2 new buildings

[Nindec]

Today's citizen times (link) has an article which discusses two new buildings planned in the underdeveloped southern part of downtown -- one 17 story, 450 condo building and one 10 story, 160 apartment building.

Have we heard about these projects before? They sound awesome. Both seem a little tall, but the sloping land will knock a few stories off their skyline impact. And plus, I'd love to see this area of downtown develop a distinct feel -- less need to have everything tie in with the historic feel when their aren't many historic buildings. Why not have lots of taller buildings? And these could take us one step closer to somewhat connecting the river district and downtown.

Would the 17 story one need a massive footprint for that number of condos?

This excites me a lot. I'm looking forward to seeing the renderings.

[orulz]

Although I had no idea about the 10 story building, I had noticed info about the 17 story one (though I had no idea of the scale) on planning commission agendas over the last several days (and started a thread here about it.)

This is very exciting. 17 stories... 450 units? I can only hope that they don't mean 450, 1500-2500 square foot apartments. I hope almost everything is in the 500-1000sf range. Folks these days seem to have forgotten how with the abundance of "luxury" condos, but you can actually build a very livable 2 bedroom unit in under 1000 square feet.

[hauntedheadnc]

I'm thrilled too. Hopefully this is the first (techincally second) shot in the war on South Slope sprawl. Imagine buildings like this all the way from downtown to the hospital!

Speaking of, I've always referred to Mission-St. Joseph's and the many, many blocks of doctors' offices surrounding them as the Medical District.* That's not an official name, is it? What is that area officially called?

(*It should be, because "the Medical District" sounds groovlicious)

[orulz]

It's interesting to note that Power Development LLC (the folks behind the 17 story project on Ravenscroft) own some land in the Medical District - a small parcel next to Doctors Park, on the southwest corner of Biltmore and Choctaw. One can only guess what their plans are, but I hope it's interesting.

I've long thought that there are a number of lots in this neighborhood prime for redevelopment into denser office space or mixed-use. There's this lot, Doctors Park itself (which I believe is office condos, which makes it a bit harder) and the hospital-owned lot at the SW corner of Biltmore and Victoria, among others.

It would be awesome to see downtown and this district continue to grow together (they're not that far apart to begin with.)

[hauntedheadnc]

They were just talking about this project on WLOS. They showed a flash of a banner that depicted a rendering, although I don't know exactly of what.

And in related news who knew that Asheville had its own Chrysler Building?

Edit: By the way, I know this Ravenscroft project is the same discussed earlier, and that I was ranting and raving about the architecture... What's odd is that if this building turns out to be as plain as other Camille-Alberice projects, because of its height, it's still going to be a lot more palatable than others. Height can go a long way towards mitigating bland architecture. Even 21 Battery Park would be a lot more tolerable to me if it were about twice as tall.

[orulz]

Here is a rendering and an aerial of the Chrysler Building in Asheville.

The lot directly to the north of the Chrysler Bldg. (to the left in the rendering) is owned by the same people so I suspect that's where the 10 story building will go.

The aerial is a bit old, so it doesn't show the Sawyer Motor Annex at 120 Coxe Avenue (completed about 2 years ago) - about halfway between Banks and Hilliard.

[hauntedheadnc]

The Chrysler Building must have been what that rendering was of. I only got a glimpse, and that's pretty much all they offered, but I do remember the roofline.

[orulz]

There's no way the 450-unit development on Ravenscroft will all be in one, 17-story building. Chances are, the development will have more than one building, more than one phase, and an eventual full build-out of 450 units.

It's an obscure, out-of-the-way part of downtown, and the streets probably haven't been widened or changed or touched (aside from perhaps resurfacing) since the first half of the last century. The present layout is kind of odd and not very conducive to urban development. I bet the developer will realign some streets so the land is more integrated with downtown. I'm eager to see a site plan.

[hauntedheadnc]

An article in today's Mountain X-Press seems to make mention of the 10-story building and renovation of the Chrysler Building, and also seems to indicate that construction of the new building will be like that of Lexington Station -- prefab units placed into a steel frame.