RSS
Twitter
Facebook
YouTubeThe following discussion is about whether or not Columbus could ever get another Skyscraper. Would we want another? Would it dramatically change our skyline? Do we need another?
 |
 |
| View more Spirit of Columbus photos here. |
 |
Comments
- FoodFort: And - if happen to be in Grove City this weekend - and wants food trucks, i
- columbusmike: Wish this could happen with downtown....
- I_am_Father_McKenzie: http://content.mindmixer.com/Live/Projects/planuptown/files/69682/Public_Me
- Paul: Great news. I've been wondering for 25 years why they haven't tried to t
- Walker: I assume he meant somewhere in one of the buildings along Dublin Road / 33
Top Stories
- Bexley Mayor Excited about New Two-Story Giant Eagle on Main Street20
- New 504-Unit Apartment Project Coming to Westerville Near Polaris18
- The Flapper Room and The Blackberry Patch Opening Downtown in 201417
- The List: 10 More New Apartment Developments Around Columbus16
- The Sycamore Relaunching as New German Village Restaurant13
- Plans Advancing for City Campus, New Building on Front Street11
- Travel: Washington DC via Amtrak10
- Restaurant Review: Portia's Cafe10
- School Issues: Surveys10
- The Market Proposed as New Italian Village Corner Shop9
Good article! I did not know business first did 2 page articles!
Tall towers are cool, but a nice series of 8-12 story buildings in and around downtown are much more appropriate. I wrote about this in a thread a year ago…. I can’t find it as my search skills are lacking!!!!
We already turned Downtown into a bland financial district, why would we want more of that?
DC’s low-density urbanism (which Columbus used to be chock-full of and should be again) blows anything other than Gay St Downtown out of the water.
I do not want to see another office tower Downtown that’s going to bring hundreds more cars and a residential tower would cover less ground than numerous 3-5 story buildings. Not to mention you have more spaces for retail, bars, and other destinations that will draw people Downtown and serve everyday needs of the increasing number of residents. My anti-skyscraper agenda is anything but hidden.
“Our greatest need is to fill in the acres and acres and acres of underdeveloped land in our downtown,” he said. The fastest way to do that is building low.
Coleman’s wish – from streetcars, to the Scioto Mile park, to revitalizing High Street retail, to building low-rise offices and housing on the City Center mall site – is for a vibrant yet intimate city where the architecture connects with feet on the street. As mayor, he has no need for a towering icon if it won’t cut into the overabundance of surface parking lots.
The Mayor kicks ass.
And that was an incredible article.
It was a good article. Did a nice job of explaining conditions for building skyscrapers and the pros and cons of it.
I agree with the mayor that filling in the parking lots downtown is more important than getting new towers. Although, I do think new towers serve a purpose, both in functionality and recognition/sex appeal for our city. A couple of more modern looking building would look nice mixed in with what we’ve currently got. And conditions for that to happen again could come along again in just a few short years.
I agree with the mayor that filling in the parking lots downtown is more important than getting new towers. Although, I do think new towers serve a purpose, both in functionality and recognition/sex appeal for our city. A couple of more modern looking building would look nice mixed in with what we’ve currently got. And conditions for that to happen again could come along again in just a few short years.
Yes, I don’t see the addition of new towers and the development of smaller, core buildings as mutually exclusive ways to grow. If the conditions are right, there is no reason to think that both could not happen at the same time.
I will admit that I love skyscrapers. A big city skyline has to be one of the most beautiful of all man-made entities and I would be excited to see more tall buildings added to our Downtown. But I agree with the mayor that our parking lot problem is top priority right now.
I do agree we need more vertical appeal, but the article mentioned that the entire Arena District could fit into the Huntington and Riffe buildings. With so much space and without spectacular growth, it is best to concentrate on the embarrassing, life-sucking empty spaces (parking lots) in downtown.
