First Ward Urban Village / North Tryon Vision Plan

[Cityplanner]

1 hour ago, SouthEndCLT811 said:

My house was built in 1950 fwiw.  This reminds me of a funny article I saw in a lifestyle paper in London one time where they featured a travel to New Orleans segment.  They raved about going to see the "100 year old buildings that American's think are old".  I guess when buildings stick around for as long as they do in other countries it may seem funny anything under 100 we're considering old and even in some cases, needing torn down.

Cool, I totally respect that and you.

Charlotte has plenty of 75+ year old houses. I live in a relatively new (1990s) building and so I certainly couldn’t say that people ought to live in old construction since I am not willing to.

[Windsurfer]

1 hour ago, Cityplanner said:

Cool, I totally respect that and you.

Charlotte has plenty of 75+ year old houses. I live in a relatively new (1990s) building and so I certainly couldn’t say that people ought to live in old construction since I am not willing to.

Time flies. My, now deceased dad born in 1925, used to say, "What's the big deal about such and such building!?"  He'd add, "Hell, I guess I'm historical too.".   Anyway, before you know it, another 100 years will pass and those places that are only 75 years old now will become 175 years old.  Isn't the idea to save some for future generations?

[Desert Power]

18 hours ago, JRNYP2C said:

This is the one thing that makes me nervous though in all seriousness.  Take a look at Plaza Midwood and see what is being built there.  The charm and funkiness of that area is slowly being discarded for stick built apartment buildings.  Just like NoDA.  I remember North Davidson at 36th street when it was nothing but one story art houses and funky people.  There was a grit to it that is long gone.  My fear is that these parts of the city that have an old school charm and edge to them are slowly being take apart for blandness.

Just my rambling two cents for the day!

What is the alternative though? People want to live in Noda and Plaza Midwood and the homes there are being bid up a huge amount as a result. If apartments weren't being built there, prices would be even crazier. You aren't getting grit and funk when you have to be able to afford a million dollar house to live somewhere.

[Guest]

I figured since the project is now separate from the Spirit Square development and the conversation has been so lively it should have it's own Topic 

[atlrvr]

Sorry....I agree @MothBeast

I tried to merge but went wrong direction.

[49er]

Mecklenburg  has a relatively small proportion of pre 1950 housing stock, almost 5% of the over 400,000 housing units. It's actually quite rare to live in something built before 1950. Anyway, I still believe preservation of this building is quite important and that it should be repurposed and not destroyed.  

 

Total housing units    454,104    +/-770    454,104

Built 1940 to 1949    9,344    +/-1,504    2.1%    +/-0.3
Built 1939 or earlier    11,551    +/-1,447    2.5%    +/-0.3

[KJHburg]

1 minute ago, 49er said:

Mecklenburg  has a relatively small proportion of pre 1950 housing stock, almost 5% of the over 400,000 housing units. It's actually quite rare to live in something built before 1950. Anyway, I still believe preservation of this building is quite important and that it should be repurposed and not destroyed.  

 

Total housing units    454,104    +/-770    454,104

Built 1940 to 1949    9,344    +/-1,504    2.1%    +/-0.3
Built 1939 or earlier    11,551    +/-1,447    2.5%    +/-0.3

thanks for posting this I knew this and I have read it many times.  Our housing stock is very young compared to much of the nation. 

[videtur quam contuor]

I lived many years in an old Dilworth house from 1905-1910. It was charming, (as all my visitors said). There was NOTHING in that house one could replace from the home center. The crawlspace was an example of the development of plumbing over the centuries: Cast iron and oakum, galvanized, steel (for gas), copper, pvc and likely others. Issues with incompatible metals at joints was an education for me.  Electric wires and phone wires were higgledy-piggledy down there. An electrician was needed to know what went where. When I moved in it was 60 amp service so the christmas tree, the hair dryer, the television; pick two.  The main power switch inside was like this, a knife switch :

It looks like the executioner's switch.

Adventures in Adaptive Living. Recommended for only the young and flexible (and poor).

Edit ten minutes later:  After a few decades we saw what another generation was doing to their houses. It came to us that there were those who wished to adapt the house to their life, their wishes, their style and needs. We, however, had learned (been forced?) to adapt ourselves to the house.

