seanian

Actually Las Vegas already did this. They have one on top of a building and another at the hotel that looks like NYC and there might be more of them in downtown Vegas.

I've said that from the beginning. It looks like something that belongs out in the suburbs and not in an urban area. I don't know why more people couldn't see this, either that or people just wanted a suburban look. From the look of the design, it looks like something that would've been build in Tri-County or Eastgate. They even took this design from the one they had built in the Chicago suburbs.

That is great news. Now the other corporations in the Dayton area need to follow suit. The corporations in the greater Dayton area need to have more pride in their community and help the downtown Dayton market. A healthy downtown market says a lot about an area and visitors notice this. Also, employees like things to do during and after work and have close access to these things and a downtown area covers this. If more corporations were in downtown Dayton, then more business would be there to support them. I'm actually shocked that businesses don't choose to be in their downtown market rather than the burbs. It's a place for the community to come together and people like to be a part of this energy.

I agree, this seems like a win/win for everybody. I think that people forget that the Anne Louis Inn was trying to sell to W&S, but then W&S just dragged their tails on the offer. For the money Ann Louise Inn would receive, they could have a larger and nicer facility, W&S can restore the building, and of course the tax base is increased. I'm sure this all could have been worked out.

Actually OTR is part of downtown, just like the CBD is part of downtown. You have different sections of the downtown area.

I liked how they wrote "Tom Lunken" Hahaha, I didn't read it yet, but I find so many errors in the Enquirer on a regular basis. It's just plain sad, from words not being spelled correctly, to poor sentence structure.

With the inevitable happening with the areas of Cincinnati metro and Dayton coming together, it would be very important to have the two areas connected by rail (and everything in between). I used to think that it was vital that the Northern suburbs of Cincinnati connect with downtown Cincinnati, I was obviously not thinking long term (I admit that now). Today I think very differently as there are many things that come into picture that should be thought of now rather than later. My eyes have opened much wider. The areas of Cincinnati and Dayton are definitely one region and there should be a light rail or high speed rail line (or both) that should connect the areas of Northern Kentucky all the way through Dayton. We can all feed off of the success of having an area that is connected. I had concerns over some of the conversation regarding building a new International airport between Cincinnati and Dayton, only because of what it's effects might have on the downtown areas of both cities, because having the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport close to downtown Cincinnati is a plus. But then I started thinking about how this could be a very positive outcome to have an airport between the two cities and it just started making since to me. If we had rail setup, this wouldn't be an issue. If we had something that would compete with the other airports it might get better service for the entire region. The new airport wouldn't have to start out large, but I'm sure it wouldn't be long before it would gain much momentum.

I think this could probably be corrected. When I was in New Orleans there was an arch that you walked through to go into Armstrong Park. I think something similar, but not as gaudy, might work at Washington Park. Instead cars would drive under it, and it would be visible all the way down 13th street at night. http://candychang.com/armstrong/ Just a thought. Personally I like gaudy designs, but I don't like the one pictured in the link, at least not for Washington Park. I think that it would be nice to have a large entrance, but have a design where it looked like something that would compliment Music Hall. Or maybe even something Gothic in design would work too? Either way, a standout entrance and definitely nothing that would look conservative or bland.

I agree, what is the protesting about? They cleaned up the park and made it a better place and that's a bad thing?

I'm guessing when you drove by the sign that you didn't take a picture with your phone of the new site development so you could post it on here?

Aloft is not necessarily suburban. What they are doing in downtown Detroit is pretty cool. The David Whitney Building is a long since shuttered Daniel Burnham classic on Woodward Ave and Grand Circus Park which Aloft is refurbishing into 136 rooms (not the entire building) http://www.mlive.com/business/detroit/index.ssf/2011/12/report_aloft_hotels_signs_on_f.html. Aloft might even be a good fit for the Terrace, given the smaller floor plates. While I have always thought the Terrace would be an awesome fit for "W," I just can't see that happening given the current downtown hotel landscape and the economics of it all What if W Hotel goes into the Terrace Hotel building and the Millennium is sold or refit? The Millennium isn't exactly the most up-to-date, popular hotel downtown (they can't even replace those hideous, sun-faded, ripped, worn-out Bengals, Reds, UC and X flags flying at the Fifth Street entrance.). Could the Millennium buildings be repurposed into condos? Or more convention center space? I think the investors for the Millennium building are just going to let it sit there and rot. They are the worst kind of investors, they'll just suck the property dry until it just dies. They put absolutely no money into the place.

I will have to admit I guess it's been a while since I've been to downtown Dayton. I don't recognize the background area. The drawings for the park look nice, although it would be much nicer to see some fountains.

Isn't that what we're doing, voicing our opinions outward? Regarding contacting the banks people, I would love to. Do you know the contact information for the banks people? I wouldn't know who is directly in charge or the contact information for these people. I'm actually surprised from as much as I hear on this thread that somebody wouldn't have posted this information a few times already giving out their information. I guess like so many people, I just assume that this information is going to get out to these people from being on these threads. They are doing business in this area and it deals directly with them, I would think they would search out this information to see what people are saying. But you are correct, we all need to be more proactive and reach out to them instead of waiting for them to find out this information by other means.

