Update, Saturday Jan. 5: I ran into architect David Wagner this morning at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market. (And yes, Nise was there with her fabulous lettuce, the last day until the spring crop. Mostly these winter days you’ll find local meats, sweet potatoes, kale, turnips and carrots.) He confirmed that he’s the author of the Wagner Murray blog, so I’ve edited what’s below to reflect that.
Here’s an illustration, below, courtesy of the Wagner Murray blog:
The idea architect David Wagner proposes is to convert an existing parking deck in uptown Charlotte into a green wall (constructed with living plants) topped with a photovoltaic installation. Here’s a link to the item.
It’s reminiscent of ideas others have proposed here and there to try to enliven, visually, some of the many dead spots built in our downtown during the design-bleak years of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.
Here’s a link to an essay, from Charlotte writer Tracey Crowe, in the PlanCharlotte.org website I run, in which she proposes using green walls to spruce up (pun intended) some bleak areas: “Turn uptown’s street canyons green.”
And PlanCharlotte’s Keihly Moore has suggested similar ideas, among others, to soften those dull walls: “The great walls of Charlotte.”
How many of you recognize the spot where the proposed green wall is illustrated?
It’s this uptown parking deck on College Street at East Third Street:
It’s always seemed to me a wasted opportunity for some whimsy. If the green wall thing doesn’t work out, I’d like to see a game where you can drop a large ball at the top and watch it spiral all the way down to the ground floor.