lammius

At vdogg's request, here are some google earth captures with a massing that approximates the River Tower included. This gives an idea of what impact River Tower will have on the city's skyline. The pics below capture a few common skyline viewing angles. Note, I added a box representing the Hilton as well. 1. Helicopter view over EVMS. 2. Helicopter view over the Berkley Bridge (think of the old WAVY TV news opens) 3. View from the Berkley Bridge 4. View from I-264 westbound near Exit 9 5. WAVY TV 10 Tower Cam view

So I massed a pair of 500-foot towers, approx 130' in width, and plopped them down near the City Hall LRT station. I just threw two towers onto the spot, without trying to match the site plan dimensions, just to see what they'd look like on the Norfolk skyline. I'd say they dominate the skyline. From I-264 WB approaching CIty Hall Ave exit: From the Berkley Bridge: From the top of the old Radisson: From Brambleton Av near the Hague: From Crawford Pkwy in Portsmouth: From the WAVY TV 10 Tower Cam: And the view from the roof, looking down on the rest of downtown Norfolk:

Jobs first, then apartments.

I agree with that philosophy, but a more practical objection could be a potential lawsuit by anyone opposed to the project. You could argue that creating a separate parcel and zoning that parcel alone for residential, while the adjacent parcels remain public/entertainment/whatever equates to "spot-zoning." Such a challenge may not win, but the city could prefer to not even invite it, nor the lasting ire of Marriott, Hilton, and Norfolk Southern.

Raleigh to Norfolk interstate given the number I-87. http://www.newsobserver.com/news/traffic/road-worrier-blog/article79890487.html All of the press I've seen on this has been from North Carolina. Are leaders in Virginia (local, regional, state) saying much about this? I'm curious if VDOT will upgrade US 17 in southern Chesapeake to interstate standards or try to tie this into the southern end of the Chesapeake Expressway somehow (probably too much environmental/land acquisition to try that). Either way, I suppose you could run the I-87 designation up onto what is now I-464 and terminate it at the Berkley Bridge.

That and a reconfiguration of cubicles to squeeze more workstations into the floor plan. And maybe an extra coffee maker in the break room.

USDOT is offering $40 million to the most innovative mid-sized city proposing technological solutions to move people and goods. Based on the criteria cited in this article, Norfolk, Va Beach, or maybe even Chesapeake could qualify. Get your creative juices flowing, get a coalition together, and draft a proposal! https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/dept-of-transportation-offers-40m-prize-to-most-innovative-mid-size-city/2015/12/07/a08656f6-9d1b-11e5-8728-1af6af208198_story.html

This is fantastic, and really a shot in the arm to the re-urbanification of Atlantic City!

In stages, I guess? Looks like this project doesn't get beyond Newport News. It's a start, but it's only 13% (7 miles out of 54) of the distance to I-295.

I've posted a .kmz on dropbox, you can go check it out. https://www.dropbox.com/s/dxv2ib8ys6akdi1/Tide%20Extension%20Ideas.kmz The yellow line shows the existing Tide service The red line shows an extension to NOB via existing freight rail ROW and Hampton Blvd The green line shows an extension to the airport via existing freight rail ROW The blue line shows an extension from east of Ballentine up to NOB via Wards Corner on existing freight ROW The light orange shows an extension to Portsmouth via an improved Midtown Tunnel. This looks silly on a map, but so does every other proposed extension to Portsmouth that I've seen. It's in the streets quite a bit, but at least connects major employment centers (Naval Hospital, NNSY, Olde Towne/NTelos) and could offer an opportunity to redevelop that silly industrial park. The dark orange line is just craziness, extending the Portsmouth line into a loop back to Harbor Park. In theory you could have a train that just makes the loop over and over. Forgetting about Portsmouth for now, the lines in Norfolk make some sense at this level. Again, I'm not sure how much freight traffic still operates on any of these lines, but you can get to some of the major attraction/employment spots using fairly straight lines. If the red or blue lines were developed you could offer a special service during peak periods that runs from Newtown Road (or points in Va Beach eventually) to NOB without requiring passengers to transfer at Harbor Park. Kind of like WMATA's Rush + service, and have it do skip-stop like the HBLR Bayonne Flyer.

