Also, another reminder that DT Columbus is larger than CBD Cincinnati and DT Cleveland combined and it would be nice if the '70s never happened.

I think there's a cocktail of problems that leads less large scale activities Columbus. One is that some developers are less organized than others. Take the recent Nationwide towers in the Arena Districts. Nationwide is very precise and decisive in their builds, and likely have a better knowledge and relationship with the city and its zoning requirements. So when Nationwide builds somethings, its pretty quick. And while the frustration at the lack of activity downtown in warranted, I firmly believe one of the conundrums with downtown is that Columbus has focused so much energy and money in the Short North, that it sort of came at the expense of downtown. There's significantly more demand for housing in the Short North than downtown, and that's in part because Columbus' main focus was making the Short North a desirable place. 

3 hours ago, troeros said:

Ok, so if the majority growth is occurring in the urban downtown core of Columbus, how come every time I've been down town when the sun has gone down, even on weekends mind you, the entire area looks like an even worse ghost town than Cincy.

 

I'm talking very, very little pedestrian street traffic, alot of vacant buildings with for lease signs as well, many parking lot craters just scattered about.

 

Every time I've visited Columbus downtown it's been dead. Short North definitely has way more pedestrian traffic and feels much more alive but this active node is a further away than Cincy CBD is to Clifton (I guess maybe Norwood or Oakley would be a better comparison which is our outer urban neighborhoods.)

 

So I'm ultimately not trying to attack...but I hear this alot, where folks will say that the growth has been occuring in the downtown area, but I don't understand where since Everytime I'm in Columbus, especially on a warm summer Saturday night, it's so dang dead and ghost town like. Where are all of these supposed growth and residents?

 

 

 

I don't usually (well, lately) interject on foolishness...but what?  The Short North is literally next to downtown Columbus; much like OTR is literally next to downtown Cincinnati.  Clifton's location in Columbus would be roughly the University District (or in Columbus' scale, Old North Columbus).

 

And there is no "supposed" growth and residents.  There IS growth and new residents and a lot MORE are living downtown than they used to.  Downtown Columbus is massive and lacks a centralized plan on connecting all the "districts" (aka mini-downtowns) but CERTAIN districts are vibrant on a warm Saturday night like the North Market/Arena District and lately the Red Brick District.  But to see Columbus' vibrant corridors on a Saturday night, aside from the Short North or northern downtown, take a trip to Italian Village, University District, Franklinton, or Grandview/5xNW to get a sense.

 

Downtown is a long work in progress but it's a massive hole to fill in. 

I blame the small time developers that dominate local development. Most have a suburban mindset and think there is no demand in Columbus for urban living. They're not willing to take the risk. The city seems ripe for an out of town developer to come in and make a splash. A Denver developer is building on E. Long across from Neighborhood Launch but it's a 5 or 6 story project. We need more out of town developers to challenge the locals to step up. 

12 hours ago, troeros said:

Ok, so if the majority growth is occurring in the urban downtown core of Columbus, how come every time I've been down town when the sun has gone down, even on weekends mind you, the entire area looks like an even worse ghost town than Cincy.

 

I'm talking very, very little pedestrian street traffic, alot of vacant buildings with for lease signs as well, many parking lot craters just scattered about.

 

Every time I've visited Columbus downtown it's been dead. Short North definitely has way more pedestrian traffic and feels much more alive but this active node is a further away than Cincy CBD is to Clifton (I guess maybe Norwood or Oakley would be a better comparison which is our outer urban neighborhoods.)

 

So I'm ultimately not trying to attack...but I hear this alot, where folks will say that the growth has been occuring in the downtown area, but I don't understand where since Everytime I'm in Columbus, especially on a warm summer Saturday night, it's so dang dead and ghost town like. Where are all of these supposed growth and residents?

 

 

 

First of all, I didn't say most of the growth was happening Downtown.  I said within the city and greater urban core. Second, the reason Downtown still feels kind of quiet and empty at certain times is because it still has one of the lowest downtown populations of any city in the country, combined with the fact that it is relatively huge in area.  There has been a lot of new construction Downtown in recent years, but most of those projects have been 5 stories or less, or they have only involved renovations of existing buildings.  This construction has allowed the population to grow from just over 6,000 in 2010 to about 9000 now.  Current construction should allow the population to reach 11K-12K over the next few years.  Still, that is relatively low compared to peer and other major cities.  Residential vacancy rates Downtown are very low, so it's not like they're building a bunch of stuff no one is renting or buying.  They just aren't building enough to meet demand, so people move elsewhere.  You can't fill what doesn't exist, which is why getting larger projects is so important to building density, walkability and urban vibrancy. 

