ertley

Obviously I hope the lower parking garage floors facade is well cladded or screened, but even if it's mediocre I can live with it, because at least from Tryon you'll never really notice, with the Spirit Square and library buildings blocking pedestrian views of those lower stories. Hopefully the need to make the alley/promenade/passageway between the library and office tower an aesthetic and activity focus of the development will necessitate that the developers allocate sufficient resources--$$$ and creativity--to screening the parking deck to a higher degree than we're used to in Charlotte, though.

I would honestly settle for just capping the single smallest possible section--that between Tryon and College. It would be SO worth it, in unifying downtown and upper South End, and I can't believe, after Queensbridge is built, that the rights for developing such a block wouldn't far outweigh the costs of adapting the infrastructure.

I can't express in words how wonderful it is to know that a building (dare I even refer to Hall House?) is able to be assessed on its structural merits AND upon the environmental and resource consequences of demolishing a perfectly serviceable building and rebuilding it anew, and then reimagining the building. I hope this can inspire some new thinking in Charlotte.

I agree with both of these sentiments. If the city is going to go through the machinations and technicalities of changing a street name, then why cut corners? It wouldn't have required that much more effort to change a smaller, relatively insignificant street name concurrently, which could've easily been made a Place, Trace or Terrace. I've opined before that I think the city should have a regular, routine effort of changing street names city-wide. They've proven through this initiative that it's possible if only the political will is there. One example: Trade Street continue all the way to Presbyterian/Novant at the east, and on its west end should continue past JCSU all the way up to 85. In my personal schema, 85 would become the universal break point between the old rural road names--which I want to preserve--and the city street names. So, in this case specifically, Beatties Ford would become Trade South of 85. The vestige of Trade no longer connected to Five Points would then be a great renaming opportunity for the city or even locally the Biddleville community. Elizabeth Avenue should not disappear, it should be reconstituted by renaming Charlottetowne Avenue to Elizabeth. Charlottetowne is, quite frankly, embarrassingly provincial and should be done away with regardless. I cringe every time I see it on Independence and 277 signage. I know it's supposed to commemorate the old mall--but it wasn't spelled CharlottetownE--just Charlottetown!!!! Adding superfluous "e"s to the ends of English proper names is always purely ridiculous affectation. Anyone who's actually been to England realizes it's not actually a thing there. (I know that sounds incredibly snobbish, but it's just...true.) Charlotte leaders should've realized this when it was named, but anyway let's correct a bad idea. On a similar vein, Fifth should continue through Five Points and then replace Idaho--why is there even an Idaho Avenue in Charlotte??--Rozelles Ferry still has plenty of length far beyond 85. I think it would be wonderful to have a sign for "West 5th St" on Brookshire as your driving east towards downtown, instead of "Idaho Ave"--but that's the superficial reason: It would just help make Charlotte a more integrated, in all the senses of the word, if it's major streets and avenues continued uninterrupted, and instead of letting real estate developers devise sometimes (often) questionable monikers for residential or business areas, you'd have strong major street names instead. I have dozens and dozens of other renaming proposals, which is why I think it should be a regular, routine operation of the city. None of my proposals are about getting rid of old names, just regularizing street names throughout the city so Charlotte looks and operates more like a world class city, with more than just a few continuous corridors with consistent names.

This is great news. I've long believed that this needed to be actually built by a variety of developers and, more importantly, architects so that it doesn't have a planned by central committee look and feel to it.