Hi neighbor! Being a Jersey City resident myself these days, I imagine Norfolk's LRT through the lens of experience with the Hudson-Bergen LRT too. I think the way HBLR has expanded in the 12 years it's been running is a bit different than how Norfolk's system will expand. HBLR has been expanding by adding an extra stop or two down the line in all directions. The first segment was from Bayonne 34th Street to Exchange Place. Then it was extended to Pavonia-Newport, then Hoboken. When I moved here it ended at Hoboken 9th Street before it was extended to Port Imperial and ultimately Tonnelle Ave. Bit by bit the system has grown. Talk about expansion in Norfolk is bigger-scale. An extension to the Oceanfront or to NOB would more than double the length of the system. The good thing about an extension to the Oceanfront is you have a rail ROW in place already that you can start with. An extension to NOB or the Airport using alignments in VDRPT's vision plan (Mil Hwy, Hampton Blvd, etc.) would require a new ROW from scratch. Looking at a rail map of Norfolk, there are a few interesting possibilities. If you look at the freight line that comes across the Eastern Branch and lands at Harbor Park (where the Amtrak station will be), it splits a bit north of Harbor Park. To the left it goes toward Ghent and Lamberts Point. That could be an interesting way of getting north of the constraint that is the narrow streets of Ghent, and you could have the train join up with the quite wide Hampton Blvd to get to ODU and NOB. If you look at that split again and this time go right, it goes straight to the Airport. So you could have a transfer station at Harbor Park and people could switch to trains going uptown via the ODU/Hampton Blvd corridor or toward the Airport. Also, near Ingleside there's another freight rail line that crosses the Eastern Branch. That line goes up through Wards Corner and to the Base. So you could have a transfer station between Ballentine and Ingleside for service to the Base. The best part about these options is that they (for the most part) avoid on-street operation and use existing rail rights of way (and maybe the existing trackage?). This assumes, of course, there are sufficient windows in which freight service doesn't use all of the capacity. Next time I'm at my workstation I'll have to highlight these lines in Google Earth or something.

Something like this? It has been enormously popular, mostly with the hipster crowd. Craft beers and quarter arcade games from the 70s and 80s. http://gothamist.com/2011/04/14/photos_inside_barcade_jersey_city.php#photo-1

It reminds me of a value-engineered masterpiece, the commuter rail station in Rahway, NJ http://www.city-data.com/picfilesc/picc31592.php

I actually find Acela to be pretty reliable and its on-time performance to be pretty good. I ride about once/month from NYC to Boston and rarely get delayed at all. Speed is another issue. The big challenges to getting Acela to operate at its maximum potential speed are indeed the fact that local commuter rail services (SEPTA, NJ Transit, Metro-North, MBTA, etc.) operate on sections of the line, the rail infrastructure has curves, slack catenaries in sections, and even some remaining wooden ties in parts. The infrastructure is very slowly being upgraded mile by mile to fix the catenary and ties, but some of the curve issues will be darn near impossible to resolve. I think there are two sections where Acela actually achieves 150 mph, one in Maryland, and the other in Rhode Island. Both sections are where there are no local commuter rail services. I think the max speed in most sections is between 80-100 mph. Even though Acela isn't perfect, I still find it to be the best way to travel city-to-city in the Northeast. Unlike driving, there's no traffic to worry about, parking costs, etc. And flying from New York to Boston just doesn't make sense. It takes more time than the train. Amtrak overall is not profitable, which is why it's run by the government. But Amtrak does make money on the Northeast Corridor services. And it loses a ton more in the rest of the country. That's not to say that passenger rail can't operate more efficiently elsewhere. I think there are some clusters of cities that could be served pretty well, and could be grown into sustainable services. The Great Lakes region, California, and possibly the Texas Triangle come to mind.

