7 minutes ago, jwulsin said:

The view from the north will be mostly concealed by the new buildings... I understand the skepticism from @10albersa but I'm hoping the city/county won't let FCC use the chunks of land adjacent to Bauer and Central Ave as surface parking, in which case those parcels will have no value until they're built on. 

 

 

But the view from John St will leave the garage exposed and the stadium just has surface parking, so I wish they did a better job with the John St elevations:

 

Full presentation at: https://www.scribd.com/presentation/448805129/FC-Cincinnati-presentation-to-Hamilton-County-Board-of-Commissioners-Feb-25-2020#fullscreen&from_embed 

I’d assume that FC Cincinnati will use some of that office space for their own purposes (conference rooms, offices for the higher ups in the organization, etc) so I’d hope they’d want to get started on one of the office buildings ASAP. I could be wrong but just an assumption.

MLS isn't nearly as profitable as the other professional sports leagues right now.  Because of that the team from the beginning planned on developing land around the stadium as another revenue stream.  I don't think we'll see anything happen to these spots until after the stadium is complete and open next year.  But I also don't expect them to sit as grass or surface parking lots for very long.  

I wish we weren’t losing Wade St. and historic buildings for this.  From an urbanist perspective getting these garages right is just as important as getting the stadium itself right, but it seems everything stadium related is going to be approved with little discussion from here on out. 
 

Will people be able to walk in the area between the stadium and parking garage on non-game days? That could impact the walkability of the area and the extent that the stadium acts as a barrier in the neighborhood.

Edited February 27, 20205 yr by thebillshark

Progress:

 

The dust cloud kicked up by this demolition was out-of-control.  I took this video almost an hour ago and I still have a metallic taste in my mouth. 

 

 

 

^Asbestos lawsuit!

Also, a source told me today that the holdout at the corner of Central & Bauer - the vacant lot just to the right of the building that was demolished on Saturday - is actively cleaning up the lot weekly.  I was under the impression that he was ill, out-of-town, or otherwise not able to be contacted by buyers, but this guy apparently is a true American holdout.  People are now going out of their way to throw debris on his land to get him fined but he is diligently cleaning his lot. 

On 3/1/2020 at 1:00 AM, jmecklenborg said:

Also, a source told me today that the holdout at the corner of Central & Bauer - the vacant lot just to the right of the building that was demolished on Saturday - is actively cleaning up the lot weekly.  I was under the impression that he was ill, out-of-town, or otherwise not able to be contacted by buyers, but this guy apparently is a true American holdout.  People are now going out of their way to throw debris on his land to get him fined but he is diligently cleaning his lot. 

 

I don't understand why everyone doesn't do this.  He will make a killing.  Good for him.

On 3/2/2020 at 11:37 AM, nicker66 said:

 

I don't understand why everyone doesn't do this.  He will make a killing.  Good for him.

One of my life goals is to make a crapload by being the stubborn hold out.

18 hours ago, jmicha said:

One of my life goals is to make a crapload by being the stubborn hold out.

 

I assume this guy is one of your heros as well:

 

https://www.fox19.com/story/11415158/last-house-razed-from-ohio-eminent-domain-fight/

 

$1.25 million for a $130,000 two family.

22 minutes ago, nicker66 said:

 

I assume this guy is one of your heros as well:

 

https://www.fox19.com/story/11415158/last-house-razed-from-ohio-eminent-domain-fight/

 

$1.25 million for a $130,000 two family.

 

It's a $1.25 million two family if that's what somebody is willing to pay for it. You'd be silly not to hold out for the best price. 

The first upper deck staircase "ribs" went up on the Central Ave. side of the stadium yesterday.  

 

Nobody has commented on the use of steel - GABP and Paul Brown were both concrete but everything for UDF stadium has been steel beam so far.  

^ UDF stadium?  I don't think so.  With the addition of Meg Whitman into the ownership group, she is the CEO of the soon to launch Quibi (April 6th)  I think Quibi Field is just as likely.

 

Nothing says "Cincinnati" quite like Quibi Field.  

I'd rather take Quimbob Field.

18 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

The first upper deck staircase "ribs" went up on the Central Ave. side of the stadium yesterday.  

 

Nobody has commented on the use of steel - GABP and Paul Brown were both concrete but everything for UDF stadium has been steel beam so far.  

 

Naive question - is there any advantage to one or the other? I honestly don't know.

Steel is a lot faster to construct. Probably why they chose that instead of concrete. 

 

Also, the cover over all of the seats is probably easier to integrate into a design with steel

Cement, a critical ingredient to concrete, is one of the largest contributors to green house gases on the planet. Cutting its use will pay dividends for the future of the planet. I can't necessarily tell if this was a driver for Populus/Elevar/FCC, but it is in other architecture offices, and it should be for all folks involved with the building industry.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/feb/25/concrete-is-tipping-us-into-climate-catastrophe-its-payback-time-cement-tax

The last house on the Wade/Bauer block was demolished either Thursday or early today.  

