cityscapes

Their transit is good but the ridership is not only high because it’s a good transit system it’s good because Vienna is significantly denser than Columbus and DC, was built way before either city, and as a result isn’t car friendly because new and old buildings both don’t have much off street parking if they have any at all. I don’t think that’s a far comparison. Canadian and Australian cities are a more fair comparison to US transit systems given the similar development patterns (we still lag way behind both).

It’s due to high theft, online ordering / amazon, low foot traffic during Covid, and high min wages in DC. Parking was not the issue, the neighborhood it’s in doesn’t actually have that much housing around it yet but there’s a ton of high density housing just far enough to not want to walk and carry your groceries home from this location, plus the Trader Joe’s and the Harris Teeter are closer to those people and the Walmart was also by a different Safeway, Giant, and Whole Foods that are doing well. Lots of competition, perhaps their model didn’t work well in DC. LOL maybe not compared to Seoul or London but given that the ridership is typically second to NYC despite being much smaller than NYC I’d say it’s very good for American standards, plus the city is walkable and very bike friendly.

I don’t see how the Walmart closing 2 years ago is relevant to having screened parking at the time it was built and occupied the building, other than tenants come and go buildings last for a very long time and it’s important to get it right the first time.

It’s not hard. Trader Joe’s, Harris Teeter, Safeway, Whole Foods, and Walmart in DC can do it. Where there’s political will to actually enforce good design it’s amazing what can be possible.

That’s what the robust downtown commission review is for I’m sure they’ll catch that and make them remedy the issue so downtown can have a good public realm. /s Editing this to also say I don’t get why they wouldn’t want the front lower floors to be residential units and have balconies facing the park for a premium. The whole site is over parked as it is I’m sure it would be fine if they lost those parking spaces for more units and a better park facing facade.

The upper floors look good but still disjointed and the base still needs work. There’s no reason the garage screening should go all the way up, and there are too many blank walls facing the street. I’m surprised a firm like nbbj is behind the design they typically do very good work, this is like the most low effort version of their aesthetic I’ve seen.

In this economy?! It’s probably green painted fiber cement panel.

For that project it seems like they used cheaper materials in all the locations one would use more expensive materials and more expensive materials where one would use cheaper ones. Like the brick in the inset balconies but the painted hardie panel siding elsewhere or brick on the middle and not on the corners of the building which are generally the part of the building that gets emphasized the most with materials and design details.

5th street’s right of way is approximately 65 feet wide. That’s from property line to property line so it may be less as curb to curb it’s about 35 feet wide. Light rail tracks are generally 12-14 feet wide so for a double track that’s 28 feet. If you want to fit one lane in each direction (10’ each) plus a turning lane where needed and sidewalk and planter strip you’d run out of room and that’s not even getting to additional width needed for station platforms. It’s not feasible without demolishing half the existing buildings facing 5th. it urgently needs a street scape revamp and buried power lines but I think the bus line is appropriate just increase frequencies. This street could handle a single tracked streetcar at most and I even think that would be hard to make work.

I will like the Gilbert from this angle when those surface lots are developed and you can’t see it anymore.

All the dumpsters and exhaust vents are back there I don’t think it would smell that good in the summer if there was out door seating on the alley. I don’t disagree on the conceptual level though, but it’s a functional alley.

Yes between Buttles and Collins

Yeah the base could be much better if they had ground floor retail or amenity space, even screened parking would have been much better than this. Looking right in to the parking lot looks half finished and cheap.

Why was their authority as a review body seemingly in doubt based on those comments?

I don’t know if it would fit given the freeway construction but I’d love to see some townhomes on the lot to the south of this project to make the street walk look and feel complete.