Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Real Urbanism: What Should Be Done With Flatiron Park Downtown?
Words Thom White
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 9:10 am
One recent evening a small group of locals convened on Flatiron Park–the small triangular plot of land formed by the confluence of Granby, West Charlotte, and West Bute Streets–to have a look at its current state and to mull over its future.
New York's Flatiron building.
The discussion was both fruitful and fun. Known realities, potential developments, and unabashed pies-in-the-sky concepts were proposed and recorded in chalk notes and diagrams; these spilled from the north wall of Sirena Cucina Italiana down onto the sidewalk.
Before we get to the proposals, a brief orientation of the site:
Like an urban hinge, Flatiron Park marries the density of the renewed lower Granby Street area with the up-and-coming Granby across Brambleton, connecting and re-orienting the respective street grids. No mere tabula rasa, the park site has context and layers of history to spare. The “Flatiron,” in its name, refers to the shape of the building which previously sat on the site and housed the Harbor and Shipping Control Board of Hampton Roads, a narrow wedge of a building with a form similar to the oft-photographed Flatiron Building at 175 Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Our Flatiron was constructed in 1916 and sat condemned for a number of years before the dynamite went boom in 1991. The current park is predominantly a raised planter; its walls appear to generally trace the footprint of the erased building. The planter is currently filled with sparse groundcover and a sprinkling of trees. Its maintenance seems for the sake of utility and safety over aesthetics or function as a “park.” What it lacks in amenities, it makes up for in its surroundings.
To the east is the Baxter’s building, a model specimen of Downtown’s renewal, an elegant piece of historic modern architecture containing new residences over a thriving restaurant. To the northeast sits the Federal courts building with its stalwart severity and vaguely deco film noir Americana. The imposing and monumental AT&T building rises to the northwest, a curious window-less monolith clad in white stone (apparently it houses switchgear – but who can know for sure?). To the south, beyond the construction that is beginning to happen for the light rail line which will travel along Charlotte, sit single story restaurants both deliciously viable (Sirena) and sadly defunct (a Mexican joint).
Construction on Flatiron Park.
And then there’s the Pit. At the north edge of the site a fence obscures a sprawling muddy depression filled with unfulfilled pilings forming a negated, upside down tower extending 100 feet into the earth. Granby Tower is stalled, as are the hopes and expectations of those who invested in it (and those with skyscraper fetishes), but no matter your stance on the development, there is certain comfort in knowing that the site is also now the most charged of the city–something will happen there, and you know a lot of people are going to have something to say about it, and this debate could be very good for the city (unless it becomes a surface parking lot for the next 100 years – sorry) and for our humble park.
Flatiron Park actually sits in a place where people live, work, and play all day long. It is a matter of fact of the natural evolution of its surroundings, the machinations of the City; it is not a just-add-mixed-use contrivance of planning. It is the real deal, and its potential to contribute to the sum of the parts of its place is enormous.
So what did the group come up with?
Well, it was immediately unanimous that the site should remain a public park, a place that gives one a reason to come and stay, and to linger. It should be a place of varied features and functions: perhaps a shaded sitting area, or a café, a dog run, a wireless hotspot, public art, a lit space for activity after dark, a kiosk for public-posted info and downtown way-finding, an integrated water feature. It was acknowledged by the group that some aspect of the park should honor the building that gave the park its name; ideas ranged from a previously proposed plan to trace the plan of the former structure with lighting embedded into the site, to a Memorial For Dead Buildings that not only honors the Flatiron, but all of the other historic structures knocked down around Norfolk (a considerable number indeed).
The group at work.
One idea kicked out sparked the most significant chain of dreaming was the notion of urban farming in the Park. This could take the form of individual plots on a portion of the site, tiered gardens that change the topography of the site in a sculptural way, cascading rooftop gardens above functional spaces (café, kiosk, newsstand, etc.), or even in the form of a vertical farm which would carry the plantings upward into an enclosed structure that could have a minimal footprint but maximum area potential and the benefit of year-round production (www.verticalfarm.com is a good resource). The farm plots could be rented by local restaurants or community members, and the plantings could vary from edible produce to ornamental landscaping.
