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Block 11 Tower Progress

urbanvb

By urbanvb
in Virginia Beach

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HarryVB Whistle-Stop

HarryVB

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If you look at Emporis. The site is completely updated. Tower 2 is the Building that is going in the Columbus One parking lot.. the parking lot facing the cosmopolitan apartments. So Gateway Bank Tower is the going on block 2, Tower 2 on block 11 and Block 9 is the Westin Aloft Hotel/Residences.. that is 22 stories, 20 stories and 15 stories.. We will have a nice skyline and with the cityview project going up as well. its gonna look really classy!

http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=bu...3&id=256768 This is the link to block 11

http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=bu...&id=1159255 This is the link to block 2

http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=bu...&id=1150476 This is the link to block 9

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urbanlife Town

urbanlife

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If you look at Emporis. The site is completely updated. Tower 2 is the Building that is going in the Columbus One parking lot.. the parking lot facing the cosmopolitan apartments. So Gateway Bank Tower is the going on block 2, Tower 2 on block 11 and Block 9 is the Westin Aloft Hotel/Residences.. that is 22 stories, 20 stories and 15 stories.. We will have a nice skyline and with the cityview project going up as well. its gonna look really classy!

http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=bu...3&id=256768 This is the link to block 11

http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=bu...&id=1159255 This is the link to block 2

http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=bu...&id=1150476 This is the link to block 9

Indeed the city will have a great little, yet very tall skyline...that should make up for having a small urban area right now...it will be so nice when the Pembroke Mall finally jumps on this bandwagon and starts to redevelop its land...heck, they could keep the mall open and running while doing the redeveloping, then eventually moving into a more urban mall when it comes time to replace the original mall...then VB will have a great urban downtown.

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urbanfan Hamlet

urbanfan

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If you look at Emporis. The site is completely updated. Tower 2 is the Building that is going in the Columbus One parking lot.. the parking lot facing the cosmopolitan apartments. So Gateway Bank Tower is the going on block 2, Tower 2 on block 11 and Block 9 is the Westin Aloft Hotel/Residences.. that is 22 stories, 20 stories and 15 stories.. We will have a nice skyline and with the cityview project going up as well. its gonna look really classy!

http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=bu...3&id=256768 This is the link to block 11

http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=bu...&id=1159255 This is the link to block 2

http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=bu...&id=1150476 This is the link to block 9

Emporis is by far not to be considered an authority on construction. They employ locals to update their website who may or may not know what is truly going on. I have found it to be somewhat accurate in some respects, but far from reputable.

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varider Town

varider

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Indeed the city will have a great little, yet very tall skyline...that should make up for having a small urban area right now...it will be so nice when the Pembroke Mall finally jumps on this bandwagon and starts to redevelop its land...heck, they could keep the mall open and running while doing the redeveloping, then eventually moving into a more urban mall when it comes time to replace the original mall...then VB will have a great urban downtown.

Hoenstly, this current Town Center, once fully built out, is a great starting point for our 'metropolitan core' aka downtown Va Beach. With a 500 footer, the skyline will appear rather tall, especially since it's surrounded by a sea of suburbia.

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urbanlife Town

urbanlife

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Hoenstly, this current Town Center, once fully built out, is a great starting point for our 'metropolitan core' aka downtown Va Beach. With a 500 footer, the skyline will appear rather tall, especially since it's surrounded by a sea of suburbia.

I didnt say it wasnt...this is a really impressive move for the city and this very small downtown will eventually grow into a full fledged downtown with an impressive skyline.

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varider Town

varider

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I didnt say it wasnt...this is a really impressive move for the city and this very small downtown will eventually grow into a full fledged downtown with an impressive skyline.

Oh, I know you didn't say it wasn't..

Virginia Beach will have a better skyline than Norfolk in.... 5 years.

It'd be cool to get a building break 50 here in my lifetime.

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ronsmytheiii Hamlet

ronsmytheiii

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Unless it is Dubai...which it is not, so I would have to agree....lets shoot for 10-20 years...then I could see VB having the better skyline and the more modern built up downtown.

As much as I would love to have a lot of tall buildings, right now we need to turn Pembroke to an urban core rather than a few towers surrounded by massive surface lots, so the priority should be infill.

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urbanlife Town

urbanlife

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As much as I would love to have a lot of tall buildings, right now we need to turn Pembroke to an urban core rather than a few towers surrounded by massive surface lots, so the priority should be infill.

Oh I very much agree, living here in Portland, it is our street life that is impressive, not our skyline. Focusing on what happens at the street level is the most important thing. The amount of available space to rent along blocks, the location of housing and business, the use of trees to create a much more calm sidewalk experience...which trees throughout Pembroke should be a major one, when that summer heat kicks in, all that shade makes downtowns much more bearable.

Also park life is very important, not just the big parks like they are planning to do where the high school currently is, but small block parks and plazas...places where people can gather, relax, enjoy a smoke break, eat their lunch, take in whatever activity is going on, and so on.

My recent visit to nyc, and I would have to say that it is the same as Portland when it comes to its buildings...what makes nyc great is not its towers, but its urban street life. Most of the neighborhoods in Manhattan are not that tall, but are very dense and have plenty going on at the street level to keep areas feeling very vibrant.