A photo from March 9 taken southward from Bauer Ave.  This view didn't exist last Thursday. 

 

On 3/2/2020 at 11:37 AM, nicker66 said:

 

I don't understand why everyone doesn't do this.  He will make a killing.  Good for him.

 

Well he's screwed now.  The economy is in free-fall and he owns a piece of dirt when he could have had $200k in cash if he had accepted any of the offers that were surely thrown at him in the past 12 months. 

 

So, demand for property is what gives that property value. Without demand for property, property has no value. Got it. 

Mr. Tate has a goldmine there at the corner of Bauer and Central and will get three times what Jake quoted above. Maybe more. He's a genius.

Does anyone know why the team took down the construction cams a few days ago?

Steel rising...

 

The city raided its emergency fund last year to pay for stadium infrastructure -- oops.

 

Now, Councilman Seelbach is asking for the team to essentially "return" some of that money.

 

 

5 minutes ago, taestell said:

The city raided its emergency fund last year to pay for stadium infrastructure -- oops.

 

Now, Councilman Seelbach is asking for the team to essentially "return" some of that money.

 

 

 

As a reminder of the original vote to release these funds to FC Cincinnati:

 

HOW THEY VOTED
 
Yes
David Mann
Amy Murray
Jeff Pastor
P.G. Sittenfeld
Christopher Smitherman

 

No
Tamaya Dennard
Greg Landsman
Chris Seelbach
Wendell Young

Edited April 28, 20205 yr by Chas Wiederhold

Say your good-byes:

Even with public money involved, we can’t demand our heritage not be erased? Infuriating. 

It is a crime. The church is so gorgeous. I can’t believe anyone with the public good in mind would let this happen. 

I hope that theses lots do not sit empty for long, it would be a shame to tear all these buildings down ( ones that do not directly interfere with the construction of the stadium) and have these lots sit empty for years. I’d think that they are smart about it and already have it close to having a final development in view and a time frame on when that will start. 

2 hours ago, Ucgrad2015 said:

I hope that theses lots do not sit empty for long, it would be a shame to tear all these buildings down ( ones that do not directly interfere with the construction of the stadium) and have these lots sit empty for years. I’d think that they are smart about it and already have it close to having a final development in view and a time frame on when that will start. 

 

We're sinking into a deep recession, so yes, the lots will sit empty for 5+ years. 

 

The second I heard that Carl Lindner & Jeff Berding had teamed up to start a soccer team, a fire alarm went off in my head.  People like me tried to warn the soccer bros but we were hissed at.  We were no match for the scarfs and the selfies. 

To me there is a huge disconnect between the team’s appeals to local pride and their decisions to tear down these historic buildings that lay outside the footprint of the stadium itself. But maybe that just doesn’t register to suburban fans 

Edited May 7, 20205 yr by thebillshark

17 minutes ago, thebillshark said:

To me there is a huge disconnect between the team’s appeals to local pride and their decisions to tear down these historic buildings that lay outside the footprint of the stadium itself. But maybe that just doesn’t register to suburban fans 

 

I'd say a vast majority of their fan base doesn't know this is happening, and wouldn't care if they were told. I don't think historic preservation is very important to most people outside of landmarks like Union Terminal, Music Hall, and the Carew Tower.

10 minutes ago, ryanlammi said:

I'd say a vast majority of their fan base doesn't know this is happening, and wouldn't care if they were told. I don't think historic preservation is very important to most people outside of landmarks like Union Terminal, Music Hall, and the Carew Tower.

 

I agree. It's really unfortunate but it's a small minority of people that are interested in historic preservation and care about saving these old buildings. If you start talking to the average person about the history of the Dennison Hotel, the Terrace Plaza, or a synagogue-turned-Baptist church in the West End, you can see their eyes start to glaze over. I also think the average person is more likely to appreciate and value an entire district of historic buildings more than a single historic building like this church. An in fact, if you go back to earlier pages of this thread, you will see people arguing that there is no real reason to preserve any remaining historic buildings in the West End because the urban fabric has already been ripped up, and what's more important now is the "progress" of the neighborhood, even if that requires more demolitions.

^I think my opinion was that most of the buildings in the area are gone already, and fighting for a handful of these buildings is futile because we already know the ending of the story. The church was different, and totally should have and could have been preserved.

To me local pride comes from the history, the buildings, the streets, knowing that these came together to form a functioning, growing and dynamic city at one point in time, a big deal, with a uniqueness that you can’t find out there in Anywhere USA. And even though many things like the highways have dealt it blows this city can still be found and explored on foot and on bike. Without that all the locally-themed t-shirts and wall decorations would ring hollow for me. We definitely lose something with demolitions like this. 

