Archive for the 'Development' Category
MDC Clean Water Project Update
The MDC Clean Water Project has arrived in the West End of Hartford. Over the past few weeks engineering firm Tetra Tech Rizzo has been going door-to-door to map the manner in which sewer and storm water exits individual homes. This is the first step in the process that will eventually reduce (eliminate?) the dramatic amount of untreated wastewater that flows directly into the environment. The About the Project page states that “The existing sewage systems … release more than 1 billion gallons of wastewater to area waterways.”
When the Tetra Tech Rizzo representative arrives, the first thing they’ll want to do is get into the basement to sketch out the location of all the sewer and drainage lines within the property. Most West End homes have multiple lines running down from the upper floors, and the surveyor needs to identify the points where they go under the foundation with some precision. This step takes about 30 minutes on average, and will vary depending on the size of the home and the amount of stuff stored in the basement. Once they know where the different discharges leave the house, the engineers back at the office can (in theory) use city data sources to figure out how the lines get out to the street.
The second activity at each home is to determine where the storm water goes, which is usually just looking at what happens at the bottom of the gutter downspouts. Seeing it shot into the yard makes life easy for the MDC since they know it is not going directly into the sewer. However, if a downspout feeds into a pipe, then it may be going back inside the home and into the sewer system. That’s more difficult to determine, and over the long term will need to be changed.
The MDC Clean Water Project is scheduled to take a number of years, with everything complete by 2020. That sounds like a long time, but the existing water and sewer systems date back to the 1850s; what’s another decade?
For more information, check out page 9 of this presentation, given in March of 2010, which shows the 5 main areas of the initial sewer separation portion of the project. Most of the work is in Hartford, but the Farmington Avenue area crosses the City’s border into West Hartford. The broad areas are divided into 44 individual projects that are on separate timelines. Preliminary designs are complete for all of the projects though only 15 are in the active design phase and 5 are in construction. Check back with the Clean Water Project website periodically to get an update on their progress, the Presentations section seems to be updated most frequently.
777 Main Street – Your Future Home?
Kenneth Gosselin’s piece about the Bank of America building in today’s Courant noted that the owner of 777 Main Street had considered converting some of the building to condos in 2006, and ended with a quote making it clear that a residential conversion was back on the table.
Although the current situation can be viewed as a loss for the City – nobody wants to see a business downsizing – it can also be seen as an opportunity. Numerous Downtown office buildings are looking for tenants, so consolidating the companies is a good thing because it makes the “winning” buildings more stable. In this case, the owner of the “losing” building seems to have anticipated this possibility and is actively considering alternatives.
Of the underutilized office buildings Downtown, 777 Main seems like one of the more attractive candidates for conversion:
- Most importantly, the footprint of the tower is a good shape. The structure is much longer than wide, with windows on all four sides, so hopefully an architect could lay out the floors such that all the rooms in each unit had windows.
- The building is positioned well in relation to the other towers, so that there are views in all directions. Views are especially nice to the east, overlooking the Old State House, the Science Center, and the Connecticut River. The closest tower is the Gold Building, south across Pearl Street, which is one of the narrow sides of the Bank of America building. Hopefully there will also be a neighbor to the north one day in the surface lot on the northwest corner of Asylum and Main, though it would not be immediately adjacent.
- 777 Main is centrally located in Downtown Hartford, making it a short walk to any of the numerous museums, theaters, restaurants, or other attractions. It would also be a short walk to any of the office buildings downtown, and ideal for commuting since there is convenient access to major highways in all directions.
- Buyers – well, everyone – complains about parking all the time, so the fact that there is a sizable attached parking deck should alleviate that concern of potential buyers.
Downtown Hartford is more active and vibrant than most assume. It is undeniably the center of the arts and culture in the region, and is bustling with activity during the day thanks to the large number of businesses. What many don’t realize is that the number of residents has been increasing in recent years thanks to apartment projects like Hartford 21, The Lofts at Temple & Main, 915 Main, 55 on the Park, Trumbull on the Park, and the Hollander Foundation Center. These have been a nice complement to the more established condo options, which are mostly located south of Gold Street.
Converting 777 Main to a residential use would be a huge win for the continued evolution of the Downtown Hartford neighborhood. Each new project puts more feet on the street, which helps support a larger base of businesses. Additional residents can also make a big impact on the perception problems that the City faces in the Greater Hartford region by talking about their decision to move Downtown and their experiences with friends, family, and co-workers.
Most encouraging of all is that Hartford leadership seems to be on top of the situation and supportive. At the One City, One Plan meeting focused on the Downtown neighborhood last fall, the City brought a map of Downtown identifying opportunities to add up to 4,500 additional housing units (see page 11 of this presentation). One of the sites highlighted was 777 Main.
