anybody have recent construction photos of the little guy?

I snapped a few yesterday and will post them tomorrow.

awesome! thanks

New rendering

 

this rendering has been around for a while. i think its already in this thread actually. it has always troubled me why the existing parking garage is so prevelant in the rendering. sort of makes me think phase two is just a dream, which i guess it probably is.

^

^

Drinking last night, Monte? :drunk:

 

hehe, j/k.

 

The second phase is probably going to be drastically redesigned which is probably why they haven't included it in the rendering above. I contacted HOK about the second phase awhile back and they basically conveyed to me that it's super hush-hush. That tells me at least one thing...that they even knew about the second phase is a good sign. I hope they have something spectacular in store for us.

yeah i remember all that good stuff. plus leaving the garage gives uninformed people enough existing context for them to know where it is actually located

BTW, has anyone noticed the facing that they put on the WS Life garage across Broadway from the 303 site...?

 

I wonder if this is a sample piece of the facade for 303...

 

 

twnipper

Didn't notice it. But I will check it out on my way to Cincy tonight...

The new design for Queen City Square Phase 1 will be in it's 1 year anniversary since it's approval this month. I believe it was unveiled 11/25/03. Can you guys believe it's already been a year?! Daaammmmnnn! Man where does the time go?

Bah...the Roebling Suspension Bridge was proposed in 1845 and wasn't opened until 1867. Nicholas Longworth offered his former vineyard land at cut-rate prices to the city for 40 years for the establishment of Eden Park--to no avail!

 

Get used to it. :D

I started renovating my house in 1987, and it isn't finished yet!

 

Not even finished, and some of the earlier work needs to be spruced up, already.

^ I didn't notice it either, and I walked right by it last Thursday.

The Empire state building was completed in 14 months..;)

 

Now that's amazing.

Hey, Im new to the board!

If this means anything about phase 2, I Co-op for Western and Southern, and I know that they are trying to move all the employees to the Broadway garage (with the spinning top) out of the Queen City one. Not sure how long that is going to take though, but at least they have started on it.

 

Matt

looks like some excellent insider potential!

Hey' date=' Im new to the board!

If this means anything about phase 2, I Co-op for Western and Southern, and I know that they are trying to move all the employees to the Broadway garage (with the spinning top) out of the Queen City one. Not sure how long that is going to take though, but at least they have started on it.

 

Matt[/quote']

 

This is really interesting news. Hopefully the ball gets rolling soon.

^

I went to QCS last night, and the piece of facade on the Western-Southern garage across the street is indeed part of QCS's facade. I spoke with the parking attendent and he said they placed it there to see how it's going to look.

 

That is really strange...I've never heard of anyone checking out a piece of facade on another building before to see how it looks. Could it be that they me be conteplating a change in the facade design? Can that be done after the project has already started?

 

I took some pics of it, but it didn't come out to good. I'll try again tonight...

Are you going to be in Cincy tonight?

typically they do mock-ups to check the system for leaking and what not...but they usually do those tests on the building itself

I'll probably be down at QCS around 7:00 or so. Not going to stay very long. I have to get back to check out the election coverage :)

How old now are the renderings of the tower? At least 2? Certainly there have been changes, and as I have said for years(!), this is going to end up being a pretty awkward building both in the skyline and at the street level. As can be seen in the rending of phase 1, it will more or less be dead at street level, with no possibility of retail. It will be the same story with the phase 2 tower, at least along 3rd. The 4th St. entrance might turn out halfway decent, but I don't have much confidence. In short I anticipate the whole development to be a an aesthetic and functional train wreck, again, both on a human scale and its presence in the skyline. However it's preferable to what's there now, so I'm not going tie myself to the orange garage when they show up with the wrecking ball. Also, with phase 1, there was potential to create a striking corner right there where so many exit from the tunnel and drive north on Broadway from under Ft. Washington Way. It doesn't look like that's going to happen.

 

Third street in general is doomed to mediocrity because street activity is weak and its odd combination of "front door" and "back door" structures, i.e. the Scripps Center and Olympic Auto Park. This area is visually a front door, and functionally from arriving automobiles, but at street level it is just a place passed to get somewhere else. Queen City Square doesn't really help that situation.

^

I totally agree. I'm not sure what they are trying to do with the project overall. Cincinnati has to have something else in mind with the general area around QCS.

 

As for the second phase rendering, my guess would be to pretty much look for the same design, but with the facade matching what is going to be on Phase 1, and minor detail changes here and there.

