Update: BSL funding, Cobblestones, Ericson proposal

The City Council Parks Committee will meet at 12:30 Tuesday (Dec. 18) to consider a resolution to approve $6 million for Phase 2 of the Beale Street Landing project. In Phase 2: Steel pilings will be driven into the riverbed and landfill brought in to create four new acres for the project. (Much more below...)

The resolution will then go downstairs to the full City Council at 3:30 pm item #55 on the agenda). With all the upcoming membership changes on the Council, the City and RDC are pushing the project along for quick approval before the turn-over, and the resolution is expected to pass. The RDC hopes to put the work out for bid shortly after the first of the year and to start work in early spring.

The RDC has completed work on a new computer-generated "3-D" video of the project. One of our members got a sneak preview at the recent RDC board meeting. He says the video is remarkable in that it is actually an eye-level walk-through. For the first time, Memphians will get a chance to see the view as if standing within those pods.

The RDC promises to have the video on their website soon. It will probably be shown to the committee or the full City Council Tuesday. That might be an extra incentive for Memphians to attend.

The latest drawings of Beale Street Landing are not on the RDC website yet, but you can see them in the FfOR library. Click here. For an explanation of the revisions, click here.


Cobblestone Landing

Interestingly, we also learned at the RDC board meeting that there is already $6 million set aside for restoring the Cobblestone Landing. We'd like to see the City start doing it instead of just talking about it.

Mayor Herenton promised us the Cobblestone restoration in June, 1995. The City developed a preservation plan in December, 1995 (you can download and read it), pursuant to a Memorandum of Agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Tennessee State Historic Preservation Office. The 2002 Memphis Riverfront Master Plan reiterated the central importance of the Cobblestone Landing. Why has nothing been accomplished in over a dozen years?


Ericson's Pyramid Adventure

In other news, you have probably heard about the Ericson Group's proposal for the Pyramid and Mud Island. Their plan for a theme park inside the Pyramid is not new, of course. What is new is that they want to take charge of Mud Island River Park as well, rehabilitating what's already there and adding: a second, 15,000-seat amphitheater on the Island tip; a floating maritime museum in the harbor; and a hotel (or possibly the Zippin Pippin) where the Memphis Belle pavilion now stands. Mud Island River Park would be renamed "Harbor Island."

The Pyramid complex would include 200,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space over the tracks adjoining Front St, and another hotel if the the I-40 ramp at Jackson Street can be removed or reconfigured. Longer term plans might include an aquarium at the Lone Star site, and an indoor/outdoor arcade connecting back to the Pyramid.

Contrary to rumors, there is no land bridge or lake in the plan.

Greg Ericson told the County Commission that his group wants to buy the Pyramid site outright, and build all of this entirely with private investment money. Officials from two investment groups representing commitments of $250 million attended the hearing last Wednesday.

Ericson's concept drawing of the plan is reproduced below. We've added our own annotations in red to help you decipher it. Click the drawing to enlarge it. Drawings of the Pyramid Adventure theme park can be found on Ericson's site.



Take a look and let us know what you think. Some of the ideas are intriguing. Who wouldn't like to see Mud Island River Park brought back to life and open year-round? And the Pyramid, we're all rooting for a good new use for it. One question is whether in this plan, Memphians would still have free access to their own public park on the island - and to how much of it? We look forward to further details and the government's due diligence.

By the way, the Commercial Appeal is inviting your thoughts on the Ericson proposal vs. the Bass Pro Shop idea for next week's Hot Button section. Responses due by the 19th

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Beale Street Landing Revisions - Project Gets 106 Approval

The 106 review of Beale Street Landing led to some design modifications and project approval by the TN State Historic Preservation Office. With that hurdle cleared, BSL is now eligible to receive the federal, state, and city money already earmarked for it.

Of the estimated $29.4 million cost, the Federal government is to provide 25.3% ($7,457, 026), the State 10.7% ($3,164,000), and the City 64% ($18,800,000). The City Council has approved issuing bonds to pay for $11 million of the City’s share and will be asked to approve the additional $7.8 million.

Design changes reduced the vertical impact of BSL by moving one of the islets/pods closer to Riverside Drive and switched the paint color on the helical loading ramp and floating dock from red to rust. The report also says that over time the ipe wood on the pods will weather to a softer gray, as shown in the illustrations, making the project less intrusive; that appropriately designed historic signage will be added; and that native plants will be used. BSL approval is based on careful archaeological monitoring being scheduled and implemented and on a smooth transition between Beale Street Landing and the Cobblestones that will clearly differentiate between the new and original materials. Restoration and future use of the cobblestone landing was not addressed.

The RDC had anticipated that Homeland Security regulations would block private boat use of the dock, but the TDOT report states that the boat dock will be open for private boaters.

The 106 review, required by federal law, deals only with historic preservation issues. Questions and concerns about BSL’s intrusion into Tom Lee Park and financial viability were not considered as part of the review process.

Click here to see new design illustrations, read TDOT's report, and read the TN Historic Preservation Committee's letter of requirements and approval.

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Fact or Fiction?

Intrigue, adventure, ambition, architecture, Memphis – Reviewers say they are all captured in Jim Williamson’s novel, The Architect. Sounds like a must read for all of us.

Williamson, an award winning Memphis architect,will read from and sign copies of his new novel Tuesday, Dec. 4 from 5:30 – 7 pm at Burke’s Book Store (936 S. Cooper). The reading will be at 6 pm next door at Sweet Desserterie. The Architect was published by Cold Tree Press ($16.95 paperback).

Among his many Memphis projects, Mr. Williamson worked with Venturi Scott Brown on the 1987 Memphis Downtown Plan for the Center City Commission. To see the riverfront section of that plan, click here. The award winning architect and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, is a graduate of Rhodes College and the Univ. of Pennsylvania and has taught at Yale, Penn, and Rhodes.

Reviewers comments:

"The Architect is wrapped in the past and present of a mythic Midtown Memphis and beset by a cast of characters rollicking enough for a latter-day Dickens. Under all, the New Madrid Fault rumbles. Then the ruses of people and nature combine to bring about a grand denouement. Oh how we architects will recognize the situations! And some clients may learn how not to behave. But this book can be enjoyed, far beyond the profession, as a picaresque tale of adventure set in intriguing circumstances."
---Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi

"The Architect is a thoughtful, moving novel about the realities of building, particularly when style collides with money, politics, and the demands of the less than enlightened. Also, this interesting portrait of Memphis embodies a lively treatise on architecture itself."
---James Conaway, author of Memphis Afternoons, The Far Side of Eden, and Vanishing America: In Pursuit of Our Elusive Landscapes

"The Architect is an exciting story of intrigue, ambition and personal heroics played out in Memphis, a city steeped in the southern traditions of culture and society. Ethan Cotham is a man of talent, principles and derring-do, a towering figure at the heart of this exciting adventure set on the banks of the Mississippi River."
---Louis R. Pounders, Architect

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