January 22, 20205 yr On 1/15/2020 at 10:34 PM, jebleprls22 said: There are a couple more images from the CU Construction Roundup January 2020, but wanted to share the couple of images of the Topiary Park "brownstones" -- they have such a phenomenal presence and are going to even improve the environment of the park space. Fingers crossed for some really nice craftsmanship on the masonry and we have ourselves a home-run here ? I want to buy one but if I remember correctly, they are apartments.. not condos.
January 31, 20205 yr Another view of the Topiary Park apartments under construction from mid-January at https://www.columbusunderground.com/construction-roundup-january-2020-we1
January 31, 20205 yr 27 minutes ago, Pablo said: ^Another out of date photo from CU. Walker is too busy scolding his readers in the comment section. He can’t possibly manage to take a picture and then post the picture all within a two week time span. HE IS A BUSY MAN!
January 31, 20205 yr Unrelated; however, located in Discovery District. Has anyone noticed that Encova added a strip of LED lighting around the top of their building? Subtle difference but noticeable. Huge fan of lighting accents on the towers.
February 6, 20205 yr cbussoccer posted this aerial view overlooking the beautiful Topiary Park over at the Columbus Random Photos thread. I wanted to repost it here because it gives a fine overview of the development projects in this area as well: The Topiary Park brownstone apartments under construction next to the park are coming along nicely. Vertical construction has started on the Library Park apartments; part new construction and part renovation of existing apartment buildings The recently completed Main Library renovation, which opened up its back wall to the park The historic Deaf School building, which was renovated into the Cristo Rey high school The historic Seneca Hotel building at Broad & Grant, which was renovated into market-rate apartments That bright red 9-story apartment building, which should be opening soon, about a block away from the Topiary Park On 2/3/2020 at 7:54 AM, cbussoccer said: From about a week ago.
February 20, 20205 yr On 2/6/2020 at 1:06 PM, Columbo said: That bright red 9-story apartment building, which should be opening soon, about a block away from the Topiary Park That building is apparently named The Pierce. It's pre-leasing now.
February 20, 20205 yr 10 minutes ago, aderwent said: That building is apparently named The Pierce. It's pre-leasing now. Wow. That turned out nice!
February 20, 20205 yr 1 minute ago, Columbo said: Wow. That turned out nice! I'm interested in what color they paint the balcony walls, and what type of railings they put up. Not a big fan of the plain concrete garage. At least some paint or some ivy would make me happy. Otherwise, I like it too!
February 20, 20205 yr 2 minutes ago, Columbo said: Wow. That turned out nice! I love the red so much, but man I wish that garage screening was handled better. Feels so unfinished/afterthought compared to the rest of the structure.
February 20, 20205 yr 24 minutes ago, aderwent said: That building is apparently named The Pierce. It's pre-leasing now. Does it have a website? Wouldn't mind sneaking a peak. Can't really find one..........
February 20, 20205 yr The garage portion definitely doesn't look great. My hope is that in a few years, that won't matter much because it will be mostly covered up by future buildings that will (hopefully) go up on the surface lots at Broad/Grant, State/Grant, and Oak/6th. I love how the bold red siding is paired with the white balconies. Hopefully it will age well, but right now it definitely adds a bit of flair to a bland part of the downtown.
February 20, 20205 yr 8 minutes ago, Zyrokai said: Does it have a website? Wouldn't mind sneaking a peak. Can't really find one.......... http://thepiercecolumbus.com/
February 20, 20205 yr 6 minutes ago, cbussoccer said: The garage portion definitely doesn't look great. My hope is that in a few years, that won't matter much because it will be mostly covered up by future buildings that will (hopefully) go up on the surface lots at Broad/Grant, State/Grant, and Oak/6th. I love how the bold red siding is paired with the white balconies. Hopefully it will age well, but right now it definitely adds a bit of flair to a bland part of the downtown. I think that’s why they didn’t do much to the garage. That building is going to basically be behind everything else.
February 20, 20205 yr 3 minutes ago, VintageLife said: I think that’s why they didn’t do much to the garage. That building is going to basically be behind everything else. Yep. Hopefully that's exactly how things play out. The fact that the corner of Grant and State is a surface parking lot is disgusting.
