30 minutes ago, CMHOhio said:

As an aside, I find it incredibly interesting the CVS seems to be okay with a new store void of parking and a drive-thru on this space but is apparently so vehemently committed to those aspects in another urban development.

 

I imagine that this location receives far more foot traffic than the Thurber Village location. I've parked in a half empty parking lot here only to find the store packed.

2 hours ago, cbussoccer said:

 

Woah.

 

 

Obviously need to see actual details beyond a massing, but this is exactly the kind of development that needs to be built around campus to set the precedent. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Purdue have both recently built major towers like this right off of campus, and those are both in small towns. This is what should really be lining High Street (and Lane) all along campus. It would be great if this influenced the hotel at 15th + High to go taller, too (it's design mimics Thompson Library but it's only shown at 8 stories) -- I'd love to see at least 13 floors + there. That should be a signature hotel for whatever brand they get, and considering the lack of hotels in the vicinity I have no doubt it would be well-served. 

https://www.landmarkproperties.com/properties/

 

This company has a ton of large properties all over the country. Let's hope they can get this done painlessly and want to keep building here. They have five towers at Michigan alone!

4 hours ago, cbussoccer said:

 

Woah.

 

 

 

Now that's what I mean by maximizing potential of sites.  Get that approved now.

 

Also, it makes all of OSU's development just to the south on High seem kind of pathetic now.  

Edited February 18, 20223 yr by jonoh81

Next up, I hope they destroy the UDF(s) along High Street and build more 17+ story towers.

4 hours ago, jebleprls22 said:

That should be a signature hotel for whatever brand they get, and considering the lack of hotels in the vicinity I have no doubt it would be well-served. 

Blackwell 2: Electric Boogaloo. 

4 hours ago, ColDayMan said:

Next up, I hope they destroy the UDF(s) along High Street and build more 17+ story towers.

Those UDF’s saw me through my best and worst of times, but I agree and believe it’s inevitable. I think similar to what they became in Short North would be appropriate.

11 hours ago, ColDayMan said:

Next up, I hope they destroy the UDF(s) along High Street and build more 17+ story towers.

That McDonalds is also prime to become a decent mixed use building. 

Edited February 18, 20223 yr by VintageLife

Such an awesome proposal! That intersection is just begging for height. I'm also now a huge proponent of anything that removes a one story CVS building.

21 minutes ago, TIm said:

Such an awesome proposal! That intersection is just begging for height. I'm also now a huge proponent of anything that removes a one story CVS building.

Parsons and Livingston CVS gets to go next!

 

I really like this proposal though. Hopefully it gets approval soon and leads to more height along High. 

8 minutes ago, amped91 said:

Parsons and Livingston CVS gets to go next!

 

I really like this proposal though. Hopefully it gets approval soon and leads to more height along High. 

Someone just needs to go for it and really set the precedent. Once one company builds something tall and it works, others will be fighting over the available parcels in the area where you can build tall.

More info is available on the University Impact District Review Board website in the agenda for the meeting on the 24th:  https://www.columbus.gov/planning/uidrb/

 

Looks like the connecting building along Pearl is elevated with a parkette between the two existing row houses. The back half of the row houses are removed in this scheme. They also show retail along Pearl which is strange in my mind.

 

5 minutes ago, Pablo said:

More info is available on the University Impact District Review Board website in the agenda for the meeting on the 24th:  https://www.columbus.gov/planning/uidrb/

 

Looks like the connecting building along Pearl is elevated with a parkette between the two existing row houses. The back half of the row houses are removed in this scheme. They also show retail along Pearl which is strange in my mind.

 

Does pearl go all the way to 15th and high, or does it disconnect anywhere? Wonder if they want to push for an off high street area somewhat. 

1 minute ago, VintageLife said:

Does pearl go all the way to 15th and high, or does it disconnect anywhere? Wonder if they want to push for an off high street area somewhat. 

It does not. There is a gap between Frambes and Woodruff.

Just now, Pablo said:

It does not. There is a gap between Frambes and Woodruff.

