In some quick Midtown news, Midtowners met at Craft on Martin Street last night to network and get fired up about the happenings in Midtown. I was there too, and it was great chatting with not only my favorite Midtown business owners, but also a few city council candidates including Council-at-Large candidate Hillary Schieve, Ward 1 candidates Bernie Carter and Allyson Denby Wong, and Ward 3 candidate Oscar DelGado.
From left to right, Hillary Shieve, candidate for council-at-large, me, JM Studio Inc programmer and
friend Jim Freeman, and Kasey and Christian Christiansen, owners of Sup Restaurant in Midtown.
I also had a chat with Bernie Carter about his project on Thoma and Virginia. Good news! Building plans for the first building on the lot were submitted last week and if all goes well the plans for the second building will be submitted next week, and construction may start as soon as the first of April. He showed off the fly-through and overhead master plan of the project to attendees. The project will eventually consist of 17 architecturally unique buildings, some of them two stories high, placed along a meandering private street that will connect Virginia Street to Center Street and Thoma. While the original layout remained the same from when he first presented to me months ago, he had new examples of what the buildings will look like, and they are VERY modern. Think Disney concert hall in downtown LA, but on a much smaller scale (see photo).
The buildings, ranging from 1000 to 2000 square feet, were modern enough to draw questionable glances from history buffs in the neighborhood who were concerned the architecture was radically different than the rest of the neighborhood. However I am one of those that love radical blending of architectural styles, such as 8 On Center across the street from 1920s bungalows. The structures in the project seem to still conform to the scale of the neighborhood, and that to me is more important than matching architectural styles. If I wanted to live in a Stepford neighborhood I would live in Somersett or 'Cosmic Village' in Spanish Springs.
In any case we'll all soon see what the overarching architectural styles of these structures will be when they go vertical next month!
I completely agree. Reno is generally far too bland and conservative with its architecture. A city can only have so much off-white and beige buildings. Plus, modern and historical can go perfectly well together if done right (i.e. Jack Hawkins). Let's hope they do it right.