Check out what Monte has been up to lately. Thanks for posting my renderings, Monte! :)

 

http://www.pbase.com/montecarloss/queen_city_sqaure

I really don't see anything wrong with Phase 1. It could have been a lot worse. Looking at the renderings of Phase 1 & 2, it doesn't appear to me that they have settled for the 'next best thing' or something second rate like we are so used to seeing here in Cincinnati.

Phase 1 looks fine to me, I'm not going to be picky.

I like Phase 2 also. I don't care if it doesn't match the current skyline one bit. It's the 21st century. Lets move on.

It seems like forever since they build a tower downtown, and the fact that it will be the tallest makes me happy no matter what it looks like.

 

By the way, does anyone have a picture of this facade that you guys are talking about? I won't be able to get down there for another couple weeks.

 

Anyway, I don't totally agree with the train wreck theory. If you look at the rendering for Phase 1, it makes it look like there is a BIG open space in front of the building. As most of you know this is not the case. The only thing in front of this building is an overpass or two, so IMHO this wouldn't be the prime spot for retail anyway. I could see a Sports Bar or Tavern on the Sycamore Street side to go along with the In-Between Tavern across the Street. And maybe a couple restaurants on the 4th Street side, but no retail.

3rd street is dead now, but if they ever get around to putting the coverings on Fort Washington Way and get The Banks going ( I know, I'm dreaming ) that would really put a charge into 3rd street. There is also more property on 3rd street that should be replaced with mid-rise condos instead of even thinking of more office space.

Thats all I got, gotta go.

>t doesn't appear to me that they have settled for the 'next best thing' or something second rate like we are so used to seeing here in Cincinnati.

 

How many buildings on this planet aren't second rate or worse? Less than 1%. Really, maybe only 100 square miles of the earth's surface is composed of groups of city blocks composed entirely of "first rate" buildings.

 

 

>Phase 1 looks fine to me, I'm not going to be picky.

I like Phase 2 also. I don't care if it doesn't match the current skyline one bit. It's the 21st century. Lets move on.

It seems like forever since they build a tower downtown, and the fact that it will be the tallest makes me happy no matter what it looks like.

 

Allright, so they're only building one tower every fifteen years, meaning at that rate it'd be 75 years before a substantial number of 21st century towers join the skyline. For that reason new buildings *should* blend with the current skyline, since it's not going to fundamentally change until we're all in diapers.

 

 

>As most of you know this is not the case. The only thing in front of this building is an overpass or two, so IMHO this wouldn't be the prime spot for retail anyway.

 

Exactly. That's my point -- 3rd St.'s fate is sealed.

 

>3rd street is dead now, but if they ever get around to putting the coverings on Fort Washington Way and get The Banks going ( I know, I'm dreaming ) that would really put a charge into 3rd street. There is also more property on 3rd street that should be replaced with mid-rise condos instead of even thinking of more office space.

 

The only hope in my view for 3rd St. is a series of midrise apartment buildings with condos. Thanks to the Scripps Center, we can never hope for something like whatever that one avenue in Chicago is opposite the park and art museum, where buildings form a 15 floor wall unbroken for more than a mile. But apartments with balconies would help improve that street. Between third street, the expressway, and the cold Underground Railroad Freedom Center, that area will never be a satisfying area. Functional, but unlikely to be a place that arouses any sentimentality or identity.

 

By the way' date=' does anyone have a picture of this facade that you guys are talking about? I won't be able to get down there for another couple weeks.

 

[/quote']

 

Funny you should just happen to ask that. Here's pics of the facade from this morning...along with some construction updates...

 

 

 

 

is that metal screen in the bottom portion? it looks like they put it on that building to see how the mess of concrete decking from the garage will read through glass...but i hope they dont clad the garage levels with that screen

does anybody know if there was a building adjacent to the existing garage that has been demolished? as long as i can remember and in any photographs i have seen the brick veneer has been missing from that portion, but i don’t remember a building being there.

I thought there was another parking garage there, but I am most lilkely wrong.

Thanks for the picks Ronnie.

'jmeck', throw me a bone here. Did you at least like the Sports Bar idea? Please?

God I hope they build more than one every 15 years.

You've got me depressed now. I'm going to go put my diaper on.

Ditto on that missing portion of brick, it has been at least 15 years since something was there (at a minimum), the shape of the remains look like a typical 3-4 story Cincy row building.

From what I can tell from the renderings, and from looking at the facade from the other side, the mesh will most likely be there on the garage portion of the building. The mesh is very flimsy, but looks like it was well connected to the rest of the facade :(

^ Damn!!