February 20, 20205 yr 10 minutes ago, aderwent said: http://thepiercecolumbus.com/ Thanks! I literally typed "the pierce columbus" and couldn't find it. I must learn to google better or not be a dope, lol. And I'll inspire people to leave my apartment with the dishes I whip up! ?
February 20, 20205 yr 32 minutes ago, cbussoccer said: Yep. Hopefully that's exactly how things play out. The fact that the corner of Grant and State is a surface parking lot is disgusting. Yeah, I would give it 5 years and that whole area will hopefully be completely different.
March 11, 20205 yr On 2/20/2020 at 1:20 PM, Columbo said: Wow. That turned out nice! Man I railed against this building so hard and(with the exception of the garage part)it turned out so well. I was so wrong! lol.
April 11, 20205 yr CU ventures outdoors to take photos of our on-going construction projects so you won't have to: #stayinsideohio https://www.columbusunderground.com/construction-roundup-april-2020-we1 A panoramic view of The Residences at Topiary Park: A closer view of The Residences at Topiary Park:
April 11, 20205 yr More from https://www.columbusunderground.com/construction-roundup-april-2020-we1 New apartments are going up next to the Main Library as seen from the Topiary Park: Another view of the new apartments going up next to the Main Library with The Residences at Topiary Park in the background along Library Park Drive:
April 11, 20205 yr More from https://www.columbusunderground.com/construction-roundup-april-2020-we1 One block west of the Main Library apartments and The Residences at Topiary Park - the 224-unit mixed-use Xander on State apartment building near Grant Medical Center is nearing completion:
April 29, 20205 yr Franklin County voters approved the bond issue for Columbus State Community College that will raise $300 million for capital improvements to campus facilities. It passed with 60 percent of the vote: https://www.nbc4i.com/news/your-local-election-hq/columbus-state-bond-issue-21-passes/ https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200429/voters-approve-inaugural-bond-issue-for-columbus-state-community-college
April 29, 20205 yr I voted for this. It is important to support our urban community colleges especially as the big city major universities get flooded with applicants and become more selective due to increased disinterest in rural schools.
May 13, 20205 yr Pizzuti Breaks Ground on Phase 3 of Library Park Development The Discovery District neighborhood has been buzzing with new construction over the past several months, making room for nearly 2,000 new residents in the near future. The next project to break ground is the third phase of the “Library Park” development, a joint venture between The Pizzuti Companies and Capital University. While phases one and two each feature multiple buildings, phase three is comprised of a single six-story building containing 145 apartments, structured parking and 3,500 square feet of ground-floor restaurant space. The building will replace an existing Capital University Law School surface lot at the northeast intersection of Grant Avenue and Oak Street. More below: https://www.columbusunderground.com/pizzuti-breaks-ground-on-phase-3-of-library-park-development-we1 & https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/05/13/pizzuti-pushes-on-with-downtown-development.html "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
May 31, 20205 yr On 4/11/2020 at 2:08 PM, Columbo said: CU ventures outdoors to take photos of our on-going construction projects so you won't have to: #stayinsideohio https://www.columbusunderground.com/construction-roundup-april-2020-we1 A panoramic view of The Residences at Topiary Park: A closer view of The Residences at Topiary Park: These are currently on fire, have been burning for some time, and have been heavily damaged. Seen at WCMH website. Probably related to the riots and all. SMH.
May 31, 20205 yr Watching this fire live(WCMH) as it heavily damages this development is just sickening. It looks like most of the top of the building is burning. I would not be surprised if they did not target this, as these under construction developments are so prone to burn given they are stick built and have no working fire protection/suppression systems-just like the 5 floor building near the 13th precinct in Minneapolis was targeted and burnt completely to the ground.
