ChiDev

Would need incredibly different building standards and approvals. Don't look for a Radius Hospital anytime soon. Delivery here is expected for april/may.

No point in chopping down the size of the building if they are planning to sell an entitled site (exactly what they are doing). I would say this is additional sign of a death knell.

https://www.radiusorlando.com/radius-orlando-fl/

Frinfrock was the GC brought in to quote the deal, and when the developer backed out, I am told they took over the deal themselves. Essentially Frinfrock is the developer.

Will be very interested to see the inside of that courtyard.

Anybody got any recent pics? Everything seems to be from this summer.

I hope they raise the elevation of the fountain by 10' with some dirt move. That would at least make it somewhat interesting, on the concept you could watch a soccer game on the main pitch. I know it won't happen tho.

If they ever really wanted to raise funds for stuff like this, one thing they could do is sell additional FAR above max zone to developers elsewhere. Chicago does it as a means of historic or park "adoption" where additional air rights are given for up front cash. Win-win. It does get the Alderman in a pinch later on when the Developer collects and builds slightly larger than the NIMBYs would like, but I am all for making politicians uncomfortable.

^^^ wholeheartedly agree with everything said. Metal stud is not competitive locally because Floridian Concrete is so dang cheap! My question is when will CLT & Metal stud finally break into the market?

^^^^ that an the increasing demands for Fire combatants in the IBC are going to further push it to be competitive with prefab metal stud (at lower heights concrete/metal stud price effectiveness breaks down to your area, and which side can service the project easier, though metal stud is supposed to be cheaper). I also think Frinfrock, despite building one of the ugliest apt buildings downtown, has really figured out their modular concrete system. I would expect them to start deploying it across FL.

I posted this already for Radius, but might as well include here since 409 is directly in the shot.

Who did they sue? the city? on what grounds? There are no protected view rights in Orlando, it would have to be a suit regarding zoning approval, in which case they could only sue the city correct?

my god hes right. Sorry everyone!

Here for instance are 7 podium decks in a row (south loop). If enough of a corridor follows suit, eventually it begins to feel like there is some weight over ones head driving down the street:

The wave builds community connection. You are discounting the social psychology factor of the tenants, and of the streetside pedestrian. I am not saying that tenants are harmed by having everything at their fingertips, what I opine is that a parking podium (unwrapped) can serve as a metaphorical moat or castle wall. Podium building tenants order in more often, & leave their apartments less, and generally maintain a 'cruise-ship-esque' existence over their more ground level activated counterpart. Quick transit times to ground floor over longer ones increase street level activation. Tenancy culture of leaving the building can push even those on the top floors to go out more than they would otherwise. Does every podium tenant become a shut in? No. Are my aforementioned statements backed mostly by emotion? Yes. Does any of this REALLY apply to Orlando? Somewhat. I would love to know how many elevator trips Modera makes vs Skyhouse, city tower, etc. In downtown River North (chicago) you can see the effect of the podium cruise-ships since they are often located somewhat adjacent to eachother. It results in streets where floors 2-8 are DEAD SPACE on both sides. For ZOI to be across from Society (granted kitty corner) I believe Orlando would start to see what I mean. I totally understand the need for podiums to be built the way they are, but while we are wishing for things, I would prefer to look up and see activity more so than I would to see some grandiose non-functional architectural detail like a visor or weird box like was originally planned for Society.

Also, back to the topic at hand:

If they were to shrink the offset of the parking structure, go taller to make up for spaces, and line the entire exterior of it in units/activity space for floors 2-whatever. this more specifically is what I would hope for.

Any time you have tons of podium you tend to lose street activation. I would look for something more like Radius itself, where the structure is more wrapped around/exists next to/on top of the parking deck. Each of those other projects were slated to have a bit of ground floor retail with a ton of parking directly above it. All of the retail at radius will have units above it, which to me grants a much more neighborhood feel & accessibility than the parking podium cruise ships as zoi and society were planned. Cruise ships are exactly what we call them in Chicago - tons of primarily MF buildings with a pinch of ground floor retail, topped by 4-5 stories of parking, topped with a complete array of amenities. They were designed so that tenants never have to leave the building (for gym, dog run, etc), and so the several floors of parking seem to effectively cut them off from the rest of the active city the same way a cruise ship at sea would. This is what I am referring to - Urban isolation via parking podium means that tenants transit from apt to street level less often, so much so it begins to feel like a world apart. Some people enjoy this, I however believe living downtown should feel like - well... living downtown.