Shadows from the scrapers on the pavement

I’m going to try to avoid the Charrette angle in this story about the Plaza condominium building that is proposed for Town Center. I can only say so much about the Charrette each day.

I’ve really only got two things I want to say about this building. Well, three.

1. It’s boring, and maybe people wouldn’t be so opposed to it if it were captivating or interesting. Instead, it looks like most other 22-story condo towers. However, instead of being just boring, the building was once planned to be ugly, too.

The Plaza was conceived as a 20-story, 150-unit rectangular building. But then county and General Growth officials talked to WCI [the building’s developer] about integrating the project with its surroundings and making it more pedestrian friendly. The developer added brickwork, curved the edges of the building and provided a spot for a transit bus shelter.

Who says General Growth and the county aren’t looking out for citizens? Instead of just a plain building, we could have had a something out of Cold War Russia were it not for their interjections. Thanks, guys.

2. Why wasn’t this brought up during the Charrette (I know, but the Charrette is really just tangential to this point)? Certainly, Hayduke readers had been informed, and an even wider auidence could have read abou it in the Flier and the Sun, which have run stories about this building since it was first proposed almost a year ago. Some have claimed that this building was intentionally not mentioned during the Charrette (possibly as part of a conspiracy), which I think is just crazy. There’s enough blame to go around on this. To be sure, the planners could have told us about it, but we could have better informed ourselves--notably, by reading Hayduke.

3. Why do reporters always bury sensible comments at the bottom of the stories? Here are the last three paragraphs.

Lee Richardson, chairman of the Town Center Village Board, said he thinks WCI has been responsive, appearing before the village board twice last year to discuss the Plaza.

Talk among residents “seems to be ceaseless,” he said. Some are interested in moving to the condominium. Others are fixated on its height. The board “is all over the place as far as the height goes,” Richardson said. It’s likely the debate will continue.

“People are right to raise questions about the charrette vis-à-vis the Plaza,” he said. “I think it’s very legitimate for people to say, well, how does it fit in?”

In an answer to my own question, sensibility does not lead to conflict, but conflict leads to readers. Oh well, at least somebody’s listening to you, Lee.