ATT satellite dish redux

Remember the satellite dishes we posted about here earlier in the week? The new ones that have sprouted up over next to the American Tobacco Trail?

I posted on the story more as a 'huh, isn't that interesting' heads-up to what the construction was all about. But the dishes have raised a chorus of outrage on the ABCDurham list and on Gary's blog from folks who want to see it disappear back to the American Tobacco campus -- or at least be better hidden.

Driving by the dishes on Friday, I was struck by how close the dishes are to the trail. Formerly there was a decent amount of space to the west side of the trailhead to stretch or just walk off a long ride. Now, the fence starts almost at the rear of the information kiosk for the trail.

I appreciate all that the American Tobacco complex has done for downtown Durham (and have been a vocal booster of the City and County's investments in redevelopment.) But I can't help that wish that something more aesthetically appropriate could be done with this parcel than to install satellite dishes on them.

I've dropped a note to Tommy Schenck, the GM of Fox 50 WRAZ, to see whether any more information is available about thee dishes, and I'll share anything I hear back.

Though I'd like to see them eventually relocate, there is an interesting historical parallel that strikes me as somehow appropriate about their new location. The dishes stand in almost the exact area where the railroad tracks carried work material into and out of the old American Tobacco factory. So too as that land was once the site that transported the outcome of the factory's commercial engine, so too do the dishes themselves in a 21st-century way. Today's work product, though, is a bit less tangible and a lot more high tech than the tobacco and cigarettes of yesteryear -- which is a pretty neat metaphor for how the ATC's function and commercial role, and that of Durham's as a whole, has changed.

Still, nice metaphors aren't worth jack when they're just icing on an eyesore. Though perhaps this will bring Durham closer to the alien landings we contemplated here a few months back?

Update: According to Schenck, this is the permanent new location of the satellite dishes, although with some additional form of buffers. I'm expecting some more details to come in from Fox 50's engineer as to what kind of buffers they have in mind.

Comments

[KeepDurhamDifferent!]

Kevin, I think your metaphor is delightful. If only Blazer were around to photoshop this I think we would all "drink the kool aid".

[AMS]

I'm sorry to hear that this is a permanent relocation spot for this heavy duty equipment. The dishes detract from the picturesque ATC setting, and the start of the Trail. Additionally no asethetic points are earned with the use of chain link fencing. I'm under the impression (someone corrrect me if I'm wrong) that big HVAC units sit on the roofs of these buildings. Why can't these dishes join them?

I hope that the additional buffer improvements Kevin said the GM mentioned don't include Leyland Cyprus, or those pieces of flexible plastic woven in and between the chain linking. Perhaps they could disguise the dish as gigantic shrubbery, much like the cellphone tower near Fosters which is supposed to look like a tree. It looks real, huh? ATC/Fox here is a chance to really do it right. Make us all go "WOW, what's over there? I would have never known that was a gigantic satellite dish depot."

[Dan C]

The dishes don't bother me so much, but I'm not a big fan of the unsightly yellow generator that sits only feet away from the kiosk. I really hope they can find a way to obscure that or move it further from the entrance.
BTW- what do you think the diameter of the dishes are?

[victor gordon]

I vote for letting the nearby kudzu kingdom take over. Pretty soon, you won't even know they are there.

[Bull City Rising]

I've heard back that the landscaping installation will be taking place in a couple of months, as with the current heat anything installed today wouldn't survive. (This jives with standard Durham Planning advice, btw, which allows required landscaping elements to be delayed during the hottest summer months on new development projects.)

I've asked whether CBC has any landscape plan/pictures they can share, or can describe the kind of bushes, etc. intended for the site.

[jg]

if we have to look at them-- can we at least get some free wi-fi down there?

[KeepDurhamDifferent!]

barry, can you puh-leeze get Blazer Manpurse (or his reincarnation) to comment? I don't have the photoshop skills to turn these turds into titwillows.

This is the second time of asking; let's all lay down palm fronds in front of the golden ox (Major) and pave the way for his glorious second coming. O Ye of little faith, blessed be those who take the road less traveled (ATT) through the valley of the shadow of death (the ghetto that is the 'hood surrounding the first section south of the trailhead).

[Chuck Clifton]

I have never seen a better site for aggressive bamboo plantings. I think it would be a very nice companion to the kudzu.