Downtown Orlando Project Discussion

[jliv]

On 2017-5-19 at 9:56 PM, popsiclebrandon said:

Believe Bungalower just did this maybe 2 weeks ago.

Would be nice if the city could lease this land and do something cool like that there.

The great thing about shipping containers, is that you can move them once the land that is hosting them becomes repurposed for new construction. You could simply move your "mall" to another underutilized parcel and build traffic in the area until developers catch up.

[Dale]

1 hour ago, jliv said:

Yeah, the Tulsa downtown itself was a bit sad, but the Blue Dome District did redeem it.  Actually, Tulsa and Oklahoma City both impressed me, given the "Bible Belt" stereotypes I had upon arrival.  Oklahoma City has a lot of interesting infill in the Midtown, Automobile Alley, and Bricktown areas.  I'd love to see Eola South/Thornton Park take on more of that flavor.

OKC was one of those cities I was prepared to dislike ... but found fairly impressive.

Downtown Tulsa doesn't have a lot of synergy ... but has an impressive stock of Art-Deco buildings including highrises.

[HankStrong]

Never been to OKC, but dated a girl once whose hometown was Tulsa, so we visited.  Almost a week in Tulsa is entirely too much time to be in Tulsa.  This was the early 90s, so it doesn't reflect current conditions, but that city rolled up the mat at like 9pm.  Never been to a city that completely shut down like that.  We went to see a movie and it was a fairly big mall theater.  No movies started past 9pm.  NONE.  Couldn't find a place to eat that was open besides fast food.

There was a big park by the river that was beautiful.  We went to a concert festival there and they had movies playing on a barge in the middle of the river.

Those Oral Roberts giant gold praying hands were creepy as it comes.

One of my favorite things in the entire town was the day she put me off on one of her childhood buddies while she was with her family.  This dude was awesome.  Native American dude with a no shirts/no shoes/no problem attitude.  Big jacked-up truck with a legit gun rack in the back window.  He took me on a taco challenge.  We hit like 10-12 different taco joints (the sheer volume of fast food taco options there is epic) trying a taco at each one.  We did everything from Taco Bell, Taco Mayo, Taco Bueno, to tacos out of the back of tiny grocery stores.  Oddly, all the time that has gone by, that's what I remember most about that trip.  Can't even remember the dude's name, though.

[John Hargrove]

I too frequently wake up in a haze wondering how I ate 12 tacos 

[spenser1058]

In my halcyon younger days in Nashville where we often trained for cycling runs of 100+ miles, I once joined my teammates in eating 33 Krystals each. Ahhhhh, youth!

[popsiclebrandon]

In a move that will really make downtown much better they are currently painting the Travelodge.

[spenser1058]

13 minutes ago, popsiclebrandon said:

In a move that will really make downtown much better they are currently painting the Travelodge.

Woohoo! Now that's class.

[JFW657]

Let's hope they paint it a nice, bright neon purple.

 

[HankStrong]

The folks at the pool here really make the place.

[Mark Baratelli]

 Is anyone let down that  tiny one story mama B's building is going to remain a one story tiny building despite it being at one of Downtown's most busiest intersections? Also, is anyone suspicious that a pet store bought This building? A pet store. Is it just me?

[codypet]

I was suspicious when the adult book store next to the East Colonial Walmart became a pet store too, but that place has been there for like 13 years now.   That said I really wish they had decided to sell back when the hotel came knocking on the door.  The signage has been taken down out front.

[dcluley98]

I just hope they fix the god awful 'landscaping' on that corner and open it up a little.  Anything would be better than the vacant lot it is now.  I was really hoping they would knock down the building and develop a multi story corner pub style building like in London, but more modern to fit with the hotel and SteelHouse across the street. A pet store would probably do well there.  Tons of apartment dwellers in the North Quarter with pets. 

 

Edited May 31, 2017 by dcluley98

[John Hargrove]

Welcome to downtown! Here is a gray Pizza Hut that sells pet food 

[jliv]

16 hours ago, dcluley98 said:

I just hope they fix the god awful 'landscaping' on that corner and open it up a little.  Anything would be better than the vacant lot it is now.  I was really hoping they would knock down the building and develop a multi story corner pub style building like in London, but more modern to fit with the hotel and SteelHouse across the street. A pet store would probably do well there.  Tons of apartment dwellers in the North Quarter with pets. 

 

Berlin has a lot of great examples of smart infill development.  Here's a pic from Google Earth (albeit 9 years old) of a one-story space at the corner of Hauptstrasse and Akazienstrasse in Schoeneberg.  The Starbucks is no longer there; it's currently occupied by an upscale cookware/grocery shop.  No parking in front; just a nice open plaza with tables for dining.  The Germans recovered from the RAF by building smart cities.  We Americans recover from "urban renewal" by building a bunch of ugly 7-Elevens fronted by parking lots.

Edited June 1, 2017 by jliv

[Mark Baratelli]

In 2009 when Mills50 District was created, this arch/marker was presented as an idea. Irgnoring the specific design and focusing on the purpose, does anyone else envision something at/on/above the colonial/orange intersection like an arch or a visual signifier to denote the symbolic "entrance" into the downtown Business district? 

[spenser1058]

We already had a neon sign in the form of a giant arrow with the words Downtown Orlando. It was placed there when Colonial Drive was widened and became part of FL50 (most folks don't know Colonial is also US 17-92 from Mills to OBT.)

The sign (Ocoee and WG also had signs pointing to their downtowns along 50), it was to try and remind people to shop downtown (we know how that turned out.)

When it was removed, the assumption was that  everyone knew based on the tall buildings and the fact no one shopped downtown anymore that it was superfluous. I'm not sure that's changed but I'm willing to be persuaded.

[Jernigan]

I thought the idea was something with a stronger Asian flare like a friendship arch. 

Colonial definitely seems wierd.   I'd expect to be welcomed by actors dressed in 1800s garb 

[JFW657]

3 hours ago, jliv said:

Berlin has a lot of great examples of smart infill development.  Here's a pic from Google Earth (albeit 9 years old) of a one-story space at the corner of Hauptstrasse and Akazienstrasse in Schoeneberg.  The Starbucks is no longer there; it's currently occupied by an upscale cookware/grocery shop.  No parking in front; just a nice open plaza with tables for dining.  The Germans recovered from the RAF by building smart cities.  We Americans recover from "urban renewal" by building a bunch of ugly 7-Elevens fronted by parking lots.

Something like that would look great at the Mama B's site.

I'd really like to have seen the North tower extended east to Orange with a two or three story lobby connecting it to the existing East tower that fronts Orange now.

Maybe someday.

[HankStrong]

20 hours ago, jliv said:

We Americans recover from "urban renewal" by building a bunch of ugly 7-Elevens fronted by parking lots.

Come on, now.  It's a local treasure.  I'd offer that COULD spruce it up a bit by putting some brise soleil around the 7-11 structures.

[bqknight]

I saw that the old Baoery location had a "LEASED" stamp over it. Anyone have any idea what's going there?

[Jernigan]

On 6/4/2017 at 11:06 PM, bqknight said:

I saw that the old Baoery location had a "LEASED" stamp over it. Anyone have any idea what's going there?

OW had the scoop - Jax 5th Ave opening a location there

[nite owℓ]

That will be a return to downtown for Jax.

[spenser1058]

Do they have sunshine's favorites - Burgers, Tacos and BEER?!?

[sunshine]

LOL....yeah...that does not sound like a Pho/ramen/dumplings or Indian food place.

[popsiclebrandon]

A sports bar? Interesting choice...