The Short North is directly connected to Downtown and literally across Goodale from the convention center and Arena District.  I'm not sure why you think it's so far away.  Maybe if you're measuring from Broad and High, but again, Columbus' downtown is pretty large.  And I would argue that's still very much within walking distance.  I've walked that many times.  As for why the Short North feels so different, its population density is now more than 10K psm.  Downtown's is about 3K. 

8 hours ago, jonoh81 said:

 

First of all, I didn't say most of the growth was happening Downtown.  I said within the city and greater urban core. Second, the reason Downtown still feels kind of quiet and empty at certain times is because it still has one of the lowest downtown populations of any city in the country, combined with the fact that it is relatively huge in area.  There has been a lot of new construction Downtown in recent years, but most of those projects have been 5 stories or less, or they have only involved renovations of existing buildings.  This construction has allowed the population to grow from just over 6,000 in 2010 to about 9000 now.  Current construction should allow the population to reach 11K-12K over the next few years.  Still, that is relatively low compared to peer and other major cities.  Residential vacancy rates Downtown are very low, so it's not like they're building a bunch of stuff no one is renting or buying.  They just aren't building enough to meet demand, so people move elsewhere.  You can't fill what doesn't exist, which is why getting larger projects is so important to building density, walkability and urban vibrancy. 

The Short North is directly connected to Downtown and literally across Goodale from the convention center and Arena District.  I'm not sure why you think it's so far away.  Maybe if you're measuring from Broad and High, but again, Columbus' downtown is pretty large.  And I would argue that's still very much within walking distance.  I've walked that many times.  As for why the Short North feels so different, its population density is now more than 10K psm.  Downtown's is about 3K. 

Don't forget certain "peer" cities, like Indianapolis, with an official downtown that is almost 6.5 square miles. Can you imagine what our "downtown" population would be if we, oh, let's say added the Brewery District, German Village, the Short North, Italian Village, and the University District south of Lane? 

 

Yeah we are lacking in new highrises(dammit!), but we are slowly but surely filling in...and even with 6-12 story infill downtown, if the trends continue, we will be just fine. We can do it with 6-12 floors if we have to, and it is the streetscape and street level activity that matters! (and with the Lord's help-which it may take-some better form of public transit.)

24 minutes ago, Toddguy said:

Don't forget certain "peer" cities, like Indianapolis, with an official downtown that is almost 6.5 square miles. Can you imagine what our "downtown" population would be if we, oh, let's say added the Brewery District, German Village, the Short North, Italian Village, and the University District south of Lane? 

 

Yeah we are lacking in new highrises(dammit!), but we are slowly but surely filling in...and even with 6-12 story infill downtown, if the trends continue, we will be just fine. We can do it with 6-12 floors if we have to, and it is the streetscape and street level activity that matters! (and with the Lord's help-which it may take-some better form of public transit.)

 

I don't think anything lower than 10 stories is really acceptable on any of the following streets:

High

Broad

Spring

Town

Rich

Main

Front

3rd

4th

Gay west of 4th

Mound west of 4th

 

The outskirts closer to the highways, some of the smaller streets and main streets that don't already have historic housing (like Town east of Topiary Park) are the only places I think less than 10 is acceptable.  This is Downtown, it should look like it.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, jonoh81 said:

 

I don't think anything lower than 10 stories is really acceptable on any of the following streets:

High

Broad

Spring

Town

Rich

Main

Front

3rd

4th

Gay west of 4th

Mound west of 4th

 

The outskirts closer to the highways, some of the smaller streets and main streets that don't already have historic housing (like Town east of Topiary Park) are the only places I think less than 10 is acceptable.  This is Downtown, it should look like it.

 

 

 

I agree that less than ten is not acceptable. But we are dealing with reality here, and we may have to settle. I still think we can do it with at least six floors(and a 80% of the existing surface lots/automotive centers/pawn shops/etc) filled in. The biggest letdown (to me)was 6 floors on the west side of High between Gay and Long. I guess hope Springs eternal. And speaking of Spring that street could use some damn height as you mentioned. Your parameters are good- but not what we will likely get, unfortunately.