I see what your talking about. Dummy me. :stupid: On the rendering I thought that was supposed to be a reflection. I take it that it's for ventilation but looking at the facade in your picture, it's kinda ghetto. Maybe it will look better when it's all together. I was hoping that the garage would be covered in glass also, but I guess the ventilation bill would get pretty high.

the more i think about it the more i believe the screen is appropriate as it will hide the slanting concrete decks a little better than the glass. it would be fine if it had a little integrity or if it actually added to the buildings detailing...like the mesh on paul brown or great american. but the stuff in that mock-up looks like it was ripped out from somebody's screen door and stapled in there.

'jmeck', throw me a bone here. Did you at least like the Sports Bar idea? Please?

 

Hey, I just don't understand why all these folks are blowing wads over this project. It'll be more or less a "private" building, with no shopping arcade, observation deck, or reason to enter outside of business. It might become the tallest but will add nothing to the actual function or character of the city. Even with completion of that project, it will still be a mediocre block since the Masonic Temple inexplicably requires so much parking (together with its lots it takes up 1/3 of the block). Perhaps with construction of the tower's garages the Temple's lots can be redeveloped but again don't get too wishful.

 

I did notice this weekend that phase I by itself will loom over Fort Washington Way, when approaching from the 3rd St. Viaduct, in a way I didn't anticipate. That should be pretty cool, but again, it's not a big deal either.

 

 

 

>God I hope they build more than one every 15 years.

 

Don't count on it.

^

Actually, the northern block of QCS is supposed to house a host of shops and retail space. I'm not sure what they have planned exactly...but there used to be a rendering that showed what they wanted to do with it. I will try and dig it up tomorrow and post it here.

From this past Saturday, November 6:

http://www.cincinnati-transit.net/downtown13.jpg">

 

This photo from 2000 shows the Masonic Temple or Business Club (or whatever it is)'s parking empire:

http://www.cincinnati-transit.net/downtown3.jpg">

Look close and you'll see the solitary row building on the north side of the block that remained until sometime in 2001, if I remember correctly.

Jmeck, are you going to be moving back to Cincy when you are done at OU?

 

BTW, I just hope that Convergys doesn't try to pull a fast one and tear down the 19 century buildings next to the Atriums. I thought I read somewhere that they were protected.

Those old buildings are both in a National and Local Historic District. The Local protection is pretty tough to get something done with, especially demolition. As for the ownership, some group with an office in that weird shaped glass building behind the historic ones owns all the buildings on that quarter block. I can't believe they haven't done some condo's and bar/pub retail yet. Other than the In-Between, they would be the only game in town until the Banks gets going.

>Jmeck, are you going to be moving back to Cincy when you are done at OU?

 

Probably.

 

 

>Those old buildings are both in a National and Local Historic District. The Local protection is pretty tough to get something done with, especially demolition. I can't believe they haven't done some condo's and bar/pub retail yet. Other than the In-Between,

 

I am similarly suspicious. On this block we are faced with one of the greatest challenges in architectual history. There have been no published renderings; our imaginations run wilder than Gazelle Boy. The presence of those row buildings only ensures a feral hirsutism.

I repeat, there is NO market for any additional office space downtown and certainly not 40 stories worth. Thankfully, however, it might speed along some old Class B renovation in town because of the competition. My prediction again: Phase I will be mostly empty for years and Phase II will never be built. Also, if you are looking for quality architecture, don't look to W&S. Have you seen 6th & Race??? Also, have you seen the empty lot between 5th and 6th and Race? Don't expect W&S to move quickly on anything or do anything of quality.

 

The Convergys deal was the dumbest damned thing I have ever seen. Why? Here is what should have happened: Convergys needs a ton of contiguous office space. Keep Bell where it is in the Atriums and subsidize the lease of space in the new 40 story tower that W&S wants to build but has no incentive to build. This would have kept Convergys in town, given some incentive to W&S to build a beautiful new tower, and kept Bell in town. Here is what we got: Convergys kicking out an A tenant. Bell on the verge of leaving. No incentive for new tower by W&S. DUMBEST DAMN THING I HAVE EVER SEEN THE CITY DO!!!

^

Well, no one said Cincinnati was the smartest city in the world...look at the highways.

does anybody have any new info on this project like photos or timeframes of completion? I'm very interested in phase  2 and it's success. thanks

I sure don't.  Maybe someone who takes pics can swing through downtown.

 

 

Here's a link to WCPO's Skycam. It's not always pointing in the right direction to see QCS, but most of the time it is. It looks like the parking garage is pretty much finished.

http://www.wcpo.com/weather/skycam/

^

 

Ugh!! Finally I get to post for a change! Anyway, Looks like they are starting to put up the facade on phase 1. And they are up to the 7th level. I wish I had some pics to post. Next time I swing thru Cinci, I'll take a few update pics.

Is it the concrete structure on the left.

Looks like steel is starting to rise.