57 minutes ago, ryanlammi said:

^I think my opinion was that most of the buildings in the area are gone already, and fighting for a handful of these buildings is futile because we already know the ending of the story. The church was different, and totally should have and could have been preserved.

 

To be clear, I wasn't subtweeting you, if it came across that way. I tend to agree with that assessment. Most of the buildings to the east of the stadium were goners, it wasn't worth anyone's energy to fight to preserve them. It was a bit of a gut punch to see recently-renovated buildings on Wade Street torn down, but at the same time, not everyone is going to want to buy a luxury condo right across the street from a stadium. The best thing that the West End can do at this point, given that so much of the urban fabric has been lost, is make an effort to preserve some of the more "iconic" buildings like this church and the "monster" building, and encourage quality infill on vacant lots. Mostly I hope the team follows through with their promise to finally finish CityWest and build homes on all the lots that have been sitting vacant for what, 20 years now?

On 5/7/2020 at 12:29 PM, taestell said:

 

To be clear, I wasn't subtweeting you, if it came across that way. I tend to agree with that assessment. Most of the buildings to the east of the stadium were goners, it wasn't worth anyone's energy to fight to preserve them. It was a bit of a gut punch to see recently-renovated buildings on Wade Street torn down, but at the same time, not everyone is going to want to buy a luxury condo right across the street from a stadium. The best thing that the West End can do at this point, given that so much of the urban fabric has been lost, is make an effort to preserve some of the more "iconic" buildings like this church and the "monster" building, and encourage quality infill on vacant lots. Mostly I hope the team follows through with their promise to finally finish CityWest and build homes on all the lots that have been sitting vacant for what, 20 years now?

 

CityWest, unfortunately, has a legacy of substandard construction issues.  Exteriors were not properly installed and decks are falling off the buildings.  The repair costs are enormous so the current owner is evaluating next steps.  Several of the buildings were investigated and repaired to determine the extent of the issues and they were far greater than expected.

 

On ‎3‎/‎4‎/‎2020 at 3:43 PM, jmecklenborg said:

Nothing says "Cincinnati" quite like Quibi Field.  

 

https://fortune.com/2020/05/15/quibi-launch-review-analysis/

$17 million garage next to FC Cincinnati stadium lands key approval

 

The more than 800-space parking garage planned directly north of FC Cincinnati’s West End stadium received a key approval Friday morning.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/05/22/17-million-garage-next-to-fc-cincinnati-stadium.html

 

FC Cincinnati finalizes seat design from fan vote

 

FC Cincinnati’s fervent fans have made their choice, and the club has the seat design for its new soccer stadium.

 

The seating sections in the east side of West End Stadium will be painted to show the club’s winged lion logo known as “Gary” against a navy blue background. The club put the stadium color design up to a fan vote last week.

 

FC Cincinnati took fan feedback to another level, too. Based on fan comments, the club will add the letters “FCC” emblazoned in orange on seats across the mezzanine level of the south end of the stadium.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/05/27/fc-cincinnati-finalizes-seat-design-from-fan-vote.html

 

I'm more concerned with the lion's name.  GARY???  Where is this GARY from?  Rabbit Hash???

Glad its the solid navy blue and not the multi-color blue or orange seats. Reminds me of the Arena seating before the remodel to become the Crown aka Hertiage Bank Center. The multiple colored seats just looks like the seat was broken and replaced with an off color seat instead. 

1 hour ago, ColDayMan said:

GARY??? 

 

Gary McGaryface 

1 hour ago, ColDayMan said:

I'm more concerned with the lion's name.  GARY???  Where is this GARY from?  Rabbit Hash???

 

It's a name that of the some supporters groups came up with when the mascot logo was revealed. If you squint just right and/or have been smoking the right medicine, you can make out the letters G - A - R - Y in the logo.

 

https://imgur.com/fFOqXLS

https://www.fccincinnati.com/post/2019/02/26/club-introduces-new-mascot-gary

Christ, that's bad.

2 hours ago, ColDayMan said:

Christ, that's bad.

 

Actually, not nearly as bad as...Gapper. 

 

 

lol such grumpy haters on here. Gary is greatest name for a mascot ever. Started out as a joke that clearly annoyed Jeff Berding and the club eventually caved when they realized the fans were going to call him Gary no matter what. 

 

As for the stadium, looks nice. Simple but with some style. I still think MNUFC has the best pattern for their supporters section in MLS with their loon: 

Edited May 28, 20205 yr by cincydave8

 

 

I always assumed it was named in honor of Gary the snail (from SpongeBob for all you oldies), never new about the letters in the logo. Either way I like how non sequitur and unintimidating it is, but I have a cat named Phil.