Downtown Orlando Project Discussion

[eq1974]

13 hours ago, JFW657 said:

 

I don't think there was ever a rendering of the DuPont Center, but there was an actual physical model built, of which there were photos taken.

I didn't "sleuth" this off the internet, I have an old downtown development brochure from back around 1985 from which I photographed this photograph...

That hotel that never got built on the site where Society is currently going up, is only 18 stories not counting the gable roof, which looks to be the equivalent of about three stories, making it about the height of a 21 story building.  

Stack about 7 more floors on top of it and you should have the approximate height of the 28 story Society tower. 

Here is half a rendering of DuPont Center, a rendering obviously from an Atari game, and a view perspective. Better than nothing? I agree with JFW657, I have never seen a rendering of the full Center.

[eq1974]

13 hours ago, Tim3167 said:

This really could be its own thread. I think it was sometime ago.

As far as multi tower proposals went I was so hoping for Olympia Place. I would drive by that lot so many times looking for signs of anything. There was a model just inside the back door from the parking garage into the tower. I think the 2nd towers was going to be like 28 stories .

I was lucky enough to also see that model while going to a really nice fancy restaurant on the ground floor for dinner shortly after the building opened. The restaurant didn’t last long but that model was really cool. I would be posting a picture of it if cell phones had cameras and didn’t weigh 10 pounds back then.

[IAmFloridaBorn]

What an amazing skyline we could have had. Wow. 

Definitely understand now too why our buildings are so short. 

Me being my age, I would have never known about these proposals without this forum. 

Thank you. 

[JFW657]

2 hours ago, eq1974 said:

Here is half a rendering of DuPont Center, a rendering obviously from an Atari game, and a view perspective. Better than nothing? I agree with JFW657, I have never seen a rendering of the full Center.

I had forgotten those existed until I saw your post, then remembered I have seen them before.

And even worse yet, I think I actually have paper copies of all of them in a big stack of other DTO clippings from the 80's. 

I guess it's either because I haven't looked through them in so long, or else my memory is going...   

 

.

Edited September 21, 2021 by JFW657

[eq1974]

44 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

I had forgotten those existed until I saw your post, then remembered I have seen them before.

And even worse yet, I think I actually have paper copies of all of them in a big stack of other DTO clippings from the 80's. 

I guess it's either because I haven't looked through them in so long, or else my memory is going...   

 

.

Lol about memory! I can’t tell you how many things I forgot I had while digging up that stuff this morning for the posts. Of course I paused a lot looking at some things and wondering why I saved them.

Curious, did you get that DuPont model pic from something like this:

[smileguy]

13 minutes ago, eq1974 said:

Lol about memory! I can’t tell you how many things I forgot I had while digging up that stuff this morning for the posts. Of course I paused a lot looking at some things and wondering why I saved them.

Curious, did you get that DuPont model pic from something like this:

 What's the story with that office building standing where the Embassy Suites is today?  It seems like that would be awfully expensive to redevelop. 

[eq1974]

17 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Olympia Place was a project of Olympia & York, a Canadian conglomerate that got a little too close to the crash and burn of Robert Campeau and Edward DeBartolo.

Before it was all over, major retailers were brought to their knees (and set in motion a major wave of retail consolidation well before amazon was making noise).

The second tower was mostly collateral damage
 

This is the main image that I originally wanted to post with my earlier entry this morning. But I couldn’t find it and thought it was tossed. Found it! I like that’s it in color and pretty detailed.

[codypet]

1 hour ago, smileguy said:

 What's the story with that office building standing where the Embassy Suites is today?  It seems like that would be awfully expensive to redevelop. 

That's Capital Plaza 1.  Its still there.

50 minutes ago, eq1974 said:

This is the main image that I originally wanted to post with my earlier entry this morning. But I couldn’t find it and thought it was tossed. Found it! I like that’s it in color and pretty detailed.

That lobby image is the spitting image of the lobby of the Wells Fargo building.

[spenser1058]

Capital Plaza 1 (originally the Southeast Bank building) did not get the visor until Capital Plaza 2 was built.

Southeast Bank, headquartered in Miami, was once Florida’s largest bank. It met its demise after Poppy Bush’s S&L crisis (and many believe it was pushed rather than jumped).

Edited September 21, 2021 by spenser1058

[JFW657]

4 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Capital Plaza 1 (originally the Southeast Bank building) did not get the visor until Capital Plaza 2 was built.

And the original renderings showed both buildings with the exact same "visor" (I believe it was called an eyebrow) but the older building got a much smaller one.

Maybe it couldn't conform to the required engineering specs as originally designed? 

In the newer building, the concrete columns that support the rooftop arch, are continuous through the building down to the foundation. 

I believe the older building was constructed from steel, so I don't know how rooftop concrete columns could have tied in with the original steel columns.

Might have been doable from an engineering standpoint, but just too involved and expensive. 

My late BIL ran the crew who provided and installed the glass in both those buildings, BTW. 

[codypet]

Did they reskin Cap 1 when they did that?  I thought I saw pics with the glass of Cap 1 not tinted that green color.

[spenser1058]

12 minutes ago, codypet said:

Did they reskin Cap 1 when they did that?  I thought I saw pics with the glass of Cap 1 not tinted that green color.

iirc they did.

