An Architect's 'Uptown Forward' Vision Challenges the Approved Plan

A second opinion on a key block

There is already an approved plan for the largely vacant Seven Points site, but architect Michael Lander thinks the neighborhood can do better. His Uptown Forward concept reimagines the former Calhoun Square block as a community-centered urban destination rather than a single apartment building — a counter-proposal that has become a focal point for residents uneasy with the path the corner is on.

Lander's pitch emphasizes the public realm, ground-floor vitality and a connection to the area's history, positioning placemaking alongside housing units rather than treating residential density as the whole of the project.

Density and design, not either-or

The critique is not anti-housing. Uptown Forward accepts that new residents are part of the corner's future; it argues that how those units meet the street matters as much as how many there are. A building that lines the sidewalk with active storefronts, gathering space and human-scaled design, the concept holds, does more for a struggling district than one that simply stacks apartments above a quiet base.

That distinction has fueled a broader debate. The approved plan leans toward a more straightforward residential building, and the question of whether the city should require ground-floor retail in places like this has resurfaced as the project advances — with Lander's alternative serving as the most fully drawn version of the road not taken.

The question isn't whether to build housing here. It's whether we build a building or build a place.— the spirit of the Uptown Forward critique

The case for and against

Supporters of Lander's vision say the busiest corner in Uptown deserves more than a code-minimum building, and that a richer public realm would pay dividends for every business nearby. They point to the symbolic weight of the block: get this corner wrong, they argue, and the neighborhood forfeits its best chance to set the tone for its own revival.

Skeptics counter that the perfect can be the enemy of the built. After years of stalled plans, an approved, financed project that puts hundreds of residents at the intersection is itself a form of progress — and a more elaborate vision, however appealing on paper, risks repeating the cycle of delay that left the block half-empty in the first place.