15 hours ago, Toddguy said:

I agree that less than ten is not acceptable. But we are dealing with reality here, and we may have to settle. I still think we can do it with at least six floors(and a 80% of the existing surface lots/automotive centers/pawn shops/etc) filled in. The biggest letdown (to me)was 6 floors on the west side of High between Gay and Long. I guess hope Springs eternal. And speaking of Spring that street could use some damn height as you mentioned. Your parameters are good- but not what we will likely get, unfortunately.

 

I think the large footprint of that lot is what kept the height down. I wish it could have been broken up into two or three lots for different people to develop. I think the Edwards development is going to be a great addition to that stretch, but if we wanted height it was much too large. It's the same issue that happened at Highpoint and the Normandy developments on Long. When you have one developer working with that much land, they are not going to be very likely to go vertical. It just doesn't make financial sense. These developments are really equal to about a 12-15 story building with a footprint the size of a normal city block. Highpoint is actually probably closer to a 20+ story building. 

49 minutes ago, cbussoccer said:

 

I think the large footprint of that lot is what kept the height down. I wish it could have been broken up into two or three lots for different people to develop. I think the Edwards development is going to be a great addition to that stretch, but if we wanted height it was much too large. It's the same issue that happened at Highpoint and the Normandy developments on Long. When you have one developer working with that much land, they are not going to be very likely to go vertical. It just doesn't make financial sense. These developments are really equal to about a 12-15 story building with a footprint the size of a normal city block. Highpoint is actually probably closer to a 20+ story building. 

 

I will admit that this is something I often forget, its shocking how large some of these lots are here just simply from being combined over the years with surface lots.

It's very interesting to think about because in theory, eventually developers will have to go taller to get a profitable number of units on a desirable site location. In the meantime, yes we are getting lots of 5-8 story builds which is unfortunate but also I keep forcing  myself to remember just how much surface they are filling. I would guess that we will start seeing more high rises in the near future and these smaller builds pushed to some of the edges of downtown, which wouldn't be the worst thing. 

2 hours ago, DevolsDance said:

 In the meantime, yes we are getting lots of 5-8 story builds which is unfortunate but also I keep forcing  myself to remember just how much surface they are filling. I would guess that we will start seeing more high rises in the near future and these smaller builds pushed to some of the edges of downtown, which wouldn't be the worst thing. 

The silver lining is that empty lots may get developed at a faster rate, since the demand won’t be satisfied as quickly with shorter buildings. Chicago’s West Loop is experiencing something similar from years of NIMBYs blocking anything taller than 10-20 stories.

Edited February 1, 20196 yr by FudgeRounds

Lol, its sad to hear the tower got reduced, but if we had some sort of a rendering confirming the fact, then I would believe it.

 

Up in CLE the NuCLEus tower got reduced quite a bit, and we're actually really happy that it did get reduced, because it looks so much better.

 

Hopefully a rendering would help grab your attention and change your minds. ?

I doubt the market tower will ever be built. The projects the Wood company is building now look amazing.  However , I don't think they can afford the Market Tower 

If you see this, c'mon back Casey.

Keeping the market in motion: Not satisfied with standing still, Rick Harrison Wolfe seeks new merchants – and new locales – for the North Market

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2019/04/04/keeping-the-market-in-motion-not-satisfied-with.html

 

A pretty interesting article overall, discussing the Bridge Park expansion and how the market helped launch some major local eateries.

The article also goes over Rick Harrison Wolfe's desire to keep amping up cuisine diversity in the market... but the real meat we care about comes in here...

 

"Though quiet for months, the 35-story North Market Tower plan remains on the table. First announced in 2017, the more than $100 million project would redevelop the parking lot into a mixed-use high rise that would include expanded market space, public space and additional parking. The North Market Development Authority and developers Wood Cos./Schiff Capital Group are hammering out details of their relationship before the project moves forward. “We have one chance to get this right,” Wolfe said.The market’s priorities remain the same as when the plans first were announced. They include a long-term financially sustainable structure to support the market, ensuring the tower fits with the existing historic building, and the ability to expand market services and operations. “It’s a complicated project at a crucial point with us and the developers and the city. It has to work for all of us,” Wolfe said. Michael Schiff, president of Schiff Capital, said he anticipates news soon on the project and remains positive about its progression.The city of Columbus, which owns the land and is the market’s landlord, has taken a step back at this point. They need to take the time to go through and figure out what’s important,” said Columbus Economic Development Director Steve Schoeny. “We support a vibrant, viable North Market. This is important enough to be patient about.”