Just looked it up and noticed that. Yeah no idea why they would put retail on pearl, but I’m all for it. 

Here is the retail location layout, if anyone is interested. 

*a wild cincinnatian appeared* Yo, love lurking on the other regional board! Hello! Not sure what the appetite for the project is in the neighborhood... but I do not think these renderings do the project any good. Bad angles that make the project look even more massive than it already is and for what? No human is ever going to see the build from that birds eye vantage point. 

14 minutes ago, Chas Wiederhold said:

*a wild cincinnatian appeared* Yo, love lurking on the other regional board! Hello! Not sure what the appetite for the project is in the neighborhood... but I do not think these renderings do the project any good. Bad angles that make the project look even more massive than it already is and for what? No human is ever going to see the build from that birds eye vantage point. 

 

Those are standard renderings for conceptual projects. They wanted to gauge the commission's appetite for the scope and use before bringing forward a design for approval. The renderings didn't seem to scare the commissioners as they voiced their approval for the height.

19 minutes ago, cbussoccer said:

Those are standard renderings for conceptual projects.

 

This can vary wildly from architecture firm to architecture firm. I understand that aerials are needed for these types of reviews and great the the project still got commission approval. They know their audience, I guess. 

THISSSSSSS. THIS IS THE WAY!!! I'm in love with this (pending tweaks) but this is the exact massing many if us thought it should be. Go big. Preserve more. They can live harmoniously. In order to facilitate preservation. Commissions have to be willing to let developers go more vertical in places like this. 

 

Let's see if the commission can be progressive enough. And if not, take it to the city and let them override the commission. 

 

I have not been so excited by a project proposal in a while. 

2 hours ago, VintageLife said:

Just looked it up and noticed that. Yeah no idea why they would put retail on pearl, but I’m all for it. 

Wouldn't be a bad spot for some lower traffic/volume retail entities. Specialty shops catering to the college crowd or something like that. More so destination type shops as opposed to the places you would just randomly pop into.

Edited February 18, 20223 yr by TIm

1 hour ago, TIm said:

Wouldn't be a bad spot for some lower traffic/volume retail entities. Specialty shops catering to the college crowd or something like that. More so destination type shops as opposed to the places you would just randomly pop into.

 

In general, we need more of that on the north side. It is an undervalued assett to have those places off fhe beaten path as we focud so much on high traffic areas. So many old corner shops buried in neighborhoods have been turned into first floor residential or office/storage space. It would be a great iniative if the city and/or commission started to push to bring that back 

Edited February 18, 20223 yr by DTCL11

17-Story Building Proposed for Lane and High

 

The latest proposal for the northeast corner of High Street and Lane Avenue calls for a building that would be 17 stories tall at its highest point.

 

The concept will be reviewed conceptually – meaning no vote will be taken – by the University Impact District Review Board at its meeting on February 24.

 

It will be the third time in the last few months that the board has discussed a plan to redevelop the site, which currently has five buildings on it – a one-story CVS pharmacy, two matching brick apartment buildings that face each other across a central courtyard, and two residential buildings on Norwich Avenue.
 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/17-story-building-proposed-for-lane-and-high-bw1/

 

I obviously am a big fan of this, especially as it preserves the historic storefronts, which I think add a lot of character to the Old North End. But I have one complaint about this - I think the way they have two buildings linked together by an overhead bridge/part of the building (not sure what word to use) looks ridiculous. You can see what I mean in the picture below. I'd much rather there be two independent buildings rather than one mega structure. Have the CVS tower and then extend the Alhambra courtyard plaza all the way to Pearl, then have a separate free-standing building along Norwich and Pearl. Maybe it wouldn't look as bad from the ground level, but in these renderings, it looks way too bloated.

 

Also, not gonna lie, this project makes me pretty nervous - if they use cheap boring materials and designs like we see on most new "luxury" apartment buildings these days, then it has the potential to be a humungous  17 story eyesore. But if they get it right, it'll be amazing. The problem is just that this is probably the most visible and iconic corner of the University District, so I hope to god that they get it right.

