I love it! The Aveda Institute's renovation of that old building is great. I only wish people in Albuquerque, especially in the center city, wouldn't be so opposed to and afraid of density. Lots of great projects have been killed because of that sort of opposition to density. I hope this developer will be successful in the later residential portion of his project.
Another project on Central closer to Downtown was also opposed by neighbors for being too dense and not having enough parking. Personally, I think parking
should be limited in urban environments, but the developers there pointed out that they would create some 70-plus on-street parking spaces around the building to go along with a parking lot in the middle of the building. That project is the Silver Moon Apartments on the site of one of those former run-down motels that you mentioned being the bane of Central Avenue in another post.
The renovation of the Bell Trading Post into lofts has been another great thing to happen to the stretch of Central between Downtown and Old Town.
I've always dreamed of Central between Downtown and Old Town as being lined with 4-6 story apartment buildings with commercial on the ground floor, like in Paris. Since this is New Mexico I would have them be done in a Pueblo Revival style similar in urban feel to the La Fonda in Santa Fe. If you walk down Central near the Bell Trading Post Lofts there is one small part that sort of gives off a Champs Elysees feel at night with a row of trees lit up with white lights. Whenever I pass by there I imagine my dream in reality.
(Yes, I know nowhere in Albuquerque truly resembles Paris, I'm just saying it's a feel
I get).
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