500 West Trade (14 story apartments on site of former Polk Building)

[Matthew.Brendan]

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

glad to see she's putting up a fight. This building is a bomb shelter of a structure.

[King of the Queen City]

6 minutes ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

glad to see she's putting up a fight. This building is a bomb shelter of a structure.

Didn’t they say it was basically falling apart on its own? Smh.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, King of the Queen City said:

Didn’t they say it was basically falling apart on its own? Smh.

It has sustained extensive water damage since it was last occupied in the early 90s. Basically falling apart... no. The facade was definitely falling off though.

That said... The roof was actually built for people to be able to test drive cars on top of.

Edited March 7, 2019 by Guest

[DMann]

That first picture reminded me of the classic photo of the Nazi Swastika being blown off the Reichstag during the taking of Berlin!

[King of the Queen City]

2 minutes ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

It has sustained extensive water damage since it was last occupied in the early 90s. Basically falling apart... no. The facade was definitely falling off though.

That’s understandable, but the facade wasn’t totally beyond repair was it? I feel like they could have preserved it if they had really wanted to, and using it would have made their apartments more desirable.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, King of the Queen City said:

That’s understandable, but the facade wasn’t totally beyond repair was it? I feel like they could have preserved it if they had really wanted to, and using it would have made their apartments more desirable.

Preaching to the choir. Commercial development is a capitalist enterprise, not enough people willing to get hosed just to preserve a building, unfortunately. 

[SgtCampsalot]

3 minutes ago, King of the Queen City said:

That’s understandable, but the facade wasn’t totally beyond repair was it? I feel like they could have preserved it if they had really wanted to, and using it would have made their apartments more desirable.

There is always a way when there is a will. Charlotte political/business culture is just not there (unless you are David Furman, as I understand it)

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, SgtCampsalot said:

There is always a way when there is a will. Charlotte political/business culture is just not there (unless you are David Furman, as I understand it)

Not so. Theres plenty of people in Charlotte that I think have the will to save this building. Just sort of hard to compete with the owner, Northwood Ravin, who's parent company holds $5.6B worth of assets.

 

Edited March 7, 2019 by Guest

[queensguy06]

On 2/7/2019 at 7:40 AM, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

I know they want to find some way to incorporate some sort of element of the building. At least thats what I was told a year or so ago.

 

3 hours ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

 

 

The cynic in me says the part they are going to incorporate is only that little cut out that had the year of the building on it LOL....I hope it's more than just that.  I really love the brick work right underneath that top section.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, queensguy06 said:

 

 

The cynic in me says the part they are going to incorporate is only that little cut out that had the year of the building on it LOL....I hope it's more than just that.  I really love the brick work right underneath that top section.

Judging by the method in which they are tearing this sucker down, they ain't saving anything of significance, so you are probably correct.

[dubone]

Literally, it is a token gesture. 

Many people I talk to about it don't seem to have any sense that restored vintage structures can look good, especially if their structures are solid, and make cities more interesting.   It's like that feeling you have when someone doesn't buy a house on TV because of the paint color. Most people have no vision.    Yet it is possible to fix bad mortar and replace ugly black windows, and extra magical when you sand off the broken stucco and reveal the solid granite ground level façade that was made to look solid as they solid Buicks during the roaring 1920s.   

 

Nearly all  vintage and historic buildings we have ever seen were  in a state of disrepair once, but the fact we have seen them means that a caretaker at some point updated, maintained and restored it to continue as a reference to life in the city from 2, 3, 4, ... 10 generations before us.   In Europe, many old buildings were literally bombed, and yet live on adding charm and architectural layers to their cities.   

 

Then when you consider the current trend is to build structures of little architectural interest and with the cheapest possible materials, in 30 years we will have far preferred a decaying Polk / Coddington Building than a decaying Northwood Raven stickbox.   Developers in the current era are barely trying to leave an impression at all beyond initial lease-out, let alone how their projects will look in 94 years.      

 

 

There are 2 acres of empty lot on the block.    They could have put the tower next to Wilkes.  They could have built a 20 story tower like they did at Stonewall instead 13.   They could have gutted Polk and had a 5 story concrete structure instead of their stick mid-rise part of the project.  They could have even torn 3/4 of it down or kept enough to be a façade or a concrete foundation for their sticks. 

 

As a result of devaluing the vintage structure as a demo cost, Charlotte will now be less interesting, and they will maybe build a forgettable building that is a  short replica of their forgettable one on Stonewall, and an interesting old building with a story will be in the city landfill like rest of 1925 Charlotte. 

  https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/north-carolina/charlotte/oldest-photos-in-charlotte/

 

...and somewhere among their sticks and plastic stucco will be limestone token that says 1925, and everyone will just assume that's the address.  

RIP Polk / Coddington Building.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/retro-charlotte/article198925174.html

 

 

[SgtCampsalot]

19 minutes ago, dubone said:

Many people I talk to about it don't seem to have any sense that restored vintage structures can look good, especially if their structures are solid, and make cities more interesting.   It's like that feeling you have when someone doesn't buy a house on TV because of the paint color. Most people have no vision.   

It is flabbergasting how often someone will see a unique one-of-a-kind building and assume it is useless because it is in bad shape. Has our culture so stripped people if long-term vision that we can only see what is immediately in front of us? The answer is yes.

[j-man]

TBH I do believe if this was in better shape it would have been beautiful if it got new windows, a fresh pressure wash, converted the space into creative  office space or lofts, with some nicely placed ground floor retail.

This building below in Charleston is older I believe and saved and converted into the Dewberry Hotel, though I hate how it turned out. Just saying it didn't go to waste. 

Edited March 8, 2019 by j-man

[CarolinaDaydreamin]

26 minutes ago, j-man said:

TBH I do believe if this was in better shape it would have been beautiful if it got new windows, a fresh pressure wash, converted the space into creative  office space or lofts, with some nicely placed ground floor retail.

This building below in Charleston is older I believe and saved and converted into the Dewberry Hotel, though I hate how it turned out. Just saying it didn't go to waste. 

Well its a pretty freaking great hotel inside, so I don't really know how you can dislike how it turned out.

[j-man]

56 minutes ago, CarolinaDaydreamin said:

Well its a pretty freaking great hotel inside, so I don't really know how you can dislike how it turned out.

The inside and addition is great, but  I'm more so talking about the outside. It looks as if they just put a very light coat of white pain on it and not really cover the brick to where you would think .

[navigator319]

[Nick2]

8 hours ago, j-man said:

The inside and addition is great, but  I'm more so talking about the outside. It looks as if they just put a very light coat of white pain on it and not really cover the brick to where you would think .

You and your white painted brick. SMH 

[SgtCampsalot]

Did the Polk building have asbestos... and if so, was it already removed in the past? 

[KJHburg]

at least in some cities like San Antonio facade saves happen.   This building would have NEVER come down in San Antonio.   Check this facade save of the Texas theater with modern office building behind it.  San Antonio maybe lacking in modern high rises compared to Charlotte but not in historical buildings and sense of place. 

[Dale]

Hopefully, Charlotte is building a sense of place.

[JoshuaDrown]

There are plenty of time when I am proud of Charlotte... then there are times when I am not. Like yesterday. 

[NCMike1990]

Drone footage of the Polk building coming down. Truly wish this building could have been saved.

Source

[navigator319]

[SgtCampsalot]

I fear unless we have a grassroots effort to force Levine's hand, ^this will eventually be the red Treolar house in First Ward.