Elizabeth Projects (7th St, Elizabeth Ave, etc)

[CLTProductions]

I gotta say, I am in love with this. Great materials, incredible street level (love the Flatiron corner). Well done Faison, well done

[15895]

Wow!!! I love, love, love this! I wish we could mass produce this all over the city. Would love to see this style uptown.

 

I hate modern. I hate artsy. I love the New England style looking apartments.

Edited January 27, 2016 by AirNostrumMAD

[rjp212]

Yeah that is sexy looking.   I love that the elevations change, to make it look like a bunch of different buildings.  Bravo!

[SgtCampsalot]

Good. That corner deserves a building like this.

[tozmervo]

[Rufus]

The roof details make this project.  That totally gives it a diversity that makes it look less mega-block-ish.  Very D.C. vibe with this project. 

[cltbwimob]

Absolutely beautiful...especially the flatiron corner.  Can we demand that all future mortise projects in the city be of this caliber?

[CLT2014]

Wow! This looks amazing! I'm super excited to see this built, what a beautiful corner

[ah59396]

Holy crap I love this.  I take back everything I said about Faison or Donald Faison.

[HopHead]

This immediately reminded me of some buildings in the Back Bay area of Boston. Easily the best residential project we've seen here in a while. Need to clone this one...

[UrbanGossip]

There is a 2016-15 rezoning petition for this to a Conditional MUDD...  Now let's all watch as the neighborhood comes together and nitpicks the crap out of this thing until Faison kills it.  Maybe it will be different this time but historically they can't get out of their own way when it comes to this corner.

It should be different this time because this is the best proposal to come along for this corner so far.

Edited January 28, 2016 by UrbanGossip

[SouthEndCLT811]

17 minutes ago, UrbanGossip said:

There is a 2016-15 rezoning petition for this to a Conditional MUDD...  Now let's all watch as the neighborhood comes together and nitpicks the crap out of this thing until Faison kills it.  Maybe it will be different this time but historically they can't get out of their own way when it comes to this corner.

It should be different this time because this is the best proposal to come along for this corner Charlotte mid-rise residential so far.

Fixed your comment but yes I hope that scenario does not play out.

[nonillogical]

Very very nice! If you're going to get rid of great neighborhood staples like P-Stone (I know its a different place already) and Jackalopes, you HAVE to knock it out of the park like this.

Only gripe is I definitely don't think that corner needs a planting strip, but w/e. 

[Crown]

2 minutes ago, nonillogical said:

Very very nice! If you're going to get rid of great neighborhood staples like P-Stone (I know its a different place already) and Jackalopes, you HAVE to knock it out of the park like this.

Only gripe is I definitely don't think that corner needs a planting strip, but w/e. 

I have never seen anyone at hare of the dog. But the weather has been really bad, so..... 

[RaleighHeelsfan]

Are the planting strips really that bad? I kind of like that! Anyway, that will be an incredible project! Just hope it gets built. Great development in an already cool neighborhood!

[CLTProductions]

36 minutes ago, UrbanGossip said:

There is a 2016-15 rezoning petition for this to a Conditional MUDD...  Now let's all watch as the neighborhood comes together and nitpicks the crap out of this thing until Faison kills it.  Maybe it will be different this time but historically they can't get out of their own way when it comes to this corner.

It should be different this time because this is the best proposal to come along for this corner so far.

I think this is getting pretty unanimous praise from the community. They've revised it a lot based on their criticisms 

[Guest]

15 hours ago, Jayvee said:

I gotta say, I am in love with this. Great materials, incredible street level (love the Flatiron corner). Well done Faison, well done

 

 

Me thinks Spartan will crap himself with excitement. 

[jtmonk]

I'm really digging this development!!

As for the planting strips, it's a love hate relationship for me.  They do serve a good purpose in many locations to help buffer pedestrians from traffic and when done right they can even have an urban look and feel to them.  What i don't like are the sterile 8' planting strips with a 6' wide concrete sidewalk you see all over the City that does little to enhance walkability.  However, for this development these planting strips look really well done, especially on the 7th street side, and the sidewalk looks wide and uses interesting materials creating a more inviting environment.  The only thing i would add would be to mix in some hardscaping in with the planting strip, but i can live without it too.

[nonillogical]

8 minutes ago, jtmonk said:

I'm really digging this development!!

As for the planting strips, it's a love hate relationship for me.  They do serve a good purpose in many locations to help buffer pedestrians from traffic and when done right they can even have an urban look and feel to them.  What i don't like are the sterile 8' planting strips with a 6' wide concrete sidewalk you see all over the City that does little to enhance walkability.  However, for this development these planting strips look really well done, especially on the 7th street side, and the sidewalk looks wide and uses interesting materials creating a more inviting environment.  The only thing i would add would be to mix in some hardscaping in with the planting strip, but i can live without it too.

