Separate point: These towers are going to appear really prominent from DTR looking South!!!
The foundation of the tower will be somewhere around 310’ ASL, and much of the south side of downtown is well below that. South street is around 280’ ASL, so the foundation of the tower will be 25’-30’ above South St. Red Hat Amphitheater is at 290’ ASL,
Even if views weren’t considered, it would be nice to have the towers staggered for skyline interest. I am not a fan of side by side towers ot the same height. It’s a yawner.
The city’s plan is for all of lake wheeler near the park to be redeveloped, including the existing residential. Definitely agree that taking advantage of both views would have been smart.
Here’s the view from the greenway side. Per the site drawings this is approximately where the bridge across the creek is supposed to go. Lot of landscaping work to do on the creek frontage, I hope they actually do it. Kind of worried it’ll be value-engineered away and left as a sprawl of privet and ailanthus and kudzu and no bridge.
I haven’t looked too closely at the terrain here, but to my eyes it kinda looks like they’re using some tricks to make the parking seem like it’s underground, while they’re not actually digging much below the existing grade. Win-win in terms of minimizing cost and concealing the parking.
Well, someone would. If you’ve got a middling architect (or a value-engineered project brief), I’m firmly in the “just build a simple glass box” camp. Or at least a nice grid like the new city hall tower.
Abolishing the appearance commission would be a step forward to more exceptional design like this original plan. This isn’t the home owners association.
You keep saying this but it has never made sense to me… why would abolishing the appearance commission result in better appearing buildings? Genuinely curious about this take, because you’ve said it often…