Strings Now Minus Things
What I'd heard about the redevelopment of the Strings and Things building on Madison sounded great -- until today. Passing by I noticed that they've bulldozed part of the original building, the covered parking lot.
Now, they may be planning on building a new building in the old footprint, or perhaps fill it with a very developed people space (as opposed to a car space) like the walled beer garden that My Midtown Memphis mentions. But Mike, commenting on the My Midtown Memphis post says that "most of this will become parking."
Please God, don't tell me they've torn down an existing parking garage in order to "build" a surface parking lot. A parking garage that used the original building.
We'll see if God tells me. If anyone else has any special knowledge, let us know.
Now, they may be planning on building a new building in the old footprint, or perhaps fill it with a very developed people space (as opposed to a car space) like the walled beer garden that My Midtown Memphis mentions. But Mike, commenting on the My Midtown Memphis post says that "most of this will become parking."
Please God, don't tell me they've torn down an existing parking garage in order to "build" a surface parking lot. A parking garage that used the original building.
We'll see if God tells me. If anyone else has any special knowledge, let us know.
Labels: geo:lat=35.13788, geo:lon=-90.009115, geotagged, historic preservation, Memphis, parking lots suck, redevelopment
posted by gatesofmemphis at 5:10 PM
7 Comments:
What do you expect from a group from out east? Very few have any respect for original or hisoric architecture much less esthetics. A perfect example is that condo on Talbot...
parking lots is to gates of memphis as trash is to fieldguide...
fearlessvk and i went to b'ham this past weekend and it was so CLEAN! i want memphis to be CLEAN too!
anonymous, It's possible that they have a stronger vision for the space. To me if you're selling yourself with a surface parking lot, then your competition is convenience stores and other commodity retailers. Place and experience are the key differentiators for non-commodity, place-based products. They sound like they have interesting ideas so I'm going to wait and see. I still wish they hadn't torn it down but if they replace it with something special, I'll probably be happy.
fieldguide, trash and new surface parking lots are both about discarding what you should re-use, environmental destruction and blight. No empirical data on this, but I think you'll find that most trash exists on the fringes of our roadside culture -- especially parking lots and denuded roadway edges.
Fair enough. I will wait and see what they do in its place but we all know Memphis is not known for tearing things down in order to make them better...
I'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt for now. Coming soon: 500-1000 seater concert hall in mid-town. Surely that is worth losing a covered parking lot?
Considering the trash they have already torn down behind the complex, the scales so far tip in their favor...
Sherman, I had heard about the concert hall and that's a very good thing. I still hope that they have something more visually inspiring than a crepe-myrtled surface parking lot planned. Here's hoping. Thanks as always for the comments.
btw, I was drunk when I wrote my comment above. I stand by it, except for my use of the words "key differentiators".
I was told by the owner of a neighboring bar that this building was being renovated into a new nightclub and that the owner has invested a lot of money into the internal workings of the building to make it exceptionally nice compared to what has been seen in the midtown area for some time now.
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