Tower at Main & Gervais

[krazeeboi]

^Hope it doesn't mean that the overall height will decrease.

[sonofaque86]

* $60 million

* 482,410 sq ft

o 10,000 sq ft for retail

o 194,400 for office

* 19 floors

o 1 for retail

o 7 for parking (600 spaces)

o 10 for offices

o 1 for _____

* Construction to begin this spring, with completion in about 18 months. (completion late 2009 or early 2010)

[krazeeboi]

^I'm guessing those stats came from the original article. I suppose we've got an incredible shrinking tower on our hands.

[BIDmark]

Hey guys and gals, been checking out the forum for about a year now and finally decided to join!

I was walking by the Capitol Center at lunch today and noticed the tent for the groundbreaking of the new tower. There seemed to be a pretty decent sized crowd gathered around and looked like a barbecue lunch was provided. Hopefully they will start construction soon.

Mark

[krazeeboi]

^Hey Mark! Welcome to the forum; we're glad you finally decided to chime in. Hope you continue to contribute.

Well, we have the article in today's edition of The State. Seems that the tower was scaled down a bit to ensure that the tower was fully occupied, thus eliminating the spec space. I can't say that I blame Holder for that move. A good bit of space is getting ready to become available within the next year, so there was really no need for extra space.

With the info given, anyone want to speculate about the height? I believe previous information had this tower slightly shorter than Meridian, if I remember correctly.

[waccamatt]

With 9 floors of office, 2 floors of lobby and 6 floors of parking, I'll estimate like this:

2 floors of lobby: 40 feet (20 each)

9 floors of office: 135 feet (15 each)

6 floors of parking: 54 feet (9 each)

Rooftop mechanical space: 15 feet

Total: 244 feet or about 30 feet shorter than Wilbur Smith

[sonofaque86]

It said the fifth largest tower. You think by height or square ft? So is Wilbur Smith the fourth?

Oh the Meridian is 350,000 square feet so hopefully it does end up around the same height as WS. I don't think that'll be too bad

[krazeeboi]

About 30 ft shorter than the Wilbur Smith tower is a respectable height. It will definitely make its impact upon the skyline.

Hopefully the office space that will be vacated within the next year or so will get absorbed rather quickly so that a new tallest can get proposed.

[BrasilnSC]

Are there any new renderings? With it starting in a month, there has to be a final design.

[CorgiMatt]

The rendering they showed on WIS News last night was exactly the same as the last one posted on here.

[krazeeboi]

^I'm not surprised. I think that's what they will go with. I just hope something a bit more detailed gets released, especially at the street level.

[Spartan]

I'd say the fact that they are still moving forward with this project given the general state of the national economy is a good sign for Columbia. I wish they hadn't taken floors off of this thing, but its still a 17 storey building that is filling up the most inappropriately placed parking lot in the state of South Carolina.

[krazeeboi]

I wish they hadn't taken floors off of this thing, but its still a 17 storey building that is filling up the most inappropriately placed parking lot in the state of South Carolina.

[waccamatt]

I think 229 is correct if the 1/2 story of parking adds height to the building. According to Emporis, the Palmetto Building is 215 feet so this will be a little taller than the Palmetto Building, but will have a much larger footprint. It is also a little taller than 1441 Main (new Wachovia Building) and would be a little shorter than Meridian without the crown. I know it isn't always feasible, but it would have been nice to have halved the footprint and doubled the height.

[krazeeboi]

^Or to have a spire or crown to help it "cheat" a little.

[krazeeboi]

Mr. Bright has informed me that the most recent rendering (with the slanted/tapered edge) is pretty much the rendering for this project.

[Spartan]

Thanks for the sleuthing, krazee.

[waccamatt]

With the slanted edge it isn't a true box, so I'm ok with the design, though I'm a little disappointed with the height and the lack of a feature on top.

[krazeeboi]

The most recent edition of The Free Times covered the groundbreaking, and the story reports that in his notes, John Holder referenced this a "state-of-the-art signature tower." The state-of-the-art part will be right, but signature? Not hardly. The only thing distinctive about the tower will be the fact that it's all glass. That will be a welcome change in the skyline, but it will be far from being a signature tower. The architects pretty much just took a glass box and slanted one edge, placed a small boxlike feature at the top southeastern corner, and put a notch in the side. But hey, that's better than just the plain boxes that exist downtown already.

Also, I wonder if the city offered Holder some incentives to make this tower LEED certified, or at least have some green features. Incorporating some form of hydrogren fuel cell techonology and bike racks would have also been a good move. If the city isn't offering these sorts of incentives to developers, it ought to.

[waccamatt]

^ I agree; I thought I had read somewhere that it would be LEED certified, but I may be imagining things.

[CorgiMatt]

I'll wait to see the finished product. The outline of it won't be the signature part - that's for sure, but to me a LOT is riding on the coloring, the hue that the glass creates, both for reflecting its surroundings and for complementing the colors of other things on the skyline such as light green rooftops, etc.

[waccamatt]

I am also anxious to see the type and size restaurant that locates in the building and how well the restaurant and the bank branch address both Main and Gervais Streets. It would be nice to also see some street vendors and a fountain in the plaza. I would especially like a fountain that can't help but catch everyone's attention when they walk or drive by so they won't notice the flag on the grounds across the street.

[krazeeboi]

^Hey, do some emailing, you might get it.

[waccamatt]

^Hey, do some emailing, you might get it.

[dobboard]

The state-of-the-art part will be right, but signature? Not hardly. The only thing distinctive about the tower will be the fact that it's all glass. That will be a welcome change in the skyline, but it will be far from being a signature tower. The architects pretty much just took a glass box and slanted one edge, placed a small boxlike feature at the top southeastern corner, and put a notch in the side.