[Waterside District]

I think what Waterside needs is a concept/identity that it can stick with. I feel that right now (err, 4 years ago the last time I went in there), it's hosting whatever it can get (clubs/bars, a couple of restaurants, a couple of shops, and a food court). I think Waterside could become a major activity center again if it BECOMES something. It could become a place for tourist-catering mega food/bar chains like Hard Rock, Planet Hollywood, ESPN Zone, Fox Sports Grill, etc. Think Baltimore Power Plant. Of course the place would have to see a major overhaul before it could attract such tenants. Or we could tear the walls off the thing, get some fresh air in there (literally and figuratively) and make it into something like Pike Place Market in Seattle. It could become THE destination in the region to get fresh produce, seafood, flowers, baked goods, and Norfolk t-shirts (do people buy Norfolk t-shirts?).

Part of the problem is urban design. Waterside has HUGE advantages with Town Point Park and the marina being right there, but it's annoying for people elsewhere in downtown to cross Waterside Drive. The Waterside Drive area just is not an inviting or intimate urban environment. The building setbacks, driveways, etc. make it a strange place to walk around. I'd love to see Bank of America let go of its drive-thru (how many downtown banks need drive-thrus??) and something be developed between BOA and Waterside Drive that leads pedestrians toward and then across the Drive. It wouldn't have to be huge, just something there so you don't feel you're leaving downtown to get to the waterfront.

excellent post, lammius. That strip of property where the BOA drive-thru teller sits offers an amazing opportunity for transitioning between the tall scale of the towers and the low scale along the river at Waterside and Town Point Park. The bridge to Waterside is ok, but too married to the parking garage. The new crosswalk at Granby is functional, but weak. The challenge would be to do something with that site that maintains the greenspace aspect that it currently has while introducing transitionary building/bridge/object that connects to the other side of waterside drive. I'd like to see an open competition or charette to identify some thoughts about what could go there because I don't think it's an easy problem.

As problematic as Waterside is, it still seems to me to be something that could be adapted to bring back the liveliness of its early days. IMHO, the key to this is right there on the mural that is painted on its glass wall that faces Waterside Drive. That thing has always cracked me up, as it says - "Hey, look what you're missing now that a building has blocked the view to the river!" Let's blow a big chunk out of the middle of the Waterside "festival marketplace" building and open up a view to the river and to Downtown Portsmouth - it will look amazing with the ferry traveling back and forth, and sailboats gliding past, and cruiseships turning around in the harbor, and the big ships going into drydock. The exterior open space would tie to the open space across the street (redeveloped BOA drive-thru site). Some new shops/restaraunts could front on that open space, with lovely festive showy facades. Lots of lighting and spectacle to illuminate the throngs of people that will gather there to wait in line for the restaraunts. A hotel/office/condo/observation/space tower or two could be built above the edges of this new plaza, framing the views to the river even more, and lifting the scale up, while at the same time not making an even greater separation from downtown and the riverfront (like the endless line of slab hotels do btwn Atlantic Avenue and the boardwalk in VB). Best of all worlds for waterside! Thanks for the inspiration, lammius. We get to have some fun demolition, while at the same time re-using/re-imagining existing building stock, and getting towers we all have a fetish for, etc. Just don't build condos, or some of the other people who like to post on here will be really really mad.

[Norfolk Stores and Retail and Resturants]

The Boot is great. Good food, good beers, and it attracts good indie bands - both local and touring. It was developed by the Relative Theory Records guys, and it definitely feels like an extension/amplification of the best parts about the record store: the live music, the artworks, and the homegrown culture. It's absolutely the kind of place we need more of in Norfolk and HR in general. It also brings some liveliness and class to the stretch of 21st street between the restaraunts and fun spots at Colonial (New Belmont, Bardo, Cogan's, etc.) and the Monticello corridor (Doumar's). I hope it inspires some other establishments to set up shop nearby, and have my fingers crossed that it gels well with the residents of the new housing that will be going in at the farm fresh site.

By the way... nice to meet everyone. A longtime lurker, I work in downtown norfolk and live in Port Norfolk in Portsmouth. My interests (and vocation) involve urbanism and architecture - so this forum is a joy (in spite of the endless posts about Granby Tower never seeming to make progress - hahaha, just kidding).