The plans that I have seen--and of course they are likely to change--include the building of a second bridge south of the current West Boulevard bridge, which will be close enough that they share 485 ingress and egress points--there will be a connecting service road of sorts between the two roads/bridges. The plans for West Boulevard have historically (within recent history) focused on shifting it completely south, specifically converting Douglas Drive, which is now residential with significant setbacks for the houses, to the rerouted West Boulevard, and then connecting it to Douglas, (They're two roads that de jure are/should be joined but just never were.) It would seem to me that the logical continuation of that to the east is converting West Tyvola to West Boulevard, which I think would be smart. Then the west vestige of West Boulevard will make a nice, functional road for airport infrastructure and traffic. So, I *think* the new, more southerly bridge may be for continuing the new route of West Blvd. I will also say, AGAIN, that if the city and county haven't strongly encouraged or even forced River District planners to incorporate a future right of way for a potential Silver Line spur, they aren't earning their salaries. To me, it's a no-brainer. I posted more at length before about how easy, under *present* conditions, it would be to reserve right of way for such a spur from the River District along the current (future old) West Boulevard and then over to Wilkinson.

Somebody on this thread several weeks ago--Sorry that I can't remember who--had the best suggestion for improving the look of this garage, and it's relatively simple and low cost: Paint all the columns and anything else concrete behind the screening black. It would really help 'harmonize' the building and make the screening more effective.

Conceptually--I realize when we're talking rail here the only remotely realistic avenue of thought is intrastate--I would like to extend that arc to become a Carolina Crescent stretching down from Charlotte to Columbia and then on to Charleston. In an ideal world an interstate rail service would take you from Charleston up to Charlotte and then on to Greensboro...and (again, in an ideal world) even closing the loop with a Grand Strand/Low Country leg from Wilmington through Myrtle Beach to Charleston... I know getting South Carolina to ever participate in such a scheme is decades away from even being discussed, but having reliable, relatively high speed rail from Charlotte to Charleston would be a win-win-win. Even by car (with no major traffic issues) it's not much over three hours from CLT to CHS, so by rail it should be well under two hours, right?

Since someone's suggested building somewhere else, an alternative proposal would be to build a new convention center where the Panthers training facility is. The city owns the land, which theoretically is going to be vacated, eventually, as well as the parcel adjoining continuing along the rail line to Tryon that runs behind the Johnson & Wales parcel. The J&W parcel seems, to me, to house only relatively small dormitories, so if the city could work with them to find land equally close by for building new dorms--maybe even some of the parcels on the other side of the tracks attached to the Gateway project?--and buy them out, the city would have a contiguous two block parcel immediately adjacent to Gateway Station with direct Amtrak service and connection to the airport, within easy walking distance to the current (and future?) NFL stadium and baseball stadium and only five blocks from the literal Center City. Seems like a dream location to me, and if building a hotel is part of the city's plan for the Gateway district, supersize it! That developable parcel in the Knights stadium block would also make a pretty place for a hotel close by Gateway and a new convention center.

I'd offer a refinement: If you're going to utilize the median right of way of 10th in the Fourth Ward, I would shift the line to do the same with the median of 9th in First Ward--and the median is wide enough you'd actually still be able to keep the street largely intact on each side. I realize NIMFYs (Not in My Front Yard) along 9th would likely make this impossible, but a nicely landscaped barrier and/or attractive fencing along the tracks would make it not-an-eyesore, IMO. The transition from one street to the other would have to occur through the block where First Ward Elementary currently is, but with so many empty or underdeveloped parcels in First Ward--many of course owned by Daniel Levine (see below*), relocating the school wouldn't be an impossible mission. Of course the margins of the block where the school currently is could be redeveloped. The actual amazing element? Taking this down 10th Street in Fourth Ward would put the intersection of the two lines at the immediate end of the existing 9th Street station. Another really interesting part of your proposition for First Ward is that at least three blocks of the line could replace non-existent parts of 10th, through the Levine post-apocalyptic superblock* and then by Hal Marshall, which IMO would make their eventual (re)development far more interesting and profitable by having the Silver Line and its rail trail running through them. For me, the strongest argument against using the same alignment for the Silver and Blue lines downtown is the practical consideration of curving the Silver Line to merge with the existing tracks and then exit them; I just don't see where it's realistic to find *two* whole blocks to make it happen. Another out of the box suggestion: Why not simply move the CTC to the two blocks the city/county already owns, between 9th and 11th adjoining the Blue Line? Even if the city (which of course is what's going to most likely happen) runs the silver Line down 11th, wouldn't having the CTC at whatever transfer station approximation between the two primary light rail lines be preferrable than having it at the crossing of only one line and a streetcar? I can't believe the city/county doesn't have some sort of plan to replace the vital records center anyway, because that parcel has to be slated to eventual redevelopment. Just offer the block where the current CTC is for a straighforward redevelopment. People arriving at this College/9th/11th CTC could then take either the Blue or Silver Lines for only a few stops to get to any job in downtown if they weren't transferring to another bus line--besides simply walking a few blocks.

