17thState

Agreed, I like it. But it's not star wars.

Super skeptical about any 700 ft towers. Even if we land a new HQ I'd imagine it would be more of a campus or a group of mid-size buildings.

This is really surprising to me. I'm usually all for renovation and re-use, but this building is a 4 story cinderblock cube, with 2 garage doors as it's biggest architectural features. It's better than it not being renovated, and I hope they do something interesting, you couldn't have a blanker slate, but I guess I was hoping for something better for Riversouth.

Eh, they're an insurance company. You have to expect a certain level of restraint and conservativeness with a company who's job is to manage risk. But at least you get quality and assurance they can actually follow through.

Looks good so far , but I'm curious to see how those balconies (at least I think that's what they are) look hanging off the face of the building.

I like seeing Lane develop as the urban center of UA. It makes too much sense.

Chipotle's other option was Easton. They chose the arena district. I don't know all the factors that went into the decision, but obviously downtown has appeal.

I don't really know if I had an opinion before but at least Motorists Insurance implied that they provided insurance, likely auto insurance. I also agree that old fashioned here implies stability, you have to be around a long time to end up with a dated name, which is what you want from an insurer But Encova sounds like anything from a new prescription to a wellness shake. I get when you have a terrible reputation so you rebrand into something unknown and generic (e.g. Philip Morris into Altria or Blackwater became Xe), but here I don't get it.

I noticed this weekend that the corner building looks like it got a haircut. They've removed the top of the building, down to the top of the windows. You can see it in this picture as well. I went back to the approved renderings and it does show a different cornice than what's on the Google Streetview. I'm surprised they were allowed to change it.

Excited for this to come together. Wagenbrenner does nice work and they've got a huge blank slate here. I wouldn't necessarily call it the most walkable but it's a reuse of an urban brownfield, which is a great thing.

I also since people are living there I think it's interesting that most of the balconies facing the park have chairs and other items out that make them feel lived in, but only a couple of the balconies on the east or south have anything on them. I wonder if it goes to that exposed feeling from them just jutting out of the building, like DevolsDance mentioned above.

I can't think of another building where I have such different thoughts on its architecture depending on the angle. Love. Bleghhh. Also here's a close up of the texture of the building. It looks a lot like sound damping foam (maybe on purpose to cancel out concert noise for the residents?). But I also think it looks 1000x better than warped and wavy EIFS we've seen on other new builds.

The LC buildings on High and Rich are overall done really well particularly from the street level. But they made some odd choices towards the top. On the north building the upper level is painted black and set back while on the south building the top elements are brought to the edge of the building with what looks like glass block windows? Its all very strange to me. They have also finally started work on the interior courtyard. So construction continues... . The LC building on Ludlow and East Main is coming along as well. So far I like how it wraps around the existing historic building. But I do think the balconies hanging off the front of it are going to look out of place. Lastly the Cherry and High building is still just a hole in the ground.

This whole project is awesome and I'm glad they've been steadily progressing through the phases, but I do wish they had baked in a little more variety both on building height and style. With the exception of the AC Hotel, everything practically looks the same. If they varied the height along Riverside by just 2-3 floors and maybe clad one all in glass I think it would look a lot better. Also, would probably help it not look so dated in 15-20 years.

Unfortunately I don't know the specifics. But my guess is based on over-hearing that Nationwide was working with a local company on consolidating multiple offices into a new location in the arena district so I made an educated guess. Not sure of who they're working with though.

Thank you for the aerials link. I was aware of the flytown urban renewals (thanks to the WOSU Columbus neighborhoods series) but seeing the scale from above put it more into perspective. The 670 trench must have just been more green and over grown when the first picture was taken which is what confused me. I was expecting to see the concrete lined channel you see now.

It looks like it's made of papier-mâché. Say what you will about highpoint, but at least it doesn't look it will melt away in the rain. I'm very surprised the downtown commission allows these materials. LC wanted to switch their projects on High and Rich in river south to faux brick panels, even installed a couple of them to try and make their case, but the commission said no.

Also is this one going to be "an extended stay hotel"? I thought it was originally zoned commercial. That has to be one of the dumbest loop holes in the city zoning code.

The sewer excuse always seemed odd to me. How do you make an argument there's a sewer issue when apparently there was a main truck line *directly next to* the site. That seems like barely an inconvenience. "Ohh I don't know, we might have a sewer capacity issue with this one" "What about that big pipe, right there, could we use that?" "oh that you mean that big sewer pipe? Forgot we had that one" Sewer issues came up with the apartments on Indianola as well, but they somehow managed to moved forward with that one as well.

Not to go to far off topic, but what was there before 670? I had thought they bulldozed a lot of buildings to put that in, but in the picture above on the left it looks like a green ditch was there?

Glad that's finally moving forward

I'm pretty sure it will be at least partially be offices.

It also has a fun soviet style to it. The renderings weren't awful, hopefully it will brighten up a bit when they finish the exterior.

Super excited for this project. I think Gravity 1.0 came together really well and it looks like they used quality materials that will still look good in 10 years, unlike alot of new builds.

Northwest Market is what popped into my head when I first read the article. But I have a feeling they'll want to keep the North Market branding. We'll probably get something like "North Market Bridge Park" or "North Market Dublin"