May 31, 20205 yr Good news is they were under construction and not occupied. I'll take that any day. Edited May 31, 20205 yr by DTCL11
May 31, 20205 yr 58 minutes ago, Zyrokai said: Yikes. Welp........do they rebuild or not? I'd be shocked if it wasn't rebuilt. Insurance should recoup most if not all of the costs. For some context, a very similar overnight fire happened to a nearly complete 4-story Terraces on Vahalla apartment building in Clintonville in December 2008 - see this post at https://forum.urbanohio.com/topic/5242-columbus-the-terraces-on-walhalla/?tab=comments#comment-282208. That fire was attributed to homeless breaking into the building. In that case the fire was more severe due to on-site fuel tanks exploding and it burned completely to the ground(!) But a little over a year later, the 4-story building was rebuilt and accepting residents: https://forum.urbanohio.com/topic/562-columbus-clintonville-developments-and-news/page/3/?tab=comments#comment-395458 I think the question with the Topiary Park townhouses is whether enough remains to rebuild as is, or if they'll need to demo it back to the foundation and rebuild.
May 31, 20205 yr 5 hours ago, DTCL11 said: Good news is they were under construction and not occupied. I'll take that any day. The fact that they were under construction and unoccupied is likely why they were targeted. The(likely white just out to destroy)people who did this knew that the building would have no working fire detection/suppression systems while under construction. This is why the 5 story 190 unit apartment building in Minneapolis that was under construction burned to the ground and was a huge inferno, while the Target nearby was looted and also set on fire, but the fire was put out by the sprinkler system so while the building was looted and had some smoke and water damage, it did not turn into an inferno. Whomever did this knew what they were doing and targeted this building because it was under construction. And I doubt it was was of the many people who were out reasonably protesting police violence and brutality towards POC and other racial societal inequities.
May 31, 20205 yr 1 hour ago, Columbo said: I'd be shocked if it wasn't rebuilt. Insurance should recoup most if not all of the costs. For some context, a very similar overnight fire happened to a nearly complete 4-story Terraces on Vahalla apartment building in Clintonville in December 2008 - see this post at https://forum.urbanohio.com/topic/5242-columbus-the-terraces-on-walhalla/?tab=comments#comment-282208. That fire was attributed to homeless breaking into the building. In that case the fire was more severe due to on-site fuel tanks exploding and it burned completely to the ground(!) But a little over a year later, the 4-story building was rebuilt and accepting residents: https://forum.urbanohio.com/topic/562-columbus-clintonville-developments-and-news/page/3/?tab=comments#comment-395458 I think the question with the Topiary Park townhouses is whether enough remains to rebuild as is, or if they'll need to demo it back to the foundation and rebuild. I agree they will likely rebuild for the reasons you mentioned-it is important to keep the bigger picture in mind and see this as just a temporary setback.
May 31, 20205 yr "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
May 31, 20205 yr You might need a subscription to view this - but the Dispatch has an amazing 28-image slideshow of the Residences at Topiary Park fire at the link below: https://www.dispatch.com/photogallery/OH/20200531/PHOTOGALLERY/531009992/PH/1 At that link, the Dispatch reported this: "According to neighbors, a small fire started around 2:30 a.m., but the bigger blaze took over the roof sometime after 6 a.m." If you can't view the full slideshow at the link, here are four of the best images: Dispatch caption: "A photo taken from a drone shows the roof and several floors collapsed at the nearly-completed Residences at Topiary Park apartment building Downtown on Sunday May 31, 2020."
June 1, 20205 yr Encova assessing after fire guts new Topiary Park complex The company said it is still assessing the damage to the building and it's too early to comment on what the future will hold for the property. More below: https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/06/01/encova-assessing-after-fire-guts-new-topiary-compl.html "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
June 1, 20205 yr 1 hour ago, ColDayMan said: Encova assessing after fire guts new Topiary Park complex The company said it is still assessing the damage to the building and it's too early to comment on what the future will hold for the property. More below: https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/06/01/encova-assessing-after-fire-guts-new-topiary-compl.html They have to have insurance for this damage, right? I don't see why they would not move ahead otherwise given the prime location and the acquisition of the property and having all of the infrastructure in place. They just may need to demo and then restart the building of it. It looks like the foundation work and everything would still be intact as most of the damage appears to be to the upper levels of the building. And it was coming along so nicely. *sigh*. I am just going to hope for the best here. *Plus isn't this just part of a master plan for the area by Motorists?(er...Encova-It will always be the Motorist's building just like it will always be the Sears Tower!). They already have a stake in owning all of those surface lots. Edited June 1, 20205 yr by Toddguy
June 2, 20205 yr ^^^ I certainly hope they continue and either repair or rebuild. It was seriously so nice and is very depressing to see ruined like this. I would definitely think they have insurance, though.
