Redeveloping the Boulevard - Is Demolition "Green?" AND Baseball in Manchester!

I got a comment objecting to my support for demolishing the Diamond, Arthur Ashe Center, and Sports Backers' Stadium, in order to start from scratch with the Boulevard site.  The criticism, which is a fair one, is that these structures could and should be reused or adapted, and demolition is not the most environmentally friendly approach.

I hear you, and I think those are very fair points.  And just for the record, I am a HUGE proponent of adaptive reuse- renovating "old" structures for new uses.  However, the reality is in certain circumstances the expense associated with retooling a particular structure is so great, it makes more sense to demolish and then rebuild. New construction is almost always less expensive than renovation.

The other problem here is what viable "reuse" is there for a stadium?  What else COULD the Diamond or Sports Backers' Stadium be? 

On another point, I'm not opposed to keeping baseball on Boulevard, and the Robert Bobb development team has not ruled it out.  I think it would be a heck of a better location than Shockoe Bottom, which I just think was a bad idea 4 years ago, and is a bad idea today.  My question becomes:  If they keep baseball at Boulevard, is retrofitting the Diamond to last another 10-15 years a better solution than building a new stadium?  I come down on that question on the "Definitely not" side.  I think if baseball is going to be on Boulevard, we'd be better off building a new baseball stadium that is ideally sited and holistically integrated into the entire site development plan.

Personally, I think it's "greener" to do an all-new walkable development at Boulevard, incorporating the best new urbanism principals, whether it incorporates baseball or not.  I think retrofitting the two existing stadiums would be exorbitantly expensive, and I'm not sure what you'd make them.  Leaving them stadiums compromises the ability to do a comprehensive, integrated site design.  So despite the green "cost" of demolition, my vote is the same:  all-new development at Boulevard, with or without a brand-new baseball stadium.

BUT....do you know where I REALLY think we should build a baseball stadium?  On the South Side of the river, on the water, in Manchester.  There is available land, and it would IMMEDIATELY jump-start the revitalization of that area of the City, which has some amazing, architecturally significant buildings, but suffers from a lot of urban problems.  Two birds,one stone:  new baseball stadium, new neighborhood anchor.

Thanks for the comments, MJ and Scott.  It's nice to know someone actually reads anything I wrote.  [:)]

Comments

[Tej]

I just came across your page today from northrichmondnews.com, I think your blogs are great about the N. Blvd project. As a resident of the Ginter Park area, I want this to happen more then anyone in hopes it will increase real estate values in the area but I have major doubts seeing we have to deal with Richmond's government or lack there of making this happen. I will surely add this page as a bookmark and come back often, please keep up with the updates. Thanks again!

[Mark]

Re: Stadium in Manchester - YES! Why in the world is nobody discussing this? I've been saying this ever since the originial Shockoe Plan came out. It astounds me how much the city neglects its South of the James area. It's really the only area where a new stadium makes sense, and it's so close to Shockoe that surely there'd be some overflow development. There needs to be some way to lobby for more investigation of this. Thanks for putting it in writing!