Good critique and commentary from Spacing’s Alanah Heffez on the scaling back of the lower Main projects. She writes:
There is one contradiction that I hope does not go unnoticed here: during public consultations, we were told that the only way that these projects could be financially viable was through renting many stories of office space. Now, the cash-strapped developer is cutting back the project to something that is actually cohesive with the urban plan in terms of building height. Why was this kind of design initially portrayed as impossible when it is, in fact, not only possible but apparently cheaper?
I rarely pull out whole quotes like this, but I could not have said it better. But she is also right in that the block could lie fallow now for a long time, and it’s in everyone’s interests not to let that happen. We want, we need, a diverse and lively lower Main. (The comments from NEU and Chris Erb are also good.)