June 3, 20205 yr https://www.thisweeknews.com/news/20200603/man-arrested-in-arson-fire-near-topiary-park Columbus Fire charged a man with aggravated arson for intentionally setting fire to a nearly finished apartment building near Topiary Park early Sunday. Fire officials said the arson fire does not appear to be related to the protests and vandalism that occurred over the weekend. Derrick D. Lee, 30, whose address is listed as the streets of Columbus, will appear in Franklin County Municipal Court on Thursday. “At this time, it is not believed that this $25 million fire was related to the civil unrest that took place in the same area hours earlier,” Columbus Fire Battalion Chief Steve Martin said in a statement.
June 3, 20205 yr This is tough. So tough to see -- what took so long to get to this point, gone in the matter of hours. I also hope they find the ability to rebuild. The master plan for the area is so needed and once the masonry work was completed, it looked great.
June 5, 20205 yr https://www.columbusunderground.com/fire-damage-extensive-at-topiary-park-apartments-bw1 CU has some photos of the Topiary Park damage after the smoke cleared at the above link. In assessing the fire damage, its obvious that the entire roof is gone. Its also obvious that much of the top 4th floor suffered extensive damage. However, its not clear how damage there is on the lower three floors. Obviously there will be water damage. But whether that translates to structural damage is another question. If there isn't a ton of structural damage on the lower floors, they might be able to save the outside walls and rebuild as needed on the interior. However, if there is extensive structural damage in the lower floors, they might conclude its better/safer to just demo back to the foundations and rebuild again.
June 12, 20205 yr The Cleveland Ave. streetscape is coming together nicely. Edited June 12, 20205 yr by Pablo
June 18, 20204 yr https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200616/columbus-state-removing-christopher-columbus-statue https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/06/16/columbus-state-to-remove-christopher-colum.html The statue of Christopher Columbus that has been on display at Columbus State Community College is coming down. The college announced the action and said the removal would happen within two weeks. The statue will be eventually replaced with a new art installation. The Christopher Columbus statue was created by Alfred Solani in 1959, was first installed in Illinois, and was moved to CSCC's campus in 1988. Once removed it will be placed in storage.
July 12, 20204 yr Pizzuti's Library Park Phase 2 Apartment Building (Sat. 7-11-20) The Library Park Development Phase 3 from Grant Ave. In the background you can see the new build phase 2 to the left and Phase 1 (the Grant-Oak Apartments renovation) to the right. Phase 3 from in front of the Phase 1/Grant-Oak Apartments. For the Grant-Oak Apartments renovation they painted the four remaining buildings blue. These along with The Pierce (the new red apartment building in the background above) are adding some nice color to the district.
July 12, 20204 yr 8 minutes ago, NorthShore647 said: For the Grant-Oak Apartments renovation they painted the four remaining buildings blue. These along with The Pierce (the new red apartment building in the background above) are adding some nice color to the district. Agreed! In the late spring, summer, and early fall Columbus looks decent with the trees adding vibrancy. In the winter, ugh! Bleakness takes over. Adding some vibrancy with buildings will go a long way in helping that.
July 13, 20204 yr On 6/1/2020 at 3:26 PM, ColDayMan said: Encova assessing after fire guts new Topiary Park complex The company said it is still assessing the damage to the building and it's too early to comment on what the future will hold for the property. More below: https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/06/01/encova-assessing-after-fire-guts-new-topiary-compl.html Do we yet know what's the final assessment of this damage?
July 13, 20204 yr 3 minutes ago, NorthShore647 said: Topiary Park Fire Aftermath (Sat. 7-11-20) This still makes me so mad ?
July 13, 20204 yr 1 hour ago, cbussoccer said: This still makes me so mad ? Has to be a total loss right? Buildings these days unfortunately aren't really made to survive something as dramatic as that fire.
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