Lofts 3.13.2007 | 5 Comment(s)
"Who lives here?" was the question asked as we drove down Washington Avenue this afternoon.

It was a question asked with a sort of disbelief that any of the buildings along Washington had residents in them. They were just pretty facades, I suppose. The question did get me thinking though. There are lots of lofts under construction along downtown's "hippest" avenue, but the development of many of them seem to be progressing at a snails pace. The Bogen, for instance, seems to be at the same place in its development today as it was a year ago. Same for the Avienda.

West of about 18th street development seems to be moving along. There were quite a few developments I'd read about but hadn't seen yet. I think this area, if momentum continues, has the best chance of being something special. I can easily see rehabs mixed with new construction in this area...and infill is desperately needed here. The west loft district looks really promising, I'm hopefully everything continues to go well in this sometimes overlooked area.
5 comments:

By Anonymous MH, at 9:22 AM

It alwasy amazes me how naive people are about what is happening downtown.

 

By Blogger equals42, at 1:12 PM

^^MH^^
What does that mean? Seems like a reasonable reaction to the 24 month construction schedule of most of the developments down there.

I used to live in a loft on Washington. I liked it a lot. If I went back down there again, I would live on Locust to avoid the noise, traffic and valets. There is always some construction not more than three buildings away at any time no matter where you are downtown. Just a fact of life for the foreseeable future.

 

By Anonymous MH, at 2:20 PM

Uh, I was responding to the question leading off the post. I thought that was obvious but I guess not.

As far as what you are talking about, a construction schedule like that doesn't surprise me. When they are pushed through faster it generally means the quality of the final product is seriously lacking.

 

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:05 AM

Sounds like something Shrewsbury was saying-ten years after the city already had a loft revival planned for Washington Ave.

 

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:35 AM

The other question is where do these people go to the grocery store, cleaners and other needed infrastructures to live downtown.

The issue is if you build it they will come ? So do you get the people and have biz follow? A bunch of hip clubs and trendy restaurants are great, but not for every day living.

Hence that's why we have the county and strip malls I guess LOL?