A selection of pictures I took while in downtown Norfolk, Va on Thursday, August 20th. The city is going through a growth spurt with loads of construction going on. We are halfway finished with the Light Rail, there are some pictures of construction further down the page. The city will also see the completion of a 22 floor tower and several mid rise developments this year and the next. A 26 floor Hotel and conference center is set to groundbreak sometime this fall. Note top picture is not mine, i wanted an overview of the skyline.
The new Wachovia (or Wells Fargo) tower.
The street in front of it is entirly closed now. Light Rail (you can see the two canterary bases in this picture.) This is the future site of the Monticello station.
Finished Project redering with rail.
^ Norfolk Southern Building ^
^Light Rail construction in the foreground and apartments under construction in the background. ^
^ My bank ^
^I decided to rest here and drink something I got from inside nauticus. ^
^ This old 'Fisherman' saw me taking pictures so he naturally called me over to take a picture of him. His name is Eugene and is from Hampton. He was a little strange as he was standing by waterside drive trying to catch a bus to Virgina Beach yelling ON NO I MISSED MY BUS every time one went by, we wern't near a bus stop.. He bragged to me about his hazle eyes. ^
^ Our New Cruise port^
^Inside Machismo. This place is awesome.^
Westin Hotel and Conference Center
Groundbreaking this fall, 26 floors.
I was there last Labor Day for a week, and loved Norfolk. I am glad to see the light rail on its way, they had lots of signs about it when I was there. I made a thread of photos from back then, but I don't know if it's still around anymore.
I have been to Norfolk a few times and love their downtown. Always curious why they don't have anything as tall as the new hi-rise in Virginia Beach. Any possibilities?? Nice pics btw!!
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"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." Kurt Vonnegut
There are quite a few reasons for the shorter towers at the moment. We had a 34 floor tower planned but that went out with the recession (or it may have been the incompetent developer trying to scam the federal government out of money). Next month construction will begin on a 26 floor hotel and conference center. It was supposed to start this time last year but financing troubles keep pusing it back. the city is determined to get it done because it needs a premier conference center int he middle of downtown. The rendering is shown below.
Heres a bit of background to the city and citys around it.
Norfolk as a city has been around since the 1700s.
Before World war 2 the population of the city(proper) hovered around 300,000residents. The city was quite urban even with streetcars running throughout. Granby street was the premier shopping and living street. After WW2 and into the 50s many of the older building which were constructed in the 1800's became worn down. Many of them did not have plumbing and were becoming quite atrocious. In the 50s and 60s the mood of the nation changed and everything started to focus on the suburban way of life rather than the urban way. This, coupled with the fact Norfolk integrated its schools before everyone else caused a massive wave of White Flight into neighboring counties. The population dropped form over 300,000 to near 150,000 in under a decade.
The city tried to rescue itself by annexing the neighboring counties (princess ann. The people who had just moved out of the city fought this. Cities can annex county land, but cannot annex other cities. So, what did they do? They made their counties into cities. That’s where you get the 'cities' of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. Portsmouth was already its own city. Norfolk’s borders are now locked in place for the foreseeable future. The city tried to save itself again in the 60s by razing its entire downtown and ripping out the rail tracks. A few historical building survived though. There are a load of other factors which have contributed to the stagmented growth of Norfolk. Regionally all 7 cities of the same metro have competed and have no way helped each other. Only in the past 10(21st century) years or so have some ideas and forms of regionality come into play other than picking a name for the region. The regional transport agency (HRT) wasn't even formed until 1999.
In the past 15 years the city has seen substantial growth thanks to the city finally trying to do it right. The city was yet in decline again in the 90s (it was an urban nightmare). They created the MacArthur mall right in the middle of downtown to help revitalize the city surroundings. This, and a few other projects has turned the city round a complete 180. the city continues to grow, downtown is starting to expand to the east and north.
That’s’ it in a nutshell, though there are some factors and facts I didn’t say.
Interesting history. Very sad to see such nice density transformed into a sea of parking lots...Phoenix has a very different history from Norfolk, but the same outcome in our downtown.
Haven't seen much Norfolk on here before... thanks for sharing! Looks like a very modern city.
Thats what happens when a very old city knocks down all of its history.
Great shots of the city, good to see things are finally really moving forward. I would like to see the city make ground floor retail mandatory on every building downtown, renovated or new...Wells Fargo is a great step forward for this. There is no point in having just Granby be the only retail street in the downtown.
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Any possibilities?? Nice pics btw!!
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