 

1 hour ago, Dblcut3 said:

I obviously am a big fan of this, especially as it preserves the historic storefronts, which I think add a lot of character to the Old North End. But I have one complaint about this - I think the way they have two buildings linked together by an overhead bridge/part of the building (not sure what word to use) looks ridiculous. You can see what I mean in the picture below. I'd much rather there be two independent buildings rather than one mega structure. Have the CVS tower and then extend the Alhambra courtyard plaza all the way to Pearl, then have a separate free-standing building along Norwich and Pearl. Maybe it wouldn't look as bad from the ground level, but in these renderings, it looks way too bloated.

 

Also, not gonna lie, this project makes me pretty nervous - if they use cheap boring materials and designs like we see on most new "luxury" apartment buildings these days, then it has the potential to be a humungous  17 story eyesore. But if they get it right, it'll be amazing. The problem is just that this is probably the most visible and iconic corner of the University District, so I hope to god that they get it right.

 

Hopefully once actual renderings come out they try and incorporate some unique design elements into this thing as opposed to making one of those cookie cutter (but useful!) 5 story luxury buildings just stretched out 3x higher. The sky bridge thing has the potential to be really cool if done right!

1 hour ago, TIm said:

Hopefully once actual renderings come out they try and incorporate some unique design elements into this thing as opposed to making one of those cookie cutter (but useful!) 5 story luxury buildings just stretched out 3x higher. The sky bridge thing has the potential to be really cool if done right!

Yeah I feel like if the commission is okay with this massing and design, they will push for that building along pearl to match the historic buildings a bit more. 

This proposal is very good and I love the increased height. But I wish they could just build two separate buildings and leave Alhambra Court like it is. Why do they have to have that back segment connecting the two?-could they just go higher with the building on the CVS parcel? I guess saving the front part is better than nothing, and I do like the height increase at least. I hope this gets done in some fashion or another.-and with a good design and good materials since it will be great visibility all round.

Looks like Phase Two of the Canon Drive realignment will start construction in August.

 

 

Really wish they could find a new parking solution so that Ohio Stadium could not be surrounded by surface parking.

 

https://buildingthefuture.osu.edu/cannon-drive-relocation-phase-2

3 hours ago, aderwent said:

Looks like Phase Two of the Canon Drive realignment will start construction in August.

 

 

Really wish they could find a new parking solution so that Ohio Stadium could not be surrounded by surface parking.

 

https://buildingthefuture.osu.edu/cannon-drive-relocation-phase-2

The money they make from parking passes for football season makes that wish not a reality.

22 minutes ago, wpcc88 said:

The money they make from parking passes for football season makes that wish not a reality.

I was thinking something like Dorrian Green.

1 hour ago, wpcc88 said:

The money they make from parking passes for football season makes that wish not a reality.

Put a parking garage somewhere across from the stadium and charge more. 

5 minutes ago, VintageLife said:

Put a parking garage somewhere across from the stadium and charge more. 

Ok and then where are they going to have their fancy tailgates? Also that particular side is where the broadcast trucks park along with the visiting teams buses and equipment trucks. Again it’s a pipe dream for that to ever go away. Maybe when or if the St. John’s redevelopment happens.

13 minutes ago, wpcc88 said:

Ok and then where are they going to have their fancy tailgates? Also that particular side is where the broadcast trucks park along with the visiting teams buses and equipment trucks. Again it’s a pipe dream for that to ever go away. Maybe when or if the St. John’s redevelopment happens.

Just put it in one of the surface lots at St. John’s 

Honestly, OSU needs to have a 2030 vision for the Shoe in general. There is plenty of potential to give the stadium an external face-lift, dynamic lighting, redevelop the parking lots to accommodate more park type space that can accommodate pre-game activities. Dedicated staging space (for media etc), stage space, bathrooms, etc etc. Leave the St John arena area to the private tailgate area or the parking lot across the river. At some point, it would be nice to put experience and aestetic over certain dollars but I get it. 