Edited August 5, 2020 by tarhoosier

[carolina1792]

On 8/3/2020 at 6:26 PM, KJHburg said:

buildings from the 1920s in uptown Charlotte STILL STANDING THANK THE LORD  Latta Arcade, Johnston Bldg,,  Tryon Plaza  all on south Tryon.  Dunhill Hotel and the Montaldos Foundation of the Carolinas Building and Hall House Barringer Hotel all on N Tryon.  that is it and maybe that building on West trade on the Presbyterian owned block.  If I forgot one sorry just back from a house built in 1895 that is enormous. 

downtown Raleigh has a building from the 1880s and as many of older high rises as we have yet the city was no where near as big as the QC in the first half of the 1900s. 

we have LOTS of vacant county owned land 2 blocks right north of the Hall House and lots of county owned land near Marshall Park.    Not to mention the blocks after blocks of Levine land.  Hey Mr Levine since your development has been stalled why not donate some of your land for this nearer the 1st ward park for this Inlivian CHA project.  You have PLENTY OF IT and it would be great GOOD will to the city that has been overly patient with you and your projects.  Mr Levine I am asking you to step up.  Maybe your new DC area partner could redevelop the hotel. 

Forgot the Iveys building also on N Tryon.  so as you can see we don't have many left.  

Actually, Raleigh has the Joel Lane House in downtown near the Union Station, built in 1769 and now a cute museum!  Just imagine what cultural hot spot Charlotte would have had if they kept just one tiny road lined with 1800/1700's buildings. 

 

[markeckert]

I live in Tryon House which was built in 1918. I love this place haha. But yeah there is some whacky stuff going on electrically in the basement. I had an AT&T guy come in and say hooking up the internet to the cable that was available in my apt would be a “fire hazard.” Hahaha. Went with spectrum which had an updated system in here. But damn - yeah the pipes are so messed up, the heating is hilarious, but man - I love this place haha.  I lived in NYC before this so I’m used to old crummy buildings. You can make them awesome / 100x as cool to live in than the new builds if your landlord is laid back (which they are here.)
 

here’s a little snippet of one of my rooms in my apt
 

[cityman4u]

2 hours ago, markeckert said:

I live in Tryon House which was built in 1918. I love this place haha. But yeah there is some whacky stuff going on electrically in the basement. I had an AT&T guy come in and say hooking up the internet to the cable that was available in my apt would be a “fire hazard.” Hahaha. Went with spectrum which had an updated system in here. But damn - yeah the pipes are so messed up, the heating is hilarious, but man - I love this place haha.  I lived in NYC before this so I’m used to old crummy buildings. You can make them awesome / 100x as cool to live in than the new builds if your landlord is laid back (which they are here.)
 

here’s a little snippet of one of my rooms in my apt
 

This is awesome! I lived in 215 & 215.5. My bedroom was addressed as 215 1/2. I have wondered for longest time what it still looks like inside. I am enamored that you enjoy it just as much as I did. This is truly a treasure in Uptown. Fondest memories are of the radiators doing their banging first of the fall season. I hated the 7th Street parking deck 'going off' every hour...all through the night. 

[CLT>]

On 8/4/2020 at 10:03 PM, Cityplanner said:

How many people in this thread who want to keep old buildings uptown actually live in old buildings?

I have lived in buildings built in the 1800s and buildings built as late as the late 1990s.

As much as I like historic architecture, I have zero interest in living in a 1920s building again, with 1920s technology.

I lived in a 1920's building for 5 years in NYC and it was great. If my neighbor below or above had 20 people at a dance party I couldn't hear a thing. In the winter the heating system was better than anything I have in my current home and the hot water was hot and  the cold water was ice cold. Even the elevator had more reliable service than more modern ones.

Lived in a 1903 home in Alabama that was incredible but the 18' ceilings made it a pain to cool in the summer, and a 1947 high rise apartment building in Birmingham. 

I would move back to any of these properties if they existed in Charlotte. Now I live in a 1990s building that was extremely well built and enjoy it as well.

I'm sure if the Hall House was apartments or a hotel people would be lining up to stay/live there if it's well renovated. I don't think anyone is suggesting folks move in tomorrow.

All buildings need their services updated as they age, and our default to tear it down and start over is completely unsustainable. If the bones are good we should keep renovating and updating buildings and build them that way in the first place. 

 

[markeckert]

20 hours ago, cityman4u said:

This is awesome! I lived in 215 & 215.5. My bedroom was addressed as 215 1/2. I have wondered for longest time what it still looks like inside. I am enamored that you enjoy it just as much as I did. This is truly a treasure in Uptown. Fondest memories are of the radiators doing their banging first of the fall season. I hated the 7th Street parking deck 'going off' every hour...all through the night. 

Haha no way! I’m in 220. Used to live in 218! And yeah, the radiators banging in and out of the seasons will forever be a nostalgic noise for me.

[videtur quam contuor]

As I said before in regard to my own older home, there are those who are satisfied to adapt themselves to an older standard, mold their life to fit where others have lived generations before. Those who find the new within themselves. And there are those who believe the answer is to adapt the building to themselves and their life, to make new and modern, though it will be new and modern once and no more.

Hats off to those who abide by the past in their life.

[KJHburg]

Save the Hall House one of the few remaining buildings uptown from 1940 or before.  Here you go the back and sides.  All brick a complete rarity in uptown Charlotte.  #SaveHallHouse from a low rise stick built apartment that will not stand the test of time.   Affordable Housing Yes but not place of a structure that can be saved. 

