More Construction Rundown

I guess I should be more thorough in scanning the town before I rush off to publish my list of new stuff going up for the season. Yep, I have a few straggelers that got away, but it's better late than never to post them here right? You'll notice that there's no snow in these pics -- that's because I took these just before we got absolutley pummeled and thrashed by the nearly record breaking snowfall in November. But that's okay. Afterall, construction projects are always multi-seasonal, so it's not as if any of these are completed by now. And yes, there are a couple other projects out there such as the construction of a new Alaska Industrial Hardware (AiH) store, a fire station expansion in Muldoon, and an Olive Garden, but those are not exciting. Plus anyways, anyone in the Lower 48 will tell you that if you want fine authentic Italian cuisine, Olive Garden is not the place to go. Anchorageites salivating over the thought of dining out at that restaurant will learn this in due time (unless they're a big fan of endless bread sticks). On to the rundown:

Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center - Midtown

The Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center is building a new 42,700 sq. ft. building that will house their clinic currently located in Fairview (at 15,900 sq. ft.) thus more than doubling its medical space. ANHC is a non-profit that takes in patients with no insurance along with Medicare recepients. Because of this non-profit status, the group has been seeking donations to complete the building (at least for the last $2 million). If we are to go by the rendering, the building should come out looking pretty nice design wise. Of course, if you hadn't noticed yet, buildings rarely come out as beautiful as they are depicted in the artist rendering; But I can only imagine that this building will get better as it can't get any worse than how it looks right now [see above image]... yikes.

Providence Generations Project - U-Med District

As stated before, Providence has been on a roll these last five years and there looks to be no sign of slowing down. It turns out it's this building and not the one mentioned in the previous rundown that will house the newborn intensive care unit and other related mother-baby services. The umm... "Generations Building"(?) will also host expanded room for cardiac surgery and other surgical operations (basically this is where you would go should you indulge in too much Olive Garden). If you know the location of this building, you'll know that this building is totally hidden away on a road I learned only recently actually exists. It was the red crane towering over the hospital that led me to this hidden project. Design wise, I can't complain. Providence easily has the best looking set of buildings of any major hospital in Anchorage. I can't speak for the Native Hospital as I've never been in it, but even the interiors of the Providence campus are kickin'.

Unknown Low-rise - Midtown

No sign was erected at the site of this project, so I'm pretty much left in the dark about this one. With the few intel I have, my hunch is that this four-story building will be for AlaskaUSA. It sits on the former location of the little building that once housed Pete's Sushi, and Red Robins before that, and a Mexican restaurant before that (which had really good fries). I'm glad to see the little restaurant building knocked down for it will further move that stretch of C Street toward being dominated by medium-density buildings, which will make for quite a dramatic view (at least by Anchorage standards) as you drive northbound into midtown on C Street. Just an interesting tidbit I thought I'd share: this is the third restaurant in Anchorage to be demolished to make way for a higher-density building within the last five years. Cat Fish Too (formerly Balto's) was of course flattened to make way for the 14-story 188 WNL, while The Last Frontier Restaurant, on Tudor Road, was demolished for a parking garage. [Update]: Yup, I can confirm 100% that this building will be for AlaskaUSA, with some space for lease.