 

I am going to look at this as good news. 

Edited April 4, 20196 yr by DevolsDance

I'm going to be optimistic about that news as well. It seems like they want to do it right and not rush to build a tower and make a quick buck. 

So glad they came out and said this. I'm viewing it as good news as well and it gives me some confidence in the project. Even if there is a rumored height reduction, I feel like it'll be a great project. Hopefully we hear something sooner rather than later!

Over the weekend, I was at an event, where I was able to pick the brain of a friend of mine who is heavily involved with commercial real estate in Columbus.  I brought up this project, and asked if he had any inside details, and although he couldn't go into a ton of specifics, he said the height will be at least 32 stories, and that the most recent updated renderings he was allowed to see within the last few weeks were "sick".......in a good way.  Not sure if we will get any public release/update soon, but this source is pretty reliable. 

hhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggggg...........I must see!!

 

Thanks for the update. Good to hear this.

People are starting to call things "sick" again, I've noticed 

1 hour ago, Gnoraa said:

Over the weekend, I was at an event, where I was able to pick the brain of a friend of mine who is heavily involved with commercial real estate in Columbus.  I brought up this project, and asked if he had any inside details, and although he couldn't go into a ton of specifics, he said the height will be at least 32 stories, and that the most recent updated renderings he was allowed to see within the last few weeks were "sick".......in a good way.  Not sure if we will get any public release/update soon, but this source is pretty reliable. 

 

Just to clarify, were the new renderings he saw different than the renderings that were accidentally uploaded to project's website?

33 minutes ago, cbussoccer said:

 

Just to clarify, were the new renderings he saw different than the renderings that were accidentally uploaded to project's website?

That was the impression I got.  He made it sound like he saw new ones that were just updated within the last 2 weeks.

3 minutes ago, Gnoraa said:

That was the impression I got.  He made it sound like he saw new ones that were just updated within the last 2 weeks.

 

Awesome, thanks! Hopefully we can get some updates soon. It would be awesome to have this and the new Hilton tower under construction at the same time. 

I hope updates are coming soon. I have a little more faith in this project compared to Millennial Tower, but not much. 

So I was just reading through this CU article about Hilton 2.0 again and I noticed in the comments section that a user by the name of 'michaelfromcolumbus' was claiming to have a bit of info about North Market Tower. He says the tower went through a complete design overhaul but is definitely still moving moving forward and should be presented to the commission by the end of the year. He says it will definitely still be 30+ stories tall but they have been tweaking some things to make the numbers work best. Finally, he says they plan to break ground during the first half of 2020. 

 

Hopefully we get some real news soon, but that's the latest random internet rumor on this project. 

Looks like they're moving forward with the 28 story version.

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2019/07/11/new-shorter-175m-north-market-tower-plan-emerges.html?iana=hpmvp_colum_news_headline

 

Construction to begin mid next year with a 2022 completion date.  That means this will be going up at the same time as the new Hilton Tower, the new hotel on Park St, and the new Crew Stadium.  Going to be exciting times over there!

Edited July 11, 20195 yr by TH3BUDDHA

31 minutes ago, TH3BUDDHA said:

Looks like they're moving forward with the 28 story version.

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2019/07/11/new-shorter-175m-north-market-tower-plan-emerges.html?iana=hpmvp_colum_news_headline

 

Construction to begin mid next year with a 2022 completion date.  That means this will be going up at the same time as the new Hilton Tower, the new hotel on Park St, and the new Crew Stadium.  Going to be exciting times over there!

 

• "11,000 square feet of new market space including 3,900 square feet for more merchants, 4,400 square feet of public and event space, and 3,300 square feet of outdoor space for outdoor activities;
• 150 residential units, with 20% of them designated as affordable to people making 80 or 100% of the area median income;
• Restaurant and bar concepts and indoor and outdoor spaces including a rooftop venue, ground-floor retail and a wellness facility;
• A 210-room independent boutique hotel to be operated by Rockbridge;
• 90,000 square feet of Class A office space;
• A 352-space parking garage."

That's a great mix of uses! I like this more than the original building. Hopefully this really is the final look. Also, another hotel for the area ?