Downtown Hartford Construction Update
After attending the MetroHartford Alliance Rising Star Breakfast this morning, I took a couple minutes to snap some pictures of the major construction projects around the Convention Center. It was exciting to see crews hard at work improving Downtown Hartford.
Much of the structural work appears to be complete at the Front Street project…
Supports are in place for the pedestrian bridge that will connect the Convention Center to the Science Center and the rest of Constitution Plaza…
The Broadcast House has been completely removed in preparation for the new AI Tech Center…
Hartford's One City, One Plan Continues
Discussion of Hartford’s Plan of Conservation and Development resumes this week with the first of four Community Listening Sessions organized by the City Planning & Zoning Commission.
Since the first round of events, the City has been working to incorporate the community feedback into the overall plan. A second draft is available, and there is a summary of the Top 20 Individual Ideas as voted by the attendees of the previous events. After looking at the voting results, they have concluded that the most popular theme is making the City, and Downtown in particular, more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. Sustainability was the second most popular theme, and from there the individual ideas become more diverse.
The current set of Listening Sessions all have the same basic agenda, with the main difference being the neighborhoods under discussion.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
6:30 – 8:30
Metzner Recreation Center
680 Franklin Ave
Neighborhoods: Barry Square, MARG, Sheldon-Charter Oak, South End, South Meadows, SouthwestTuesday, February 9, 2010
7:00 – 9:00
United Methodist Church of Greater Hartford
571 Farmington Ave
Neighborhoods: Asylum Hill, Parkville, West EndThursday, February 11, 2010
6:30 – 8:30
Pope Park Recreation Center
30 Pope Park Dr
Neighborhoods: Behind the Rocks, Downtown, Frog Hollow, South Green, South DowntownTuesday, February 16, 2010
6:30 – 8:30
Rawson School
260 Holcomb St
Neighborhoods: Blue Hills, Clay Arsenal, Northeast, North Meadows, Upper Albany
This will be the last opportunity for public input before the formal review process begins at the end of the month. Make your voice heard so that our leadership knows what you think is important for the City of Hartford over the coming 10 years.
Crappy New Construction
Many new buyers are intrigued by new or newer (say built since 1995) construction. Looking at older homes depresses them because they often need updating or don’t have more modern layouts with open floor plans and family rooms. Some buyers don’t want to take the time or have the money to put in updates immediately, so they lean towards newer construction in their search. I’ve even come across a few buyers that believe older homes are unsafe, simply because they are “old.”
When showing newer houses, something I always try to understand is the quality of the construction. With older homes, they’ve been standing for 70, 80, 90 years or more so you could argue that they’re time tested. While the house might have a Harvest Gold kitchen and Pepto Bismol colored bathroom, it’s probably pretty sturdy and not going anywhere. Sometimes with newer construction I find myself wondering about the longevity of the house I’m standing in. Based on the quality of the construction, do I think it will be here 70, 80, or 90 years from now? Unfortunately in a lot of cases I’d have to say no.
No matter when a house was built, in the early 1900s or yesterday, the quality of the home lies with what the original builder used for materials and whether or not they cut corners during their construction process. There are many builders in the local Hartford area whose work I respect. Thought obviously goes into the design of the property and quality materials and labor are used to build the home. However, I’ve also seen lots of new and newer construction that just leaves me scratching my head. I can’t understand why buyers disregard older homes when we look at some of this, excuse my language, crap.
For example, last weekend I showed a home that was constructed in 1998. It was a colonial, had a fairly maintenance free exterior and somewhat of a modern floor plan- the kitchen was open to the dining room, the living room had cathedral ceilings and there was a family room in the walkout basement. Now, this is where the niceties ended. If you looked around, the joint tape on many of the ceiling joins had worked its way free and was sticking out from the popcorn ceilings. There were nail pops all over the walls from where the nails wiggled free from their joint compound in the sheetrock as the house settled. There were large stains on the ceilings in one of the upper bedrooms indicating that the roof was leaking. There was a large stain on the living room ceiling indicating that the plumbing in the hall bath above was leaking. No offense, but a house that’s 12 years old probably shouldn’t have a leaking roof at this point seeing as roofing material when the house was built had a life span of 25+ years. So my assessment of this house? Shoddy construction. My clients also came to this conclusion on their own after noticing all of these issues as well.
Shiny and new can be exciting. I know. It’s really tempting to just want to go with a home where you don’t have to do any work. Just be careful when you look at newer construction that you check it out thoroughly. Try to find other homes or developments that the builder constructed. If you can, go see how they’re standing up a few years after people have been living in them. Will you enjoy the new home you’re going to buy or will it become a maintenance nightmare as you need to fix all of the places where the builder cut corners?