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Williams Mullen Center


Shakman

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Found a rendering (I don't think it's been posted here before) of WMC as seen from 195 in Creative Workspace magazine. They have released their Winter 2009 issue online, which features some of the new projects going on around Richmond. Definitely take a loot at it. WMC on pg. 11.

Williams Mullen Center Rendering

Creative Workspace

Thanks, evan. WM's building looks damned good from the Downtown Expressway. It does appear to extend over some of the parking deck. I hope the dark vertical stripe is glass and is lighted after dark.

I am on Work Space mailing list, so will wait for the hard copy.

PS: I like your album. :)

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Found a rendering (I don't think it's been posted here before) of WMC as seen from 195 in Creative Workspace magazine. They have released their Winter 2009 issue online, which features some of the new projects going on around Richmond. Definitely take a loot at it. WMC on pg. 11.

Williams Mullen Center Rendering

Creative Workspace

Just by viewing the Downtown Expressway vantage, this will help fill in the skyline from the vantage from Rocketts Landing.

Look closely at the second photo and one can see the lead tenant name on the upper portion of the corner curtainwall.

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Found a rendering (I don't think it's been posted here before) of WMC as seen from 195 in Creative Workspace magazine. They have released their Winter 2009 issue online, which features some of the new projects going on around Richmond. Definitely take a loot at it. WMC on pg. 11.

Williams Mullen Center Rendering

Creative Workspace

I wish they would release a site plan of how much/what angles the building goes over the deck. I'm lost looking at the second pic..the building itself looks massive compared to the first rendering. Either way, thanks for the link!

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Form the renderings, the building appears to be thin east-west and longer north-south. If one goes to the top of the RMA parking garage, the capped columns are visible. It appears that the structure will cantaliever upto the ramp.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The second floor seems awfully short -- is it possibly a mechanical floor?

Parking area. The third should be the same.

It also may very well appear to be short since the first floor is tall... Visual deception.

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Ceiling of the third floor of the non-tower portion got started over the weekend and looks to be almost done. I don't think most folks realize that the tower portion of this building is only going to take up about 60% of the lot they are building on. The tower is going to stop about 10 feet from the location of the tower crane and the rest of the building will only be as tall as the parking garage.

I think they missed a huge opportunity to do something interesting with the shorter portion of the tower (e.g., a green roof). Then again, I'll just be happy if Williams Mullen is still around when this thing is done.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Construction has begun on the roof of the adjacent parking structure(the portion closest to Riverfront Tower, not the portion further along Canal). I-beams have been installed on the roof of that parking structure which makes it appear that the tower is going to extend very far over that structure.

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Those renderings are much better than the earlier ones, it blends really well with the James Center and will be great infill. jbjust is right, the beams that stretch over the parking garage stop exactly at what appears to be the edge of the building as seen in the renderings.

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Those renderings are much better than the earlier ones, it blends really well with the James Center and will be great infill. jbjust is right, the beams that stretch over the parking garage stop exactly at what appears to be the edge of the building as seen in the renderings.

It is the same rendering just viewed from different angles. As I said before, the tower is wider north-south as compared to east-west.

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It is the same rendering just viewed from different angles. As I said before, the tower is wider north-south as compared to east-west.

I know it's the same rendering, but those IMHO give you more of a feel for the building. It shows a helluva lot more angles than this one, which is what I was referring to..

richmondtower.jpg

Pics from today:

Picture032.jpg

Picture033.jpg

Picture034.jpg

Picture035.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

First floor is definitely retail. The next two floors appear to be parking that I suspect will connect seamlessly to the RMA deck. The fourth floor will be the first floor of offices and it looks like it will have a nice little deck overlooking canal. The fourth floor will also be the first floor that extends beyond the footprint of the lot by 5 feet or so, which will really give the building some visual heft.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Based on the renderings, this building looks like something you would expect to see in a generic suburban office park. Is there a city ordinance that I don't know about that says every new downtown building must offer no architectural value? I just don't understand why Richmond gets so much pedestrian architecture while other cities get amazing buildings. I would say one exception may be Meadwestvaco, (at least the glassy side) which offers at least something to the environment around it.

As far as Williams "Mullet" goes, this building was obviously intended to blend with the rest of James center with the strong horizontal lines. The biggest problem is the clunky base of the building, which makes it look like the whole thing is on stilts. Louis Sullivan said regarding skyscrapers that "every inch should be a proud, soaring thing." This building is anything but proud and soaring.

It may not be fair to judge until the building is complete, so I will keep an open mind. However, overall if you walk around downtown Richmond and look at it honestly, I believe most people will agree that we deserve much better.

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I think the Williams Mullen building deserves a lot of credit for making great use of a very marginal lot which will go a long way toward connecting the Riverfront Towers/Troutman Sanders area to downtown.

I second that. For a building built over a parking garage, built over an expressway, it pleasingly fills a void between center city and the riverfront.

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