3 minutes ago, aderwent said:

 

• "11,000 square feet of new market space including 3,900 square feet for more merchants, 4,400 square feet of public and event space, and 3,300 square feet of outdoor space for outdoor activities;
• 150 residential units, with 20% of them designated as affordable to people making 80 or 100% of the area median income;
• Restaurant and bar concepts and indoor and outdoor spaces including a rooftop venue, ground-floor retail and a wellness facility;
• A 210-room independent boutique hotel to be operated by Rockbridge;
• 90,000 square feet of Class A office space;
• A 352-space parking garage."

That's a great mix of uses! I like this more than the original building. Hopefully this really is the final look. Also, another hotel for the area ?

 

Yea, I know people were originally upset that the height had been reduced, but I've really grown to like this design and think it will be awesome.  Can't wait!

In my honest opinion that is not a building that adds as much impact to a growing skyline as say the new Hilton building will. Not a huge fan of the new design compared to what was first revealed. But glad this project is moving forward. I'm most excited for an expanded North Market. 

I'm still really excited. This looks great, even if it's shorter. Love it.

A 7-story height reduction would usually suck, but going from 35 to 28 isn't going to make a huge difference visually. It may not even lead to much of a reduction in terms of actual height as they could have slightly changed the height of each floor, made the atrium space taller, etc. 

 

In terms of design, I love it. I think this will actually add more volume to the skyline than the old version due to the variations in height which almost makes it look like two or three different buildings.

 

I also love the plaza area on the north side of the development. They did a great job of maintaining some open space closest to the North Market to help maintain its character by moving most of the massing to the opposite sides of the lot. 

Edited July 11, 20195 yr by cbussoccer
Add additional point.

51 minutes ago, cbussoccer said:

A 7-story height reduction would usually suck, but going from 35 to 28 isn't going to make a huge difference visually. It may not even lead to much of a reduction in terms of actual height as they could have slightly changed the height of each floor, made the atrium space taller, etc. 

 

In terms of design, I love it. I think this will actually add more volume to the skyline than the old version due to the variations in height which almost makes it look like two or three different buildings.

 

I also love the plaza area on the north side of the development. They did a great job of maintaining some open space closest to the North Market to help maintain its character by moving most of the massing to the opposite sides of the lot. 

 

It also looks like that plaza will have retractable glass, so that there will be open "outdoor" seating in the winter as well, but I could be wrong about that. I like that many new developments, especially rooftop ones, are using this approach.  Utilize the nice summer weather for outdoor open seating, but also have that same open outdoor feeling in the winter.  Obviously, a huge complaint about northern cities is the winter cold.  I like having options for this open outdoor feeling so you don't feel "holed up" all winter.

Edited July 11, 20195 yr by TH3BUDDHA

My only wish is that the top section used more glass than the lower section as a way to create a really distinct look but overall i am pleased that it is going to get built above 25 stories. Your move, M Tower.

I know some people are going to be disappointed but we were warned by a few posters back through the thread we'd be looking at a hight in this range. 

I have to admit that while I was skeptical, it looks like it'll be a really great building now that we are seeing official renders. What's most exciting is that it's a thousand times better than a surface lot, it adds to the market vendor space, adds residential, adds office, and pushes development downtown... overall this is a solid win. 

 

I also enjoy the people on the CU article losing their mind about parking like there isn't a 900 space garage on Vine Street already. 

20 minutes ago, DevolsDance said:

I also enjoy the people on the CU article losing their mind about parking like there isn't a 900 space garage on Vine Street already. 

 

People have to have something to complain about!

Doesn't this kind of defeat the purpose of the "design competition?"  They picked a winner....and now they completely changed the design lol.  I mean, I like it, probably better than the original.  But if I'm one of the firms that lost, I'm probably thinking, "wtf? They didn't actually care about sticking to the designs we submitted?"  Just a little odd is all, given the "submit us your best proposals" mindset.  Design changes happen, of course, but if it's going to change that drastically, why have a pseudo-competition at all?

Hello

 

Has anyone updated the skyline pictures with the new buildings that are either being constructed or in the process like the Hilton and North Market? 

Thank you

 

Just now, BostickInsuranceAAA said:

Hello

 

Has anyone updated the skyline pictures with the new buildings that are either being constructed or in the process like the Hilton and North Market? 

Thank you

 

 

Here is a mockup I made for a different thread, the scale is slightly off but I think it gives a pretty solid idea of what we are looking at in the next few years. 