The great thing about this is that it's directly across the street from Camp North End, so the leasing company can attract advertise for businesses that could have a crossover appeal from just servicing local residents. It could, if executed properly, create a wonderful sense of (old fashioned) place at a major intersection, since this is plotted at the corner of Statesville and Oaklawn. I also love the fact that this is going to take the extension of Sylvania Avenue and curve it up to Oaklawn, which of course will be their second intersection, since Oaklawn is being extended across Statesville to curve south and actually terminate on Sylvania's extension. Here's an idea: Wouldn't Camp North End itself be a fantastic place for a grocery store? I mean, those warehouse buildings (although I know a lot are slated for demolition) are, like, almost built to house something like a modern grocery store. I actually think a *lot* of employees of firms at Camp North End--heck, even revelers on weekends and evenings--would appreciate having a grocery store so handy, before going home. It would have the added benefit of drawing the local community over to Camp North End as well.

To me, there's one huge opportunity for creating dedicated bike lanes--what I believe they classify as "Urban Trails" in the master plan--that (I think) would get huge use and address some of Charlotte's long term connectivity dead zone: Providence Road. Mid- and lower Providence has that median that isn't particularly wide, and isn't even planted with trees, but absolutely has enough width to allow creation of two bike lanes. I know reconstructing the street would cost $$$, but it's just priceless right of way that's being wasted, and the width of the median won't allow any additional lane creation (not that the neighborhoods would brook such a thing anyway) besides a continuous central turning lane. The loss of a treeless median isn't something that anyone except standard NIMBYs should care about. Coincidentally the median ends right at Briar Creek, so if the city/county could manage to extend the Briar Creek greenway just down to Providence Road, you could have a major commuting bikeway stretching all the way from at least the McAlpine Creek greenway and then through Briar Creek greenway farther north to Randolph via Eastover Park. (End portion into downtown/uptown/center city would be the more challenging final stage, obvs.) IMO the city should seriously evaluate this as an option, because this is ready right of way that doesn't have to be acquired, and it's literally wasted space now. With an Urban Trail up and down Providence you'd have north-south bike routes fairly evenly distributed through south Charlotte, with the Blue Line Rail Trail, then Sugar Creek greenway, and then hopefully eventually the Silver Line Rail Trail. This would take some of the pressure off the city/county to create longer east-west connections because you'd just have to make sure each of these adjacent trails were connected, but not necessarily (if impracticable) each continuously, in one line, linked to one another. On the other side of town, it looks like the city/county is planning on taking the Irwin Creek greenway through Double Oaks Park and then (smartly) utilizing the remainders of the lots taken for 77's widening on the west side of the road immediately south of the park. That gets Irwin Greek's greenway down to Oaklawn with pretty much no impediments, and within striking distance of downtown/uptown/center city. I think it's a great plan, in no small part because a bike path abutting the interstate won't have to deal with cars, intersections and stoplights for long stretches, so an ideal path for commuting. I think the city should look at doing the same thing on the west side of 77. I've long thought (with my passion for [re]connecting disjointed streets) that the city should connect Frazier and North Summit and Andrill then to Dean to Newcastle/Newland to create a good north-south street all the way from Beatties Ford just below 85 to Wesley Heights Way. You can also then make a dedicated bike trail on the east side of this new street with significant portions, again, without any interruptions or interference by cars due to no intersections. Win/Win IMO.

