Nashville Bits and Pieces

[Dale]

28 minutes ago, smeagolsfree said:

We just are not getting the tall boys here for several reasons.

One, Metro height restrictions 

Two, availability of sites as we have a much larger inner core than Charlotte, not to mention a area like Midtown and West End does not really exist in Charlotte. 

Three, banks seem to be unwilling to loan aon huge high rise buildings here. Charlotte is a banking center and Nashville is not near Charlotte in that area.

 

The Charlotte skyline does owe its muscular stature to its longstanding reputation as a corporate center.

[Nathan_in_DC]

On ‎1‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 2:24 AM, thenorthchannel said:

Chargers to host Titans in London in 2018!   Looks like a late October game, either the 21st or 28th.

http://www.titansonline.com/news/article-4/Titans-to-Play-Chargers-in-London-in-2018/2daae7fa-ceae-4f19-8fba-daf3e32da0c9

I'll be living in the UK by then, I'm super excited to make it to the game! (I know, it's a two week old post...)

[Binbin98]

4 hours ago, Nathan_in_DC said:

I'll be living in the UK by then, I'm super excited to make it to the game! (I know, it's a two week old post...)

Hooray a fellow Nashvillian that is moving to the UK

[Guest]

I do hope some our most recent (and future) pedestal towers are incorporating this design philosophy. Anyone Know?

 https://www.wsj.com/articles/say-goodbye-to-garages-as-developers-imagine-a-driverless-future-1517317200?mod=e2fb
 

By 

Peter Grant

Jan. 30, 2018 8:00 a.m. ET

30 COMMENTS

 

 

Mass adoption of driverless cars is still years away, but architects, developers and planners already are designing new projects with autonomous vehicles in mind.

Developers are starting to build offices with internal parking structures that can be converted to office space if demand for private parking decreases. New master-planned projects in cities like Toronto, Los Angeles, Oslo, San Francisco and Boston are being designed with features like curbside drop-off areas for passengers and e-commerce deliveries that replace traditional parking lanes.

“The term that we’re hearing over and over again is ‘future-proof,’” said Jeffrey Shumaker, director of Urban Planning and Design at architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates in New York.

Novel ideas are being floated for the distant future as well as the messy transitional years until mass adoption of driverless vehicles is complete. For example, Gensler already is looking at ways to free up green space in housing developments by replacing driveways with common storage areas for autonomous vehicles.

Meanwhile, a Reebok and Gensler venture has been studying how to repurpose gasoline stations in the future when driverless vehicles will visit remote charging stations instead. One idea: fitness centers that include playgrounds, workout areas and fresh food stores.

“Today on your way home, you stop at the gas station to fill up,” said Joseph Brancato, a Gensler regional managing principal. In the future, the Reebok venture envisions transforming the properties into stations for “recharging human beings” where you “get an additional workout, buy some farm-to-table food and maybe pick up some holistic medicine,” he said.

Real-estate developers and architects are thinking about a driverless future today because many of the structures and streets they’re designing will still be around decades from now. They see the benefit of including enough flexibility into today’s projects so that they can later adapt to changing transportation patterns with limited cost.

 

Much of the future-proofing underway involves master-planned communities with new approaches to streets, bike lanes and other infrastructure. For example, Kohn Pederson is designing a complex in Shenzhen in China with an elevated loop that could be dedicated to autonomous vehicles and underground parking areas that could be converted into retail space or other uses.

Planners also are studying flexible streetscapes and parking guidelines for Boston’s Seaport development and for Sidewalk Toronto, a joint effort by the government and Alphabet Inc.’s Sidewalk Labs focusing on about 800 acres on Toronto’s eastern waterfront.

The San Francisco Giants baseball team is looking down the driverless road with architecture firm Perkins + Will in their planning for Mission Rock, a 27-acre project south of AT&T Park. Planners are designing streets and buildings that can adapt to declining parking demand and the growing need for better curbside pickups and drop-offs of passengers and packages. Apartment buildings are being designed with more space—including cold storage—for package deliveries from Amazon.com and other e-commerce businesses.

“These projects are beta-testing the autonomous future,” said Gerry Tierney, co-director of Perkins + Will’s mobility research lab.

Parking garages that can be converted into other uses already are being built. For example, Gensler designed the new Cincinnati headquarters building for data analytics firm 84.51° with three floors of above-ground parking that can be converted into office space.

