I also edited my original post to make that clear, since it sounds like people are confusing the RUSbus proposal art as Hoffman’s concept. Sorry for the confusion 
I agree, though, @Jake. The design will probably look different, since this design had to get approved under the Council of No so they couldn’t easily assume that parcel would get upzoned; Hoffman basically got super lucky there.
Good news from the records of GoTriangle board’s meeting last Wednesday (June 24):
Translation: GoTriangle made it in time, and basically secured the grant money they were promised! Hoffman and its subcontractors are now being paid to start (finally!) coming up with a rough design for the RUSbus transit terminal, then go straight to building it after local approval.
…not that I know how long “several months” is any better than y’all do…
That’s fantastic news!!!
I hope it looks a little better than both rendering mentioned because 
. I like Kane’s design but I like the two tower idea better. It would look better if building was 15+ stories and another 10+ stories, one building for affordable housing and one not because 15% of 100 -+ apartments is terrible.
I don’t know why words disappeared in my reply but… I hope everyone gets my point
The rendering has almost essentially 0 office development which is a tremendous waste of the land closest to Union Station. Job density drives transit use much more than residential density at any range from the station, but the effect is even more pronounced in the first 1/4 mile - and extrapolating from this graph, exponentially more so at a range of essentially zero. This effect is further compounded by the fact that office buildings hold more people (jobs) per floor area than residential buildings (residents.)
Taken from below tweet:
Some residential is fine, but if we can’t have a heavy focus on office near our transit station that serves downtown, then we’re just missing the boat.
They are shooting for a 40 story rezoning I think, why would they keep it so short?
Point well take, but remember that job density is going to mean something different post covid. A strong case can be made that downtown has to increase its focus on making our core a fantastic place to live and visit as well.
This may be the case, but COVID-19 will close the gap some. Density is what employers are re-evaluating now. Our office space at 510 Glenwood sat up to 85 ppl before COVID. With the rearranging it’ll be closer to 35.
Does that essentially have you guys on the hunt for more sq footage to get employees back or just leaning into the WFH model and/or rotating who’s in office when?
Working from home does not necessarily mean you have to live miles away from work. I could easily see people living a block away, across the street, or even in same building as work. Just working from home cause you like it and only going to office a few days a week or important meetings.
LOL even back in late 70’s an employer was thinking of building a new building and I pushed for apartments on upper floors so could work from apartment and have reduced rent as a perk. This would allow better concentration on software development without interruptions as would have in office but easy access to office for meeting. (Also before internet and other high speed connections. So had to have a hard wired connection back to central computer and was around a 1000ft limit on cable), Needless to say that was shot down as a really stupid idea at time. 
Looking for more space. While we sell solutions to enable secure mobility/WFH, we also believe in physical interaction and the advantages of in person synergies. We’ll probably still end up splitting groups to different offices.
@scotchman, totally agree. And I WFH a block from work. 
That re-zoning already happened last October, so the RUSbus block is already cleared to build up to 40 stories.
We know the ground floor will have a bus terminal and some retail spaces -and that’ll be the bulk of Hoffman’s work in the coming months and years. But the other 39 floors are still a total mystery.
Almost all of the things we know about the non-bus-related parts of this development basically come from an example idea suggested in the BUILD application. That’s just some daydream sketch in a request for money; that is not an official plan.
Hoffman’s “design-build contract” means they don’t have to compete for another contract to build what they design. But the flip side of this is that GoTriangle can’t pull the plug on Hoffman if their design isn’t all that great. Plus, GoTriangle can only ask Hoffman to go back to the drawing board so many times since they have to spend all of the grant money on October 2025.
@trueurbanist and the rest of y’all, I agree that a mix of affordable housing, market-rate apartments, offices etc. would be awesome. But we don’t know anything about what those buildings look like (let alone what companies come in). This means every market analysis and every design proposal will matter -so every public comment session for this project will count, from here on out if we want to make sure this project is done right.
The effect of Covid is going to be short lived. I forecast that its impact on development will be indistinguishable from background noise 5 years from now.
Commuter rail itself is likely 10 years off at this point.
We should plan for, and require, the use mix that best takes advantage of our coming multi-billion dollar investment in rail.
Well the 40 story rezoning was asked before the height in feet was removed. The bus terminal requires a very high ceiling so zoning past 250 feet was required.
Who knows how big the project will really be. It could be 18 stories, it could be 22 stories, or very unlikely the full 40 stories.
I found this interesting in the Creamer presentation for the Glenwood South Neighborhood Collaborative presentation of the rezoning request. They showed other rezoning approvals for DX-20/DX-40 and showed the following picture. Parker Poe is involved in RUSBUS and this project. I realize we don’t have a realistic rendering of RUSBUS yet, but I do like this rendering concept!
Maybe something with this spirit for RUSBUS?
Puts the ‘T’ in to the RUS with the rusty beam look. Not necessarily opposed though
I’m not sure how I feel about this. I would like something more environmentally friendly 
but that’s just me
If I heard them right, there are vines that will grow/wrap the steel exoskeleton.
What’s not environmentally friendly enough in your opinion?