Does anyone know what traditional/standard English woman's name means "Pearl"? Margaret Margaret is the English translation of the Greek word for pearl. Just your little bit of trivia for the day! (But in my SimCLT it would be a nice enrichening of the area if a developer were to name a non-donor, purely residential building (if any are planned) something incorporating Margaret, for a little southern sophistication.) With Elizabeth just over the way, it's kind of cute that Charlotte will have two very inner neighborhoods with additional female appellations. In my head now I'm calling the two "Peggy and Bets," a sort of riff on "Porgy and Bess." Gretchen, FYI, is also a play on Margaret (or pearl), in German, where it's spelled 'Margrethe' (I think). With the European "ah/uh" sound at the end, first comes "Greta" and then "Gretchen," the uber diminutive. Lots of opportunities to nickname the area(s) or brand businesses, if people so choose!

From @tarhoosierin the CATS thread (I think): "Third Street station now is where cotton warehouses and cotton factors gathered during the season. Loading and unloading bales, testing, sampling for quality and dealmaking with credit and sales to move product onward. The cotton market as it is called in this book. See page 29 of the pdf of this book: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/gdc/scd0001/2010/20100114006ch/20100114006ch.pdf I say, take a look at page 50, for some perspective.

For the benefit of everyone who was there--and everyone who wasn't--here's the (admittedly cheap and poorly produced) video for the modern R&B 'classic' (IMHO) "Heard It All Before" by Charlotte denizen Sunshine Anderson (I think a graduate of East Meck). I didn't realize she currently resides in CLT until I Googled her this morning. Apparently it 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2001!

Farther east/right--basically it's the open field area. Those two buildings just below right of the Blairhill Road pin haven't been sold to the developer, and if you look on the landscape plan, they're the two parcels that are blank (if you look closely). The lot to their immediate right is where the N/S street is going to be plotted, to totally bisect the larger parcel. I don't know if it's as simple as they can more or less immediately break ground on the virgin land, and so they're going to develop the Tryon fronting parcel later, or if other factors are in play. I would guess the Tryon parcel will require more investment because I assume it's going to be more intense/larger/taller...

This is another example of the city making all the right choices--as far as I can deduce from this schematic--for street connections within private developments. Not only are they planning on extending Blairhill, they're planning on constructing a CDOT-maintained street along the south boundary of the property, to also act as a buffer between it and the single family neighborhood. From the SE end angle of the new street, it very much looks to me like it can--hopefully will--connect to South Tryon directly opposite Yorkshire Drive, for (hopefully) an eventual full, signaled intersection. This is in addition to a N-S street within the development that looks as if it could eventually--with eminent domain exercised upon one house--be connected with Sarah Drive to the south. Based on these plans above, I'm reasonably optimistic the city will alter Blairhill's eastern terminus when that parcel is developed, for Blairhill's alignment with Tryclan, for another full, signaled intersection, at least eventually. (But why did they let Tryclan be given that dumb name, when it is seemingly to be combined/aligned with Blairhill, a much more sonorous name??) So, if all this comes to fruition, the city gets an A- from me (docked points for allowing Tryclan to be a thing) for this plan to implement a nice, integrated street grid for this area.

In the immortal words of Sade, "It's never as good as the first time..."

I still contend that if Ballantyne's overlords are ever *truly* serious about making it feel like a real place and not a (IMO) soulless corporate park that people also happen to inhabit, they will disassemble those wastes of space arches at the main intersection--and think of places needing a little TLC or visual interest where they can be reassembled--and in their place, on all four corners of Johnston and Ballantyne Commons Pkway, build four (multistory) structures abutting (improved) sidewalks, so that it at least the place has the look and maybe the feel of a real town center. It wouldn't disturb that much of the extant surface lot parking, and each building could be planned for the types of tenants that could operate in a standalone structure with no need for a loading dock, etc. They'd have all the parking they needed for customers, right there. Until that happens, I don't take anything going on in Ballantyne too seriously.

