"Buzzing" BSL in a satellite

Here's the picture that got people buzzing today:


We carefully traced the RDC architect's drawing of the Beale Street Landing complex onto a Google satellite photo of the riverfront. As you can see, BSL (yellow outline) will consume a portion of Tom Lee Park -- an area used to stage concerts during Memphis in May. On the north end, BSL also covers a portion of the lower Cobblestones.

Perhaps, most interesting is the comparison to the size of One Beale when that is built. (On satellite the photo, the One Beale project is outlined in blue.) There are more photos and drawings in our Library. (Also the link at the top of this page.)

By the way, the Memphis Flyer made a small goof when they posted their article: The site actually has nothing to do with the Memphis Public Library. We just call the site "The Library" because it's where we collect external news and commentary articles, official documents, and drawings and photos about our Riverfront. If you look closely at the photo in the upper left corner on the site, you'll see a group of people "gathering at the river" behind the Cossitt Library, which of course sits on the Public Promenade overlooking the Mississisppi.

Important note for "Mac" people: The site may appear to be gibberish when viewed in the Safari browser. That's due to a bug in Safari we haven't been able to discover or correct for. (But it looks fine in Safari 3 Beta on Windows.) If you have a Mac, try to use a different browser, such as Firefox or Mozilla. (Any Mac geeks out there who can solve this bug, we'd love to hear from you!).

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BSL renderings

Most people haven't really seen what Beale Street Landing will look like in detail, except for the smallish pictures posted at the RDC's site. We're going to solve that problem.

We obtained from the RDC a large-format printed copy of the four artist renderings -- the same book of drawings they gave out to Council members and others last May. Our webmaster scanned them in high resolution, and then re-balanced the color a bit because the printing process the RDC used had made them too orangey. Those renderings are now posted in the Library.

Updated: We've also made some to-scale diagrams, overlaid on a satellite photo of the riverfront, so that you can see the scale and location of the project. All that and still more is in the Library.

There are links under each picture for you to download a high-resolution version that you can print out at up to 200 dpi on lettersize paper or 8x10 photo paper.

Click on over to the Library and take a look!

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CA invites BSL opinions

The Commercial Appeal is inviting their readers to email in their opinions on the Beale Street Landing design, pro or con. The best letters will be published next Sunday, July 8. Here's their request:

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Next week's question
Memphis City Council members have voted to fund the $29 million Beale Street Landing project to construct a series of walkways, terraces, a restaurant and floating docks along the Downtown riverfront.

The project has been criticized by some as architecturally out of place and a waste of money, but its backers say it will make the Memphis riverfront more vibrant by providing an attractive public gathering space that will bring Memphians as well as visitors "down to the river" more often. We'd like to know:

Do you think Beale Street Landing, as designed, will attract residents from across Greater Memphis to spend time on the riverfront regularly? Why or why not?

E-mail your response to hotbutton@commercialappeal.com by Wedenesday. Keep it short (three or four sentences) and include your name, home address and daytime/evening telephone numbers where you can be reached. We'll publish selected comments on July 8.

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It's a good question, and we hope they will get a wide variety of ideas and opinions for their upcoming "Hot Button" section. If you need to refresh yourself on the design, or some ideas to stimulate your creative juices, there are some good links:

• Click here to review the design on RDC's Web site (opens new window).
• Click here and here for articles we've posted on our web site.
• Click here to see all the published news stories and commentary that have discussed Beale Street Landing and the Cobblestones.
• Update: Click here to see good-quality enlargements of the RDC's artist renderings, posted in our own Library.

Remember, you emailed letter should be succinct, and needs to reach the Appeal by Wednesday.

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