential project, with a projected 250 units. The project as a whole would have 20, 4, and 3-story buildings with both podium and attached parking. It would be developed by Kotarides Builders.

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Hey Augie,

We've talking about this tower in the past. I think it'll be a great addition to downtown and help expand it boundaries. Take a look at the "projects and construction" thread. It has info of all the current towers and otherwise that we know of. I also beleive there is a Brambleton Tower thread somewhere here.

Later,

Metalman

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A discussion concerning the Development of Brambleton Avenue as a "entrance corridor" (From the Campostella bridge at east end, the Midtown tunnel at the west end).

I've heard talk in the Pilot, PortFolio, and the regional business papers about proposed massive redevlopment of the public housing properties (Tidewater Park, Bowling Park, etc.) that are at the eastern rim of downtown. This includes and goes past the Church street corridor, all the way past Park Ave around NSU, up to the Campostella Bridge.

Does anyone want to talk about Downtown East development into Norfolk's historic Brambleton neighborhood?

I found this planned project on the page for Humphreys & Partners Architectural firm. They're calling it the Brambleton Tower.

12166_1_big.jpg

Hey Aughie. Here is the project information for Brambleton Tower. It is a transit oriented development that will be situated across from the Hague. This rendering is actually a redesign from the original which employed more classical architecture. The discussion thread for that tower is here. The tower that is planned for church street is the Hoffler Tower. It looks to be 30-35 stories tall but we have received no independent confirmation of the height yet. The discussion thread for that project is here

As for the rest of what they call the "St. Pauls Quadrant" they are currently doing a study of the best possible redevelopment options. There was a proposal for an office tower complex that the city either rejected or put on hold until the completion of the study.

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  • 3 months later...

There will be a meeting on Thursday, November 2, for the general public to discuss the St. Paul's Quadrant planning process beginning at 6:45pm at Ruffner Academy Auditorium (610 May Avenue off Tidewater Drive).

The meeting will provide a chance to learn more about how the planning process will work and offer ideas and suggestions for the revitalization.

Officials will provide an overview of the planning schedule and process and address the opportunities and challenges of this effort. Initial findings and existing conditions will be presented, including housing, retail and commercial markets, transportation and infrastructure, and urban design.

The meeting will include an "open mike" opportunity and a discussion of the next steps.

[url=http://www.norfolk.gov/Planning/SaintPaulsQuadrant.asp]Saint Paul

Edited by Chesapeake Pirate
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I attended the monthly membership update meeting of the Downtown Norolk Council this morning. Rod Woolard, Norfolk's Director of Development compared the opportunity for revitalizing the St. Paul's Quadrant to the opportunity in the 1970's that Norfolk took on and which results in the downtown we now have. He noted that the St. Paul's quadrant is larger in area than the existing downtown area. One very preliminary thrust of the effort is expected to be a focus on preserving the four historic churches in that area and making improvements to the public space around them.

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Looks quite interesting. Will anyone be attending?

I may try to go. My wife teaches at Ruffner Academy so we are very interested for that reason in addition to just general interest in the future of downtown Norfolk.

I am surprised that there does not seem to be any notice of this meeting in the press, certainly nothing compared to the Mayor's town hall meetings in the various wards.

Might be a small crowd :huh: .

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I was able to attend the public meeting Thursday evening and overall was very impressed.

Various city officials and representatives of the consultant, Goody Clancy, were on hand to explain what has been done so far, and how the rest of the process is expected to unfold.

The meeting was attended by about 100-125 people, about half residents of Tidewater Gardens (the housing project within the Quadrant) and about half were others interested.

Goody Clancy has been working on a major survey of the residents of Tidewater Gardens for several months, and administered that survey during October. The survey addressed demographics, household composition, income, employment, education, supportive services, home ownership, children and youth, safety and security, transportation, economic development, site and unit design and relocation preferences.

A meeting was held just with the residents of Tidewater Gardens the night before, Wednesday, to report and discuss the results of the survey. A 10 page report of survey results, including summary information and all the raw data, was distributed Thursday night.

Instead of having an "open mike" session, the consultants broke the group into four subgroups and sent them each to a different classroom with a facilitator to brainstorm all their ideas for the future of the Saint Paul's Quadrant and to summarize the top five ideas.

Each subgroup reported back to the entire group and then the meeting was over.

Because I had almost missed the meeting by not even knowing it was being held, I questioned a city official and a consultant official separately. The city official said that they had made all the stakeholders in the Quadrant aware of the meeting. I told him that this process involved and was important to the entire city and encouraged better publicity for future meetings. The consultant official was more candid. He stated the limited notice was intentional as they wanted the largest group of residents in the Quadrant, the residents of Tidewater Gardens, to feel like they had serious ownership and involvement in the plan. They were concerned that if this first meeting was widely advertised that the Tidewater Gardens residents would feel overwelmed and not participate, and they didn't want that to happen. I told him I understood that but stated this project was important to downtown Norfolk and all of Norfolk and it would be its best with everyone's ideas. He said to expect better publicity about future meetings.

With that said, I would encourage all here who care about downtown Norfolk and have ideas about what ought to be planned for the Saint Paul's Quadrant to pay attention to this and get involved by attending meetings or sharing your thoughts with those responsible.

The main city contact for this effort is Paula Shea, 757-664-4772, [email protected]

The main Goody Clancy contact is Ben Carlson, 617-850-6583, [email protected]

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Does anyone know what the city or the owners of 555 Fenchurch St. (Across from the post office on Brambleton and Fenchurch St.) have planned for that building? My late father had his dental practice in there.

I think thats where the Hoffler Tower is suppose to go. Tulip dr. runs along the side of that building and the Hoffler tower has Church st. on one side and Tulip on the other.

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Does anyone know what the city or the owners of 555 Fenchurch St. (Across from the post office on Brambleton and Fenchurch St.) have planned for that building? My late father had his dental practice in there.

The city bought back the land at 555 Fenchurch avenue because the orignal 4-story mixed use development that was supposed to go there was not approved. I'm unsure what the city has planned for that land now. This is not to be confused with 549 E. Brambleton ave which is the land that the Hoffler Tower is designated to sit on.

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Does anyone know what the city or the owners of 555 Fenchurch St. (Across from the post office on Brambleton and Fenchurch St.) have planned for that building? My late father had his dental practice in there.

Speaking of the Post Office, there was a comment made by someone from Goody Clancy that it was not inconceivable that the post office would move from it's site at Church and Brambleton and add that much more property to that which need to be planned. It was just an informal comment about how the planning process had very few limits, and all ideas should explored.

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Because Norfolk has so much historic character, I'd really hate to see overwhelming high rise development here. I hope that the four churches are the centerpiece and are not overtaken by huge monolithic construction. I doubt they plan to do that, but hopefully they will choose properly scaled growth.

Edited by Unifour
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even with tall buildings and thick density, if the street level is done right, those churches will feel quite amazing with in the neighborhood. Plus the church that is next to the freeway offramp for City Hall Blvd. will stand out no matter what happens in that neighborhood, so I wouldn't worry too much about the churches, I think they will hold their own just fine.

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If you have ever been to NY city, you will know it can be done.

Exactly...I'd hate to seem them design the entire area around the design of the churches! Come on...we're talking about re-development, not preservation. The churches can stay but other large cities do an amazing job of modern urban design with historic churches and NYC is a great example! If we have another "historic freemason" district design, I will be disappointed!

Edited by vtfan18
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