Downtown Orlando Project Discussion

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, Jernigan said:

Nope.   Going to a soccer stadium for a farmers market ranks up there next to "cute urban bookstore" on the list of things I want us to have but would never frequent.

I don't see it lasting in its current form.   It looks way to forced.   Hopefully some good comes out of it - fleet farmings involvement is encouraging.

From the news reports I've seen about it, I think that the intended purpose of this particular farmer's market is to serve the poor and needy residents of Parramore who don't have adequate means of transportation to get to regular grocery stores.

Not sure if they're really looking toward the hip, trendy, young, white, urban millennial smartphone crowd to keep them in business.

[gibby]

On 1/4/2018 at 6:31 PM, Jernigan said:

520 Church construction activity anticipated for February per permit application to use the lots for construction parking.  

I can't find any information about this permit.  Do you have any other details?  Thanks.

[orlandoguy]

Well this is interesting.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/political-pulse/os-holocaust-center-chamber-building-orlando-20180116-story.html

[JFW657]

14 minutes ago, orlandoguy said:

Well this is interesting.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/political-pulse/os-holocaust-center-chamber-building-orlando-20180116-story.html

That IS interesting. The design of that building would be perfect for something like that, so I would hope they don't alter the exterior too much.

BTW, where did the COC move to? I had no idea they weren't in there anymore.

Edit: I see they moved into a highrise on East Pine St.

[dcluley98]

I agree, very interesting. The more museums downtown the better!  I don't know if I would pay to go to that, but I think others might, and I would definitely check it out if they had a free day for residents as they said in the article. The main goal for museums like this is for cultural development and awareness, and I am sure there are several wealthy philanthropists who want to advance this cause that can make our downtown museum landscape greater for the long term. 

Edited January 17, 2018 by dcluley98

[klstorey]

The current building is 7,569 (nice) sq. ft., with an additional 20,000 sq. ft. that would make this Holocaust museum just a tad larger than the one in St. Pete (which is 27,000 sq. ft.) and one of the largest in the country. 

I'm very curious how they're going to make the addition work. My quick thought would be to use the current parking lot as the expansion area. One or two stories there would still allow the current building to tower over it and look nice and could provide a great rooftop that would be ideal for special events or a sculpture garden. 

I'd love to see the Ivanhoe Building mold removal finished around the same time as this opens. The Ivanhoe Bldg is perfect for a nice food hall and East End Market style retail mall. Together these two could really make North Quarter/NODO/Uptown really come alive. Too bad the beautiful WDBO building is gone but hopefully, this spurs some development of that site.  Ideally, that long forgotten proposal for a pedestrian bridge along the eastern side of I-4 across Lake Ivanhoe also finally gets greenlit, giving this area a nice walking loop. I'm still a little miffed that the pedestrian bridge wasn't included in the I-4 Ultimate work. It should have all been done at once. 

[AndyPok1]

I had no idea that was a proposal once upon a time, very cool.

With that said, I see why it wasn't included as part of Ultimate.  The two bridges that are being done as part of it (plus the OUT that's occuring at the same time but not funded by Ultimate) are being added to increase safety / decrease pedestrian crossings of major roads, both of which increase traffic flow.  This one doesn't really do either, but doesn't mean that it wouldn't be AWESOME if the city found a way to fund it.  (Although as part of the trails discussion, I think the gap connecting Little Econ and Cady Way is 1000x more important).

[klstorey]

12 minutes ago, AndyPok1 said:

I had no idea that was a proposal once upon a time, very cool.

With that said, I see why it wasn't included as part of Ultimate.  The two bridges that are being done as part of it (plus the OUT that's occuring at the same time but not funded by Ultimate) are being added to increase safety / decrease pedestrian crossings of major roads, both of which increase traffic flow.  This one doesn't really do either, but doesn't mean that it wouldn't be AWESOME if the city found a way to fund it.  (Although as part of the trails discussion, I think the gap connecting Little Econ and Cady Way is 1000x more important).

Very true. I meant more that I wish both projects could've been designed and done at the same time so that it had less impact on the lake and surrounding area.  I agree that the other links are more important but I feel like Lake Ivanhoe needs to be better connected and updated so that it can take some of the pressure off of Lake Eola. Even moving a few events to Lake Ivanhoe would help Eola, which seems to always be under a state of setting up or breaking down from an event. It's a beautiful park but it's totally being overused IMO. I hope that the new Holocaust Center spurs on more events in that area. 

Another random thought, many Holocaust Centers focus not only on that event but human rights as a whole. I think the argument that the Pulse shooting was a hate crime against a specific group of people is very strong. Could it be possible to combine these two centers? I know they have very different demographics but it might be interesting to see what that would look like. The more I think about the permanent off-site Pulse memorial the more I think it needs to tell a bigger story of equality, LGBTQ/human rights, and how Pulse plays a part in that. If not combined with the Holocaust museum it might be good to have the Pulse museum nearby, possibly on the old WDBO site or the old Evans Group building. My ideal location for the off-site Pulse museum is the fire station/empty lot nearby. That station looks like its in need of an update anyways. Or the empty lot in front of the DPPAC. That site is very special and makes sense for it if it is going to be off-site. 