A few weeks ago, someone posted a sarcastic comment about how Columbus needs a space needle (to spoof the streetcar idea (as bad). I always thought it would be a cool idea to build several 500-800-foot high thin monuments (yes, needles even, but different somehow) throughout downtown that would light up the night. Not just one. It would brighten up the skyline, but wouldn’t require any tenants (which could be located in new mid-rise buildings on the parking lots), and would probably be a fraction of the cost. It’s icing and will never happen, but the vertical nature of these structures wouldn’t use much land and would make a sexy postcard impression.
whether or not you like skyscrapers or not, they do help show the economic power of a city. a city’s skyline is the very first impression people get when they drive by. i wish they would light up the buildings at night like cincinatti. it’s pretty blah at night. i would like to see some bold, modern highrises mixed in. i personally think our skyline is one of the ugliest i’ve ever seen. too many brown and grey boxes. as far as the nationwide headquarters goes, it looks like the former world trade center took and shit and that building came out.
Personally, I’ve always liked the Columbus skyline, especially viewed from the west, i.e., with the Scioto in the foreground. I like the aesthetics of skyscrapers as a general rule, but the article was quick and right to point out that constructing one is an economic proposition; they’re not meant to be art projects. I do wish we had more skyscrapers coming in, but for more indirect reasons: it would mean that our downtown office vacancy rate was in the single digits and we had a major anchor tenant coming in (worth building a new skyscraper for) on top of that. That would be good news for Columbus.
Skyscraper construction is not Field of Dreams. It is entirely possible to build it and have them not come. I’d bet that only the highest-demand world cities can support skyscraper projects built on speculation. Maybe not even there.
I have to say whenever I drive through a city, the skyline is something I enjoy seeing. I’m always looking for the big cranes too, indicating some sort of construction. A lot of those on the north side of Atlanta when I passed through in March.
I agree with the Mayor though. I think our best shot of getting another big high rise is some sort of company move. Like AEP. Not on the horizon as far as I know, but it could happen.
that was a great article. I too would like to see more high rises on the skyline, but realize that its not possible right now. So lets concentrate on removing all the parking lots!
I think most people want to see a nice streetscape with shops and nice store fronts rather than a bunch of 30-40 story skyscrapers. Columbus has a decent skyline…now its time to fill in the gaps (big gaps).
I hope things can start happening in the coming years. Columbus has amazing potential. The mayor is awesome. :)
Very well done article. Clearly the writer gets how things are and get done.
There’s a one word answer that usually applies to downtown Columbus questions of the nature “why don’t we have this ? ” . That word is “demand”.It applies to about any segment I can think of..
That’s really fantastic to see that office vacancy rate is down to 14%. I think it may be the strongest proof yet that the Mayor’s “strategy” (at the time he stressed that it was not a plan but a strategy) from 2002 is working. If nothing else the Condos have reduced the supply of available office space which in turns raises the demand relative to supply.
That may be the most significant victory for downtown yet. Those among you who hate surface parking lots ought to take heart, the best way to get buildings to replace them is to have sufficient excess demand at a workable price (adequate demand on it’s own is not quite enough you have to sufficient demand at a deliverable price point.)for living or business.
Skyscrapers as Gram said are the highest risk real estate venture you can try. Several companies have been severely damaged by ill-timed or poorly conceived ventures (e.g. The Sears Tower nearly ruined Sears, in fact it’s my understanding they no longer own the tower or are even in it). They usually only happen when there is absolute confidence in the economy.
Very fun stuff and encouraging too(especially when you factor in the current nationwide economy)
really very few major downtown office buildings have gone up anywhere in the us the last 10 years or so..mostly in chicago and new york..columbus is actually well endowed in comparison with similar sized cities ie indianapolis and cincinnati.and i would add that columbus larger downtown area has a much greater potential than the smaller areas like cincinnati which is literally boxed in by really bad neighborhoods and the river is cut off by the freeway etc.i would imagine that economic forces could perhaps in the future make downtown areas more attractive for office development ,i could see another nationwide tower going up and the residential to continue..not many cities our size have anything that compares with miranova or nbp
A big city skyline can be beautiful from a distance, but it’s a wretched and barren debacle from up close. I would much rather have a city full of shorter buildings with active sidewalks. The article mentions DC, Berlin, and Paris as successful world-class mid-rise cities… I say that’s something to aspire to.
