joey

I generally like how that Jefferson Park project is to be massed, with the office/retail space along 19th and semi-underground parking. That's much more practical in a hilly city like Richmond than it is in more flat towns where the entire underground parking would have to be excavated. I'm not much of a fan of the Marshall Street elevation, though. It looks like almost the entire block face will be a blank wall at the pedestrian level, with only a few breaks for parking entrances. An easy way to remedy that without reworking the parking would be to give the first-floor units exterior doors along Marshall with stairs down to the sidewalk -- at least it would break it up some and give the appearance of life. This project is going to have to appeal to the low/middle end of the price spectrum to sell, though. Richmond seems to have a glut of middle/high-end condo units.

It doesn't have to be condo to get the tax credits, but whoever owns the unit gets them. If it's an apartment building, the developer gets it. The reason developers don't like to use them for condo buildings is because very few condo purchasers are sophisticated enough to value the tax credits into their purchase price. If a condo unit comes with a $3k/year tax credit for five years, that unit should be comparable, to the buyer, to a unit costing $15k less. But most buyers don't see that -- all they notice is that this unit costs $15k more, ignoring the tax credit. In an apartment unit, the developer can recognize the credit and price the unit cheaper as a result.

Well, they can be; it just takes a little creativity. For instance, the buildings can be set back a little with 10 long rows of steps that run the length of the building (as in older government buildings in DC). This effectively keeps the ground floor protected by concrete like in these renderings, but it brings the eye up the building and provides a place to sit and eat lunch. The problem isn't that it doesn't have active space (though I'd like it to), but more that it's just a blank wall. I hope, at least, they'll put in display cases or something to break up the wall like they have at the Library of Virginia.

It's not bad looking. I just wish it engaged the street more. It's going to be another block of dead pedestrianless fa

With regard to tax dollars, I suppose it's valuable being in the City (for city residents, and arguably for the region), but Regency is far better located if you value mixed uses and general accessibility in development. That whole Parham commercial corridor is jam-packed with neighborhood (and regional) draws and is surrounded by established residential areas. Stony Point is accessible only by expressway and is surrounded by some of the lowest density development west of the urban core. With the exception of the few offices and an apparently new apartment community adjacent to it, any other office-workers or residents have to drive a minimum of two miles just to get to it. Even the homes that back close up to Stony Point are a 5+ mile circuitous drive from the center. On the contrary, I wish that Henrico had looked to reconfigure that Parham/Quioccasin intersection into an urban village when the cinema shut down. It has all the makings of a great new-urbanist center, including nearby affordable housing, established neighborhoods with decent road connectivity and density, three schools in walking distance, and a level of use-mixing not found in most of the County. It also seems to be entirely unencumbered by NIMBYism because the immediate surroundings are not high-income (though there are lots of high-incomes in a 3-mile radius). I think it would have been great if, instead of building Stony Point, Taubman had worked with Henrico to build a Reston Town Center styled project around Regency Square instead of the suburban mall-without-a-roof that we have now across the River.

It's confusing that they refer to I-295 in the direction away from I-64 near Short Pump as running "southbound". It's consistent with the majority of the signage on the route, but it's inaccurate based on compass directions, as the section from I-95 west to I-64 runs in the exact opposite direction to how VDOT describes it. In fact, the signage on this section of I-295 doesn't even use compass markers -- it exclusively uses control cities and expressways for directioning. I think, for this reason, this section of I-295 should instead be renamed as part of Va-288 (along with the intermediate section of I-64). By extension, the entire half-loop from I-95 in the north to I-95 in the south along the western edge of the region could be renumbered as an Interstate (following an application, of course) to something like I-695. The only disadvantage to this is that the east-west bypass movement would be on discontinuous numbers, but I think it's a far less popular movement and wouldn't even be impacted terribly much by using two numbers.

I hope he doesn't open until April or May so that his first month can be with warmer weather with more pedestrian traffic along the Canal.

There isn't a system of TDRs ("Transferable Development Rights") in Richmond like in New York. That's a really novel and interesting system (one used by Donald Trump to great advantage), but it isn't used in very many places in the US. In Richmond, a landowner can build as tall as the covenants and zoning allow (or as tall as he can get in a variance). Getting "air rights" over the deck merely means that they would have the right to build on top of the deck up to whatever the maximum height limited by zoning provides for. As I understand it, that deck was engineered to accommodate a building on top of it, so the height would be limited by the foundations, etc. as well unless the deck were torn down first and rebuilt (an unlikely occurrence).

I can't tell if you're kidding or not . . . as there was a reflecting pool and fountain between the two decks for a few years, but it was paved over for extra parking. The airport said it needed more parking, and that the fountain was barely visible from the road.

I imagine the sushi from Wal-Mart will be just like it is from almost any grocery store: there's some local distributor that goes around to all of them, dropping off the same premade 10-packs of California rolls. No matter where you go to buy it, it's often the same brand of fresh sushi.

Well, I'm only referring to the City of Richmond. Short Pump has semi-bad traffic, and perhaps Mechanicsville isn't a walk in the park, but that's not the need that would be addressed by the simple circulator route I suggested. The only real consistent traffic back-ups I'm familiar with in the City are on the Powhite Parkway. I'm not addressing regional transportation: I'm talking about an in-town circulator in lieu of a trolley or short BRT loop for the people who choose to live and work where it's denser.

I don't think Richmond needs BRT within most of the city -- a simple, frequent, and uniquely-branded standard bus line would work just fine. Look at the DC Circulator: it's effectively a standard bus (though with lower floors to facilitate access), and it works incredibly well. It's frequented by people who work and live in town, and in some cases by tourists. Give it a unique name (e.g., "Richmond Urban Circulator") Put maps up along the route, make fare collection easy, construct it as a simple linear route from Shockoe Bottom to Carytown or Willow Lawn, fund it well enough to arrive every 10-12 minutes, set the fare a simple $1, and people will ride. I say BRT isn't necessary because the City of Richmond north of the River doesn't have traffic: it's not like people would flock to a bus because their cars are getting stuck in stop-and-go traffic on Grace Street. People who live and work/shop near it would ride it because it's simple and cheap. A route like this would be accessible to most everyone in the Fan, most everyone in the Museum District, everyone downtown, most everyone in Shockoe Bottom, and some people in Church Hill. And it would take a lot of these people where they want to go (except Short Pump, Cadeho's orgasmic destination of destinations).

Just placing them in alleys would be good enough for me. In many parts of the Richmond, this is what they've done, and it's also the reason cities with alley infrastructure tend not to have as many power lines showing (contrary to common perception, it's not because they're buried in the older areas). Are there alleys in that section of town, or is that the problem? Also, Wrldcoupe, you should post a few of your phototours on the Southern States forum of SkyscraperPage (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=36) . . . I think people would like them. Maybe just copy your posts from Skyscrapercity?

I'm disappointed with the street level. It basically doesn't engage the street at all. On the side street, the only break from a 10-foot-high wall is a garage entrance. On the front, the windows look to start above a 6-8 foot wall and then break for a porte-cochere. So, at this point, it looks like the only entrances are for cars. Is anything about this supposed to be geared toward pedestrians?

Looks like it's fake brick, since it's going up in panels (it's likely stained concrete). That being said, you can't really tell from a distance, and it's starting to look nice. I wish there were more height to the glazing at the canal level: taller storefront windows make for a more inviting and compelling pedestrian experience. --Joey