Here are a few pictures I took yesterday of the Bettendorf Isle of Capri hotel expansion. I know probably 95% of you use I-74, but for those who don't and for our out of town readers, here's what Bettendorf's riverfront is looking like these days.
I wouldn't mind having a building that tall added to downtown Davenport, although I would hope it wouldn't be as ugly. We already have the MidAmerican building...
6 comments:
I think I'd say "bland" rather than ugly. It's not a horrendous building. And if it were in a city with more tall buildings, it would just blend in anonymously.
What do you call the "White Elephant" in downtown Savenport? This puppy doesn't fit too well.
Trying to "fit in" is what gets us stuff like the MidAmerican Building. When you have a variety of architecture everything starts to fit in. With the Figge, Skybridge, and Mississippi Plaza I think we're getting close to a point where modern stuff doesn't look out of place.
I agree QCI.
But the Isle was hamstrung by the fact it is adding a second building onto an existing site.
It would have been strange and off-putting to put up something "creative" to be the second building of a two-hotel complex.
I'm hopeful that whatever IOC ends up doing in Davenport, they choose to be a bit bolder. (although I pretty much agree with you that the most likely scenario is some type of joint "boutique" hotel/condos at the Black Hawk in conjunction with another bland tower.
The thing about the "new" hotel in Bettendorf is that it really is little more than a room tower, with all the other ameneties still housed in the original building.
I suppose my big complaint is I'd like to see a higher proportion of windows. Of course, that probably comes from my preference for steel and glass modernism, but like you said, that would have looked silly next to their existing hotel.
"A building this tall?" Why don't you just say it, you think Davenport needs to compensate for a certain lack of, er size, in it's city staff/council. Why not start the coveting at the top, with the Swiss Re building?
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/upload/img_400/NMR23257_08x450.jpg
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