urbanlife

The simple solution would be for the Indian River Plantation HOA to purchase the golf course and either renovate it back to being a golf course or into natural land. Though if that doesn't happen, then letting the golf course be developed into housing should happen if that is what is zoned and there is a developer wanting to invest to build more housing.

The Fire Slide 5000, everyone gets a free third degree burn.

You do realize you are welcome to post anything you find interesting about Norfolk's history. If there is something you come across that you think is worth sharing, please do.

It makes sense that people would want to think about the history that no longer exists. Norfolk was full of so many beautiful old buildings. Going off of old photos, if that Norfolk still existed today, it would have resembled Portland, Maine, since their downtown is still full of small urban buildings and fairly narrow streets like what Norfolk used to have. Obviously it is important to focus on the future as well because that's the only way Norfolk can continue to repair the destruction that has been caused to the city.

There was no reason to expand this street to four lanes except to tear down a bunch of commercial buildings that had black owned businesses in them. This unfortunately is Norfolk's history.

This makes me both laugh and cry. I could imagine had Norfolk never torn down its city, and simply expanded it by adding a highrise district over where the Chrysler Museum is, I might not have moved away because I would have probably found the urban city feeling I wanted in Norfolk.

Oh good, it is still there.

It is still strange seeing Virginia Beach having some sort of urban feel to it.

Basically, it's the just in case a company comes along wanting to build a new tower then they have a site to use rather than letting another developer get the opportunity to build it.

Damn, those two garages are so massively sprawling and ugly. It's like when they were built the developer requested that the garages feel like surface parking lots.

I agree with you about the garages, since they do eat up a lot of real estate, but an argument for keeping the garages is that they are expensive to building and these towers will probably rely on them heavily so that the towers themselves won't need garages, which reduces construction costs. Looking at the rendering and Google Maps, it is possible that the southern garage along City Hall Ave could one day be redeveloped if the demand is there. The other garage will probably always be there because it doesn't seem like there is much opportunity to reconnect anything to the northern part of downtown in that area.

I get that, though I always imagined it like a Southern Back Bay, which I guess is a Manhattan Upper Westside for Boston.

The view of the city from Tredegar Green is amazing, it would really be cool to see a bunch of 250-300ft residential buildings going up in Monroe Ward; that would really extend the city skyline and urban feel of the city.

This is my favorite part of the article. "Kelley said there are 11 miles of "pipes" that can be found underneath two miles of the roadway. When crews went to remove the pipes marked as abandoned, they found several were still active."

Basically they would build an office building right now if an an anchor tenant was seeking the space. This is where Virginia Beach government should be trying to lure businesses to Virginia Beach by showcasing what VB has to offer and what the future of the downtown will be, especially with a new office building.

Damn, that's similar pricing for the apartment buildings I live in in Portland, Oregon. Granted this is a new building, but it feels like it is high for Norfolk....either that or rents are basically high everywhere.

I still can't understand why the Federal Courts would want this land, I would have imagined they would want to do a more secure location than the current location.

For those that don't want to turn their head.

Thanks for bringing up the Granby Mall with what not to do. What is wrong with that photo? Easy, there is zero housing in that photo. Europe makes pedestrian streets work because the commercial corridor is surrounded with dense housing, and often times a transit hub. Granby St doesn't need cars, it needs people.

What about Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Anterpen, or Lyon? I get not wanting in the live in the large cities in Europe just like most don't want to live in large cities in the US, but what about the mid sized cities that are more comparable to Virginia Beach and the cities in Hampton Roads? The US can be both vast and still have our cities be human scale rather than car centric.

Or do what European cities do when they provide reasons not to need a car to enjoy living in a city.

This could really be a boon for South Norfolk, hopefully Chesapeake goes along with this and decided to add a second light rail line to the system.

Oh wow, never thought I would see a pile driver on this site.

I can't remember the name of the tower, but it has a sad history. It was one of the tall old towers in the downtown, eventually the whole facade of the building was removed and modernized. Eventually the building was torn down for the 300 E Main Tower to be built on the whole block. Here is a photo of the tower in it's original form in what used to be downtown Norfolk. It is the tall building in the center about a block west of where the confederate soldier statue once stood. Here is another view of the building from the street, you can see the Hampton Roads Maritime building for reference. And here it is when Urban Renewal was tearing apart downtown before the tower was modernized. You can see the Hampton Roads Maritime building to the right of the building. And this is what the building looked like before it was torn down... If you wish to see more of Norfolk History in photos, this is the site I regularly go to for most of these these photos. https://nrha.photoshelter.com/gallery-list

Honestly, if that Norfolk still existed today, I am not entirely sure I would have ever moved away, especially if the city invested in its rail public transportation to preserve its urban characteristics.