Norfolk Pictures

[mintscraft56]

1 hour ago, BFG said:

I think I realize what bugs me about our downtown: the inconsistency of building heights. You have your cluster of taller (by Hampton Roads standards) buildings along Waterside Drive. Basically the "new downtown" that went up in the last 50 or so years. Then between Plume and Brambleton, it's a sea of low-rise buildings, and then the Wells Fargo tower that sticks out like a sore thumb. I won't say MacArthur is a waste of space, but that picture makes me wish we could go back 30 years and develop that land into a mixed-use development.

A few towers on the MacArthur site could break up the low density, but downtown looks odd from that angle.

It looks incomplete. While MacArthur wasent bad back then when it was good business, Id say its now a eye sore for such a low rise to be in our Downtown District. It was good until the fall of brick and mortar malls. I hope they go with plan three and demolish the mall and reconnect Norfolk's  Street Grid like it was back in the 40s .  Wells Fargo tower on the other hand is great imo. It shows that Towers could be built all the way away from water side. But im not kidding when I say the the Failed granby tower site better go. I hate it with all my heart, mind, and soul. I heard people want to "Protect it" as if its some type of historic site. Its litterly useless not only to Downtown but also wasting good high-rise development spots

I also just noticed how much of Neon district is just parking spots....That makes me sad.

Edited October 20, 2021 by mintscraft56

[BeagleAccountant]

13 hours ago, mintscraft56 said:

I saw this picture taken by Wavy 10's Chopper very recently and I am happy to see how much Norfolk has rebounded since the 50s like this. I see that massive patch of grass in this photo near the court house and it always makes me mad at it. I hate that patch. Overall nice picture by wavy 10 news. 

I'd love to see that patch developed or turned into a park. But that lot is owned by the federal government and I doubt anything happens with it as long as the courthouse is there.

[EJ_LEWIS]

11 hours ago, mintscraft56 said:

It looks incomplete. While MacArthur wasent bad back then when it was good business, Id say its now a eye sore for such a low rise to be in our Downtown District. It was good until the fall of brick and mortar malls. I hope they go with plan three and demolish the mall and reconnect Norfolk's  Street Grid like it was back in the 40s .  Wells Fargo tower on the other hand is great imo. It shows that Towers could be built all the way away from water side. But im not kidding when I say the the Failed granby tower site better go. I hate it with all my heart, mind, and soul. I heard people want to "Protect it" as if its some type of historic site. Its litterly useless not only to Downtown but also wasting good high-rise development spots

I also just noticed how much of Neon district is just parking spots....That makes me sad.

I think the future of high rises for Norfolk is Fort Norfolk.  Somewhere I saw a news story about adding another 20 + story building next to River Tower.  The idea is to add new towers to the Waterfront from Fort Norfolk to Harbor Park.  

[carolinaboy]

14 hours ago, mintscraft56 said:

I saw this picture taken by Wavy 10's Chopper very recently and I am happy to see how much Norfolk has rebounded since the 50s like this. I see that massive patch of grass in this photo near the court house and it always makes me mad at it. I hate that patch. Overall nice picture by wavy 10 news. 

Imagine this shot with Granby Tower, Gateway Tower and a snyder lot tower.

[mintscraft56]

On 10/20/2021 at 9:04 AM, BeagleAccountant said:

I'd love to see that patch developed or turned into a park. But that lot is owned by the federal government and I doubt anything happens with it as long as the courthouse is there.

I dont understand why the fed need a patch of field. I certainly dont see them using it for their recess play time between each case.  

[mintscraft56]

I took this from the car. In this photo you can see the dreaded field along with the Court House and the under-noticed Wells Fargo Tower in the center.  

[urbanlife]

This is just some dreaming of what could happen, but what the city should do is offer a land swap. The Feds should get the whole site that the Education Admissions Building in on, knock down the building and redevelop the site to match present day security needs for the Federal Courthouse. Then the city would get the old courthouse and Granby lot to have control over to redevelop. The old courthouse could be renovated as a base with a tower coming out of the center of the building. The Granby lot could then be sold to a developer to develop a present day version of a Granby tower (or realistically two towers cause that is freaking huge lot.) In the end, that would probably be three new towers for the city, a filling a weird looking field in downtown, and tear down a city building that should have been torn down 20 years ago.

Edited October 22, 2021 by urbanlife

[BFG]

Took the drone out near Harbor Park and got a few pictures of downtown.

[mintscraft56]

On 1/31/2022 at 4:19 PM, BFG said:

Took the drone out near Harbor Park and got a few pictures of downtown.

Im getting a drone soon. Depending when they come back in stock... Any ways do they allow drone flight over the Downtown district or is it only around it? Because Iv only ever seen drone pics really more or less on the edges of Downtown.

Nice pics btw.

 

[BFG]

Thank you!

And yeah downtown is very tricky. You can’t be within a certain distance of the base or airport. In some portions of the city you can go up to 100 feet, which was how high they let me fly yesterday. 

[metalman]

I flew into ORF today and took some pics out of the window.  I am still enamored with the Earth from above.

 

[urbanvb]

Great pics! They also reflect just how many more lots that need a building.

I love to fly myself. Always gotta have a window seat. 

Edited February 2, 2022 by urbanvb

[mintscraft56]

Is it just me or does every city have one corner of a block that is recognizable to everyone and is almost like the "signature" corner for their downtown? Anyways Norfolk has one and I believe it is where the Royster stands. 

Many great photo angles for it. Also I took both these photos about a month ago.

[mintscraft56]

I think this parking garage was open to the public??? Not sure but either way I got access to the top where no one seemed to ever park as evident to spiders and small vegetation being up there.  Anyways I think I just found a beautiful area for pictures of our growing skyline. 

 

Edited February 19, 2022 by mintscraft56

[mintscraft56]

Also managed to snap a picture of my favorite building (The Loraine)  

Edited February 19, 2022 by mintscraft56

[BFG]

Wells Fargo and Dominion Enterprises lit up in support of Ukraine.  

[carolinaboy]

Can anyone snap a few pictures of these under construction projects in and around downtown?

 

Lofts at Front Street

Fusion @ NEON

Gravity on 400

Market Heights

Edited March 16, 2022 by carolinaboy
added projects

[HRVA]

48 minutes ago, carolinaboy said:

Can anyone snap a few pictures of these under construction projects in and around downtown?

 

Lofts at Front Street

Fusion @ NEON

Gravity on 400

Market Heights

Here’s Gravity 400 a little over a week ago. 

Breeden has some pictures of the Lofts at Front Street on their website-assume they’re somewhat recent. The Lawson Companies also posted a picture of Market Heights earlier this month on their Facebook.  

[Arctic_Tern]

Was riding the tide recently and the lofts at front street look nice. Gotta be nearing completion as a lot of the exterior was completed. Need to get some street retail there tho cause there's not a lot of things for the residents to do there right now.

[vdogg]

Cool picture from Wavy today.

[mintscraft56]

I dont know what the heck is wrong with this old picture of Norfolk but it made Icon/Bank of America tower look super tall. 

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by mintscraft56

[BFG]

I did an event on the USS Wisconsin yesterday and got this shot of Fort Norfolk. 

[urbanlife]

Damn, Fort Norfolk has a decent little skyline these days, I hope it continues to grow. 

[EJ_LEWIS]

Random pictures of the Downtown Norfolk skyline that I took when we were down for Harborfest.  

[carolinaboy]

11 minutes ago, EJ_LEWIS said:

Random pictures of the Downtown Norfolk skyline that I took when we were down for Harborfest.  

How was Harbor Fest this year?