These ideas and more are being incorporated into a more detailed and specific set of schemes. To be discussed in Part 2.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Thom is an Architect at Ivy Architectural Innovations. He's been a resident of Port Norfolk, Portsmouth (Ghent, south) and is fixing up a house circa 1895. He sings for the local band Whispering Winds and is a founding member of FUNHAUS spatial improvisation group. www.funhaus.blogspot.com
Other posts by Thom White.
Other posts by Thom White.
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Location, location, location. Potential, potential, potential.
About two years ago the Downtown 100 had a “clean the spot” for Flatiron Park. For hours we trimmed trees, raked mulch and the like. The whole time, grooming the mediocrity, I had to wonder whether our efforts weren’t completely misguided. There’s a place for maintaining the status quo, but a young professionals group shouldn’t be the ones in charge of it.
So sign me up, Thom. Any one of the aforementioned brainstorms gets my vote. Particularly intriguing are the ideas that bend logic, question reason, and slap conventional wisdom on its heiny. As you and others continue to iron out (ha!) the possibilities, I encourage you to aim high and aim weird. Such a space should set the benchmark, not settle.
As the owner/occupant of the little two-story building that sits between AT&T and the Granby Pit (it was formerly the Bute St. branch of the Southern Bank of Norfolk, now it holds the software company xTuple), we’d love to be involved in any of these conversations if we can add any value.
Cheers,
Ned
–
Ned Lilly
President and CEO
xTuple
119 West York Street
Norfolk, VA 23510
tel. 757.461.3022 x101
email: ned@xtuple.com
http://www.xtuple.com
I remember seeing that on the side of The Boot & wondering what it meant..
A park design was created by Ann P. Stokes Landscape Architects, whose office almost overlooks the space, and was submitted to the city. You might start by asking the city council to implement that vision.
I’m curious about the group who conducted/participated this ‘locals’ mini-charrette. How did you all get together to discuss the future of this parcel?
Also, although the City owns the property, has owned it since 1991, have you considered that this parcel isn’t a park at all? It’s zoned D-3, a sort of all-encompassing Downtown District zoning that does not include parks or open space. So, in the eyes of the City, this is developable land, not a park at all and it’s a misnomer to describe it as such. The first step would probably be to somehow get it rezoned to reflect it’s preferred status as a park. Until then, it’s open season and the City is free to consider for the land any development opportunities it sees fit.
Great comments, all – very, very helpful.
Grant, thanks for the encouragement! We are going to have a follow-up meeting soon to advance some concepts and to discuss strategies for digging deeper into the realities of the site. I’ll post here in the comments the time/date/location – it would be great if you could join us. If you send me a message at thomwhite@gmail.com, I’ll include you in the correspondence that I send out about the project.
Ned, nice to meet you! I should have mentioned your building in the article – it is definitely a gem, in my opinion, with its monumental entrance & stone facade. You most definitely would add value to our discussions. As I told Grant above, check back here for more info, or send me a message. thanks!
wspeid, I spoke to Ann prior to our “sidewalk charrette” and she graciously shared historical information about the site with us, as well as images of her proposal. She was unfortunately unable to join us for the first session, but will hopefully be able to for the next.
UrbanRae, thanks for the insight into the zoning. As we go into the next phase of our work, this is of course a critical factor to our analysis. Regarding the ‘locals’, the majority of folks that participated, including myself, are members of the group “Re:vision Norfolk”. (For more info, see the article “New Vision for Norfolk” in the News Section of http://www.veermag.com.). We selected Flatiron Park because of its excellent context and apparent state of limbo.
How do you reclaim the city’s streets –or forgotten public spaces- for pedestrian use in a way that is flexible, inexpensive and contextually appropriate to the site in question?
Seems to me we may have a great opportunity here to explore the ways in which space is reclaimed; we must rely on neighborhood-specific solutions that enhance the existing use of that little space and enable new uses.
UrbanRae: A few of us created this group a couple of months ago (check out re:vision Norfolk, and thanks for the tip. I am an architect and a planner and it frustrates me a lot the lack of support from the city on this…But I am putting my thinking cap and will contact some people at city hall and planning, maybe get some support from them…
We could have a great opportunity here to create a sharable space with the contextual appropriateness that works for easy reconfiguration and everybody would benefit.
Way to think out of the box, guys. Great ideas!
Chris
Norfolk, VA
Please take a photographer that can shoot in low-light situations. I think HT is the only one that can get a decent shot once the sun has descended.