[quote=“919R, post:19, topic:29275”][quote=“Niner National, post:18, topic:29275”][quote=“919R, post:17, topic:29275”][quote=“Niner National, post:6, topic:29275”][quote=“Gassman, post:5, topic:29275”]Thanks for sharing national. Do you know what the status is on the hotel that is supposed to go in on campus at the CRI? Maybe they are waiting on the light rail to be done?[/quote]I do not.
To honor the donors, a new 425-bed residence hall that will be prominently located near the University’s main entrance will be named Sandra and Leon Levine Hall. The building will also house the administrative offices for the Levine Scholars Program and the University’s Honors College. Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2015, with a projected completion date set for the summer of 2016.
Housing both freshmen and upper-class students, Levine Hall will include suite- and apartment-style room configurations. The building’s apartments are designated primarily for students in the Levine and Honors programs.
The Levine and Honors offices will include student work/study areas, faculty work stations and private one-on-one spaces, adjacent seminar spaces that can be combined for large functions, [font=arial][size=12px]and a hotel space for visiting faculty or lecturers[/size][/font].
[size=12px][font=arial]Now that may only mean 1 hotel room, I’m not sure. It is kind of vague.[/font][/size][/quote]
Ah, ok I thought you meant maybe an entire separate hotel building.[/quote]When I first read it back in October, I thought it was going to be like a wing of the building would be a hotel, but now that I re-read it, it sounds like it is going to be even less than that.
I read that NCDOT wants to widen Highway 49 from 4 lanes to 6.
Also, there are 2 more large box retailers going in by Tryon near the Ikea, in addition to the auto-mall we already know about.
University City is hopeless.
I partially blame the school for this. While campus is beautiful, campus master planning is partially to blame for the state of the area around campus. If buildings had been focused more around the perimeters of campus, that would have increased pedestrian traffic along the streets. Pedestrian traffic will draw pedestrian oriented development.
Instead, the school decided to design campus to be internal facing. Retailers respond with car oriented development.
Ultimately, the school isn’t responsible for what private developers do off campus, but their decisions can definitely influence what happens on campus borders. At this point, the area around campus is so far gone with big box retailers, there is virtually no space left adjacent to campus to create a true pedestrian friendly streetscape. The only hope left is for the school to partner with a commercial developer to develop retail space on campus.
I’ve never understood why people dislike the UC area so much. I’ve lived within 5 miles of the campus since 05 and I love it. Every area of Charlotte has crime, but if people just use some common sense some situations could be avoided.
I agree that it’s not as pedestrian or bike friendly as it could be but it’s slowly getting better. The area seems to be growing which means a lot of construction in the short term. I’ve enjoyed being in the area. I think it has a lot to offer. Just my .02.
[quote=“Hawthorne_49er, post:25, topic:29275”]I’ve never understood why people dislike the UC area so much. I’ve lived within 5 miles of the campus since 05 and I love it. Every area of Charlotte has crime, but if people just use some common sense some situations could be avoided.
I agree that it’s not as pedestrian or bike friendly as it could be but it’s slowly getting better. The area seems to be growing which means a lot of construction in the short term. I’ve enjoyed being in the area. I think it has a lot to offer. Just my .02.[/quote]
Feel the same way, live within five miles of campus, been here since '08. Having said that, I’ve been strongly considering moving to South End in 2017 for the walkability and being able to commute to work at campus on the train and generally for “stuff to do” that I don’t have to drive to. One thing that surprises me is the lack of announcements about condos or mixed use residential/retail developments to be built along the line, like South End has; just automalls. Belgate seems to be a pipe dream.
Ucity needs somethings with character instead of all the genetic box stores and chain restaurants. I think the shops at university place is a prime candidate for redevelopment if you tear up most of the empty space. I just think now that ucity had so much empty retail, there is opportunity but it would take team vision which no one seems to have for the area.
The school needs to take on more of a leadership role. I had hoped that our involvement in the light rail would be a sign of things to come, but I guess it really hasn’t. I know it’s just the AD, but before our first season Judy was asked how she felt about the concerns from retailers that were worried about tailgating in the parking lots - she said “That isn’t our problem.” WTF kind of partnership is that?
The school needs to take on more of a leadership role. I had hoped that our involvement in the light rail would be a sign of things to come, but I guess it really hasn’t. I know it’s just the AD, but before our first season Judy was asked how she felt about the concerns from retailers that were worried about tailgating in the parking lots - she said “That isn’t our problem.” WTF kind of partnership is that?[/quote]This.
The school has a very inward facing view, clearly not caring what goes on on the schools boundaries. A different campus plan could very much have steered development around campus in a different direction. Build your academic buildings in a way that they put pedestrians on Tryon, 49, or the road that Campus Edge and UT are on and retailers would be lining up to put in pedestrian friendly development because the traffic to make their shops a success would already be there.
Instead, we built towards the center of campus, pretty much forcing students to have to drive anywhere they want to go (let’s be realistic, students aren’t willing to walk very far). When that happens, if you’re the retailer, why would you bother doing anything different from what you do in other suburban areas?
All of the land immediately adjacent to campus is now used, so we’ll have to see those shopping centers fail before anyone has an opportunity to do it right. If they are failing, that’s bad news for UCity, so I’m not sure I want to see that anyway.
