urbanlife

That is because they built a new state of the art arena under an existing roof. That would be the same for the Scope if a new state of the art arena was built under the existing dome. Granted the Key Arena spent that much for a pro team and will eventually have two pro teams playing there. That is a big difference.

You are confusing the King Dome with the Key Arena. The Key Arena is more like the Scope. Seattle just did a massive renovation to it for it to be the home of their new NHL team and will be the future home of their new NBA team when that happens.

This is what Young Terrace used to look like. View of downtown pre-urban renewal. The ferry terminal in the bottom right corner. Looking north of City Hall Ave. This is where the MacArthur Mall sits today. View of downtown looking north. Buildings that used to exist on East Main St. And Church St looking south. In the middle bottom you can see the Attucks Theater and Virginia Baptist State Convention.

What??? There are lots of amazing pieces of architecture built in the 60s and 70s. The Scope is one of them. Now think of this, this building is 50 years old. When Norfolk decided to tear down their downtown core, they tore down a lot of buildings that were about 50 years old. Now here we are 100 years from that time Norfolk tore down it's downtown core, and I know you can't tell me that was a great idea for them to have done. The Scope isn't some cheap building that wears out after a dozen years, it will be an icon for the city for generations to come. Since Norfolk is never gonna get a pro team, it makes no sense to tear down the Scope to replace it with an arena of a similar size. It makes sense to take a stand and actually preserve a piece of Norfolk history and improve on it because the beauty of the Scope is that you can remove the entire inside of the building and it will still stand because the weight of the dome is transferred through the buttresses.

Such a dramatic video just to say they will build a bland suburban apartment development that will disappear into the background until one day when you say to yourself "how long has that development been there?"

If you don't understand why it is historical and an important piece of architecture, you need to learn who Pier Luigi Nervi is and the importance his work was to architecture. Then you need to look up his work in the US to see he only did a few projects in this country and Norfolk is lucky to have one of them. Also to add to this, the Scope can be expanded to be about a 15K seat arena as well and continue to be located in downtown rather than out at Military Circle. This would be on the very small side for NBA and on the small side for NHL. As for getting a pro team of any kind, I am not sure about that since I don't know which leagues are even seriously looking to expand or if any teams are even looking to move.

It really should have shifted to Norfolk and let them be able to do a Plan B without Virginia Beach.

As a GenXer, I feel ya. We have been trying to push out the dinosaurs, but it has been a lifelong struggle.

Damn, Fort Norfolk has a decent little skyline these days, I hope it continues to grow.

That's going to be a good bridge for urban development to help connect Pembroke to the Town Center area. Personally I hate these building on top of a parking garage designed buildings, but in this case it provides parking for the hotel and it creates higher floor rooms which is a good thing along VB Blvd. Hopefully this leads to some sort of street grid and more active developments around this building. I could see the redevelopment of Pembroke Mall happen a bit organic in trying to keep some of what currently exists while redeveloping inward from the southern and northern sides of the site.

I so wish that the city wouldn't have done urban renewal the way they did and would have focused on building Brambleton and having a "new downtown" in what is now the Neon District. This would have preserved the old world look of downtown and expanded it to the north which could have seen office towers along the Hague. It would have created such an interesting downtown.

I don't even recognize this area, this new development looks really good. I like that rooftop lounge, that location is gonna have a beautiful skyline view for years to come.

I like the direction that area of the beach is headed, it will be amazing to see it be fully built up as an urban district along the oceanfront.

Some core childhood memories was going to dinner at Pizza Hut for a pizza and the salad bar.

I was raised to say Monti "chello" and "Bush"

This is really sad to hear because I was really hopeful that whatever got built on these surface lots would be something that could stand the test of time and help Norfolk evolve, but when finding out that it was gonna be a huge mall, I was skeptical but hopeful. In the short term, it seemed to help, but for the long term, it didn't account for how our shopping habits would change and that malls would eventually become obsolete. It would have been better for Norfolk to have built a "city center" that was a mix of uses that attracted people to live, work, and shop downtown rather than a big drive in, shop, and leave experience. I always hated how easy it was to drive into downtown, go straight into the parking garage, shop in the mall, and never once step foot in downtown.

From my understanding, both ways are the correct way to say Monticello. I always go with "chello" like the instrument but either works.

Potato, potato. If someone has to wonder if you just cussed, then you said it correctly.

It's like a Taco Bell Phoenix.

Holy crap! are they actually tearing down the Taco Bell??? Is it to build a new Taco Bell?.....

Yeah, it has been really pathetic how slow it's been for light rail to take off in Hampton Roads after the first line was built. Typically there is enough momentum to at least get a couple new lines built in that same amount of time.

Chesapeake should be talking to Norfolk about building a second light rail line from Norfolk to Chesapeake and have it go through the mall site and over to the Summit. I could see Chesapeake turning the whole Greenbrier area into a collection of urban villages, and even better if they can be connected to a light rail line or few.

That depends on the size of the streets in the grid. 2-4 lane streets are much safer for pedestrians to cross than 6-8 lane streets. Something like the Pembroke Mall site should be a grid of 2 lane streets. Virginia Beach will always have an issue with Independence and VB Blvd, but that isn't the reason why a grid shouldn't be used for surrounding developments. Plus a true grid probably isn't even necessary, take the Reston Town Center that functions on a staggered grid pattern of 2 lane streets. The size of the Reston Town Center is about the same size as the Pembroke Mall Site, so I would imagine what was done there could similarly be done at Pembroke.

That was like 10 years ago and it was referring to an area of Broadway up in the Upper Westside. That has already been fixed, they reduced it by a lane to expand the island in between the lanes to make it much safer for pedestrians to cross.

Was this supposed to be sarcasm?