The River Market

[skirby]

20 minutes ago, wmr said:

Is that parking garage going to have storefronts along the street (where the other storefronts are across from it)? 

 

If not, it looks like a missed opportunity.

 

Thanks for the pics!

According to the sign for the building it will contain 4,500 square feet of retail.  Looks like it will not be too deep but almost the length of  Clinton Ave.  side of the building.

[Heartland25]

Snow in LR

[skirby]

Brick going up on the parking deck.

[skirby]

On 11/16/2015 at 10:06 AM, skirby said:

The Clinton Store has announced that it will be locating to the Clinton Library and the building it is now located in is on the market.

The old Clinton Store building has been sold to AXPM. It will employ 55 people in the building.

[skirby]

Work on the parking deck continues.

[skirby]

Parking deck should be opening soon.

[Architect]

I have no idea how in the world the Clinton Avenue facade of that deck was approved.  Your picture is kind because it's too obscure to see the complete lack of ornament or fenestration.

[skirby]

At least it is better that the one down the street next to Big Whiskey's. I don't recall the Library ever being turned down on their projects except when they wanted to build the deck facing the river.

[Architect]

5 minutes ago, skirby said:

At least it is better that the one down the street next to Big Whiskey's. I don't recall the Library ever being turned down on their projects except when they wanted to build the deck facing the river.

Better to have no facade (deck at Big Whiskey's) than a bad facade.

[Arkanzin]

Whatever Bobby wanted, Bobby got.  This parking deck is...to put it nicely, ugly.  

 

[skirby]

Well, they don't build them like this anymore. Fulk Building on the 600 block of Main.

[Arkanzin]

I wish they did!  I hate the cheap prefab steel buildings that go up fast and look like crap real quick.  The key word is "cheap."

[LRretail]

23 hours ago, Arkanzin said:

Whatever Bobby wanted, Bobby got.  This parking deck is...to put it nicely, ugly.  

 

I'll second on this statement.  Definitely got what he wanted.  I'm not sure that any parking deck is "pretty" per se but I'm absolutely baffled by the facade.  I'm not sure what the point is.  My primary disappointment with it is that it doesn't fit anything else around it.  It doesn't look like it belongs. 

[Architect]

1 hour ago, LRretail said:

I'll second on this statement.  Definitely got what he wanted.  I'm not sure that any parking deck is "pretty" per se but I'm absolutely baffled by the facade.  I'm not sure what the point is.  My primary disappointment with it is that it doesn't fit anything else around it.  It doesn't look like it belongs. 

But Bobby normally delivered beautiful buildings...which this is not (and technically, he's now retired).

[Arkanzin]

22 hours ago, Architect said:

But Bobby normally delivered beautiful buildings...which this is not (and technically, he's now retired).

The deck was proposed and approved while Bobby was still CALS Director.  This is all his.  

[LRretail]

On June 9, 2016 at 10:29 AM, Architect said:

But Bobby normally delivered beautiful buildings...which this is not (and technically, he's now retired).

Technically.... yes he's retired.  But he still heads up the CALS foundation, which has a stake in the parking deck.  Bobby also shows up to work on a normal basis even though he's retired.  Bobby is Bobby.  Personally I hope he finds a nice sunny spot somewhere and props his feet up for a change.   

[Heartland25]

Does the deck have any retail space facing Clinton Ave? If not what a huge missed opportunity. And yes, it's not very pretty to look at

[Arkanzin]

1 hour ago, Heartland25 said:

Does the deck have any retail space facing Clinton Ave? If not what a huge missed opportunity. And yes, it's not very pretty to look at

There will be retail stores facing Clinton Avenue.  

[skirby]

Arkansas Business is reporting that Acxiom is looking to sell their headquarters building. The company wants to stay in the building but doesn't need all of the space. If the building is sold I wonder if the new owner would put the property facing River Market Avenue up for development?

[Architect]

59 minutes ago, skirby said:

Arkansas Business is reporting that Acxiom is looking to sell their headquarters building. The company wants to stay in the building but doesn't need all of the space. If the building is sold I wonder if the new owner would put the property facing River Market Avenue up for development?

More and more work/expansions for Acxiom is being done elsewhere.  The new CEO is not from Arkansas, and I have the sense that if they continue to have a presence in the state, they don't want the complexity of two locations, and much more of their infrastructure is in nondescript buildings in Conway.  It's regrettable, given that they're essentially abandoning the push for a flagship, urban HQ for a tech company originally envisioned by Charles Morgan, an Arkansas native.

[skirby]

The parking deck is finished. After looking at the deck I think it would have been better to have put pull up garage doors instead of the windows facing the street.

On the right side between the two buildings is a staircase. Sort of interesting.

The library side entrance .

I don't know if it is open because there were no cars in it but I went in up the stairs. There are some nice views from the deck.

 

 

[Architect]

19 hours ago, skirby said:

The parking deck is finished. After looking at the deck I think it would have been better to have put pull up garage doors instead of the windows facing the street.

It's not the bottom floor that offensive...it's the top two.  The idea of spending money to "screen" a deck is to improve the public facade, but in this case...better to have done nothing.  There's just TOO much brick, which is ironic, because it's actually more expensive than the openings (since there's no glass).  It's not that it had to be ornate; simple is fine.  It just needs more openings.  Okay...end of critique.

[Arkanzin]

That.

Is.

Hideous.

Eyesore!

 

[ndark]

Looks like the David's burgers is finally being done in the food court area. Fencing is up on the outside patio area between it and the police station and they are tearing up the concrete. The fencing has a new David's burgers sign on it. I didn't know they planned to do any renovating to the outside patio area. 

[skirby]

10 minutes ago, ndark said:

Looks like the David's burgers is finally being done in the food court area. Fencing is up on the outside patio area between it and the police station and they are tearing up the concrete. The fencing has a new David's burgers sign on it. I didn't know they planned to do any renovating to the outside patio area. 

They are expanding into the patio area.