In the case of Pembroke Mall, it will have to be built with both ideas in mind, height and density. I also hope that they do not masterplan build the mall area like they did the town center. I think it would be much healthier for that area to allow larger full block projects happen, but also make it so that portions of blocks can be sold off to other developers to build what they want as well....downtowns should not be designed by a small number of firms and architects, the larger the mix, the more diversity the area will have.

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varider Town

varider

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I don't know how much we can hold the masterplan renderings to truth, but did anyone notice the second tower located on the southwest corner of block 11?

Yeah i saw it.

I think the Block 11 tower is going to fill the entire parking lot, I don't see them fitting two towers on that one lot. But anything's possible.

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urbanlife Town

urbanlife

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I very much agree that density is better than height. But I'm just saying, for the CBD, I'd like a nationally recognized skyline.

I think having the tallest building in VA, plus if the city builds a strong downtown with an active street life, that will be what makes the skyline recognizable.

Yeah i saw it.

I think the Block 11 tower is going to fill the entire parking lot, I don't see them fitting two towers on that one lot. But anything's possible.

I just wanted to put this in perspective for you, in Portland, our blocks are 200ft by 200 ft...Block 11 is about 400ft by 400ft, which is a total of 4 Portland blocks...so I think it is very much possible to have two towers on this blocks...heck, it would be possible to have 4 towers on this block.

Also to add to this topic, the smallest blocks in the middle of the town center are 260ft by 230ft, so even those are bigger than Portland blocks....so I would say, anything is possible in the amount of room that VB has with its blocks.

The block that the AH tower is on is 300ft by 400 ft and the average Midtown East block in Manhattan is 220ft by 450ft.

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varider Town

varider

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I think having the tallest building in VA, plus if the city builds a strong downtown with an active street life, that will be what makes the skyline recognizable.

I just wanted to put this in perspective for you, in Portland, our blocks are 200ft by 200 ft...Block 11 is about 400ft by 400ft, which is a total of 4 Portland blocks...so I think it is very much possible to have two towers on this blocks...heck, it would be possible to have 4 towers on this block.

Also to add to this topic, the smallest blocks in the middle of the town center are 260ft by 230ft, so even those are bigger than Portland blocks....so I would say, anything is possible in the amount of room that VB has with its blocks.

The block that the AH tower is on is 300ft by 400 ft and the average Midtown East block in Manhattan is 220ft by 450ft.

Oh I wasn't saying that it's not physically possible to fit two towers, I was just saying that the design on Divaris page has the building filling up the entire block, so I don't see them changing their mind.

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urbanlife Town

urbanlife

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The main tower portion is only on the north face of that block. The rest is only wrapped with 5/6 story condos,retail, and parking. That rear tower idea could've been there the whole time, we just can't see it from the vantage point of this digital rendering.

Plus it might be more in the mindset if things call for it the developers could do either a 5-6 story building for the rest of the block or add another smaller tower there as well....which I hope they add a second one to that block...if this is gonna be the heart of the downtown, then it makes sense to aim for the most density that there can be. Though Pembroke Mall is the redevelopment I am most looking forward to right now....well until they submit a poorly designed and underutilized plan.

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ronsmytheiii Hamlet

ronsmytheiii

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Plus it might be more in the mindset if things call for it the developers could do either a 5-6 story building for the rest of the block or add another smaller tower there as well....which I hope they add a second one to that block...if this is gonna be the heart of the downtown, then it makes sense to aim for the most density that there can be. Though Pembroke Mall is the redevelopment I am most looking forward to right now....well until they submit a poorly designed and underutilized plan.

Perhaps the Owners of the Cosmo/Residential part of the Aloft have an option to add a small condo tower depending on how the new apartments/condos fill up,will be a few years between the start of Phase IV construction and the building of this tower.

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HarryVB Whistle-Stop

HarryVB

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Its not going to be a few years before the new condo goes up on that same block. Its gonna probably start after Phase IV is done.. a year after. If you look at the pattern of Phases. Its always a year of design and planning and a year later they start construction.. So Im thinking it will be done in 2013 at the latest.. But if its that skinny of a building.. it wont take long at all to go up. People wanna live in town center and they are pretty occupied with the dwellings and office space.. Town Center is in demand or more offices, shops and residential towers..

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BFG Town

BFG

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Good to know...was waiting for the next phase to begin. I would estimate around 20 stories to match the presence of the Armada Hoffler Tower and make TC even more visible from the Interstate. I'd love to see them go for something a little more unconventional with the design, but I'm guessing it'll be the same "boxy" design with an angled roof, like to many other buildings in Hampton Roads.

Oh well, a new building is still great.

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vdogg Megalopolis

vdogg

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Well, let me make two points. First, this in NOT Gateway tower, this is the block 11 tower. Don't know what happened to Gateway tower but that was to be located on block 2. I will move these comments into that thread later today. The second point I'd like to make is after reading the documents I'm estimating about 17 floors. That's ok and it will fill out TC but they better not put a spire on that thing :lol:. All their projects have grown in scope since intial announcement though and I wouldn't be surprised if this does too.

Is everyone else's text appearing in bold or is it just my computer? :huh:

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