Agreed! Narrow the street and widen the sidewalks!
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Get rid of the parking spots and give me all the outdoor street front dining.
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And the food truck rodeo could consist of food trucks lined up in the street facing the sidewalks 
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with the curb and sidewalk being elevated, it makes the windows of the food trucks easier to reach by customers!
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Skinny tall 20 story condo tower in Grand Docks in Dublin. A model for future towers such as 220 Morgan St by Marbles?
Btw, Dublin development is choked by super NIMBYism. Grand Docks is new area so theyâre free to build but very limited. 20 stories seems the limit. However itâs almost next to impossible to build elsewhere with any type of density or height.
Base is like 20 feet across.
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Saw this 280+ ft mass timber building from Milwaukee recently - rendering then actual -
Made me think / dream of the DoSo area, go K(r)ane GOâŚ
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I really like the idea of the slenderness of this tower, but I can tell you that operating such a tower with fewer units would be pretty expensive per unit compared to larger footprint towers with many more units to share the financial burden.
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4 posts were merged into an existing topic: General Parking Discussion
Valley View Blvd in Roanoke VA gets the green treatment. Valley View is bordered by a mall and numerous big-box stores on the right while heading southbound and older SFH neighborhood on the left. there were two crossover points. they actually have done the bike boxes.
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This is going to a different kind of âShow Offâ.
As we start to see more and more infill in our city center, I think itâs important for us to realize that the gold standard of dense development (NYC) isnât without its green spaces for residents living in its urban neighborhoods. Even when one canât access those green spaces, there are views of trees and ânatureâ that are not necessarily evident from a street. Iâm mentioning this because there doesnât seem to be anyone talking about these quality of life issues for residents as a collective, and as we see proposals for projects that would further fill blocks, there doesnât seem to be anyone caring or addressing this issue. We seem to be okay with developers just filling their footprint with as much building area as possible and only caring about their own residents. This often results in a central respite thatâs often replete with a pool, an outdoor kitchen of some sort, and/or other amenities. Yes, there are also often some trees too.
While there definitely are voices here that think otherwise, I do think that we should care about the quality of life of our downtown residents and put development rules in place to assure that we donât end up with apartment units that look directly into a parking garage next door (for example).
Here are some aerials from NYC as reference to show what I mean.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/New+York,+NY/@40.7439369,-74.000855,205a,35y,39.5t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c24fa5d33f083b:0xc80b8f06e177fe62!8m2!3d40.7127753!4d-74.0059728
https://www.google.com/maps/place/New+York,+NY/@40.761617,-73.991696,197a,35y,39.5t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c24fa5d33f083b:0xc80b8f06e177fe62!8m2!3d40.7127753!4d-74.0059728
https://www.google.com/maps/place/New+York,+NY/@40.761617,-73.991696,197a,35y,39.5t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c24fa5d33f083b:0xc80b8f06e177fe62!8m2!3d40.7127753!4d-74.0059728
Whether Harlem, or Hellâs Kitchen, Chelsea, or the Lower East Side, you see this respite among buildings playing out. Iâd hate to see Raleigh cram every single possible inch with buildings and not care about the quality of her residents.
Full disclosure: I live in a building that has residents that are currently being crowded against a new building but I face a street and it doesnât personally affect me.
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This is a really important point - downtown Raleigh doesnât need to have much green space now, because most people own cars and can easily drive to a park. But itâs really nice to have green spaces integrated well with a city. In terms of NYC, itâs less than half that of London, though much better than Tokyo:
Source:
As for development rules to prevent bad apartment views, Iâm not so sure. Developers should just purchase air rights for buildings near them if they care. NYC has plenty of apartments that look straight into walls. It seems textbook NIMBY to prevent new developments from potentially blocking the view of another development - once a building is built you canât ever build anything next to it unless itâs much shorter??
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Setting a new bar for density in a midrise⌠here is a 7 story project proposed in Asheville that delivers 231 units in effectively 0.47 acres, or nearly 500 units per acre. No parking is provided - itâs a 200â walk from the cityâs central bus transfer facility.
How do they achieve this density?
Itâs âmicrohousingâ - the new term for what was formerly known as âSROâ or Single Room Ocupancy. Each unit has its own bathroom (and probably its own fridge) but the kitchen and laundry are shared facility. Kind of dorm-like. I lived in a place like this for a year in Japan during college and it was great! Just fine for living an inexpensive, minimal lifestyle.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10SaWQiY6U5v8aAv7erH23vVYMB_tT29p/view
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Relevant article: Legalize housing, not tent encampments. These kinds of projects are really needed, I just hope itâs actually affordable
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Personally, I have always chosen my condos facing a known entity (mainly a street) because Iâve realized through living once in Houston how terrible things could be if I didnât. My example of looking into a parking garage is something that someone I knew had to deal with after the fact. It was horrible. I disagree that ânot wanting thatâ is classic NIMBY. Classic NIMBY would be âDonât build anything next do to meâ. IMO, thereâs a difference between the two.
On one extreme, one can imagine a narrative of âI donât care about your view and the owner of the land has the right to put up a 20 ft concrete block wall right on the property line against your bedroom windowâ. On the other hand, youâve got the narrative âThe property next door to me can never change because I want the status quo to remainâ.
I donât think that one has to subscribe to one narrative or the other.
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I think weâre likely in growing pains as Raleigh figures out this issue. As long as buyers and renters are aware, like you are, and developers are careful, I think weâll be fine. What it seems like youâre proposing is automatically granting air rights around residential buildings without proper compensation for the owner of that land. It might be terrible to lose your view but thatâs always a possibility unless you own that view.
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I think that itâs more about setbacks when buildings sharing a block are back to back. If you have four parcels on a block and all four developed to their internal borders with their neighbors, you end up with a real problem.
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Pretty good get here for Pinehurst. Especially with the new golf HQ being built there too.
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Visited downtown Durham for first time in 2 years.
My takes:
Lots of construction underway . Lots of recently completed cool architecture. Great streetscaping and sidewalks.
Underground utilities
Downtown hotels much cooler than Raleigh has now.
Parlor Ice Cream best in Triangle.
Weird road layout still.
Very very nice in a compact area . Must admit jealousy.
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Downtown Durham is so pedestrian friendly and lively, especially in the spring/summer. And now that Brightleaf is being redeveloped, thereâs connectivity now from Dukeâs east campus/Ninth Street all the way to the Ballpark. Itâs a really impressive footprint for a relatively small city IMO.
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