I don't know if IKEA is really a great fit for such a prime downtown location. The traffic impacts of such a store are huge. The stores generate A LOT of car trips (try getting on the light rail with your Ektorp sofa under your arm), and TONS of truck trips (many 53' trailers delivering to the store every day, hundreds of box trucks delivering to homes, people renting u-hauls to go get stuff, etc.). Nearly all IKEA stores are located right next to major highways (and more than one when possible). They prefer suburbs where there's more space or old industrial areas where the trucks won't bother anybody. IKEA would be great in Hampton Roads, but it's not a downtown type of a store.

Agree. Add a monster tower on the City Hall Ave/St Pauls Blvd lot and you'd really have a skyline to reckon with! I like this photo a lot.

They look great! I'll be in Norfolk tomorrow (for the first time in two years!). I wish I could hop on one of those trains during my visit.

I agree. Some lighting would help it out. I don't support tearing it down. It's really not a bad example of a (now) unpopular style of architecture. Maybe 20-30 years ago people will think about it differently. It'll be old, historic and worth saving. People may even find it beautiful. Tastes in fashion/design are so finicky. It is Norfolk's first (yes?) postwar "modern" skyscraper, isn't it? As for new towers, the lot by the Courtyard is the obvious choice. As far as the station at the library, I'm not opposed to the open-air station, so long as it is (as someone above said), special/unique. What Norfolk lacks is a true center. What spot is the center of Norfolk? For Philly it's City Hall, for Boston it's the Common, for San Fran it's Union Square. If the station creates an atmosphere where (organically, it can't be manufactured instantly) a "heart" or "center" of Norfolk develops, I'm all for it. I'm also waiting for the day, hopefully in about a decade, when MacArthur Center is reinvented. I'm not saying destroyed or closed down, but I hate seeing such a huge blob/bunker/fortress in the center of town. I realize in the 1990s that was the way to get retailers and visitors in there, but today Downtown Norfolk has some life. I'd love to see MacArthur Center reinvented to turn out onto the streets of Norfolk rather than remain hidden from them.

Worse, I hate misuse of words in press releases. The building isn't being "raised." That would be quite a feat. I think the author intended to used the word "razed." I like your idea, brikkman. Or how about a 35-story reverse bungee! More fun than an obs. deck.

Generally speaking, no. But in the case of the River Line, yes. The RL is in South Jersey, away from the ports and the logistics hubs and it's not CSX's most vital route. And the LRT line there isn't a heavy hitter either. I think they're lucky if they get 10,000 riders/day. But the point was, mixing FRT and LRT can be done and has been done. Agreed. I wouldn't recommend light rail on the 460 corridor. LRT is best for urban environments, and Ivor isn't one. The only pax rail talked about on that corridor is HSR, which I think would interface with the NS operations beautifully. The 460 rail line has an FRA density code of 4 (out of 7). It gets good use, but there's room to expand operations and do a lot more with that corridor.

It happens. I can think of one example in New Jersey, and there may be others elsewhere. The River Line between Trenton and Camden is a DMU light rail which operates on a CSX rail line. The only stinky thing about it is NJTRANSIT runs its service during the day and has to stop at 10PM so the CSX trains can run full tilt at night. With commuter rail, operating on active freight lines happens all the time.

These actually sound like great little projects! Has anyone seen their other work in Portsmouth?

I skimmed too, but picked up on a mention of the Shore Drive corridor, and plans to do an alternatives analysis in the future to determine the best mode. I'm surprised there isn't more in Norfolk, actually. I'd love a Granby streetcar from downtown up through eastern Ghent, the Zoo, Riverview, and Wards Corner if that place is ever redeveloped.

Well modernism was all about straight lines, sleekness, futuristic/new world. Something as simple as turning an older building into a sleek, plain box was an improvement. They tried to adapt the building to the time. Now we look at the old facade and think "wow how historic!" Back in the modernist movement, it probably just looked tired and old in a time when everything was about newness and the future.

Well, 10 years for half of what that pic shows. CIMT is a 2-phase project. The terminal wouldn't reach build-out (pictured above) until the 2030s.