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Comment by jwagenet | Hacker News Reader

Why can't a nightclub be included as part of "first floor" commercial/retail space that can be found in many cities? You have the best of both worlds, a mid/high rise with housing and close proximity to retail and entertainment spaces. Sure, clubs have noise and people issues, but these can be designed around for noise abatement and traffic control or put them underground. Bars have these issues too.

Just because land owners can make more from developing housing in the modern urbanization doesn't mean commercial retail/art/dining/entertainment spaces should be pushed out, otherwise the declining proximity benefits of urbanization lose their appeal.

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Nightclubs are pretty loud though, and that bass travels a long way and is hard to isolate.

Maybe if the club was in the basement it might work, but I'd love to get some insight from someone who deals with acoustics!

My ex-flatmate left our flat to live above one. He didn't stay long in that new place. So yeah, good luck with blocking out low frequencies.

If it were a high rise, I don't think it would be a problem. You could do a nightclub on the ground floor, 10 floors of office (which would would be empty when the nightclub is open) and 10 floors of apartments above that.

True, that does seem like it would work.

Have you ever lived near a night club? I used to live in an apartment with a nightclub down the street on the next block. I couldn't hear noise from the club itself but I could always tell when it closed by the loud people on the street. I was 20 floors up.

People can decide they're willing to live with the noise for the convenient location but there will always be some amount of noticeable noise if you live on the same block as a night club.

Oh crap, i had forgotten about that. I lived on a corner of two streets filled with clubs, several floors up. 23:00 onwards it was like someone was shouting constantly and directly outside each of my windows. Granted after a few weeks this became "normal" and every place I've lived in since as seemed strangely quiet.

Any nightclub in a new residential build is going to be a terrible place full of shiny teenagers.

The sorts of venues mentioned in this article remind me of the old warehouse parties I used to go to here in Melbourne ~10 years ago, when I was well in to my 30s. They just wouldn’t have worked in a new place.

Sure, but eventually places age and develop their own character and audience.

In the same vein and more my crowd, you can't just open a (good) dive bar, it takes years to develop the community atmosphere they wind up becoming.

Who in their right mind wants to invest in a new build with the knowledge a late license was issued to the floor below?

This can exist, for example the Islington Academy in North London.

The exit is into the shopping centre, so noise and chatter from people leaving isn't a big problem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O2_Academy_Islington

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