This rarely used street will not see a burst of activity until all the empty retail space along its

The Georgia Street project is showing its potential to be a great public space.  In fact, it could be the definition of outdoor living room, as termed by the Project for Public Spaces .  One aspect that now stands out like a sore thumb is the pedestrian bridge that connects the Circle Center Parking garage to the Omni Severin Hotel. carnival cruise ship   I can t imagine that the bridge gets much foot traffic as it stands.  And now that we have this great public space, shouldn t we be inviting the Omni guests to get in on the party?
I don t think that I m 100 percent against skywalks.  They might have their time and their place. carnival cruise ship But that time and place has passed here.   The skywalk is blocking the view of this gorgeous project, with little benefit to show for it.  In addition, I hope that if it were removed, it could be reused in some capacity so as not to be wasteful.  Perhaps the People carnival cruise ship for Urban Progress could find a great use for an old skywalk, or at least the materials that are contained within.   Regardless of what happens, I d love to see this bridge removed in order to make this great space even more attractive.
I couldn t agree more. Skywalks can be nice in cold months, but also take away from the street life. If we are displaying this as a great pedestrian breakthrough and a gathering place, then allow people to stumble upon it or pass through it. Georgia street has the infrastructure, now provide it people so businesses will flourish!
On one hand, consider carnival cruise ship the sense of enclosure it is currently providing to the space (specifically in the photograph above). I would rather have the people on the street level, just as much as any one of you, but currently the skywalk is taking the form of a building arcade which is found in many historic precedents of great public spaces (think piazza del campo, italy where almost every entrance is arcaded). Until trees establish, the space just bleeds carnival cruise ship to infinity and personally the view of conseco or the convention center don t offer any grand or remarkable terminus. If we are promoting new construction efforts, make it toward establishing businesses that actually open on to Georgia street. In case you haven t looked lately . it s pretty barren! Even near by businesses carnival cruise ship don t necessarily have doors toward Georgia. Then we have the parking garages, carnival cruise ship bohemouth mall anchor store (that even when filled doesn t address the street very well no windows), and some unactive pan-am carnival cruise ship buildings.
This rarely used street carnival cruise ship will not see a burst of activity until all the empty retail space along its path (Nordstroms/Jillians) are filled up and the long stretches of solid brick walls are redeveloped into pedestrian friendly retail.
I am all for considering good aesthetics, and while realizing that this skywalk is not exactly what you would call inspired, I don t think the cost of removing it would be justifiable. In general, carnival cruise ship I find it to be an interesting urban form that has potential if more developers were open to experimentation.
Experiment? How? By hanging christmas ornaments from it? Your reply sounds like the people who say they support transit but now is not the right time. When is the right time? No time is bad to remove things that kill street life and activate our pedestrian spaces. Some talk of the lack of retail along Georgia Street. That is true. But watch what the presence of this space presents, and the development will follow. Look at the Cultural Trail. We are seeing development spring up along the trail that was caused simply because hte trail was there. Bringing people and stiumulating great pedestrian environments.
A good example of an experimental design would be DSSH Bridge concept by Sanzpont. As you probably know, I am delighted about the Georgia street project, I just don t think removing this skywalk is such a good idea. And yes, I do believe skywalks can be interesting.
My guess is that both Simon and Omni see this as a selling point and probably have some entitlement to the skywalk in their leases. If, as both Kevin and Curt believe, this skywalk isn t garnering much traffic right now, then it isn t doing any meaningful harm to the street life. I think it would be fine if the skywalk had never been built there, but it is there. I don t see the minimal damage to street life or aesthetics as justifying the expense of demolition, and wouldn t be surprised if the contractual rights of the adjacent carnival cruise ship owners/tenants prevent doing anything carnival cruise ship with it.
I think it is fine to engage in thought experiments and to put out interesting ideas for discussion. That said, the skywalk is not going to be torn down, at least not for several decades. It was expensive to put up and it would be costly to demolish. Also, the hotel and convention industry use the skywalks as a selling point. Moreover, as another poster noted, there is probably some sort of contractual obligation carnival cruise ship by the city to keep it up.
