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Hilton Norfolk at The Main


vdogg

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Now this is what i'm looking for. Coherent plans and reasoning as to how and why a building should be kept. This is how they should have been doing it all along. This one letter did what countless others failed to do. It has provided a convincing argument as to what changes should be made and what the affect of those changes would be. I like the resturant idea and the parking garage idea. She may have won a convert here.

She gave a reasonable argument, but the devil is probably in the details. Where would the alternative parking be provided, and so on. Did the City make a genuine effort to evaluate these ideas, or not? I'm assuming not at this point, as Alice said that her group had sought to work something out for years. I hope we can get some solid answers on how this process went, because other projects will be announced that will endanger other old structures, and perhaps soon. The City has probably made the best decision for the overall good of Norfolk, but they've done so in an arrogant and shadowy fashion, much as they did with respect to the Bay Oaks park debacle in Ocean View.

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I did some searching in the old Hilton thread and I have obviously been mistaken. Kinda dampens my opinion of the project - I had been looking forward to what I thought was going to be a very large, very tall wall of glass. I still think it will look good though, if a little plain.

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OMG. a little touchy are we? why would you post there when each project has its own individual thread? :blink:

I can't answer your question the way you'd like except to say that if I'm mistaken, than thats just what it is...an honest mistake. The sky is not going to fall folks. We're all just regular people here, having fun posting our comments, so I would like to think so. I could make the argument that you're a little touchy for using the "OMG" and the interesting icon at the end to hit home your point. I don't see how I said anything offensive? I apologize if I've somehow personally offended anyone. Why so condescending?

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Wow. :huh: I'm looking over my post to see what you took offense too. You are of course welcome to post here and I don't know where you got that you weren't. I said don't post in the P&C thread because I don't let anyone post in there. It is simply set aside as a repository of information so that people can quickly scroll through and look at the status of all projects that are going on in Norfolk without having to scroll through a lot of posts. I used to have that thread closed but I got tired of closing and reopening it everytime I had to make a change so I just left it open, with the understanding that no one was to post in there. I hope that helps explain it somewhat. I meant no offense.

Well, I don't think I was being irrational about finding something condescending about your prior response. It seemed that way even if you didn't mean it that way. I was a little suspicious about the "(just don't post in it)". I haven't talked to you much, if ever, so the immediate desire to jest with me was a bit sudden for me, but if you say that you meant no harm, I can't read minds, so therefore, I have to take your word for it to a degree. I admit it can be much more difficult to discern one's intention via the internet than from a face to face encounter, so I was a bit defensive, because I've run into many blogs where people feel immediately comfortable with attacking you out of nowhere, partially because they have the safety of internet anonimity. Furthermore, its also important to note that I am very new here and don't post on this site very much anyway. So, it was an honest mistake. In anycase, thanks for the explanation.

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I don't know how much good it will do. They closed down Granby street between Plume and main and they have cordondened off an area around the Ikon building and taken down the awning from Beecroft and Bull. Now that the streets closed, I imagine will see demo in the next few days.

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While it doesn't provide specific dates for each building, this does give a general timeline for when we can expect each building to come down.

To facilitate the demolition of several buildings, the City of Norfolk has closed the 100 Block of Granby Street to vehicular traffic and has closed sidewalks and parking lanes on both East Plume Street and East Main Street.

Granby Street: will be closed to vehicular traffic between Plume Street and Main Street until August 20th. There will also be some impact on pedestrian traffic in this area.

East Main Street: There will be no parking between Granby Street and the Selden Arcade until September 5th. The sidewalk will also be closed to pedestrians on the north side of East Main Street during this time. Pedestrian traffic will be maintained on the south side.

East Plume Street: The parking lane and sidewalk will be closed from Concord Lane to the Selden Arcade until September 5th. Pedestrians should watch for signage to direct them.

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Ikon demolition begins

A wrecking ball started claiming chunks of a downtown historic building late Tuesday afternoon despite a last-ditch effort by preservationists to save it.

Just the day before, preservationists were entrenched in front of what's known as the Ikon building, gathering signatures on a petition to prevent its destruction as well as the demolition of two other buildings nearby.

Mark Perreault, a Norfolk Preservation Alliance board member, charged that the city "accelerated its schedule, trying to defeat the citizen effort by eliminating the building that's most prized, most valuable."

Groundbreaking for the hotel and conference center is scheduled for early October, so work crews are starting to prepare the site, Fraim added.
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Well, since we have to live with this...I hope preservationists and citizens will find some way to have more communication with the city council, so some trust between the two can still be maintained. I don't know exactly how this will affect the perception people have of the Norfolk City Council, but I have a feeling it won't be all positive. Thats not to say this really damages the city's public relations beyond repair, but its going to take some people a while to get over this, while others will forgive and forget pretty quickly.

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Well, since we have to live with this...I hope preservationists and citizens will find some way to have more communication with the city council, so some trust between the two can still be maintained. I don't know exactly how this will affect the perception people have of the Norfolk City Council, but I have a feeling it won't be all positive. Thats not to say this really damages the city's public relations beyond repair, but its going to take some people a while to get over this, while others will forgive and forget pretty quickly.

This won't affect perceptions at all. Few in Norfolk cared about the buildings, especially the Ikon building. There's a reason they were torn down three YEARS after being announced, no one cared. This will be forgotten in a week, just like what happened with Granby Tower (Vault etc) People care about money, like ridiculous subsidies for projects or paying 2/3s of this project and allowing a developer to pay a fraction of the cost. Tearing down buildings won't get people thinking negatively about City Council, because 98% of people don't care, unfortunately. Over 200,000 (?) citizens in Norfolk, and the NPA couldn't find 1 percent worth of signatures. Speaks for itself.

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This won't affect perceptions at all. Few in Norfolk cared about the buildings, especially the Ikon building. There's a reason they were torn down three YEARS after being announced, no one cared. This will be forgotten in a week, just like what happened with Granby Tower (Vault etc) People care about money, like ridiculous subsidies for projects or paying 2/3s of this project and allowing a developer to pay a fraction of the cost. Tearing down buildings won't get people thinking negatively about City Council, because 98% of people don't care, unfortunately. Over 200,000 (?) citizens in Norfolk, and the NPA couldn't find 1 percent worth of signatures. Speaks for itself.

Wow, thanks for that info. Its sad though. I wish there was a larger consensus in favor of preserving historic architecture, but the fact that there isn't, as you have pointed out, makes me think it may point to a negative aspect of the Hampton Roads culture at large. I guess I'm one of the few Norfolkians that care about preserving our historic buildings. Hopefully, that will change as the city continues to revitalize itself and more and more people with diverse views make their homes here.

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Nothing new... sorry and welcome!

It's surprising we haven't seen anything since the condos were taken out of the equation. I assume the concept is still the same, but with fewer floors and no balconies. It would be nice to see something though, now that activity is ramping up down there.

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