 

 

^ If anything, this might understate their height slightly. Still pretty cool though!

37 minutes ago, DarkandStormy said:

Doesn't this kind of defeat the purpose of the "design competition?"  They picked a winner....and now they completely changed the design lol.  I mean, I like it, probably better than the original.  But if I'm one of the firms that lost, I'm probably thinking, "wtf? They didn't actually care about sticking to the designs we submitted?"  Just a little odd is all, given the "submit us your best proposals" mindset.  Design changes happen, of course, but if it's going to change that drastically, why have a pseudo-competition at all?

 

Back in the Atari days, there was a special promotion for a game made by Quaker Oats called "Name this Game". So the game actually comes out and is available for months as "Name this Game" (we have a copy here at work). People were supposed to play they game then submit names for the game. The game was about an octopus. The winner was selected out of thousands of entries: Octopus. So they just picked some random kid's submission of "Octopus" even though probably 50% of the entries were "Octopus". Then the game was re-released as Octopus.

Edited July 11, 20195 yr by GCrites80s

1 hour ago, DarkandStormy said:

Doesn't this kind of defeat the purpose of the "design competition?"  They picked a winner....and now they completely changed the design lol.  I mean, I like it, probably better than the original.  But if I'm one of the firms that lost, I'm probably thinking, "wtf? They didn't actually care about sticking to the designs we submitted?"  Just a little odd is all, given the "submit us your best proposals" mindset.  Design changes happen, of course, but if it's going to change that drastically, why have a pseudo-competition at all?

 

Yea, what's to stop the from proposing some really cool looking building just to win the proposal? I'm assuming there must be more to it than this.

 

Another version of this new rendering for the revised North Market Tower from the below linked Dispatch article.  The Business First version cuts off the bottom of the rendering.  The Dispatch article also has a neat 36-image slideshow about the history of the North Market and renderings of the original tower proposal:

 

https://www.dispatch.com/business/20190711/hotel-apartments-offices-planned-for-new-tower-next-to-north-market

32 minutes ago, TH3BUDDHA said:

 

Yea, what's to stop the from proposing some really cool looking building just to win the proposal? I'm assuming there must be more to it than this.

 

My guess is that major cost increases are what to the altered design, we've seen the same think happen with other major projects around the city and state. It seems the only projects getting off the ground right now are ones that were ready to go at announcement or one seeing massive scale backs like NuCLEus up in Cleveland which I believe is undergoing yet another. 

Skyrocketing construction costs are the death blow to these things right now. 

 

I feel like back in 2017 the original design was much more possible than it is now, but ultimately I think that competition came down to the actual use of space more than the design. I know the early press releases made it seem like the market authority and the city just vastly preferred the overall programming of space from Wood and Schiff over the others and may have stipulated that those uses needed to remain mostly unchanged with any future iterations. 

2 hours ago, DevolsDance said:

 

Here is a mockup I made for a different thread, the scale is slightly off but I think it gives a pretty solid idea of what we are looking at in the next few years. 

 

 

 

If you get bored today, could we trouble you for mockup of the entire skyline with these new buildings included? 

Wow the dispatch article says it's now only 26 stories. That's even more disappointing. By the time construction starts up it'll probably be reduced even more. 

6 minutes ago, Clefan98 said:

Wow the dispatch article says it's now only 26 stories. That's even more disappointing. By the time construction starts up it'll probably be reduced even more. 

 

From the CU article:  Architecturally, the building has also dropped from 35 stories to somewhere in the neighborhood of 26 (with a finalized floor count still to be determined).

^ right, so most likely smaller than 26, if it even gets built. 

^^^I think the fact that they came out today with this drastic redesign is proof it's still happening. They've put a lot of work into this, and I don't think it will be reduced more. I never thought this project was going away.

 

In fact, looking at the old renderings, this actually seems like it'll hold far more square footage than the original design, even at 26 stories. The massing is incredible and the density it'll hold/bring is also amazing. It's much taller in more places than just one super high tower in the center. I think this is honestly great.

 

And most importantly, I really dig the street-level design. This will feel great and right at home when it's done.

26 stories is still meh when compared to the original 35 stories. Especially when you consider the current blah design of the  building. 

Just now, Clefan98 said:

26 stories is still meh when compared to the original 35 stories. Especially when you consider the current blah design of the  building. 

That’s just like, your opinion, man.