 

[Cityplanner]

5 hours ago, tarhoosier said:

As I said before in regard to my own older home, there are those who are satisfied to adapt themselves to an older standard, mold their life to fit where others have lived generations before. Those who find the new within themselves. And there are those who believe the answer is to adapt the building to themselves and their life, to make new and modern, though it will be new and modern once and no more.

Hats off to those who abide by the past in their life.

I've lived in 1800s/1920s buildings.  Never again if they don't have central air conditioning.  I didn't see myself as admirable for living in them, but thanks for the support for those who do.

Here's what I'd love to see more of these days: traditional-looking buildings with modern technology: "New Classical" architecture.  Some examples:

Poundbury, England

Brandevoort, The Netherlands

Jarikborg, Sweden

Beautiful (certainly more beautiful than Hall House), and with modern comforts.

[JRNYP2C]

On 8/5/2020 at 12:19 PM, Desert Power said:

What is the alternative though? People want to live in Noda and Plaza Midwood and the homes there are being bid up a huge amount as a result. If apartments weren't being built there, prices would be even crazier. You aren't getting grit and funk when you have to be able to afford a million dollar house to live somewhere.

That's where I'm torn.  I wish there was an easy way to figure out how to mesh the two together.  

[ertley]

On 8/8/2020 at 3:01 PM, KJHburg said:

Save the Hall House one of the few remaining buildings uptown from 1940 or before.  Here you go the back and sides.  All brick a complete rarity in uptown Charlotte.  #SaveHallHouse from a low rise stick built apartment that will not stand the test of time.   Affordable Housing Yes but not place of a structure that can be saved. 

 

I don't know if it would make any kind of difference--and it certainly wouldn't be a factor in the present battle to defeat Inlivin's incompetency--but I would totally be willing to let any redeveloper of Hall House tear down the back half, which was a several decades later addition, if that would help improve the odds of preserving the original structure. I'm no structural engineer or architect, but I would think that possibly eliminating that back half, with modern construction in its place (heck, even potentially taller than the Hall House structure), could even make the renovation of the remaining part less onerous, because there would simply be less old space to deal with, and would provide more flexibility in terms of providing (new) space for amenities and features that would be difficult, too costly or physically impossible in the old structure. 

[InSouthPark]

Any change the Levine deck just imploded from the earthquake? 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, ertley said:

I don't know if it would make any kind of difference--and it certainly wouldn't be a factor in the present battle to defeat Inlivin's incompetency--but I would totally be willing to let any redeveloper of Hall House tear down the back half, which was a several decades later addition, if that would help improve the odds of preserving the original structure. I'm no structural engineer or architect, but I would think that possibly eliminating that back half, with modern construction in its place (heck, even potentially taller than the Hall House structure), could even make the renovation of the remaining part less onerous, because there would simply be less old space to deal with, and would provide more flexibility in terms of providing (new) space for amenities and features that would be difficult, too costly or physically impossible in the old structure. 

I would think detaching the addition would be more expensive/problematic.

[Desert Power]

On 8/9/2020 at 12:01 PM, JRNYP2C said:

That's where I'm torn.  I wish there was an easy way to figure out how to mesh the two together.  

I like infill of townhomes, duplexes, and smaller condo developments as a cheaper ownership or rental option than luxury apartments. Not as desne though

[KJHburg]

SaveTheHallHouse and rolling grasslands of Levine's First Ward land holdings.  We could raise food crops for homeless and those in need on this prime land if it is going to be left unused for decades.

1. at least UNCC has a completed building. 2. 3. 4. rolling grasslands 

5. Hall House would be a great hotel again.  

 

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

2, 3, & 4 = So. Much. Potential. 

[wadesboro2]

SaveTheHallHouse and rolling grasslands of Levine's First Ward land holdings.  We could raise food crops for homeless and those in need on this prime land if it is going to be left unused for decades.
1. at least UNCC has a completed building. 2. 3. 4. rolling grasslands 
5. Hall House would be a great hotel again.  
 

A “feed the homeless” community garden would actually be an amazing use of that lot! I could see that idea gaining momentum on social media like Queens Park. And unlike that it doesn’t require any meaningful public funds, just a temporary license agreement with Levine.


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[KJHburg]

18 minutes ago, wadesboro2 said:

A “feed the homeless” community garden would actually be an amazing use of that lot! I could see that idea gaining momentum on social media like Queens Park. And unlike that it doesn’t require any meaningful public funds, just a temporary license agreement with Levine.


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I have said it for years as it looks likely much of this land will be vacant again next year.  Probably too late for this year but Levine should allow each growing season people to grow food on these lots.  It is the biggest waste of land in all of Charlotte.