The national Episcopal church has purchased the block bounded by Seventh, Eighth, Trinity and Neches, where it intends to build its national archives. The building might be five stories tall, with 70,000 square feet of archive space, a garage and "limited" ground-floor retail. This would be a big improvement over the surface parking lot there now.
But is it necessary to waste space on a plaza?
This part of town doesn't have enough pedestrian traffic to support a plaza. These things sit empty most of the time; they're dead space. (Walk by the "plaza" at the JPMorgan-whatever building at 7th and Lavaca sometime.)
It would be nice to see property owners sell off corner parcels like this for separate development. Most new developments downtown occupy entire city blocks, giving them a squat, blocky look. Breaking blocks into smaller parcels would yield more attractive buildings. It also would be nice to get a new alley every now and then. (Note that the Austonian and Ashton are welcome exceptions.)
I suppose providing joint parking is too much of a hassle . . .
