NASCAR Hall of Fame

[eastsider]

Ralph Appelbaum & Associates was selected to design the exhibit space.

http://www.raany.com/

[peaceloveunderstanding]

Ralph Appelbaum & Associates was selected to design the exhibit space.

http://www.raany.com/

That looks great. They certainly have an accomplished portfolio.

[eastsider]

According to the Channel 9 news tonight, the old ABC Building is set to be demolish in late October or early November.

[eastsider]

Looks like a fence is supposed to be put up around the site today and then demolishion of the Risk Management Building will begin. The demolishion should take a week to complete.

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/stories/wcn...l.71787a9e.html

[revitalize]

Looks like a fence is supposed to be put up around the site today and then demolishion of the Risk Management Building will begin. The demolishion should take a week to complete.

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/stories/wcn...l.71787a9e.html

Yep, well, that building's pretty much leveled right now. Drove by this morning, had to double take!!!

[atlrvr]

NASCAR is requesting the option to ground-lease the site for an office tower until December 12th, with the intent of completing the negoatiations before then.....looks like it is going to happen.

[uptownliving]

Grrr, this is the 3rd time this deadline has been extended. I wonder what the holdup is. From the meeting agenda it looks like the architects will also be there to update council members on the design.

[uptownliving]

I went to the City Council meeting tonight to get the update on the NASCAR HoF. The project is still in the conceptual design phase and will move to design schematics later this year. Here are some notes from the meeting.

The Architect Yvonne Szeto was there to give a presentation. It was really interesting to hear a short asian woman talking about the excitement of NASCAR races and how it will be incorporated into the building.

The overall design of the building is the same as the renderings we have seen previously. There will be a NASCAR Grill along the Brevard St side of the HoF, open to the general public. Also with a Brevard St entrance will be the NASCAR Gift Shop.

Along 2nd St (soon to be Martin Luther King Drive) will be the main entrance to the muesem as well as broadcast studios for NASCAR as well as a large jumbotron that will show what is being filmed in the studio.

Along Caldwell St will be the entrance to a 250 seat hi-def theatre. This will be used to show an intro film to the hall, as well as show the races on Sundays. On Caldwell will also be the main entrance to the 2,500 seat Grand Ballroom. And of course there will also be the main entrance to the now 19 story (almost 300ft tall) NASCAR Office Tower.

Along Stonewall St will be the Speed Channel TV studios which they are looking at having windows along the street into the tv studios.

Except up near the front of the building, Brevard St is going to basically be dead from a pedestrian perspective. They are planning on doing fake storefront windows along Brevard filled with racing photos.

There will be a 840 space underground parking deck below the Hall of Fame. 440 spaces will be dedicated for the Office Tower, the remainder will be open to the public. However after 6pm all 840 spaces will be open to the public.

They are looking at adding a 20,000 sq ft basement level to the HoF for future exibit space expansion. Current plans call for 40,000 sq ft of exibit space on 2 levels, plus the 250 seat theatre, plus the grand hall with the banking "glory road".

The pedestrian bridge across Brevard St connecting the Hall of Fame with the Convention Center will be 2 stories tall. Lower level will be for back of house opertations, and the upper level will be for the general public.

The Office tower will be built on a 0.5 acre site, be 19 stories tall and have about 400,000 sq ft of rentable space. NASCAR has commited to lease at least 85,000 sq ft of that space for their offices. Lauth Property Group is developing the Office Tower and they have some other companies lined up for most of the building that NASCAR is not leasing. They don't want to release those names just yet.

Some dumb comments from the meeting:

-Susan Burgess wants a crown on top of the NASCAR Office Tower.

-Susan Burgess interpreted the architects comments that the Hall of Fame will act as a "sancturary" for the sport...to mean that there will be an actual church in the building. Which of course is not the case.

-Susan Burgess wanted to know if the 250 seat theatre will be available for "itimate dramatic performances." Evidently Susan is under the impression that Spirit Square is going to be torn down (again, not the case) and wants to know if the NASCAR Hall of Fame could act as a replacement for Spirit Square. I was sitting next to Michael Smith and he was just shaking his head and whispering that there are absoulutely no plans to tear down, or shut down Spirit Square.

[Norm2]

I have met Susan Burgess in person before.....she is definately not the brightest crayon in the box.....but she does try her best.

[uptownliving]

Yeah, she is nice, but her constant stupidity really gets on my nerves.

