Civvik

Think of all the things the big three could have done in the last 20 years, and especially the last 10. They could have used their enormous technological assets to diversify into things other than motor vehicles. They could have diversified their product lineup. They could have taken more risks. They could have figured out why Asian and Europeans beat them in design. They could have pushed one of their brands into the green niche. They did one thing. One thing. They pushed SUV's. Let them rot.

This is a nice looking project.

"Now is the time to invest in our future and strengthen our core infrastructure...I will re-commit federal resources to public mass transportation projects across the country. And I will further promote transit by creating incentives for transit usage that are equal to the current incentives for driving." -Obama If he does just that small bit of policy, it will have a big difference. And national transportation policy leaders aren't some abstract group to me. I call several of them "boss." Obama will go into his presidency with enormous political capital. That is the most important thing a president can have, for people to like him. If you think this is just fluff, go read any book on American political theory. Someone like Blumenauer or Rendell in the cabinet would be such a reversal of fortune for transit that I can not even overstate it.

The model's nothing special, very simple. If you want the google earth KMZ file, just e-mail me. My email is in my profile.

Cars serve a niche that will never go away. We have used carriages and small trucks for thousands of years, when we were a 100% sustainable civilization. Permeable pavement is like magic. Here's a video: I don't think it has the same endurance as normal pavement (they claim it does), and it's more expensive (they claim its not). But its cool to watch and has a ridiculously cool impact on the amount of stormwater you have to "manage" (ie build a pond for or dump into a river.)

It costs between $1M and $4M per mile to bury utility lines, and high voltage transmission lines (the big ones that hum) have been quoted at up to $20M per mile. Duke has stated that it would cost $4.5B to bury all the streetside lines in the Cincinnati area. Even though I think hanging our power and comm wires on wooden sticks is shameful and equivalent to shitting in your backyard as opposed to your toilet, personally I don't think it's worth paying for in the United States because we don't have very high-quality built environments. It is more common to bury them in Europe, but they have a much nicer built environment and spend a lot more time in urban areas. I think the demand...and willingness to pay for...buried utilities will emerge in America as urban areas repopulate and the built environment gets more attractive. The Duke quote was a response to Todd Portune asking for buried utilities as a way to avoid storm outages. His more conservative associated poo-pooh'd it as too expensive.

I can't tilt the camera because I didn't take the picture :P I built the model by just projecting an existing elevation rendering. I would be happy to drop it into any photo. It's probably not as high in the photo as I depicted, because I built the model on a flat plane. In reality the tower sits slightly lower than the 4th Street entrance.

No Arn, the last thing a developer wants to do is return 35 deposits and walk away from a project half sold. Coldwell has to be steamed over this as an agent typically isn't paid until closing. There has to be more to this than we are hearing as they were close to their 51% mark and I hear that FHA is getting ready to extend its limits to 600,00. Not enough information here for me, they are leaving out something. They probably just looked at the situation and decided waiting for more contracts wasn't worth continuing to pay carrying costs. There are projects all over the country that were a bit further along that have gone bankrupt and went to auction. I can think of several here in Orlando, with the cranes still up. Refunding all the deposits was probably the best thing to do.

Before: After: This was done using a very quick Sketchup model and the photo match tool. I also have the model available as a Google Earth KMZ file, if anyone would like it.

Hampton Inn Uptown Charlotte would be a good comparable. Urban format with structured parking. 11 Stories. 150 Rooms. It's a beige box, but you get the idea for height and scale.

This project shows that Cincinnati is not commited to enforcing good urban design within its own borders, specifically: -Articulation standards of >4' per 30' of frontage ->75% street frontage -Parking oriented to the rear of buildings These are just three very basic ones that would have changed very little about this projects economic viability. It came out the way it did because Cincinnati has a culture of "We will approve anything if you just build it within the City." This is understandable. But please don't convince yourselves that it is good development. Understand your limitations, accept that Cincinnati is not doing things that it *could* be doing to improve urban design, and educate your population.