We're Cincinnatians, we have no choice but to believe our own echo is the smartest and most rational voice in the room. Just look at the Banks thread. There's a complaint about the building materials about every fourth comment. The Smale thread is starting to sound like a neighborhood council meeting. Cincinnatians, the laziest perfectionists you'll ever know. Most of us on this forum are not employed by Carter Dawson or in some position of power relating to The Banks. We didn't get to make the decision on The Banks' architecture, so all we can do is talk about it here. The fact that it's turned into an echo chamber just shows that the majority of us are disappointed in the architecture. By contrast, I think most of us are very impressed by the Riverfront Park. If there's some way that we can force Carter Dawson to do a better job on Phase II of The Banks, please let us know. I very much agree that the park is looking absolutely wonderful. Very impressed! Now about those apartments; With regard to the banks architecture, perhaps it will be heard that the people are very disappointed with the design for phase 1 and Carter Dawson will try to use a much better design. I'm wondering if they had some blind guy heading up the project, or perhaps everybody that worked at the offices of Carter Dawson were "yes" people and just agreed with their project boss and stuck their fingers down their throats in disappointment when leaving their office. Because when I look through this thread, I can't find where people are saying how wonderful they are; just the opposite. The banks just happen to be in a very high profile area and should not have apartment buildings that look like they were built in a typical apartment development on the outskirts of the city. It's good that people are voicing their opinions and letting others know they are not pleased, maybe somebody is listening and it will be much nicer in the next phase.

This is what was on Cincinnati.com

I don't know how else to say this as succinctly without sounding offensive: Your standards are too low. If The Banks had been entirely a private endeavor and they spent so much building the infrastructure that they absolutely had to build cheap buildings to make the project work, I personally would not be so critical. But that is not the case. In reality, public money built all the infrastructure. Public guidance brought us the street grid, the parks, and held fast to the vision that the riverfront would be a natural and proper extension of the downtown grid. Then a private development team came in on top of all of that and built the cheapest building imaginable, which filled up in a matter of weeks, and in which they charged some of the region's highest rents. The proper response should have been "We have spent 10 years and hundreds of millions of dollars creating this space, it is the most important space in our city, we have faith in it, and you are not going to build a cheap building there." Absolutely 100 percent agree with that statement. After so much money being spent for that area only to have an architectural unappealing building put in is just horrific.

Dayton doesn't rate its own central post office now? It doesn't make since to me to move the mail processing so far away. Just cut Saturday delivery services, that would save some money.

Report on Cincinnati's downtown population: In 2011 the estimated downtown residential population was more than 13,000, showing a 12 percent increase over the previous year. This was from the 8th annual "State of Downtown Report" released by DCI. You can read the article in: http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2012/05/15/report-downtown-cincinnati-population.html The report actually said it was estimated at 13,214.

Yes, yes, yes! A fountain would be very nice. I would hope for many water features in that area.

They actually did want to move and offered to sell to W&S. On the other hand, W&S just sat on that offer. You know the expression, "you snooze you lose" well maybe that should apply here, LOL. The Inn could take that construction money add that to what W&S would give for the land and they could have a very nice place outside of downtown. I'm sure W&S can throw in some extra cash if needed. The Inn could really make this a big win for themselves if they played it right.

Well I think that the entire area around the CBD & OTR needs to be capped. 75 & 71 are just barriers to the area. I think it can be done and it wouldnt take a miracle. What it would take is cooperation.

Do you have the money? Not in the next decade, unless the city and county find a lot of extra cash sitting around. The city or county will never say they have any extra money sittiing around and have never had enough to to any project according to them. So with that type of thought process we might as well say we will never do any other projects. They said they were going to do it, so they had to have some idea as to when they thought this could be accomplished. The whole idea of the banks project was to connect the riverfront with downtown. This is a vital part of that connection.

Seriously though, when are these caps going in?

Just like the tower place roof garage is connected via the old Pogue's, couldn't the same concept be done above Macy's with access through the garage being built at 5th and Race? This way if something gets built above Macy's there would be parking available. Before the plans are finalized on the Dunnhumby building and the 1000 car garage is put in, it would be nice if they would up that amount either in the 5th & Race location or a combination of the 5th & Race and above Macy's. Or better yet, they could even just design the garage at 5th & Race where it could be connected across the street to Macy's at a later date, reserved access for when a tower goes in at that location. They wouldn't have to build a connector bridge until a tower does go up above Macy's.

I agree with the waste of real estate on low to mid rise in the CBD. So why wouldn't 3CDC try to get another tenant that likes the larger floor layout, some tenant that typically would be on the outer edges of the metro area. Depending on the size of the company(s), they could add another 20 or more floors above or below Dunnhumby's portion. I've seen companies leave downtown for the suburbs, why not get some of them back. Cincinnati's CBD has a lot more to offer these days and I would think that some of these companies on the outskirts of town would now be wanting to come to the CBD or come back to the CBD.