115% right. I know in the 21st century we're all opposed to the creation of new expressways within urban cores, but Independence is too far gone to be anything like an actual boulevard. Every time I see a new development plan adjoining Independence that allows for curb cuts or new street connections I immediately complete a simultaneous trifecta of eye roll, SMH and WTF... I assuage my distress, though, by telling myself they're just intermediate, minor infrastructure, since hopefully they're planning on Silver Line construction leading to Independence 4.0 (?), at least on the south side--more than a decade away. I really hope the city adheres to its stated goal of remaking Monroe a vibrant neighborhood avenue on the south side, and hopefully Central and even Commonwealth, in parts, can perform that function on the north side. In my personal version of SimCity--SimCLT--Independence becomes a full expressway, and with nice neighborhoods backing up to it on either side, and oriented towards the Monroe and Commonwealth*/Central corridors, with all (most) of the commercial structures we see today replaced by moderate height multifamily structures--atop parking podiums!! Who wants to be down at ground level or even just a few stories up near an expressway? It's a win-win IMO, to have new midrises along Independence, particularly on the south side, adjacent to the Silver Line, upon parking podiums (of appropriate space allocation), making the residences higher, with better views, and most importantly minimizing sound pollution for their residents. *In my SimCLT, where I get to connect all the roads I want, where Commonwealth meets Woodland near its now inglorious, pitiful, anticlimactic eastern terminus, the intersection with Woodland would be (only minimally) reconfigured to have traffic continue straight onto Woodland--renamed Commonwealth, natch--which happens to be the first street that actually crosses Eastway, Then, on the other side of Eastway, before the new east end of Commonwealth (i.e. Woodland) terminates onto Independence--because of course that would be eliminated--Commonwealth/Woodland instead would curve left/east into what's now Winfield. The new furthest eastern part of Commonwealth (i.e. Winfield) would then take you all the way to then parallel Albemarle, and in my SimCLT Eastern Hills Baptist could be persuaded to demolish its education or fellowship building fronting Albemarle--but keep its sanctuary facing the last leg of Pierson--so 'Commonwealth' could be extended all the way to Pierson at least. Of course, I fantasize that eventual redevelopment along Albemarle in this area would allow for Commonwealth's continued paralleling of Albemarle to Sharon Amity... The eastern extension of Commonwealth may be very well only be fantasy, but on its western end--and I don't know if the extension of the Gold Line would make this impossible, since it will come down Clement from Hawthorn--but I really wish the city would see how easy it would be extend Clement (and renamed Commonwealth, please) farther up to Hawthorn, to come out at a right of way that's basically the easternmost terminus of 16th. By just exercising eminent domain on two parcels, only one of which has a built structure , a small warehouse, the city can easily connect an extended Clement/Commonwealth to east 16th. I of course also think 16th should be re-connected between Davidson and McDowell--the city has the latitude to make this happen without purchasing any property by already owning all those floodplain lots, to allow 16th to curve a bit to preserve the (restored) creek. All of this would allow a contiguous drive from North Tryon all the way to Albemarle (maybe one day Sharon Amity) by only tearing down one (!!) structure. That's a big tangent, I know, but working hard to (re)connect streets can strengthen inter-neighborhood connections and reducing reliance upon limited thoroughfares, in this specific instance, Independence.

Coincidentally, I submitted a proposal to the city planners working on the Rail Trail pedestrian bridge across 277--and got a response from them, which I very much appreciated, regardless of outcome--proposing signage/art for the NW side/approach, labeling each arch as DOWNtown and SOUTHend: Of course, these letters should be lighted at night, and be painted in bold color(s), not some dull minimalist white. Now @TheRealClayton's campaign to rebrand the area south of 277 is going to totally obviate my proposal! Wahh. I suppose you could substitute DOWNtown with UPtown, but you definitely can't have UPtown and DOWNtown on the arches, that wouldn't work. My idea was that "DOWN" and "SOUTH" would be larger and in all caps to create sort of portmanteau of the two areas, for (IMO) a great landmark and/or branding opportunity for Charlotte. I thought highlighting DOWN SOUTH would help Charlotte visually stake its claim as a major Southern city. This side of the pedestrian bridge would be highly visible by any cameras panning from or around the stadium... I argued in my email to the planners that--which I've posted on here before--that historically Uptown and Downtown were used interchangeably for, well, Uptown/Downtown, and I chose Downtown purely for the synergy potential with South End. Oh well, I tried my best.