[sunshine]

There was a proposal and the city actually was ready to build a path around the entire Lake Ivanhoe for public jogging trail. Guess who killed it?

 

[spenser1058]

2 minutes ago, sunshine said:

There was a proposal and the city actually was ready to build a path around the entire Lake Ivanhoe for public jogging trail. Guess who killed it?

 

The NIMBYs (especially along the west shore) also killed plans for a fountain. It was to be the "Northern Gateway."

[Universe_Explorer]

7 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

The NIMBYs (especially along the west shore) also killed plans for a fountain. It was to be the "Northern Gateway."

I run around Lake Ivanhoe several times a week.  There are a couple gaps without sidewalks - going under I4 on the south side you have to cross Lakeview St  and back to get back under I4 on the northern side you have to get on New Hampshire Dr .  They have build new sidewalks all along the north/western portion of the lake nearly completing the loop of the two larger lobes. I single, unified path would be better, but there's plenty of runners circling it daily.

I was under the impression they were putting a fountain in as part of the Ultimate? It's fine I guess, but seems odd for a ski lake with a public boat ramp and separate paddle board access... 

[spenser1058]

FDOT may finally have just blown away the opposition with their plans as it's such a large undertaking. This goes back to much back and forth to try and develop a park-like setting all the way around during Mayor Bill's administration. Ironically, this is HIS neighborhood, which made the protests at the time all the more comical. Hopefully, it will all work out although the scale of some of the I4 Ultimate additions is sometimes  overwhelming.

Edited January 18, 2018 by spenser1058

[Jernigan]

On 1/4/2018 at 6:18 PM, Jernigan said:

Another day another 7-Eleven personal storage facility.   This one is going on Magnolia & Colonial.  3 story with ground floor commercial...

http://www.cityoforlando.net/city-planning/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2018/01/MPBProjectOverview2018-02_MPL2017-10029.pdf

Renderings included in ARB report: http://www.cityoforlando.net/city-planning/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2018/01/ARB2017-10020report.pdf

 

[dcluley98]

Kind of odd given the lot has a retaining wall with about 5 feet of fill from street level currently.  That's a heck of a lot of dirt to cut. That building looks pretty bad too. I agree with all the architectural comments, and the east and south sides are exceptionally bad. (B&W photos below).  I like the corner oriented element, but the rest of it leaves a lot to be desired. 

[JFW657]

I hate that we'll be losing the old women's shelter building. 

Probably gonna take out a few trees along the curb, too.

[popsiclebrandon]

ewwwwww that is horrible

[metal93]

For a prominent corner, I wish this storage center was at least 4 stories, up  to 8 or 9 would have been great to match the heights of the nearby Sevens and Residence Inn. Oh well, at least it beats what's currently there despite looking kind of bland.

The east elevation is not too horrible as the edge of the building appears to be about 31 feet away from property line - or basically the western wall of the neighboring building.  It largely won't be seen but it could use some sprucing up. Would be better if the building was extended just a bit to the east to reduce that alley/drive thru access down to 20 feet (fire department minimum clear width?), to reduce the gap between the buildings.

The Hillcrest south elevation is just awful and inexcusable, it's facing the street and looks like the back part of the building nobody's really supposed to see. It's jarring to have this contrast with that beautiful house and office building on the other side of the street.

[orange87]

I GUESS this is better than what's currently there. Not by much though. Would have been way better if they made it at least 4 stories.

Edited January 19, 2018 by orange87

[jgardnerucf]

Just imagine all the bums under all those stuccoed columns. Horrible.

[spenser1058]

The Rogers Building at Magnolia and Pine is being donated to the City in order to ensure its place in the arts community going forward.

It's a historic building going back to the days of English "second sons" coming to Florida to make their fortunes in the nascent citrus industry. Thankfully, it has been well-preserved, especially by local beer distributor Ford Kiene, who's making the donation.

http://orlando-rising.com/historic-rogers-building-donated-city-orlando/

From Orlando Rising

[popsiclebrandon]

Awesome, I love that building.

[Jernigan]

Happy days for the Thornton Park Laundry...

Not only is the retail space between it and Burton's becoming a restaurant (more discussion on that in this thread), but a developer is looking at building a 3-story mixed-use project on the vacant lot just east.

Growthspotter tells us it will be retail/office on the 1st floor with some patio space and 2 apartment units overhead with rooftop terraces.  Full article

[WAJAS]

2 hours ago, Jernigan said:

Happy days for the Thornton Park Laundry...

Not only is the retail space between it and Burton's becoming a restaurant (more discussion on that in this thread), but a developer is looking at building a 3-story mixed-use project on the vacant lot just east.

Growthspotter tells us it will be retail/office on the 1st floor with some patio space and 2 apartment units overhead with rooftop terraces.  Full article

From the concept art, it actually appears to be an interesting looking building.  What a change!

[alex]

Perfect infill project.

The article also notes that construction could start in April and take 10 months, so this project could be finished a year from now.

[spenser1058]

New Eola Heights townhome project proposed on Broadway:

http://bungalower.com/2018/01/30/plan-filed-5-unit-townhome-project-lake-eola-heights/

From Bungalower