[Markitect]

Originally Posted by CG5

I'd like to see the building do something with its location right along the river. Make some sort of statement. Of course, this probably won't happen, but at least the building will bring more people downtown.

That's hard to tell right now. Going by the rendering from the very very early design stages above, the building will be positioned along Water Street (where it should be), as opposed to the river itself. It simply won't be big enough to fill the block and a half between Water Street and the river (unless they'll want to sacrafice height to make a lower, squatter building, which I doubt).

Also remember, Edison Street is in there, between the river and Water Street. I know the City was looking at using parcels between the river and Edison to be assembled along with the Marcus garage site. That would either mean closing of Edison completely, or putting a portion of the building over the street. In the rendering, it looks like a new parkig garage will be built closest to the river, though it's hard to tell if it will be right on the river or not (the State Street Bridge obscures the river frontage). In defense of the Marcus Center, they would still need a garage for parking, and so does the proposed office building--I imagine this would be a shared facility.

In any case, the river would likely get a RiverWalk treatment no matter what is fronting it (currently I donlt think there is a RiverWalk section on that block). Even something as mundane and utilitarian as a parking garage can be designed to look nice.

I suppose that's a good thing. Btw - in terms of massing, that building is only 16 stories high. I thought the proposal was for 22 stories.

The reports have stated 22-stories, yes. The rendering looks somewhere around 16-18 stories--but I have no idea when this was drawn, so it's likely a very early rendering from before the project was officially announced last Fall (or it could be a more recent rendering done after the announcement, and they reduced the height).