 

----------

 

As for Lane and High. I prefer the addition to the northern half. I think if done correctly, it could be a great mix of new and old that I personally love rather than the new next to the old without any interaction. It also helps step it down to reduce the drastic nature of the juxtapositions. Certainly my feelings will depend on the final design and material, but the massing is fine for me. 

 

I hope there is some more attention paid to the actual corner. The squared off 'divit' isn't great and I'd rather have a rounded corner. It might be kind of interesting to mic it up with a concave corner. But again, it could be a byproduct of the massing rendering more than anything else at this point. 

 

Next up.... BW3s.... lets do it. Let's give High and Lane the treatment it deserves and show North Broadway and High what it's missing out on 😅

 

As an Old North resident, I'm so excited. An actual YIMBY. 

Vertical at Cousins!

 

 

Just spitballing here, but I wouldn't mind OSU start thinking about replacing Lincoln and Morrill towers. Aesthetically, neither are very pleasing to the eye and an upgrade would be nice to see.

17 minutes ago, John7165 said:

Just spitballing here, but I wouldn't mind OSU start thinking about replacing Lincoln and Morrill towers. Aesthetically, neither are very pleasing to the eye and an upgrade would be nice to see.

 

Absolutely agree, that said....

 

I have gotten the opportunity a few times to talk with those decision makers at the university and have brought this up. The good news is that basically everyone at the university agrees, they hate them. The bad news is they towers are too valuable to lose (they house roughly 2000 students) and too expensive to retrofit/upgrade (they floated exterior and interior redesigns a few years back), so for better or worse the towers are here to stay. 

 

I was told they even discussed exterior lighting upgrades (color programable LEDs) and apparently it would require FAA approvals due to the towers heights and proximity to the med center helipads so the university had no interest in dealing with something even that minimal. 

 

I know it's not what you wanted to hear but thought I could provide some insight. 

Edited February 23, 20223 yr by DevolsDance

Replacing them is absolutely a pipe dream, they are just way too useful. An exterior facelift would be nice though, even if they just painted them in OSU colors or something. At least that way when they do the panoramic overhead views during football games you don't get assaulted with that "room someone smoked cigarettes inside for 20 years" shade of yellow/off white.

1 hour ago, TIm said:

Replacing them is absolutely a pipe dream, they are just way too useful. An exterior facelift would be nice though, even if they just painted them in OSU colors or something. At least that way when they do the panoramic overhead views during football games you don't get assaulted with that "room someone smoked cigarettes inside for 20 years" shade of yellow/off white.

They should paint them to look like silos...

2 hours ago, DevolsDance said:

 

Absolutely agree, that said....

 

I have gotten the opportunity a few times to talk with those decision makers at the university and have brought this up. The good news is that basically everyone at the university agrees, they hate them. The bad news is they towers are too valuable to lose (they house roughly 2000 students) and too expensive to retrofit/upgrade (they floated exterior and interior redesigns a few years back), so for better or worse the towers are here to stay. 

 

I was told they even discussed exterior lighting upgrades (color programable LEDs) and apparently it would require FAA approvals due to the towers heights and proximity to the med center helipads so the university had no interest in dealing with something even that minimal. 

 

I know it's not what you wanted to hear but thought I could provide some insight. 

They have plenty of options to do a facelift on it, if they wanted. OSU clearly doesn’t lack money for such things, it just depends on when and if they would want to. Once they have built up a ton of land in the area, I could see them doing something. 
 

something like this would work. It would look cool next to the river and the new hospital tower also.

Edited February 23, 20223 yr by VintageLife

14 minutes ago, VintageLife said:

They have plenty of options to do a facelift on it, if they wanted. OSU clearly doesn’t lack money for such things, it just depends on when and if they would want to. Once they have built up a ton of land in the area, I could see them doing something. 
 

something like this would work. It would look cool next to the river and the new hospital tower also.

