50 random MEMPHIS shots

[DoomJ]

Iphone shots from the last month or so.



Old mansion to be torn down soon:


Typically I ride from my apartment in Midtown, through the Medical District, to Downtown. Here is the Medical District:


















Downtown:






























South Downtown:


























Abandoned Sears Crosstown (Crosstown is a Midtown neighborhood) set to be rehabilitated, hopefully:








Midtown Apartment building slated to be knocked down this year for a grocery store:


Kirk Whalum and the Stax Academy free show at Midtown's Overton Park Shell, a WPA-built amenity recently rehabbed by the Levitt Foundation, and host to numerous free shows throughout the year. Several shades of color that night:












And lastly, a few views from where I work in Clark Tower, a 34 story office building 10 miles east of downtown:

[volguus zildrohar]

Not bad. That Sears Crosstown building...I hope that gets saved.

[Trevor Birchett]

You are SO lucky to work in Clark Tower. We've probably both actually been in there at the same time as I have gone up to the top floor many times just to get the view.

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by DoomJ

Old mansion to be torn down soon:

What? That's definitely unreasonable.

Originally Posted by DoomJ

Good looking job on the tram pavement on that segment and some others in pictures.

[arkitekte]

Grind on brother.

[DoomJ]

Originally Posted by volguus zildrohar

Not bad. That Sears Crosstown building...I hope that gets saved.

Thanks! There's an absence of news ever since the group behind the repurposing of the Sears building said they had a funding gap... Makes me scared and skeptical, but, I remain hopeful...

Originally Posted by Trevor Birchett

You are SO lucky to work in Clark Tower. We've probably both actually been in there at the same time as I have gone up to the top floor many times just to get the view.

The views never get old. I need to get a better camera to capture the details, especially buildings/areas between East Memphis and Downtown, also, a nice view of the airport. Our office doesn't face east, so I need to find a good view of the buildings in that direction, too.

One thing a lot of people don't realize is that much of the midtown building stock lies to the right of the skyline, and not directly between the Clark and Downtown, because of how the street grids, Poplar Avenue, and the Clark itself are oriented. I'd love to capture that in greater detail someday.

Originally Posted by mousquet

What? That's definitely unreasonable.

Indeed. The demolition has been granted a temporary reprieve, we'll see what happens... Tentative plan so far is some kind of small strip mall, ick.

Originally Posted by mousquet

Good looking job on the tram pavement on that segment and some others in pictures.

If you look closely, in some places maintenance has been deferred, and gaps have been plugged with plywood. There's a project coming up that should fix that and make the corridor more bike-friendly too. Riding over the bricks, some are loose beneath the wheels.

That being said, the pedestrian-only nature of Main St. has been a detriment for some time (and derided, most recently, in Jeff Speck's book "Walkable City"), but, new places have been opening along the street in recent years and things are looking better along Main St. I've noticed much less vacancy and more street life along the corridor than what I was used to 10 years ago, but beyond that frame of time I really have no reference to what it ever used to be.

Originally Posted by arkitekte

Grind on brother.

GNG.

[kel]

Good Job! Spent a week in Memphis in 2010 and could not have had a better time.

[Trevor Birchett]

Glad to hear you had a good time!

[BnaBreaker]

Mikey is back!!!

https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/st...64437451227136

(also, fantastic photos!! haha)

[DoomJ]

Originally Posted by BnaBreaker

Mikey is back!!!

https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/st...64437451227136

(also, fantastic photos!! haha)

Thanks! And yeah, its MILLER time at the Forum.

[kingchef]

it is interesting how so many of us have similar thoughts. as i perused the photos that trevor had taken, i could see different nuances from various angles, and i thought that i could look at them over and over and never get tired of seeing them. i especially love the post war world stock, the little specialty shops, and gayoso lane. i would like to proceed w/ a restaurant idea that i have had on my mind for 6 or 7 years. it is in the opposite direction of gayoso lane, going down the street on the left. there is a lot between two buildings. i could see putting a oyster bar and mid to high end low country classic cuisine. my idea would be to suspend steel girders for framing, overset the entire building w/ a building similar to a victorian solarium. lots of greenery inside, bring in my heavy maghony dark wood bars, w/ the brass toe bars, a carara marble bar approximately 20 ft in lgth, and a red marble bar for bar service. seafood station, bruch station, bring in seafood from purveyors, who would and could provide seafood year round. use a good deal of emeril's recipes, charleston receipts, jasper white's cooking, particularly his lobster cocktail, and there would definitely be memphis recipes for southern fried chicken, both crispy and steamed cooked. most things cooked in house, w/ a few memphians contracted to do their food specialty. i would also have an upscale restaurant and catering service. the catering would be for both on and off premise. lots of ornamental gates and entries, some in the form of those beautiful gates shown in trevor's thread. i love the rings at the bottom.

[MplsTodd]

I've always liked downtown Memphis. Main Street has such a great collection of older commercial buildings from the south side of downtown to Court Square. Last time I was there (about 5 years ago), there were some conversions to residential going on, but still lots of largely vacant buildings. Has there been much improvement in the downtown?

Also, the Sears building in Memphis has a virtual twin in Minneapolis. Located in a "tough" neighborhood on East Lake Street, Sears closed in 1993 and was nearly torn down for development of a power center. Fortunately, it was redeveloped as a huge mixed-use development with office, apartments, condos, retail and a hotel. Below are links to a few sites discussing the adaptive reuse of the Sears in Mpls. Hopefully, a similar reuse can occur in Memphis!

http://www.midtownglobalmarket.org/

http://www.midtowncommunityworks.org/exchange/

[DoomJ]

Originally Posted by MplsTodd

I've always liked downtown Memphis. Main Street has such a great collection of older commercial buildings from the south side of downtown to Court Square. Last time I was there (about 5 years ago), there were some conversions to residential going on, but still lots of largely vacant buildings. Has there been much improvement in the downtown?

Also, the Sears building in Memphis has a virtual twin in Minneapolis. Located in a "tough" neighborhood on East Lake Street, Sears closed in 1993 and was nearly torn down for development of a power center. Fortunately, it was redeveloped as a huge mixed-use development with office, apartments, condos, retail and a hotel. Below are links to a few sites discussing the adaptive reuse of the Sears in Mpls. Hopefully, a similar reuse can occur in Memphis!

http://www.midtownglobalmarket.org/

http://www.midtowncommunityworks.org/exchange/

Thanks for the Sears info- that Midtown Sears was definitely done right. Theres a similar effort here by http://www.crosstownmemphis.com/. But I think they've stalled.

Also, Main St. has improved a lot recently with several new restaurants that have utilized the mall for outdoor seating. Street life is certainly better south of the Civic Plaza, but, there's definitely a lot of room for more improvement.