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You can see the current renderings at https://luminaut.com/creations/towneplace-suites/

That 3-story addition was built to accommodate a full tower, so it's not being gutted, but I think there's an additional stair going in.

...we'd build a new convention center over the spaghetti bowl of I-75, fronting onto Central Avenue and with all the loading docks and crap on the Queensgate side.

Just remember that Vandercar also came up with the plan for Oakley Station (they even named a street after themselves).

Of course if they were really serious they'd bump out the other turn from Martin onto Eden Park Drive and put a stop sign there. There's really no need for that to be a continuous right turn.

The fence (and bonus guardrail!) were probably there before they put up the sound wall. Of course since the wall tapers down at the Hopple ramps, it leaves a gaping wide hole for the noise to come through. It's too bad about the location, because that's the sort of house I'm totally into.

Yep, but this is the same community that closed off access to Arbor, Atlantic, and Hyde Park Avenues, forcing it all onto Madison and Markbreit. Heck I wouldn't even put it past them to try to close off Markbreit because there's too much traffic, now.

They note a bike connection along 34th (which I'm sure will be nothing more than some signs or maybe a slightly widened sidewalk) but show only a "pedestrian connection" over the railroad that's drawn as if it's either two elevators, or two stairwells, and a bridge. It would have to be ADA accessible, which should therefore make it bike accessible, unless it's done with elevators, which I highly doubt. It's almost as if they're deliberately trying to make it "too hard" so it can be removed from the program after approval. A couple of ramps really wouldn't be too hard. As to a street connection, I agree, but all of Oakley would come out to oppose it, not just the purchasers in this development. "Something something cut-through traffic, rabble rabble."

It's that in-between zone that's tough though. Pleasant Ridge isn't in any way a "nearby neighborhood" to OTR, nor are Madisonville or College Hill. They don't have anywhere near the same sort of urban "product" but even if they did, you're tripling or quadrupling your commute to downtown or OTR compared to Walnut Hills or Price Hill. No it's not as bad as living in Mason or Loveland, but someone looking in the urban core isn't as likely to be tolerant of a 20-30 minute drive, which is how long it can take to get to outer neighborhoods during rush hour. The inner neighborhoods are in a similar price position to OTR as well, in that you either spend a lot to get a little, or you spend a little but have to then do a full renovation. It's one thing to be priced out of a core neighborhood and have to move one over (sort of like how Oakley is for those who can't quite afford Hyde Park), but being pushed to the literal edge of the city, if not the suburbs, because everything in between is either a total gut job or half a million dollars is a bummer.

I think you answered your own question right there. Look at how much of an obstructionist Cranley has been, and he's supposed to be a Democrat.

It's easy enough to just replace the unit with one of the same size without running any calculations. If the homeowner says it worked fine before, why change things up? When I was in high school the furnace for our family room and master suite developed a crack in the heat exchanger, and they replaced it with a much smaller one. They said the one that was installed when the addition was built was way oversized. So you get honest ones too.

It's based on total volume, so going from 8' to 9' ceilings would be a 12.5% increase.

Perhaps, but it's also just as likely to be something along the lines of "either cut $500K out of the budget or the project is dead." Whether that's because the financing isn't available, or the units won't sell/rent, it could be any number of things. "Hurr durr greed" is the knee-jerk response, but in a competitive market fractions of a percent matter, unfortunately.

When value engineering gets involved it all goes down the toilet. Garages are already about as no-frills as they can get, but they're still fantastically expensive compared to the rest of the building. Shaving off that last 5% of the budget (or even less) takes not only a ton of work to achieve design and selection-wise, but that's also where a decent building gets turned into a complete turd sandwich. That's why I'm excited to see how 8th and Main turns out. It's not cheap construction (post-tensioned concrete), but there's no ramps or other shenanigans, so it's a simple and repeatable floor plate.

When you look at it from the ground, the massive parking garage dwarfs the apartments that sit above it, which look like they only have 8-foot ceilings in comparison. Nothing is too good for cars, so the budget is cut on everything else.

The thing about the serpentine wall is that it's only really usable when the river is at pool stage. It only needs to get maybe two or three feet higher before it covers that lower level and then your tiedowns are underwater.

Signage brand signage is the best signage that signage can sign.

I find the massively tall ceilings in that Kroger to be rather uncomfortable, it just feels off for the size of the space, and it's gotta waste a lot of energy in heating and cooling. Plus hanging signs or running conduit or refrigerant lines results in some pretty absurd installations. Contrast that with the suspended ceiling in the Hyde Park Kroger, which is too low, but at least it doesn't feel like a factory.

And lead poisoning.

And Hamilton is only 40' wide instead of 50' so they don't even get to have a turn lane.

It's actually Oakley on that side of the (former) tracks.

The larger of the two stadiums is a disaster at street level. It eschews the street grid and is surrounded by a fence with literal spikes on top. It's also of gargantuan scale because of the huge ribs and gaping openness. It doesn't seem like a building. https://goo.gl/maps/nhZ59Kbjtm4rReqV6 The smaller stadium actually maintains some street walls and has doors and windows along its entire perimeter. It's also of a scale similar to the buildings around it, and in fact is even a bit shorter. It feels like a building. https://goo.gl/maps/GbgH4ZVWCwV5nKCq5 Which of these two would you want to live near, or walk next to? https://goo.gl/maps/Ut5BPKwsQ3YwuiAW6

A building can be pretty or ugly, it can win design awards or not, but that's independent of whether it's good urbanism or not. In fact, the projects that win design awards are usually bad urbanism because they retreat from their surroundings in order to be an objet d'art in isolation.

Just because *you* don't care what the outside looks like, that doesn't make it not matter. If this was in Mason in some cornfield, fine, but it's not. Civics matter, especially so when you're a literal stone's throw from the largest historic district in the country.