That really is a shame.
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Upon looking closer, at least they may have added a terrace on the top corner floor and the parking garage is hidden better, but still…
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This is the northwest corner of Davie and McDowell, right? Looking back to last April, there was allegedly construction starting. And here we are. I feel like there’s a list of projects that were supposed to start in 2018 or 2019 that all went silent.
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I personally prefer the new one over the old one. The old one looks cold and forbidding, kind of glass version of brutalist, the new design looks much warmer.
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The best thing I can say about the newer design is that it hides the parking deck better.
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Personally if these were stripped down to form only (gray models) I would prefer the varying planes of the newer design, but the beige colored paneling kind of kills the image. Hopefully, whatever they build, they’ll recognize that the residence inn and Marriot provide enough beige hotel for the whole county.
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I think the newer version fits better with the rest of the Warehouse District. It’s still kind of blah tho…
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It’s the current iteration of the International Style of architecture. So, there is still the taut, rectilinear form with a goodly amount of glass being used. And, there is some degree of stacked, geometrical forms. But, curvilinear surfaces are being skipped over.
It’s not a pure Bauhaus style that came about when it first was espoused in the 1920’s. And, there’s a strict absence of ornamentation. One can’t call it Brutalist or Modernist. Post-modernist pastiche and whimsy is lacking, too. But, it’s a cheapened use of the style which employs fairly unimaginative engineering.
I would just call it fancy post-and-beam with some splashes of color, peppered with tokens of exposed natural material.
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Your resident modernist checking in here, but I actually prefer the second design. There’s something flat and unfriendly about the first one…
Yes, the second one is bland, dated, and looks like it belongs in the suburbs, but I also think there are a lot of subtle improvements. The facade is less flat; it’s got some small notches in it that help break down its scale. The double-height glass at the ground level feels more appropriately scaled to the building. There are many more windows that texture the facade. The base no longer screams “parking garage.” Looks like there’s a nice roof patio at the corner. Overall, I actually think this will be a nicer building to walk past as a pedestrian than it was. Still ugly tho.
I stand by my original comment.
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Indeed. Why o Why is the ‘natural’ pairing of brick some degree of beige stucco…? LAME sauce…
They’re both terrible, imo
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This is the real answer lmao
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Today’s TBJ has a article in it on the 500+ room hotel / mixed-use tower on Fayetteville St. that
city leaders are discussing at today’s meeting .
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@nipper.dwight thanks for the tip.
They say the City Council is scheduled to consider a vote today to move on a ‘request for interest’ for the Convention Center Hotel and Downtown Development Project. The project calls for two new structures – a hotel and a mixed-use tower.
A 500 room hotel would clearly be at least a 20 story tower. (The downtown Marriott at 400 rooms is the largest in the region).
A big question is the scope of the office tower. It looks like they’re pitching an office / residential building. Maybe it will be like PNC or FNB at roughly half n half. So it should be at least 20 stories also.
A snip from the article:
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I wanna say that is the oldest on-the-shelf hotel project downtown…perhaps 10 years since the original announcement IIRC (urbanplanet would have a record somewhere)
I hear ya…the first iteration was more like a bunker. But the second feels like the standard turd palate we keep getting. Couldn’t we have the shine AND the texture?
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I’m guessing they will be taking down the Mort’s building for the Hilton.
And that Firestone lot is screaming for something mixed-use at least 20 stories. The views of dt would be incredible.
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That is more and more likely not to happen. The owner of the property wanted to wait out other hotel developments and see if the occupancy rate stays stable but I’m sure they weren’t expecting all these new hotel announcements.