Over three years ago, we introduced an off-again-on-again featured column called “Wasted Space” where we highlighted unsightly, underutilized and unusually large spaces located within the Downtown borders. Before we move on to focus on new areas in 2010, we thought that it might be worth revisiting some of those original spaces from three years back and see what’s changed.
Wasted Space – Neil & Vine – Jan 27, 2007
Our very first feature highlighted the busy-yet-bleak intersection of Neil Avenue and Vine Street. This corner is located only a few blocks west of the North Market, and a few blocks north of the Arena District, and yet still remains largely underutilized despite the proximity to other dense, walkable, thriving urban development. The good news is that the Flats on Vine apartments are currently under construction on the south-east corner of this intersection, which will be bringing 232 new apartment units to what was previously a dirt lot used for special event parking. The north-east corner of Neil & Vine has also seen another grocery store proposal come and go since 2007, so the future looks bright in terms of possible alternative development at this site.
Wasted Space – Convention Center Parking Lot – Feb 1, 2007
The Convention Center area has continued to grow a bit in the past few years, with the recent revamp of Battelle Hall and the announcement of the new Hilton Hotel that will be breaking ground soon. Unfortunately, the large parking lot located just east of the Convention Center remains in the exact same shape as when we first featured it three years ago. This giant swath of Downtown property sits mostly empty throughout the year, and is only fully utilized for parking during larger events. The land would undoubtedly be better utilized as stacked parking deck, additional convention space, hotel space, and street-front retail along Nationwide Boulevard.
Wasted Space – RiverSouth – Feb 7, 2007
The RiverSouth area has definitely seen the most drastic change in the past three years. This 20-acre district was home to around 13 blocks of flat parking lots just a few short years ago, but multiple developments have sprung up to take their place. The new Franklin County Courthouse building has erased four blocks of parking lots to the south end of the district and the Lifestyle Communities Apartment complex has erased four blocks of parking lots on the north end of the district. Additionally, the boarded-up Lazarus parking garage has been rebuilt, Civic Center Drive, Town Street and Front Street have all been converted to two-way and the Scioto Mile on the west border of the district is getting a major facelift. The entire area is still heavily under construction, but as the projects start to wrap up, the transformation will be quite a drastic improvement.
Wasted Space – The Loops – May 18, 2007
The spaghetti mess of highways where interstates 70 and 71 meet Downtown has remained untouched since 2007. The Split Fix project will be reworking these roads and on/off ramps, and while the whole area may see a bit of a “greener” facelift, none of this land will actually be reclaimed for pedestrian use or development. ODOT is promising the city of Columbus at least a few more decades of underutilized urban space in this location.
Wasted Space – Ross Labs Lots – Dec 2, 2007
The large empty space located in between the Ross Labs building and Columbus State remains mostly barren three years later. There are usually some semis parked closer to Ross Labs, and the front paved lot is used for CSCC spillover parking, but there’s enough wild grass growing on the rest of this land to install two Downtown football fields. The one bit that has changed is the currently-under-construction Commons at Buckingham that will house low-income residents in a new 100-unit building at the north-east corner of this area. These residents will essentially have the largest front yard of anyone in Central Ohio.
And there you have it. A quick update on what’s changed in three years, and what’s not changed in three years. Looking ahead to 2010, what underutilized public or private spaces do you think we should feature next?