Lexington’s Unsightly Hole

The hackers have been meeting up at third street stuff (my second favorite coffee house after Common Grounds)on weeknights for a while, which means I walk by Limestone and Vine most afternoons right past this:

the unsightly hole in the middle of Lexington’s downtown. Every other time I walk by it seems like someone comments on it, usually asking where The Dame has moved.
Everyone remotely alert living in Lexington is reasonably familiar with the hole, it used to be a block that contained interesting things; Mia’s, Busters’, The Dame, The Mad Hatter, etc. It is now the future site of the Webb companies CenterePointe project (yes, with TWO unnecessary ‘e’s), a 550ft mixed-use monstrosity which has been the source of endless controversy. This UrbanOhio thread (I don’t know anything about the site) has aggregated most of the news on it. Take a look at the renderings for the current design:

My two thoughts are that the design would be hilariously phallic if it weren’t about to become the tallest building in Kentucky, squarely in the middle of Lexington’s downtown, and that it, quite appropriately, looks like it’s giving the city the finger. It’s actually a little toned down from the earlier renderings in that regard.

The fact that the previous big, ugly, overpriced mixed-use structure put up in Lexington (Center Court) was such a resounding success that even Starbucks moved out should give a good idea of what the demand for that kind of space is in the area. One small high point, I am pleased to see that the current revision is going to have drastically more meeting space in the Marriott-managed hotel that is planned as one of the primary tenants, that space could be used to host conferences and keep the hotel alive after the Equestrian Games are over in 2010 (assuming the damn thing is even done by then), and Lexington goes back to having little demand for a giant hotel in the middle of the city.