Like I said earlier, the only other way to really create any kind of true retail district without demolition and rebuilding elsewhere in the area is for the school to partner with developers to build a “main street” somewhere on campus, although I don’t even know where we have room for something like that these days except over by the alumni house. They would also have to figure out a way around the no-alcohol law or we’re just going to end up with what equates to a dining hall.
I was without a car freshman year, 2011, and it was almost impossible to do anything without a ride. When I went to Buffalo my sophomore year I was again without a car, but the school sponsored transportation and the walk ability of the area near UB south campus made that a non issue. I was able to shop, have an off campus job, and go out to eat while not having to ask friends for rides. Personally I think the school needs to invest in better public transportation options for students and the university area needs to put pedestrian oriented development at the forefront of their plans. The light rail could be a game changer, but if they don’t make the area around the stations walkable then their was no point of adding the station.
The school needs to take on more of a leadership role. I had hoped that our involvement in the light rail would be a sign of things to come, but I guess it really hasn’t. I know it’s just the AD, but before our first season Judy was asked how she felt about the concerns from retailers that were worried about tailgating in the parking lots - she said “That isn’t our problem.” WTF kind of partnership is that?[/quote]This.
The school has a very inward facing view, clearly not caring what goes on on the schools boundaries. A different campus plan could very much have steered development around campus in a different direction. Build your academic buildings in a way that they put pedestrians on Tryon, 49, or the road that Campus Edge and UT are on and retailers would be lining up to put in pedestrian friendly development because the traffic to make their shops a success would already be there.
Instead, we built towards the center of campus, pretty much forcing students to have to drive anywhere they want to go (let’s be realistic, students aren’t willing to walk very far). When that happens, if you’re the retailer, why would you bother doing anything different from what you do in other suburban areas?
All of the land immediately adjacent to campus is now used, so we’ll have to see those shopping centers fail before anyone has an opportunity to do it right. If they are failing, that’s bad news for UCity, so I’m not sure I want to see that anyway.
Like I said earlier, the only other way to really create any kind of true retail district without demolition and rebuilding elsewhere in the area is for the school to partner with developers to build a “main street” somewhere on campus, although I don’t even know where we have room for something like that these days except over by the alumni house. They would also have to figure out a way around the no-alcohol law or we’re just going to end up with what equates to a dining hall.[/quote]
Another option is the school actually buying property around campus or having it gifted like the Park Rd Shopping Center was. Of course that means the school changing how they interact with U City. Hopefully our next Chancellor has a differnt point of view. I did read that they can lease the property out to a property manager and they can then allow alcohol - or something like that.
It is a continuing question, why has it been so hard over the years to attract new major donors in a City like Charlotte? Location? University perception? Leadership?
unfortunately most of the people that run this city have historically been UNC grads and today, many of the big execs are people that have no previous ties to North Carolina and have simply relocated here from the north or west.
It’s a shame we didn’t build off the Final Four run and build a lot of casual non-grad followers in the city. We just lost our coach and fell to shit for a decade, so people in the area continued to gravitate towards the Heels.
I think being physically separated from the core of the city has hurt us too. We feel more integrated now than we used to (and it should continue to improve), but for decades we were an outlier that didn’t really feel like a part of Charlotte.
Win meaningful games, continue to improve our research capabilities, and crank out quality graduates that develop into corporate leaders and we will see improvement. Two of those things are happening, but despite this season’s successes, we still lack in the win meaningful games category. With some luck, we will win the AAC and finally get back to March Madness.
Absolutely part leadership. When the city makes a pitch to Amazon and instead of us it has CPCC on the pitch it’s a sign that our leadership has been disconnected. I don’t think that’s the case with Gaber. I do think we had past leadership that just didn’t prioritize galvanizing the city around us - Phil. And leaders who didn’t know how to talk to those folks - Judy.
We do still suffer from being perceived as a satellite of the mother ship though. That just needs consistent performance with academics and athletics.
The demographics of the city are and have changed it’s not all acc and chapel hill anymore. We just have to be able to articulate our position.
Mike I know has been visible with leaders of the city - will was at quail hollow playing golf with big money guys. We just have to be able to close the deal.
Most of the money lives on the south side of town.
It’s a haul to come up to campus from the south side, especially on a weeknight.
Not that UC will ever catch up to the south side but the failure of city leadership to take steps necessary to make UC a premium area to live (ie more and better single family homes and getting the crime element out of the area) has hurt us.
Living around the university should be a wonderful thing to do. But in general it’s not. Not yet.
I do not think SFH are the solution. The city should double-down on the light rail and develop the area around it at a better rate. Make it a cool place to be.
Agree with you. Didn’t mean SFH was the end all be all. What I should have said was there are too many apartments in the area.
The light rail walkable areas would be an exception.
There is an interesting article in the observer (an opinion piece from a Charlotte professor) that came out a couple years ago lamenting the land use around the UC light rail station. How even after the land owners knew that the light rail was coming they still built a single story retail strip (he was talking about where blaze pizza is) instead of developing it as a residential tower with retail and parking at the bottom. He said he could have been a premier space but they blew it. I believe part of his ire was at the city for letting it happen.