Archive for the 'Development' Category
Growing Fish
Here’s an interesting article about a company in Milwaukee that has set up an indoor farm to grow fish and vegetables organically and sustainably. Sweet Water Organics has put together an aquaculture system that recirculates water between the fish and veggies, with each providing nutrients for the others. They are currently raising perch, tilapia, lettuce, basil, watercress, tomatoes, peppers, chard, and spinach. The system has been built in a formerly vacant factory.
We’d love to get one of these in some of our vacant factory space … another business leasing space, more jobs, and fresh food. The building in the picture isn’t ready for prime time, but there are large spaces in Hartford that are much further along in the rehab process that would make excellent locations. Surely there is some space in the Colt complex that could be adapted quickly and easily.
Hartford Preservation Alliance Awards Event
The Hartford Preservation Alliance will be holding their annual Awards Event on Thursday, May 13th, at 5:30, at the Design Center in Parkville (1429 Park St, Hartford). There are 12 Awardees this year, including a number of projects that loyal readers will recognize. The event is open to all, and tickets are $25 – hope to see you there!
In addition to their annual Awards Event, the Hartford Preservation Alliance works throughout the year as an advocate for Hartford’s historic architecture and buildings. They also take on an education mission, organizing various events in the different neighborhoods. For example, tomorrow morning (May 8, 2010) at 10:00 AM they will be leading a walking tour through the Ann Street Historic District in Downtown Hartford. For a complete list of upcoming activities, visit the 2010 Calendar.
2010 Awardees
Common Ground
410 Asylum Street
“The Capitol Building”
Jan & David Klein
Kate & Christian Winkley
79 Girard Avenue
Northside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance (NINA)
291-293 Sargeant Street
Archdiocese of Hartford
809 Asylum Avenue
“St. Joseph Cathedral School”
Hartford School Building Commission
1304 Main Street
“Barnard Brown School”
James K. Grant, P.E.
Lifetime Achievement
Connecticut Preservation Action
Preservation Advocacy
Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism
“Being Modern in Hartford”
Molly Knorr & Mark Drusedum
1144 Prospect Avenue
PMC Property Group
210 Farmington Avenue
“The Ambassador”
Ross Zachs & Mike Miller
76 North Beacon Street
Antonella Bona
139 Fern Street
Congratulations to all the awardees – and thank you for going out of your way to preserve Hartford’s historic buildings.
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…