Again they can’t afford for them to go offline…(I think that’s BS btw) considering they’re making sophomores live on campus(more BS because I know plenty of relatives who have skipped this)… long and short something needs to be done, it’s been about 10-12 years since I was in one of them to get a new BuckID and Morrill wasn’t in good shape then, can’t imagine how dated they are now

^^ that building has 5 million times more window coverage than the OSU towers 😅 

 

 

Face-lifts with something as easy as cladding would go a long way. But you'd be looking at significant investment to modernize it anyway beyond that. The window situation on the towers rivals the downtown jail. It probably wouldn't be a stretch to estimate that for every 10 SF of window, there's 100 sf of masonry exterior. 

 

The other unfortunate bit would be for those who value a bit of height or romanticize OSU having its own skyline,  replacement would almost certainly exclude another tower and result in the demolition of both towers as I cant imagine there is any reasonable Adaptive re-use.  The right people might have it in their mind to replace the two towers with a showpiece tower but the practicalilty of that is minimal. Though, I agree, I can't imagine the funding wouldn't be there if they committed to it. There is certainly space for a sleek tower, or even 2 matching towers on any of the lots adjacent or the grass south of the band field. (In effect, shifting the towers). Then again, going through all that vs the cost of a full gut. 

 

The most reasonable expectation would be an expansion of the Northern Residential district along Lane. Of course that means taking away tailgating lots I previously mentioned above lol... and making some final decision on St John's arena.  

 

Honestly, I'd prefer to let them go if that meant an expansion of the residential district on Lane. For reference. The previous expansion for the Lane and High district was 3200 beds. Close to 50% more capacity than the towers hold. It might suck for walking to class but it's still better than some other major campuses. 

 

I imagine that the breaking point for keeping them will come sooner than later. Especially with the announcement of Framework 3.0 and it's reported focus on student housing and student life. And unless they plan on more significant health and research updates, a residential plan or tower isn't going to come close to what they outlined for the Framework 2.0. 

 

*whispers*  build that tower 

 

 

Edited February 24, 20223 yr by DTCL11

Agreed that Lincoln & Morrill (or Sodom & Gomorrah, as I often head them referred to as) are an eyesore. Crazy to think there was a plan to have the riverbank lined by several more of the same horrendous structure. It's a shame there's not much that can be done with them given their current constraints. 

 

19 hours ago, DTCL11 said:

The window situation on the towers rivals the downtown jail. It probably wouldn't be a stretch to estimate that for every 10 SF of window, there's 100 sf of masonry exterior. 

^This. I often visited Lincoln Tower and the tiny windows are a very sad aspect of living/working in those buildings.

 

21 hours ago, VintageLife said:

They have plenty of options to do a facelift on it, if they wanted. OSU clearly doesn’t lack money for such things, it just depends on when and if they would want to. Once they have built up a ton of land in the area, I could see them doing something. 
 

something like this would work. It would look cool next to the river and the new hospital tower also.

Not to stay too far off topic, but I wish the the same treatment would have been given to the Rhodes Tower while it was under renovation.

East 9th Ave

 

 

Elevator cores for the Energy Advancement and Innovation Center are now rising. (Also, I’m annoyed we don’t have a webcam for this building.)

 

Work continues on Ohio State's new lacrosse stadium

 

 

The Village Idiot block is for sale:

 

https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/1437-1443-North-High-Street/22995132/

 

22 minutes ago, aderwent said:

The Village Idiot block is for sale:

 

https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/1437-1443-North-High-Street/22995132/

 

Yeah, sadly that section is probably gone soon. They had already had a rendering for this spot years ago. Hopefully Eden Burger finds another location. 

On 2/24/2022 at 2:36 PM, CMHOhio said:

Agreed that Lincoln & Morrill (or Sodom & Gomorrah, as I often head them referred to as) are an eyesore.

 

 

It was a sharp proposal in 2016 except for the fact that it tore down the entire block. The corner isn't worth anything but an argument could be made for the main building. 

 

The commission took the obvious issues of height (which was only 13 ft above the guideline that were adopted later), parking, and 'it looks sharp paying homage to the library. I wish it did the same for the rest of the neighborhood'. 

 

In today's building market, I think something like this would get much less pushback other than the historic preservation. 

 

https://columbusunderground.com/eight-story-hotel-proposed-for-university-district/