archiham04

Welcome to Urban Planet @Lyz!

Deleted "bottle shop/deli" on Central (now LuLu's) Changed the Levine land assemblage footprint on Commonwealth Added Fire Credit Union Project on corner of Commonwealth and Plaza Added Plaza Towns on the PLaza Added the Plaza Presbyterian property currently being marketed. Added the Midwood School redevelopment

I think Reflection Studio used the church building for a period of time as well... not sure if any albums of note were recorded in that era or not... or if they officially "moved" their operations into the church. They might have just used it to get a different sound?

I used to rent one of the houses on Runnymede near Selwyn. The story we heard from some neighbors was that our landlord had purchased the homes soon after Fairfax had been widened and extended to Barclay Downs as a part of the NCDOT #4 road project. It got me curious and I looked into the history and found that Fairfax originally looped into Selwyn twice as a contained little development . Fairfax connected down to woodlawn, and what is now Michael Baker continued down to Barclay Downs. http://maps.co.mecklenburg.nc.us/historicmaps/

I like your idea and agree that Tryon could be better, but remember Tryon was 6 lanes at one point. The city invested millions to extend and enhance the sidewalks, plant trees and create pedestrian amenities. It is one of the cities greatest investments in terms of long term impact and return on investment (in my opinion). I like to see Tryon shine as it is, and would like the city to concentrate on other streets to accomplish similar goals.

Given the international reputation of the institutions in the area they are also likely to attract residents from international cities that are used to living in an urban environment.

Section looks like it will have decent street presence. Would be better if retail were 18' floor to floor and deeper- 60' or so (making it more viable for wider variety of businesses) but other than that, good on them from tucking the parking underneath and not putting the garage at street level. All that said, I wonder if this section is a worst case or best case scenario?

They might need land adjacent to their property so they could be buying similar properties around the neighborhood as an offer to trade or sweeten an offer to buy

The whole "neighborhood boundary" issue is funny, contrived and not always exact. Plaza-Midwood was a neighborhood name that was coined during a down-zoning and highway rejection effort. Several subdivisions created a Neighborhood Association to advocate for issues, many of which included initiatives in the CBD area like retaining a branch library. I think when the city "drew" neighborhood boundaries and designated PM as separate from Commonwealth and the PM CBD it was an issue of convenience in communication and using streets as boundaries. I don't think anyone has referred to the shops on Central Ave as "the Commonwealth neighborhood" in the past 50 years. I don't think it is at all a misnomer to refer to anything in the PM Central Business District as Plaza Midwood. That area is as much if not more "Plaza Midwood" to most people than the majority of the residential area, and legitimately so. All neighborhoods are really "feelings" anyway. They sometimes follow formal subdivision boundaries, but when the city made official designations they actually polled people on where they identified with and what neighborhood they thought they lived in... Very subjective.

I had a very similar thought just yesterday when I took this photo while waiting for my kids' bus

Not sure if this is true for the other districts, but The Historic district in Plaza Midwood is pretty small compared to their overall neighborhood ... only about 1/5 id say is designated historic.... so I'm not sure I'd say it is untouchable. Further, I think there was recently a new duplex built to historic district standards in the PM historic district on a former SFH lot. 1510 Kensington Dr

Southern Strain Brewery is going forward, in this location, from my understanding.

View from 3rd floor rocks.

I think that neighborhood is going to trump car access in the coming years. Office markets in NoDa and Plaza Midwood are picking up. Several are in the works.

Sad to see Atrium break the streetscape on their campus and not plant any trees in the planting strip between the sidewalk and the street.... I assume the city made an exception for the Hospital because..... Hospital. ... but it is sad to see one of the city's few planned street designs fail.