Yeah don't get me wrong, this is one of the better looking examples I've seen, and the sidewalks are plenty wide so its not a big deal. I just can't help but think that some tree wells would look even better, if just at the corner, because yes some traffic buffering is needed here. 

[Spartan]

1 hour ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

Me thinks Spartan will crap himself with excitement. 

Haha, this is definitely appears to be a good example of the type of architecture and urban design that I rant about all the time. I can't wait to see the final site plan and elevations (not the rezoning version) to get a better sense of what's going on. This will likely be my favorite example of good development in Charlotte, though.

1 hour ago, jtmonk said:

I'm really digging this development!!

As for the planting strips, it's a love hate relationship for me.  They do serve a good purpose in many locations to help buffer pedestrians from traffic and when done right they can even have an urban look and feel to them.  What i don't like are the sterile 8' planting strips with a 6' wide concrete sidewalk you see all over the City that does little to enhance walkability.  However, for this development these planting strips look really well done, especially on the 7th street side, and the sidewalk looks wide and uses interesting materials creating a more inviting environment.  The only thing i would add would be to mix in some hardscaping in with the planting strip, but i can live without it too.

The sidewalks should be 8ft wide with MUDD zoning. I also agree that the planting strip is probably the biggest negative based on the renderings. But that's easy enough to overcome - just change it to hardscape with tree wells, bike racks, benches, etc. and the problem is solved (the city calls that an "amenity zone" ), and you essentially end up with a 16ft wide pedestrian area.

 

[DEnd]

On ‎1‎/‎27‎/‎2016 at 6:18 PM, Jayvee said:

First of all WTF is up with the lane widths?  that Nissan doesn't even fit.  and Secondly what's up with the Audi driver?  I mean yeah Audi drivers are douche canoes but this guy is just milliseconds from having his car hump the Nissan(?) like an untrained stud dog humps a female visitors leg. 

Also is the guy under the first blue umbrella in the suit and the guy in the green shirt pissing on those chairs?

Yes I'm complaining about the scalies because there really isn't much else to complain about.  I mean it's decent density, within walking distance of the street car (eventually, its a bit of a walk now), retail that addresses the street well, the planting strips may be bleh but the sidewalk is an ok width and the planting strips could be changed relatively cheaply if needed.  it has varying architecture so it doesn't look like one huge building, what looks like quality high end exterior finishes.  The only thing that is missing that would really make it a knock out is Net Zero Energy or passive house certification.  Also the balconies in these drawings run the risk of being energy radiators, but that depends on the construction details.

[ah59396]

BHM are the architects behind this project.  From their Facebook and Twitter accounts, it appears they have heard, and are pleased, with the reaction this project is getting from whatever the hell our community is.

More proof that our concerns and in rare cases, praise, aren't falling on deaf ears.

 

edit:. It also didn't hurt that Jayvee pumped out a solid article in the agenda.  Good stuff Jason.

Edited January 30, 2016 by ah59396

[CLTProductions]

17 minutes ago, ah59396 said:

BHM are the architects behind this project.  From their Facebook and Twitter accounts, it appears they have heard, and are pleased, with the reaction this project is getting from whatever the hell our community is.

More proof that our concerns and in rare cases, praise, aren't falling on deaf ears.

 

edit:. It also didn't hurt that Jayvee pumped out a solid article in the agenda.  Good stuff Jason.

Thanks boss. You wouldn't (well you probably would) believe the amount of people that still hate every little thing about the project. This isn't just settling for "good enough" this is a quality project no matter what city it is in. 

Side note and off topic but relevant. This is the Hotel Indigo in downtown AUSTIN. For as much praise as that city gets. They still get beige monsters and have a power line problem. 

So when we have projects like this, it's fantastic and I hope others take note. I sent this to a lot of people whom I've criticized (housing studio, spectrum, proffitt Dixon, etc) to say "this is what you should be doing." This gets be excited for Faisons NoDa project. That's going to have a TON of retail. 

[cltbwimob]

^^^I am glad that they are getting such a good response from it.  I hope that it motivates Faison to replicate this building's level of quality and attention to detail in their other projects (I think they are also about to start a big time project in NoDa). 

This project is darn near the ideal urban infill project.  It has retail, a beautiful street presence, high quality materials, and a very interesting flat iron corner that gives it an early 20th century New England look.  If the city needs a gold-standard project to serve as a model for the types of development that should be encouraged by the soon-to-be rewritten zoning codes, this is it.

[UrbanGossip]

Out of curiosity, why is early 20th century New England the ideal look for early 21st century Southeast Charlotte, NC.  I agree from an urban design perspective that this project is "right".  The way it addresses the street, the scale, the articulation in the facade...  But why can that not be achieved by GOOD contemporary design.  Architecture and art exist within a zeitgeist and designing current buildings to emulate buildings from a century ago is just Disneytecture in my opinion.

Go ahead, shout me down...