A new White Castle Headquarters building at 555 W. Goodale St. was approved by the Downtown Commission on Tuesday. The four-story building will be the first of many constructed on the 15-acre site, although plans for future buildings will have to be brought back to the commission.
In addition to the building itself, also included in this round of approvals is a two-level rear parking garage, a new road network to provide access to the site from Goodale, and an amphitheater-like green space that will serve as a front lawn of sorts for the new headquarters building.
Daniel Thomas, Urban Design Manager for the City of Columbus, said that the commission asked the applicant to come back with more detail on the landscaping plan and the street infrastructure.
“The parking is generally behind the buildings, which is the part of the site that is in the flood plain,” he said. “It’s a funny site, it’s got all these angles formed by I-670, the railroad tracks, and the river.”
That makes it hard to build a standard type of street grid within the site, Thomas added; “they did a sort of modified grid, but the commission wants more information on the nature of the roads, their design, cross section, what types of street trees will be used, etc.”
The site is being developed by White Castle and Elford Development.
Renderings via ArchAll / Pod Design.