They are correct, the housing market is dead, so they really shouldn't be doing condos right now. The apartment part of the project is still in play, as far as I know. Doing a hotel instead is fine. I just hope that the ultimate housing mix comes out strong when the place is built out.

One of the best planning articles I've read in a while. I know it's a wall of text, but it really is worth reading. Trading Places By ALAN EHRENHALT Thirty years ago, the mayor of Chicago was unseated by a snowstorm. A blizzard in January of 1979 dumped some 20 inches on the ground, causing, among other problems, a curtailment of transit service. The few available trains coming downtown from the northwest side filled up with middle-class white riders near the far end of the line, leaving no room for poorer people trying to board on inner-city platforms. African Americans and Hispanics blamed this on Mayor Michael Bilandic, and he lost the Democratic primary to Jane Byrne a few weeks later. Today, this could never happen. Not because of climate change, or because the Chicago Transit Authority now runs flawlessly. It couldn't happen because the trains would fill up with minorities and immigrants on the outskirts of the city, and the passengers left stranded at the inner-city stations would be members of the affluent professional class. CLIPPED[/size]

You are advertising as LEED registered. Are you going for LEED certification?

This is such a goofy site. From an urban design perspective this thing just wants to be an R&D or business park. Or they could blow up their mega-church, which is effectively strangling the Millworks parcel from the most important streets in the neighborhood. True urbanism and infill embraces and tames the real streets.You only want to play wallflower with the major roads if they are DOT-standard 6 lane car conduits, but Madison and Ridge aren't bad enough to turn your back on. So the only context this site really has to work off of is the ass of Rob Smyjunas's power center. Man he really f'ed this whole district. Every time I see this plan pop up again I hope that Rookwood Exchange somehow beats them to it and snags the tenants. That could be a glorious infill project.

I'm sorry but I find this hilarious.

Meh, they are just buildings. They aren't ugly. The important thing is that they are actually happening, it's housing, and it's not in West Chester.

Some guy makes a minor comment that it was unfortunate that so much of Cincinnati's packed pork fed slaves, and it strikes a raw nerve? Well I can't run in circles trying to explain how regarding something as unfortunate isn't the same as apologizing. I guess I've got to keep in mind what regional forum I'm posting in, and the social "sensitivities" it has.

America should always think of slavery as unfortunate, and refer to it as such; lest we forget that it was so, and risk forgetting that it was wrong. If you cannot believe that such things can be forgotten to history, you aren't a very good student of history.

I don't understand your question... :/

And Carew is, structurally, a very elegant building. The fact that they had to finish it in mud bricks was a casualty of the great depression. Maybe someday I'll do a rendering of it in a higher quality finish...I always thought it would look cool in glass and aluminum, or granite, if you want to stick to roots.

Well unfortunately someone has to be the asshole and stand up against ugly things, even if it means giving developers a hard time. You can count your blessings in your own life and settle for not quite what you wanted, but when it comes to your community and the lasting monuments you build, you shouldn't settle for "good enough." This is an unhealthy relationship that American cities have with private developers, especially in the rust belt where people are desperate for any kind of activity. You don't see anything plastered on the Sears Tower, for instance. Carew did fine without one for an entire human lifetime. It's a very handsome building and Ronnie's previous photoshop prediction of the "slimming" was pretty much spot-on. I wouldn't bemoan it being ruined by a sign if I thought it was so ugly that it didn't matter.

The logo at the top completely ruins this building. It makes the "crown" look like a party hat, since it disrupts the vertical "rythym lines" that make the column flow into the crown. Kind of like when you put a belt around an evening gown. All of a sudden you have a top and a bottom, when you want one tall, flowing element.

I'm in the midst of working on a form based code for a town here in Florida and for the love of God, that new Tusculum building is EXACTLY why we are putting in an articulation requirement of 4' for every 30' of frontage. A god damn box built to the street is still a god damn box. Sad. I was excited about this project for a long time.

This thread is getting super off-track. Can the public housing posts be put in their own thread?