As for skywalk itself, I do not it detracts much from the street scape. The additional foot traffic would be nice, but there will be plenty of pedestrians using the board walk, even with the skywalk in place. Also, the view is not greatly carnival cruise ship impacted by the skywalk, and in some ways it even provides a point of visual interest. If there were several skywalks criss-crossing the street, then I might have a different opinion, but one skywalk is not a big deal. I would much rather see the same amount of money that would be spent on demolition instead carnival cruise ship used to improve other streets carnival cruise ship and intersections in the downtown area.
I ve said it before, but since nobody has said it again here yet, here goes: Eliminating the entrance to the mall at the corner of Georgia Illinois when they created Harry Izzy s was a very strange, if not stupid idea. I mention it again now, because I think it makes the skywalk all the more relevant since a person can no longer walk out of the Omni, cross Georgia, and enter the mall. Besides, it s a decent enough design. I wish the skywalk between the jails on Market Street looked nearly so nice.
Okay, I know everyone hates parking, but a certain percentage of hotel guests drive to the Omni, and this is their parking. Every downtown hotel with parking has direct access from garage to hotel; I prefer it when I drive to hotels cause I m too cheap to valet park or pay the bellman $5 to roll my rolling bag for me.
This post has brought out the haterade like none other. And that is fine. I hope it has at least been an interesting topic for discussion. My next post will probably strive to find a better consensus.
Haterade? Kevin, I don t think any of the posts have been what anybody could possibly conceive of as being hateful. There has been some criticism of the proposal and a few posts criticizing individuals for rejecting the idea, but that is it. My understanding of a web forum is that it serves to allow discussion and debate of ideas, not that it must serve as a means to reach consensus.
The way that people are reacting, you d think that we were proposing that we close all of downtown to automobile traffic. How many people carnival cruise ship are using the Omni skywalk? Really I stand ny my initial clam that these things kill street life.
In fact, you should all know that there is a variance request making it s way through regulatory hearings to open up some business near Georgia Penn. Seems the new streetlife may already be leading to some additional street level retail. Meanwhile, businesses are leaving the mall.
The biggest urban design and streetlife issues on that half-block of Georgia are the blank walls : garage entry/exit, the lack of mall entry @ Harry Izzy s and the fact that the Omni s front door faces Union Station. None would be fixed by removing the skywalk.
I don t think the skywalk takes away from the view at all. One can stand on Georgia St. and see down the street. While I understand the concept/idea of forcing people to cross Georgia Street, I think the idea that somehow forcing people to cross the street will magically get them to return and spend money questionable. Also, the area is supposed to be this magnificent area, surely with the large windows people using the walk will see everything below. To me, anyone who would return being forced to cross the street would just as likely return when they see what is going on below from the crosswalk. carnival cruise ship Plus, it can get bitter cold here in the winters, and I doubt much will be going on down on Georgia Street during that time frame.
I somewhat agree with Nick about Georgia Street. I don t like the concept of vehicles. To me, it should have been block after block of pedestrian only areas. I m guessing there is a reason to allow one lane of cars the full length of Georgia Street? Just kinda looks like having a pedestrian area, bordered by two one way drive lanes will kinda hamper folks viewing it as a true pedestrian hang out area.
There are multiple reasons to allow cars on Georgia, Tim: access to St. John church, access to several parking garages, access to and through alleys for truck deliveries, and (since it s one of few two-way streets downtown), increased ability to circle blocks when necessary (pickup and dropoff, find parking meters, find specific location).
Kevin, consider this: The view from the mezzanine level could be inviting. It will certainly be a good place for intrepid blogger/photographers to capture the panorama and activity level of major downtown events. (Like balcony shots looking down on Bourbon Street, but without the women flashing.)
Who knows, it may become a standard view of downtown. Anything would be better than the now-standard corporate park view of a canal fountain and lawn in the foreground with AUL and Chase Towers looming.
I get the aesthetic argument, but think the point Chris raises here is a very valid one. When I ve had visitors from out of town, they ve really enjoyed standing in the Artsgarden carnival cruise ship and watching the street activity. Given the view of Georgia Street events, the skywalk will likely serve the same function for s