A little late, but I got around to reading the City Pulse's article on the project, this week. I guess for bond payments, six votes are required for passing. As you'd expect Washington andWood are basically already trolling right out of the gate, so they are likely to be no votes no matter what, which is no surprise. Councilwoman Yorko definitely seems amenable to the proposal, but seems to be legitimately worried about the loss of the lawn in the northwest outfield. To his credit, the team owner promises to address the issue and find some way to workout something.
The greenspace has always confused. I grew up within blocks of the stadium. I've been there quite a few times as a child. We've bought seat tickets and lawn tickets. I have never found the lawn seats particularly special or the end-all/be-all of the stadiuim experience, though, I do get to some extent how it might be a pretty big deal to folks with very small children (toddlers). I guess I can also understand how this might be something someone would protest over losing in a small city like Lansing. That said, I also think it's time the city get more sophisticated, and in my personal opinion, I don't think taking out "family" area in the northwest part of the park is a fatal blow the experience, particularly given how the main growth demographic at the park in recent years have been MSU students.
That said, it looks like the northwest corner doesn't have to be set up the way it's rendered. The restaurant looks to be in the northeast corner, and it looks like the northwest building is mostly just acting like a support structure for the new scoreboard.
I think the restaurant is the building at the northwest corner. At the northeast corner there's no first floor for the length of that overhang, it's the ramp to the field. That's one of the things I was trying to decipher in the rendering because the rear rendering also shows no first floor, I was thinking that could mean underground parking since the ramp to the field shouldn't need to be that wide.
About the lawn seating, I don't see it being necessary either. It seems like people hardly use it and it just creates an eyesore.
You're right, the northwest corner is the restaurant. lol You can tell I haven't studied the renderings very closely. lol
I guess I'm not seeing a "ramp" at the northeast corner, though. The ramp is behind the stadium. I'm seeing some tiered viewing areas. It appears they even keep some of the grassy viewing areas, though, to a much smaller degreee.
EDIT: Oh, I see what you mean. For about half the building, it seems to be that there is no first floor. Yeah, I assume that's the ramp. BTW, the ramp is off Larch.
The ramp is under the building itself, it comes in off of Cedar. If you look at the renderings you can see that there's no first floor (you can see clouds and trees though the building in the close up rendering of the overhang) on the east side of the building. There's nothing that spells it out, but it has to be the access ramp to the field.
I see what you mean, now. I'm not sure if its any underground parking. It's just that there would be very little extra space to carve out anything and keep the ramp, so they just have the building overhanging the ramp. The rest of the area above the ramp (where the current concession building now stands) might be mechanical/storage, etc...
Yeah, I can't tell. But even with the ramp, you'd still have about 3/4+ of the basement that could be used for parking. I'd imagine having to put that ramp in already goes a good ways toward what they'd have to do for underground parking.
I think you really have me confused, now. lol The ramp is already, there. They may reconfigure it a bit, but there is very little new they are going to have to do underground. They are essentially building over what's already there with some modification; I don't get the impression they are going to be doing any serious excavation. I guess you could carve out a few dozen parking spaces under the northeast corner without digging up too much, and maybe it'd be nice if they did for maybe restaurant patrons or employees, but I'm not sure it'd be worth it.
In my dreams, they'd put the surface lot for the apartments underground since you already have a start with the ramp. BTW, I'm a bit confused by the turn-around, up front, for the restaurant. lol It's usually something you see for businesses that are known for valet service like hotels, fancy restaurants, or a high-end apartment building in some really urban locale, not a bar and grill. lol
My logic is that I doubt they'll just be able to build a foundation that close to the outfield wall without disturbing it. Therefore I figured they would already be digging fairly deep under at least part of the building to do whatever they have to do. I'm basically just throwing a though out there though.
I was just looking at Monday's city council agenda, and it appears that both Oldsmobile Park and the old city garage site have been formally rezoned (from Light Industrial to General Business).
Comments
The greenspace has always confused. I grew up within blocks of the stadium. I've been there quite a few times as a child. We've bought seat tickets and lawn tickets. I have never found the lawn seats particularly special or the end-all/be-all of the stadiuim experience, though, I do get to some extent how it might be a pretty big deal to folks with very small children (toddlers). I guess I can also understand how this might be something someone would protest over losing in a small city like Lansing. That said, I also think it's time the city get more sophisticated, and in my personal opinion, I don't think taking out "family" area in the northwest part of the park is a fatal blow the experience, particularly given how the main growth demographic at the park in recent years have been MSU students.
That said, it looks like the northwest corner doesn't have to be set up the way it's rendered. The restaurant looks to be in the northeast corner, and it looks like the northwest building is mostly just acting like a support structure for the new scoreboard.
About the lawn seating, I don't see it being necessary either. It seems like people hardly use it and it just creates an eyesore.
I guess I'm not seeing a "ramp" at the northeast corner, though. The ramp is behind the stadium. I'm seeing some tiered viewing areas. It appears they even keep some of the grassy viewing areas, though, to a much smaller degreee.
EDIT: Oh, I see what you mean. For about half the building, it seems to be that there is no first floor. Yeah, I assume that's the ramp. BTW, the ramp is off Larch.
In my dreams, they'd put the surface lot for the apartments underground since you already have a start with the ramp. BTW, I'm a bit confused by the turn-around, up front, for the restaurant. lol It's usually something you see for businesses that are known for valet service like hotels, fancy restaurants, or a high-end apartment building in some really urban locale, not a bar and grill. lol