That’s possible partly because the parking-floor heights are higher than those in typical garages. Also the facades of the parking floors resemble the rest of the 841,000-square-foot building.

Gensler is exploring ways to convert stand-alone parking-garage structures into apartment buildings that could be used for student or other forms of low-cost housing. This could be done with modular units designed to slide into the structure easily, Mr. Brancato said.

The backs of these structures might be designed so they could open up to the outside to bring in natural light, he said. “Parking garages are big and deep, and with residential you want as much natural light as you can get,” he said.

 

Expense is a major obstacle to convertible parking structures. Whether they’re stand-alone or part of a building, they cost more to build than conventional garages. Because their ceiling heights need to be higher, convertible garages contain fewer spaces, making the idea a nonstarter with many developers.

Long term, though, parking conversion can pay off, Mr. Brancato said. For example, he said Gensler is studying one convertible project in Denver’s trendy RiNo district that would initially include 117 spaces per floor, about 17 per floor fewer than if it were built using a conventional design. But if it is eventually converted into office space, the return on investment would be more than 40%, compared with 18%, he said.

There’s also a danger in designing buildings without taking into account the approach of the driverless future, Mr. Brancato added.

“We’re designing structures that aren’t going to open for another four to five years,” he said. “If people don’t think about these changes, some of them are going to be irrelevant by the time they get built.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Write to Peter Grant at [email protected]

[AronG]

19 hours ago, nashville_bound said:

I do hope some our most recent (and future) pedestal towers are incorporating this design philosophy. Anyone Know?

 https://www.wsj.com/articles/say-goodbye-to-garages-as-developers-imagine-a-driverless-future-1517317200?mod=e2fb

Yeah this is fascinating stuff. Even before autonomous cars get here, shrinking parking demand is already hitting airports (http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2017/07/18/airport-parking-takes-hit-from-uber-lyft). There are going to be some fascinating decades of adjustment if and when the true thing hits. I guess the old concept of the hip, inexpensive warehouse loft apartment is going to be replaced in the late 2020s by hip, inexpensive converted parking garage apartments. Going to be harder to make them hip with low ceilings and slightly-tilted floors though.

Google is running cars in Phoenix with no-one in the driver seat, and they just ordered "thousands" of autonomous cars (https://www.wired.com/story/waymo-launches-self-driving-minivans-fiat-chrysler/); this is starting to look pretty imminent. The cities that get out in front of it are going to look like geniuses in 10 years. Why don't we already have dedicated curb drop-off spots? They should be sprinkled on every block so ride-sharers and delivery vans don't stop in traffic and/or block bike lanes. We can charge a yearly license to use them and pay for the implementation. We should also encourage developers to start ramping down the amount of parking they provide.  And take measures to encourage people to use shared services (e.g. uber pool, lyft line) instead of single-person-per-car ones.

[samsonh]

It will also be interesting to see how older developments incorporate electric charging stations. This will be a big deal in the early 2020's

[MidTenn1]

Mayor Barry has just confessed to having an affair with her police bodyguard. Aside from her personal life, I wonder if the news will have any impact on her support for the transit plan. Channel five is taking the lead in the investigation.

I don't think we need a separate thread to discuss this.

[FrankNash]

No

[Guest]

Wow! I could care less about her having an affair. However, the fact that it was with a subordinate and she traveled with her paramour to the tune of 33K in taxpayer funds is problematic!

[fishsticks176]

1 hour ago, nashville_bound said:

Wow! I could care less about her having an affair. However, the fact that it was with a subordinate and she traveled with her paramour to the tune of 33K in taxpayer funds is problematic!

Her public statement claimed that all travel and overtime was business related and that the books corroborate that. 

[BnaBreaker]

I'm confused... why would the mayor having marital issues be cause for resignation?  It's unfortunate, but hardly an indication that she isn't up to the task of mayor.  To be honest, I've got to imagine that losing a child at such a young age has got to reek havoc on a relationship.  

[titanhog]

A lot depends on whether or not city funds were used in an inappropriate manner....and whether or not he got the position and extra-payment due to their affair...or if it was something that just happened after he had been hired.

AND...if you reversed the situation and it was a male mayor having an affair with someone hired by the city to work for him, how would it play out?