It was grayish before

Edited September 22, 2021 by spenser1058

[eq1974]

6 hours ago, codypet said:

Did they reskin Cap 1 when they did that?  I thought I saw pics with the glass of Cap 1 not tinted that green color.

Cap1 as Southeast Bank Building with the original glass. It looked like this when I moved here. I do prefer the original glass.  

 

[JFW657]

4 hours ago, eq1974 said:

Cap1 as Southeast Bank Building with the original glass. It looked like this when I moved here. I do prefer the original glass.  

I think that by the time they redid the glass to match the new tower to the east, that glass had become kind of mottled and discolored from a couple of decades in the Florida sun. 

[Gtothree2748]

 

The urban park on Orange and Robinson, groundbreaking Oct 18 and to be completed by first quarter 2022.

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2021/09/27/orlando-to-build-new-downtown-urban-park.html?ana=TRUEANTHEMFB_OR&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3k34xYaC25K4QjYF9wvLzazMdu6yBZjRE9Pu9ikP8HSbzbnZa5KGqeaEQ
 

 

Edited September 28, 2021 by Gtothree2748

[Uncommon]

43 minutes ago, Gtothree2748 said:

 

The urban park on Orange and Robinson, groundbreaking Oct 18 and to be completed by first quarter 2022.

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2021/09/27/orlando-to-build-new-downtown-urban-park.html?ana=TRUEANTHEMFB_OR&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3k34xYaC25K4QjYF9wvLzazMdu6yBZjRE9Pu9ikP8HSbzbnZa5KGqeaEQ
 

 

Great news! Between this, Luminary Green, and Under-I, as well as Lake Eola Park, more free space in downtown Orlando is definitely a welcome sight!

[FLheat]

Speaking of Under-I, I walked under I4 this weekend and noticed how noisy it is with the traffic overhead, I wonder if they have plans for sound insulation.

[IAmFloridaBorn]

4 hours ago, FLheat said:

Speaking of Under-I, I walked under I4 this weekend and noticed how noisy it is with the traffic overhead, I wonder if they have plans for sound insulation.

I had said this recently. It's far too noisy for it to be enjoyable in my opinion but I do hope I am wrong

[dcluley98]

The noise would not bother me so much. I can tune it out when exercising or playing games. The fumes on  the other hand would be a detriment. Hopefully smog/fumes would go up and not down to the park where people are playing/exercising. I know I hate portions of my rides on busy streets such as Orange, Edgewater, Semoran, Hanging Moss, Kennedy and others.  

Edited September 28, 2021 by dcluley98

[IAmFloridaBorn]

2 minutes ago, dcluley98 said:

The noise would not bother me so much. I can tune it out when exercising or playing games. The fumes on  the other hand would be a detriment. Hopefully smog/fumes would go up and not down to the park where people are playing/exercising. I know I hate portions of my rides on busy streets such as Orange, Edgewater, Semoran, Hanging Moss, Kennedy and others.  

Have you actually been under there or just saying things??

[dcluley98]

LOL, uh, yeah. 

Every time I go to an Orlando City game or go over to Creative Village or the other side to take photos, etc. 

Don't know why you would think I would say that if I haven't and I have posted may photos of DT from the other side of I-4.

Trust me when I say from years of cycling around multiple larger cities that I just don't hear the noise anymore. I am alert to traffic/threats, but the noise does not bother me at all. You get used to it. Lately when I was doing bridge training on the OUT Pedestrian bridge I did notice the Colonial and Train noise (the train is much more substantial than traffic).  There were actually homeless that were sleeping on the span of the pedestrian bridge directly over Colonial and the train tracks. Hahaha. Completely not an Eff given about the noise. 

Edited September 29, 2021 by dcluley98

[AndyPok1]

Living in 55 facing and directly above the train tracks, I absolutely tuned out all club and train noise.  The only time I even noticed it was when watching TV and it was literally so loud I had to pause what I was watching and rewind 10 seconds because I couldn't hear it over the horn.

[IAmFloridaBorn]

3 hours ago, dcluley98 said:

LOL, uh, yeah. 

Every time I go to an Orlando City game or go over to Creative Village or the other side to take photos, etc. 

Don't know why you would think I would say that if I haven't and I have posted may photos of DT from the other side of I-4.

Trust me when I say from years of cycling around multiple larger cities that I just don't hear the noise anymore. I am alert to traffic/threats, but the noise does not bother me at all. You get used to it. Lately when I was doing bridge training on the OUT Pedestrian bridge I did notice the Colonial and Train noise (the train is much more substantial than traffic).  There were actually homeless that were sleeping on the span of the pedestrian bridge directly over Colonial and the train tracks. Hahaha. Completely not an Eff given about the noise. 

I was just saying I thought the reconstructed bridges under I-4 downtown sound different than regular underpasses. Maybe I'm tripping. I just don't see how a few park asthetics would block those noises out. 

[popsiclebrandon]

Eden's has closed. Sausage Shack is replacing it.

[spenser1058]

36 minutes ago, popsiclebrandon said:

Eden's has closed. Sausage Shack is replacing it.

Oh my! I like sausages.

I think I’m gonna really like this:

https://www.sausageshacks.com/menu

 

 

Edited September 29, 2021 by spenser1058