I’m happy that the city is going to focus on filling in the blanks, but it’s for sure that our skyline is old-looking. Wikipedia has a good list of skylines ranked on height/number of tall buildings. Ours looks like the Brady Bunch must live around here. Check it out and click “Columbus List of Tall Buildings”:
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Raime/Skyline_rankings[/url]
Oh, BTW, did you see that Cincinnati is getting a sweet new building with the top designed after “Princess Diana’s tiara?”, their tallest:
[url]http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080612/NEWS01/806120329[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Raime/Skyline_rankings[/url]
Emporis is another great site for buildings, with lots of pictures:
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/bu/?id=101043
Imagine, if Limited, the various Limited brands, Cardinal Health, and Bank One/ JP Morgan had moved downtown. We are talking an easy 6-7 skyscrapers averaging 40 stories each in our downtown core. Even moving Ashland Chemical to downtown would have made another decent highrise.
Alas, it was not meant to be, so we probably should try to model the downtown like Boston and Baltimore, sans a major body of water. High-density low structures (10-stories or under) that are outside Capitol Square, which will bring 1st floor retail/restaurants/ grocery. After reading the article, I like the MORPC sites as designated areas for future high-rises.
i also wish some the bigger columbus based companies would move at least some of their divisions, workers downtown, i.e. the limited, cardinal health. even some consolidation of bank one, aren’t there like 6 or 7 large bank one complexes scattered around town. nationwide definately needs a new signature world headquarters tower.
one of the things companies always try to sell to potential employees is the quality of life in and around the working environment. well, i think some parts of downtown have come a long way in quality of life (arena district) and would offer employees numerous options and reasons to work downtown, not to mention the more affordable residential projects proposed and under construction. i personally wouldn’t want to work in a cubicle at an office park in the middle of a corn field only to sit in traffic on the way there and back. i would also hate the fact that if i wanted anything for lunch or just to hang out after work, the only option i have is to get in my car, sit in more traffic and end up at some single standing chain restaurant or a strip center bdubs. just thinking about that makes me want to shoot myself.
maybe the city’s incentives aren’t good enough. i still think we will suffer badly in the near future if we don’t get one or even two large hotel towers up around the convention center. actually, we are already suffering. maybe we should get ahold of donald trump. he likes to build hotels.
Also…with gas prices rising companies in the near/not so distant future might want to relocate in areas that is more centralized. Idk…ppl have a better chance of probably using their car less if they work downtown. And the mass transit options are better downtown too.
I think the last three posters hit on something important (BG, et. al.). Many folks would love to see new skyscrapers downtown (including yours’ truly). However, it takes a big move by a big company for that to happen. As long as the majority of people in our city live on the outskirts, companies would be crazy to move downtown and face a possible ‘brain drain.’
I think Columbus lost some pretty important big players earlier on in the downtown development. I don’t know if this was due to the lack of tax incentives, or the owners just wanting to be out in the burbs. But if you look at the JP Morgan Chase presence up at Polaris, that could easily fill a ton of floors in a skyscraper. But they probably got a deal on the taxes to move out further.
On to gas prices: Most of the industry/jobs in our city are not located downtown. So, again, that is not an incentive to bring people downtown. Maybe if Huntington consolidates back to their building. But there is still the Easton campus that is pretty huge. Not to mention another building up at Crosswoods. I’m pretty sure most of those folks live closer to those locations than they live relative to downtown.
Now, our hope seems to lie with bringing people downtown to provide incentive for companies to move. I think our downtown is nice, by the way. I would love to see most of those surface lots disappear, though. If it takes a bunch of 3-10 story buildings to do that, then I’m all for it.