DowntownCoruscant

I want to take that route so much. We were supposed to go out this summer for a conference, but I ended up getting a different job … so no Bay Area conference for me.

Good comment - it’s just that the initial outlay of what it would take to make it happen ensures it will never happen.

Nice article, but my sense tells me that site isn’t 2.5 miles away from the Diamond.

Admittedly, my annoyance with the 7th & 8th Street lane closures is a bit of a hobby horse of mine here, but is there any plan to open up those lanes? The reduced lanes are crazily drawn on 7th, creating morning issues, and having that second right turn lane on 8th would help after quitting time.

About a month ago.

I was just wondering that the other day. Last news I heard was tangentially related - Henrico hiring the RIR guy as its sports authority head.

That’s the thing with a vision; it’s never really complete. Edit: The reshaping of Tysons is impressive to me. Apples and oranges to anything in RVA, though. The amount of money flowing through there is, we’ll, it may as well be Monopoly money.

Or just long enough? At least in a galaxy brain sense. (If we’re heading into a recession, it’ll take so long that we’ll be out of the recession by the time this is ripe.)

It’s not exciting but it’s definitely a growth industry. My wife, whose career is working with elderly populations, does not like when these are locate directly on a main thoroughfare. Too many risk in the (very unlikely) event a memory care patient leaves unsupervised. There’s one south of the river that is very close to a major road. At any rate, this one seems to be set back a fair distance.

Does that include the renderings of the ballpark itself? Because that’s the most tangible thing (also the most immediate thing), and one would think they produced those renderings with input from each respective stadium designer. That is, maybe the RCDP can’t match the view in their ballpark rendering, but does the rendering offer a glimpse of how they’d actually design the ballpark?

I haven’t mined the full contours of the Rule of Thumb, but what I meant is that you can’t game it like that. :-) 123FakeStreet is right.

Rule of Thumb is gonna come down like a bleepin anvil on that, my friend!

Well I’ve spent entirely too long 500x zooming on these ballpark renderings (I’m mostly here for the ballpark design), and here are my thoughts: 1) Richmond Community Development is exquisite. The view in the rendering is beautiful (as I opened yesterday), but beyond that this is an ambitious design. Look at that viewing platform that begins in left center field and merges into the second level. (Its beginning seems to fork toward an elevated concourse in LF, a la Nationals Park and other modern ballparks.) Looking at all the drawings together, it seems possible this park will have a home plate gate and a center field gate. Much different than The Diamond, of course. Also. in addition to that concourse, there’s a bit of homer porch seating in LF. I’m expecting that area to be very fun for fans of home runs because it does not seem deep (I think the LF marker says 315 feet) and does not curve toward CF. RF seems to have a crazy retro ballpark style with juts and angels. Not sure what’s going on under the RF scoreboard there. Side note: People sitting on the RF side might bake in the summer sun for 6 pm or 7 pm start times. RVA Diamond: Pretty good, but maybe 70% of the imagination of the first group. I definitely don’t hate it. Looks like more seating is allocated in the OF, which is a trend in minor league parks. In addition to the seating down the LF line, I think those are bleachers in left center field. Maybe a viewing platform along the LF line in front of that building; or maybe it’s part of the building, though I doubt that. I predict the grass berm in RF would become a prime rolling down the hill spot for young kids. It’s a good rendering, but I don’t like using all the height along AA Blvd because that limits the view from home plate. Extra points for inserting Nutzy and Nutasha, but minus points for inserting a second Nutzy. That’s guilding the lilly. There can only be one Nutzy. 300 Folks: Who knows? There’s no inside the ballpark rendering. The overhead view is kind of boring. I’m not going to take the time speculating on details if they’re not going to take the time to give me any. Funny that the street scene rendering has a picture of Russell Wilson as a Seahawk. Inconvenient timing there.

I mean, 300 will probably get it. That’s the one with the local connections, right?

Holy moly, that second Richmond Community Development Partners drawing is beautiful.

True - and this is surely not my area so I probably know the least among any on this board - but it’s not like they were paying cash for this thing. So presumably this was the height with the most palatable financing while keeping in mind there’s apparently a point where things get exponentially more expensive the higher you go.

There’s demand to build buildings of that height there, and there isn’t here. Every one of those places are much larger or growing at a much faster rate. It’s not an insult to Richmond, just reality.

We can hope, but Occam’s razor suggests he was just mistaken.

Populous is a really heavy hitter in stadium design. That said, I like another group more. But THAT said, I can’t remember which.

I don’t know if this is a blazing hot take or a commonly held opinion, but the Dominion building is ugly as sin when approaching from the west. Stubby looking and the top doesn’t even look finished (yes, I know it’s just the design). I started back 5 days per week downtown a few months ago and expected it would grow on me every time I drive in on the Downtown Expressway, but it hasn’t. From other perspectives, I will acknowledge, the building looks pretty good. But the view from the west is trash. There, I said it.

It’s worth noting that 26-21 = 5, and that 5 out of 26 is 19.2% or about 20%. The UP Rule of Thumb strikes again.

Drive thru Starbucks ain’t exciting, but a) that’s all Starbucks is building these days, and b) that’s what outside the downtown core neighborhoods have everywhere from LA to Las Cruces and anywhere in between. Besides, the drive-thru on the Boulevard takes up a small footprint and feeds from/to a side street. It can be done.

Is this the project that is going to kill Legend’s view of the river/skyline? If so, could they make the building out of clear materials a la Crystal Pepsi?

I think Michael Scott was onto something with negotiation: “It that’s your second offer, I don’t even want to hear your first offer.”

Respectfully disagree. This was very foreseeable. The area where the build is planned is tight, at least on one side. I can’t really blame them here. Edit: I say this as someone who lives in the Willow Lawn area (albeit it not at that precise location). No one on this board wants to see WL thrive more than me.