Regardless of how inviting they will be, I think it's critical they're there, because they makes pedestrian traffic from South End to Uptown far more inviting and practicable than it is now. I don't know if credit is due to the city or Riverside alone, but it's fundamentally the best aspect of this design.

IMHO what needs to happen is a broad coalition of Red Line 'stakeholders' needs to informally formally organize with the express intention of "flooding the zone" with the facts and specifics of how Norfolk Southern alone is impeding passenger rail to North Mecklenburg. Obviously CATS and MTC can't have any role in this, for political reasons, especially those affecting their relationships with Norfolk Southern, but concerned, agitated, aggrieved citizens in no way can be expected to be beholden to NS and keep their mouths shut. The singular mission of this group should be to raise general public awareness that it's not a "politics as usual" story, but a specific instance of a singular private entity affecting the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of citizens. This group needs to develop talking points and action items for badgering not just the Observer and Business Journal who cover development and transit in more detail but all local media to report, even in passing, the role NS has had in forestalling the Red Line. How many of the general public actually read a daily local paper, and of those how many actually read articles on transit from start to finish? The details of this have been buried in middle paragraphs of the stories about it, and this group needs to make awareness of this situation common knowledge. The group needs to ensure a member is present at every Council and planning meeting, regardless of agenda items, so that the issue of NS can be raised routinely in all public forums so the general public is fully aware. Public pressure and more importantly negative PR can affect corporate decisions, and this needs to be the focus of anyone and everyone who's frustrated by the Red Line stasis. The fact that allowing CATS access to this line would only affect a once weekly freight line that could be scheduled with great ease around rush hour passenger rail means there's no actual cost to NS to do this. This is a key point that needs to be made over and over, so that the first inclination of many people, to consider the effect on a "job creator," is neutralized at the start. Public pressure and extremely negative PR could actually force NS's hand. I read herein that NS is likely using the rights to this line as leverage for future negotiations with the state, but if there's enough public pressure--and not merely the standard route via officials elected from North Mecklenburg, but vast public awareness and upset--the balance of power between the public and private entities could be shifted, to some measurable degree. IMHO

It's noice, it's different, it's unusual.

My only minor critique of this building, and it's very esoteric, is that the pool is on the wrong side of the building. (My family has an unhealthy pool predilection, so I can't help but be aware.) You always want your pool to have as much southern exposure as possible, and this is not only oriented towards the north and west, towering walls on three sides are likely going to keep it largely shaded most of the day--but maybe highest midday sun will shine directly from above... It looks like they've tried to mitigate this as much as possible by pushing the pool as far to the terrace edge as they could, but it's still not going to get maximal sun exposure, so isn't going be an amenity of maximal use. I know (I know) a pool deck isn't enough justification to alter a building's design, but in theory it should be rotated 180 degrees, so at least the pool would get morning and early afternoon sun. What would be the difference in the view, anyway? It's not like looking down on the Rail Trail from eight stories up, and across an old building's roof, is more appealing than looking out across the trees of Dilworth... About half the new, larger apartment and condominium complexes in Charlotte make this same mistake, IMHO. I'm not an architect, but I always think about sun exposure, vis a vis building placement, even for internal space orientation and placement. Just a thing. (I love, love the Vantage buildings on Carson as much as anyone, but that courtyard is going to be shaded and relatively chilly all year long--so, nice for the hottest months of summer, but not an appealing space for at least half the year.)