[dubone]

I went to the City Council meeting tonight to get the update on the NASCAR HoF. The project is still in the conceptual design phase and will move to design schematics later this year. Here are some notes from the meeting.

The Architect Yvonne Szeto was there to give a presentation. It was really interesting to hear a short asian woman talking about the excitement of NASCAR races and how it will be incorporated into the building.

The overall design of the building is the same as the renderings we have seen previously. There will be a NASCAR Grill along the Brevard St side of the HoF, open to the general public. Also with a Brevard St entrance will be the NASCAR Gift Shop.

Along 2nd St (soon to be Martin Luther King Drive) will be the main entrance to the muesem as well as broadcast studios for NASCAR as well as a large jumbotron that will show what is being filmed in the studio.

Along Caldwell St will be the entrance to a 250 seat hi-def theatre. This will be used to show an intro film to the hall, as well as show the races on Sundays. On Caldwell will also be the main entrance to the 2,500 seat Grand Ballroom. And of course there will also be the main entrance to the now 19 story (almost 300ft tall) NASCAR Office Tower.

Along Stonewall St will be the Speed Channel TV studios which they are looking at having windows along the street into the tv studios.

Except up near the front of the building, Brevard St is going to basically be dead from a pedestrian perspective. They are planning on doing fake storefront windows along Brevard filled with racing photos.

There will be a 840 space underground parking deck below the Hall of Fame. 440 spaces will be dedicated for the Office Tower, the remainder will be open to the public. However after 6pm all 840 spaces will be open to the public.

They are looking at adding a 20,000 sq ft basement level to the HoF for future exibit space expansion. Current plans call for 40,000 sq ft of exibit space on 2 levels, plus the 250 seat theatre, plus the grand hall with the banking "glory road".

The pedestrian bridge across Brevard St connecting the Hall of Fame with the Convention Center will be 2 stories tall. Lower level will be for back of house opertations, and the upper level will be for the general public.

The Office tower will be built on a 0.5 acre site, be 19 stories tall and have about 400,000 sq ft of rentable space. NASCAR has commited to lease at least 85,000 sq ft of that space for their offices. Lauth Property Group is developing the Office Tower and they have some other companies lined up for most of the building that NASCAR is not leasing. They don't want to release those names just yet.

Some dumb comments from the meeting:

-Susan Burgess wants a crown on top of the NASCAR Office Tower.

-Susan Burgess interpreted the architects comments that the Hall of Fame will act as a "sancturary" for the sport...to mean that there will be an actual church in the building. Which of course is not the case.

-Susan Burgess wanted to know if the 250 seat theatre will be available for "itimate dramatic performances." Evidently Susan is under the impression that Spirit Square is going to be torn down (again, not the case) and wants to know if the NASCAR Hall of Fame could act as a replacement for Spirit Square. I was sitting next to Michael Smith and he was just shaking his head and whispering that there are absoulutely no plans to tear down, or shut down Spirit Square.

Thank you for such detailed notes. I had some time last night to watch, but the city's new website made it seem like there was no meeting until next week. Hmmm.

I am pretty annoyed that they are building an underground deck, yet they haven't replaced the skywalk with a tunnel. I also can't believe that they are still talking in terms of "front". Why should urban buildings have a front, and then need to use fake windows to try to avoid like they forgot that side. The 5th Street side of Founder's Hall/Blumenthal uses this and it definitely feels like a dead wall, and the same goes for the Brevard St section of the Convention Center. It is terrible that the community has been involved in trying to make Brevard a new signature street, yet the architects are blantantly ignoring the street. Nascar Grill is more than nothing, but it is not enough. Why not actual windows, or why not built-in kiosks for micro-retailers, or why not actual retail spaces?

Susan Burgess is really starting to get annoying with her false perceptions after getting a factual presentation. I'm not sure if it is a listening problem or a cognitive problem, but it makes sense that Michael Smith would be confounded.

For the positive side, I'm glad they are "fronting" Martin Luther King Boulestreet. It is good symbolism, just as Smudgy wanted. I also really like the idea of having so much studio space looking out over Charlotte streets, even if they are broadcasts I will never see. I'm glad the office tower is still a go, which keeps the Stonewall side and the southern part of the Caldwell side from being the back of the building. 19 stories on a half acre will be a good shape, especially that it will be taller than the Garden Inn.

Lastly, the 840 public spaces in the evenings will be a great boost to the plans for Brevard. It will support any retail that goes in the new Brevard district, and also help support pedestrian activity on Brevard for any arena-goers that park there. It also keeps the parking supply on the same block as the hall, rather than causing the area to be saturated with parking facilities to serve the Hall of Fame.

