The Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce intends to break ground this spring on a new three-story Regional Economic Commerce Center in downtown Cedar Rapids, with completion expected in early 2011. The modern, glass building will replacing the current bland, one-story Chamber of Commerce office at the corner of First Ave and 5th Street NE.
The new economic center was first proposed back in March as a 60,000 square foot, six-story building to house the chamber, convention and visitors bureau, and a number of other commerce-related organizations under one roof. Instead it will be built as a 30,000 square-foot, three-story building. The overall design appears to stay the same, simply reduced to three stories.
Despite the downsize, this is still a positive change for downtown. With the proposed convention center development and upgrades to the US Cellular Center, along with renovations currently underway at Theatre Cedar Rapids, this area along First Avenue through downtown should be seeing some major improvements over the next few years.
The sound of piles being driven into the ground resonated through downtown this afternoon from the site of the new federal courthouse that is finally under construction after years of numerous delays. As other federal buildings had jumped ahead in priority over the years, last year’s flood put Cedar Rapids’ back on top. The new courthouse will be an incredible addition to the downtown skyline at a scale not seen for decades. The most recent significant addition to downtown was the Great America Building in 1998, just a block away from the new courthouse.
A new 10,000 square foot, two-story professional office building is currently under construction at 1815 First Avenue SE in Cedar Rapids. The development is replacing four former residential properties at 1815, 1821, 1827, and 1833 First Ave SE, all built between 1900 and 1921. According to the Cedar Rapids Assessor’s records, these houses had all been converted into multi-tenant. None of these houses were in the best condition and understandably this area of First Avenue is very marketable for commercial use, so I’m not going to argue against the destruction of these century old homes, but the new use of the site is unfortunate.
Above is a rendering of the finished building. It is fairly suburban looking, but two-stories is nice and the scale is appropriate. The building is set back from the sidewalk about the same distance as existing older houses and commercial buildings nearby. My only real problem with this development is how much of the site fronting the sidewalk has been used for parking. The site is approximately 250 feet long (along First Avenue) and maybe 150 feet deep. The building was constructed on one end of the site with the rest left open for a parking lot.
If this type of new commercial development cannot survive without minimizing it’s parking requirement, or situating it more appropriately on the site, then perhaps this use does not belong here. I welcome reinvestment in this older part of the city – and especially diversification of uses, but it must be done respectfully and not diminish the urban quality that remains. 150 feet of parking lot along the sidewalk and the street is not progress, it is a gouge out of the former street edge that made this block pleasant to walk or drive down.
Below are the four houses that were torn down for this development, not to mention tree fatalities. The images are arranged in the same order of the former houses. How long will this kind of auto-centric redevelopment go unquestioned?
1833 – built 1910, two story frame, three family conversion / 60 ft wide lot
1827 – built 1910, two story frame, four family conversion / 60 ft wide lot
1821 – built 1900, 1-1/2 story frame, three family conversion / 60 ft wide lot
1815 – built 1921, one story frame, two-family conversion / 60 ft wide lot
With the help of a $1.5 million grant from Vision Iowa, Theatre Cedar Rapids and the Community Theatre Building Corp. hope to begin a $7.8 million expansion and renovation of the Iowa Theatre Building in downtown Cedar Rapids by the end of summer or early fall. FEMA is expected to contribute about $3.8 million for the flood-damaged building. According to the Gazette, “Outside the theater, visitors will see a new digital marquee. Inside, they will see a lobby that doubled in size. Larger restrooms, an open staff office and rehearsal space also are part of the project. The theater’s basement will house new dressing rooms, a make-up room, costume construction plus storage and rehearsal space.” Since the flood last June, TCR has been performing at the former “Let’s Dance” building by Lindale Mall.
A new parking garage is under construction at a very visible corner in downtown Cedar Rapids. United Fire & Casualty Co. is building a new three story ramp on a company-owned surface lot adjacent to its building on Second Avenue SE. The new parkade will front 2nd Ave and 1st Street SE. The design by Solum Lang Architects of Cedar Rapids, is extremely plain as seen in the rendering below.
I am normally not a fan of additional parking structures in downtown – which the business community and general public seems to laud as necessary for the success of downtown. I think better parking management and people being willing to walk one or two blocks from the car (not to mention alternative transportation) would solve any perceived parking problem there is in downtown. However, since this is a privately funded and owned structure, being constructed on a relatively small site that otherwise would likely remain an open parking lot for years, I do not have that much issue with it. I would argue it should at least have ground level retail space to contribute to activity on the sidewalk, but that would extremely limit the parking capacity of the structure as it is such a small site.
Adjacent to the site along 1st Street is a one story retail / commercial building (seen in far left in image above) and across 1st Street is the federal courthouse, damaged in last year’s flood, which will become property of the City once the new federal courthouse is opened. Across 2nd Avenue from the site is the Alliant Energy Tower, and kitty-corner to it is the now structurally-deficient First Street Parkade. This city-owned parking structure has long been slated for replacement by the future intermodal transportation facility at a new site, which has also spent many years in the planning and re-planning stage.
Two sizable construction projects have finished up at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids. A new medical building was constructed along 8th Ave at 8th Street SE. Also a three level parking structure has been built at 8th Avenue and 10th Street, on a former parking lot adjacent to the main hospital entrance. The structure is built right up to the sidewalk so it gives the corner a nice massing.
In the past five years or so, both city hospitals, Mercy and St. Luke’s Hospital, have had numerous improvement and expansion projects at their facilities. The two medical centers are located about eight blocks apart along 10th Street East at the edge of downtown. The area in between features a number of health related offices and has been designated the “Medical Zone” in the recently completed River Corridor Redevelopment Plan.
First Street SE in Cedar Rapids between 7th and 8th avenues will be closed permanently starting Monday as work on the new federal courthouse gets underway. The completed building will sit on a two blocks site between 2nd Street SE and the river. First Street will end at 7th Avenue in a new civic plaza space. The building design is a collaboration between William Rawn Associates of Boston and OPN Architects of Cedar Rapids.