Edited February 1, 2018 by titanhog

[Flatrock]

Mayor Barry was an HR executive in her previous professional life.  She knows better than most the legal ramifications of having an affair with a subordinate and the commiserate exposure. Bad judgement. For the record, I like her. Also for the record, I think she's in trouble.

[LA_TN]

I just want a leader I can be proud of

[Guest]

The affair began shortly after she was elected ...well before her son's death. 

Again, if this was a male mayor having an affair with a subordinate the unequal power dynamic would require a resignation. The next logical question is did any of the illicit acts occur during taxpayer funded travel to romantic locales (Paris, Greece, etc...)...and there is this beauty -

"While several of the trips included other members of the mayor's office, nine of the trips were with only Barry and Forrest, including a trip to Greece in September. " ha 

https://globalnews.ca/news/2762262/london-ont-mayor-taking-leave-following-affair-with-deputy-mayor/

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/2017/10/27/florida-legislator-resigns-after-affair-lobbyist/808703001/

http://wreg.com/2013/03/04/oakland-mayor-scott-ferguson-resigns-over-affair/

http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/01/detroit_mayors_aide_resigns_am.html

 

39 minutes ago, BnaBreaker said:

I'm confused... why would the mayor having marital issues be cause for resignation?  It's unfortunate, but hardly an indication that she isn't up to the task of mayor.  To be honest, I've got to imagine that losing a child at such a young age has got to reek havoc on a relationship.  

 

[titanhog]

35 minutes ago, LA_TN said:

I just want a leader I can be proud of

Not sure those exist much anymore. 

[Buildtall]

To many people spend to much time worrying about whom someone else is sleeping with when they should just worry about themselves. That’s not intended towards anyone on here. It’s just how I feel about that type of subject in general. I think she is doing a great job, but of course the media will try to make her look evil.

 

[Guest]

^^ I do not disagree...she could have slept with her butcher, her doctor, her air stylist...who cares? Unless, it is a subordinate and they take taxpayer funded romantic honeymoons. The optics are extremely bad and her judgement is suspect...

[titanhog]

16 minutes ago, Buildtall said:

To many people spend to much time worrying about whom someone else is sleeping with when they should just worry about themselves. That’s not intended towards anyone on here. It’s just how I feel about that type of subject in general. I think she is doing a great job, but of course the media will try to make her look evil.

 

The difference is WHO she is sleeping with.  It's like when Bobby Petrino got caught with a girl on his motorcycle when coaching Arkansas.  He ended up getting fired...not because he was having an affair...but because he was having an affair with a girl he had hired to work in the athletic department (chose her out of over 200 people who tried to get the job)...and he gave her $20k to get a car.

Not saying the mayor did anything inappropriate other than cheat on her husband...but the fact that the guy worked for her is a VERY risky proposition in government or any business.

[Pdt2f]

While this embarasses and disappoints me as a Nashvillian, it shouldn’t affect the transit referendum, as it’s a completely separate affair (no pun intended). Whether it will affect it remains to be seen. I know it just became much easier for transit foes to engage in negative campaigning, ad hominem they may be. They’ll definitely run with lines like “philandering mayor uses as much financial restraint on her transit plan as she did while traipsing all over the world with her lover,” or others like it. 

[TheRaglander]

Question is, can she continue to do her job for the citizens of Nashville without her remaining tenure be a distraction?  Residents rely on her to get things passed.  Transit, affordable housing, things like Amazon...  IMO It’s a bit of a black eye on someone’s character.  I guess we will see how it plays out.  My crystal ball sees her resigning with her speech including “unfortunately my past decision is a distraction to Nashville and it’s citizens”.  

[Pdt2f]

By the way, giving the speech without a podium was brilliant. Makes her look very vulnerable and alone. 

[nashwatcher]

I really hope she doesn't resign and is able to keep fighting for Nashville's future. She seems like she really cares and wants to get progress accomplished...which isn't always the case...

 

[e-dub]

7 hours ago, Pdt2f said:

By the way, giving the speech without a podium was brilliant. Makes her look very vulnerable and alone. 

i was taken aback at that when i watched the coverage yesterday, it was very close to 7 and no podium on the stage. heavy stuff.

[Guest]

Total wildcard, but I saw core drilling in the parking lot across from the JW and Cambria Hotels yesterday ....NW corner of Demonbreun and 8th South. I believe it is owned by the Lutheran Church. Any info...?