[uptownliving]

There will be a Public Meeting on the NASCAR Hall of Fame December 5th at the Convention Center. They are having the meeting to get people's feedback on the design of the center. More details on the meeting such as time and the exact room will be released at a later date.

I was disappointed to hear about the fake window storefronts on the Brevard St side too...but if retail is going to work there in the near future I think it is going to have to be rent free for a while until Brevard gets totally built out and has a constant stream of pedestrian traffic.

[monsoon]

This new rendering is on the front page of the printed observer today. I think we have been again fooled by the earlier technicolor renderings and this new building looks a lot more generic and the building looks like it deserves to be in a suburban office park out on Tyvola road. I guess it was too much to be hoped for that we might get some interesting architecture out of it given the large amount of public money being thrown at the project. This will be a building they will be tearing down in 30 years because nobody cares about it.

[uptownliving]

I am really confused about your comments as the latest rendering posted on the front page of the Observer's Local section is hardly different at all from the previous renderings we have seen before.

The main difference is a taller tower. The shape of the Hall of Fame is the same and the signature metal "swoop" is still the same.

What in your view has changed so much about this building that you no longer like it?

[monsoon]

I think it is a lot different. Its a matter of opinion, but nobody is going to be writing about this museum as they are writing about the new downtown museum in Denver.

[uptownliving]

Here is the old rendering:

Here is the new rendering:

[swh1972]

Not specifically about the NASCAR HOF, but about NASCAR in general...

ESPN ran a spot this past Sunday on "Outside the Lines" about Toyota joining the sport for next season. Toyota will be the first non-American auto maker to participate in the sport. Interestingly enough, the Toyota Camry is the only car in NASCAR that will actually be assembled in the United States. Not surprisingly, there were quite a few fans that voiced disapproval for this "un-American" move.

I think that the sport is trying to broaden its appeal outside of its historic fanbase, and I think this will be good also for Charlotte.

[monsoon]

Thankyou for posting the scan.

All of a sudden the museum looks like an AMC Movie Theatre at a suburban mall with a cerial box tower stuck on top of it. Its a good bit different, and I would not be surprised if we don't see either cinderblocks or EFIS as the final coating.

[turbocraig]

Why did they get rid of the "cut-outs" in the silver swoop? That simple element added a lot to the overall design. I don't always agree with metro on a lot of issues, but I tend to think he's right on this one. That bigger tower really overpowers the delicate intricacy of the museum itself. And the smaller, less dramatic swoop looks almost like an afterthought in the latest rendering.

[uptownliving]

Well I would strongly urge everyone to share your opinions at the public meeting on December 5th. If you don't like the way your tax dollars are being spent, then now is the time to speak up and let them know.

[uptownliving]

Honestly, with the escaltion of the cost of construction matierals I was scared they were going to do away with the metal swoop entirely. So I was glad to see it is still there.

This building looks a lot better in 3D than in a 2D image in a newspaper. They had 3D models at the council meeting and I am sure those same 3D models will be at the meeting in December.

[cinco]

yeah, i have to agree with those who are underimpressed with the newer rendering. they are starting to whitewash it... doing away with the subtle embelishments really hinders the "excitement" factor (which kinda makes me question the original design). what is really killing me in these renderings - is the office tower. this drawing is just for massing purposes, right? i surely hope so... cause as it stands, the tower is sucking the life out of the hall of fame building.

* i'm cinco, and i approve this post.

(paid for by the greater charlotte dreamcatcher society)

[cltheel.sdl]

The original rendering is definitely more impressive. The office tower also looks like a concrete block of lameness, similar to the Duke Energy building. They also need to extend the metal loop around the building like they originally had it.

Disappointing.

[uptownliving]

The metal loop still does go entirely around the building, you just can't see it from the angle of the new rendering.

I'll see if I can get some of the other pictures they showed at the meeting last night that clearly show this.

[rockhilljames]

Actually you can still see it even in this rendering. Look closely at the ped walkway, you can see the swoop still there. I agree, this angle isn't the best, but the changes aren't that dramatic. It looks like they reduced the size of the swoop...I'm not crazy about that.

I would like to see more thought be put into the Tower design. However, to those that think that there's going to be a blank concrete wall on the other side, remember that other renderings showed the tower as being the same glass construction on the other side, just flipped.