Renderings can be deceiving. When we reported on the VU Guest House and adjoining C2 venue under construction in Smoketown, we thought a new building going up on Breckinridge Street was incorporating part of the facade of the old Ewald Radiator Company, which had a garage covered in metal panels about the same massing as a box in the rendering.
We were wrong.
Stopping by the construction site recently shows that it has been completely leveled and that the new C2 facility, replacing the Connection nightclub Downtown, will be entirely new construction. These are the latest views from Breckinridge Street.
Saving or not saving the old garage does not change the fact that the structure has not been designed to be a good neighbor to its surrounding community. The developers had previously torn down a row of historic houses to build a parking lot for the complex. Bryan Grumley detailed the project’s shortcomings in this piece from December 2015.
Its another miss in a series of misses. Just another heat island experience for SoBro, now becoming SoWhot. Metro permissiveness is also to blame for allowing this travesty to happen. A front loading dock when there’s alley access? Geez.