electricmonk

Went up to Baltimore a couple weeks ago and got a few generic tourist type shots. Unfortunately I was only there overnight so I wasn't able to do much more than the Inner Harbor. I love that city so I hope to get back up there soon and do some more off the beaten path type stuff. On to the photos. View from the hotel room. View from the hotel room. View from the hotel room. From Federal Hill Park From Federal Hill Park View from the hotel room. Four Seasons Hotel and Residences under construction

A couple fairly new ones to bring this thread back to life.

The Cambria Suites building under construction at Riverside Center is on hold. The contractors pulled off the job in early March and filed liens on the project. http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2009_1s...riaRoanoke.html That project seems to have been cursed from the beginning.

Looks like the Jefferson Lodge site is the winner. Now let's just hope they put up something decent looking. I did a quick search on the developer but didn't see any examples of their past work. http://www.roanoke.com/news/breaking/wb/129177

Especially with the fate of the Patrick Henry Hotel up in the air. I really hope the owners of the PH don't just give up on it like they seem to be doing. That's one of my favorite buildings in downtown, hate to see it being neglected.

Now officially the worlds tallest building. 512 meters, 141 floors. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070721/ts_af...ai_070721084150

My Mom worked for 20+ years at the medical examiner's office here in Roanoke. She retired a few years ago but she does not miss that job one bit. She was their unofficial spokesperson so any time there was any sort of death that made the news she was the initial contact person for the press. She had opinions about all of the local media people and quite a few of the national ones that she had to deal with first hand. She said that with the exception of a couple people at CBS in Washington all the network people were very arrogant and rude.

New County library in the works. http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-104510 The sketch they had in Sunday's paper looked pretty cool. I hope they go through with it for one reason it's pretty much within walking distance of where I work. As long as they put a foot bridge across Back Creek I could run up there on my lunch break. Now if only the city would get in gear and do something about there library too.

Here's an external view from a month or 2 ago. It used to be one large theater but after some financial trouble in the late 80's it was saved by a non-profit and restored with community donations. Since they couldn't compete with the large multiplexes they closed the balcony off and converted that into 3 small theaters. The main room does have a stage and it used to house the Mill Mountain Theatre before Center in the Square was built. It also played host to a few punk rock shows back in the early 80's. Bands like Corrosion of Conformity, Frightwig, Guadalcanal Diary and others played there. I think I have some photos of some local bands playing there that shows the stage area but they aren't on this computer so it might take a day or 2 to dig them up.

Showing my age but I remember back when the Roanoke Civic Center was a must stop for almost every touring band. We didn't get the mega stars for the most part, no Springsteens, Stones, Who, etc but AC/DC, Van Halen, ZZ Top, Doobie Brothers, Allman Brothers, Heart, and all the other staples of what's called classic rock now stopped here every tour. Slightly off topic but is anyone else totally disappointed in the design of the new exhibit hall?

Man that laundromat used to be so sketchy. I first moved into this neighborhood in 1994 and had to use that laundromat for awhile. Every time I went there with my girlfriend I would nearly get into fights. The local crackheads would come in and first hit us up for change then they would start hitting on my girlfriend so of course things would go downhill after that. It was great when I finally got a car and we were able to drive over to the Grandin laundromat. Your post does bring up a good point though. There is tons of available space in the city for quality development. Both for new construction and rehabilitating older buildings. I get so annoyed when people tell me there's no land for development in Roanoke. There's tons of it. Ok so there isn't really space available for a major manufacturer that needs a couple thousand acres with rail access and all that but there is plenty of space for residential, retail and office. I'm of the opinion that within the city limits you could easily fit in another 50,000+ people without any major changes to the quality of life here with only a few changes to the existing infrastructure. Sure the traffic would be worse but it's not like it's bad now. For comparison San Francisco has 47 square mile and over 700,000 people. Roanoke has 43 square miles and 97,000 people.

Thanks all for the comments.

There's an article about downtown Roanoke in Showcase magazine and the head of Downtown Roanoke Inc. said in regards to downtown living that: "At present we have 400 people living downtown. Our goal is to have 1000. To reach that goal we are going to need new development, we can't get there with just rehabilitation of older buildings." "We're attempting to recruit developers from all over the East Coast. Most local developers have experience with suburban development, primarily. We're looking for people who know how to do urban development. It's a whole new ballgame." http://www.showcasemagazine.com/cms/#

I kind of disappeared from here for awhile but I've taken a bunch of new photos in the last few months. Here's two from the Center in the Square parking garage at about 2am a couple weekends ago.

A few new photos. I know the red brick building is being used by NS but it would make great condos. Edit: forgot the link to the full gallery. Gallery

Correction the name of the club next to Corned Beef was Ward's Rock Cafe.

That reminds me that at one time where Corned Beef and Co. is it was two seperate clubs. Corned Beef and the other place was called Hard Rock something can't remeber it's full name. They had the side where you can go out on the roof and hang out and it was a lot cooler than CB. After the Star City Diner closed the guy that owned The Melting Pot took it over for awhile as the Universal Cafe I think it was called and had a few punk shows there. He didn't have an ABC license so we all took our own beer in and stashed it in a back room and went back there between bands to drink.

I used to hang out at the old 9:30 Club and remember walking up E Street one day and seeing the Hard Rock Cafe coming soon sign and thought to myself, well there goes the neighborhood.

Thanks, yeah here are a couple more and a re-edit of the condo shot. I took a bunch of photos but after looking at them the next day they weren't the great art that I thought I was creating the night before. Edited with Adobe Lightroom. Too bad it's only a beta and once the final version is released they'll probably charge 600 bucks for it. Campbell Ave looking east. Color corrected version of the condos plus took out the distraction in the upper right corner. Jefferson St looking south. Full moon and corner of some building. I forget it's name but it's being converted to condos also.

A few photos I took while wandering around downtown at 3am the other night. I should have edited them in Lightroom so I could change the white balance but that's too much effort for tonight. Campbell Ave looking west. Old bank being converted into condos corner of Jefferson and Campbell. Kirk Ave.

Yeah, I remember your rant. Back in the spring/early summer there was a flash flood there and the paper interviewed some guests that said management never mentioned the possiblity of flooding even though it had been forecast and watches posted. They weren't happy especially after the hotel said it was up to the guests' auto insurance policies to cover any damage. That's just a really crappy way to run a business.

Yeah, I think it's just a case of "we'll ask for and if they give it to us, great. If not oh well." I think the site work the city has already done should be incentive enough. Roanoke isn't exactly flush with cash at the moment so I don't think they should be giving anything away unless they really need to to seal a deal for something that's going to bring in high paying jobs. If the owners of the Ramada were smart they would totally renovate that hotel and be a step ahead of the game. But from what I've read and heard they aren't that smart. They don't even tell guests about the potential for flash flooding there when it's been forecast a day or two ahead of time.

Carilion expanding again. "Carilion Health System is picking up its mighty hammer again. With a $105 million addition to Roanoke Memorial Hospital under way and a $15 million office building nearing completion, it began clearing land two weeks ago for a new medical clinic. System officials don't know what the clinic will cost but have estimated the structure will measure 250,000 square feet. By most any scale that's a potential landmark, even without knowing what Carilion's architects have in mind because designs have not been released. A large Kroger, such as the one at Cave Spring Corners, is 60,000 square feet. Carilion is thinking big because it's planning to hire a significant number of additional doctors. "I think it's going to be pretty good-sized building," said Conley Taylor, Roanoke's development review coordinator." More here http://www.roanoke.com/business/wb/wb/xp-81394

I say BOT-eh-Tot. Their website says (pronounced "Bot-i-tot").