Unfortunately I believe it is. I'm gonna talk to our urban planner tomorrow and I'll put this on the agenda.

At least have some world renowned artist paint the whole facade in the meantime.

Or Eduardo mendieta who did the other local murals

That mural idea is good! It could be like Wynwood district in Miami.

Yes make it a landmark with art then maybe it'll be a bit more tolerable and less insane asylum like

This one takes the cake. Why can't we at the very least get an artist to paint the whole facade and make it some weird landmark of our area. At least give it a view. Right now it's as if I'm looking at a @#$% apocalypse bunker.

haha! good stuff.
"insane asylum"
"@#$% apocalypse bunker" I love it.

This has been sent to the Mayors Office.

Sincerely,
Mayors Response Team

I believe this building is some sort of data center operated by AT&T. whats even more interesting is what looks like a brick residential or office building attached to the hulking concrete data center by two large catwalks. PAPA GIS shows ATT owns the concrete building but a separate LLC owns the brick residential/office building.

Brock,
You're correct. A developer, RAM real estate, is doing an adaptive reuse project on the brick portion. That building is known as the Meridian and is going to be converted to loft-style rental apartments.
Thanks for the input !! Hope you'll signup, log tickets, comment, and vote on other issues.

-Jesse

Wow loving this thread!!

if you're interested in land use and urbanism issues downtown, would love for you to get involved in the downtown neighborhood association Urbanism + Policy committee. You can contact me on Twitter @WalkableWPB

Brick building used to be the AT&T operator building when we were under 305 area code. That's where calls were routed to and from. It was an office building for decades since the 40s I think and yes now will be a loft condo

Yep, @BikeWPB. Now the Meridian building will be loft apartments, not condos. It was originally built in the 20s and now the brick building has historic designation.

Oh wow actual apartments. That's great

Ya, the apartments are going to be great for downtown in my opinion.

Possible solution: GREEN WALL (LIVING WALL)
Got an interesting thread going on the DDA's facebook page--
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.502696879792702.1073741826.167688119960248&type=1

Check out the thread. We'd need to mount a campaign to get the City to listen to us. The only way stuff happens is if a vocal group of citizens speaks up. You got one.

I bet there is grant money out there...or get AT&T to pitch in. All kinds of creative ways to fund it.

Omg!! I was just thinking that yesterday (about the living wall). The one on the island off worth is AMAZING!!

We've hated it for years. Need to formally complain collectively now. Shouldn't have to put up with this anymore. It's a severe eyesore and contributes to the seedy atmosphere of the streets directly around it.

Hate this view lol

Holy crap, what a view!! ;)

Seriously though, think about all the value-capture to the city if the units on the north side of the Prado are a little more valuable because they don't have this crappy view. Back of envelope, let's say 30 units appreciate 10 K because they no longer staring at the Insane Asylum night and day. That's 300 K of added property value; an extra 6 K per year into the city's coffers. Apply an 8% cap rate to that and you're talking 75 K of present-value property tax revenue.
And I think these are very conservative assumptions.

Another possible solution to the visual blight:

At Sundown, Train Station Trades In Drab for Dazzling;
"STAMFORD, Conn. — The train station here is one of the busiest in the Northeast, but commuters have long bemoaned its drab design, saying it has all the charm of a prison or a morgue."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/nyregion/at-night-in-stamford-drab-train-station-dazzles.html?_r=0

The building you all hate is the main central office for the entire area. All fiber optic lines for att sprint and many others and tons of copper run into that building and thru the basement of meridian(the brick) which was the original central office until the 90s when all the equipment was moved here. The brick building uised to house operators who would connect the cables to complete your call. Thr first floot north west corner is where you could pay your phone bill - fancy ceiling /chandeliers and the teller windows were bullet proof The ugly building - When you pick up your bellsouth / att landline downtown your phone line physically connects to that building and the dialtone and call is handled by the switch on the first floor. I've been in this building. Other providers have their equipment on other floors to interconnect w att and others.The building isn't going anywhere. Though there is tons of floor space as the switching equipment is the size of refrigerators these days. The building has been there since the 60s

It's unrealistic to think the building is going to be demolished considering its important functions but it COULD be beautified. Still hoping for some murals or a living wall.

Interesting history Ed. Do you have any interior pictures ?

Seriously we just want it to stop looking so fugly. A lot of 60s minimalist architecture is terrible as this example so eloquently illustrates....it needs a makeover to bring it up to the 21st century and to fit within our rejuvenated flourishing neighborhood

I walk pass it and am amazed how that building ever got approved by planning and zoning! I've never seen anything like it anywhere, it might make a good fallout shelter.

there are similar buildings all over the country in various heights and designs.There is a sister pair of buildings at 36 NE 2nd St, Miami, FL 33132. In this case the tall building is across the street(now its a miami dade college campus) connected over 2nd street and the brick building(an almost identical twin) was re purposed into a data center in the early 2000 (where a number of latin american fiber optic routes terminate and a number of companies co locate their services) after its use as a central office by bell south ended years before. TO those who keep complaining about this building - that is the price you pay to have reliable communications services and for them to stay up during storms and stuff. This one if my research is correct was constructed in the 60s

In the proposals for the Old City Hall site, the Navarro-Concord team proposes to put a retail liner around the Banyan garage, and to install green walls. If it can be done there, and improve the interface of this garage, why can't we do it here?

Unfortunately I have to look at this towering monolith every day. We spoke to a guy who was involved in the roof repair a few years ago after the hurricane. He had a chance to peek in the offices of every floor on the building. Apparently, there are about 2 desktop computers on each floor. The place is virtually deserted. I think they took all the dinosaur computers in there and put everything on a memory stick. I'm sure I could find hundreds of prisons (and a couple dungeons) that look more architecturally appealing,

It doesn't seem so ominous if AT&T owns it.

Maybe we can contact the AT&T public relations contacts listed for South & West Florida.

Kelly Starling
kelly.starling@att.com

Gretchen Schultz
gretchen.schultz@att.com

I immagine AT&T might find it in their interest to do popular public art (possibly something similar to Blinkenlights http://vimeo.com/6175054 that Aaron suggested?) since they do have naming/signage rights to the building...

I realize this is not an attractive building however, they are not violating code and there is no law against an ugly building. I am closing this simply because it isn't an issue that requires fixing. This doesn't mean we don't continue to try to find things to suggest to make it look nicer.