Thank you hood, you said it better than I did. I did not mean to bring ethnicity into the conservation. it doesn't matter to me who lives there. It just reminds me of living in a tourist town,where something nice would be built, a common statement by town folks would be " that's for the tourist, not us". I'm sure that feeling is often felt in East Lansing, "that's for the students, not for us". We all will get to [have to] look at the building for a long time so I agree that I hope it looks good when finished, from what I have seen so far they have some charcoal colored panels and some off white panels. I think the roof top structure may help the look of the building in this case.
As part of my continuing crusade to get some more crosswalks on Michigan Avenue west of Harrison, I emailed the SkyVue development today to suggest THEY ask the city / MiDOT for some more crosswalks. Received the following reply:
"Thank you for the suggestion! We are doing everything we can to eliminate walking across the street by putting a bus stop at the building to make transportation easier, but I will most certainly mention this to the management. Have a great night"
Yes the sidewalk and crosswalk situation is horrible. It's impossible to walk along Clippert (sidewalk appears and disappears on the east side and is mostly non-existent on the west side), and the lack of cross walks along Michigan Ave make crossing there a real-life game of Frogger.
But also, there is really poor pedestrian access within Frandor. Walking from shops on the west side of Frandor to the east side, there is no pedestrian-protected path. Walkers are forced to walk down one of the parking lanes and hope that people reversing or pulling in to spaces see them before hitting them. Walking with small children through there must be a nightmare.
The only pedestrian-friendly routes are along the perimeter, far from convenient and as a result far under-used.
I have also be wondering about the whole Red Cedar Frandor area. The "Morgan Lane" entrance next to the Sky Vue is almost totally one huge pot hole. I am wondering if this part of Morgan Lane is a city street. I think if they curbed and installed pedestrian and bike ways along that lane going all the way through to Sellers Ave that would offer a safe way in. More like Eastwood, with streets and sidewalks, the parking areas have inner lanes with fewer cuts into the street. It seems like that is kind of what they are planning with the drain project, what my question is are they going to reorganize the whole Frandor district? I could also see them landscaping the hillsides of 127, and maybe a bike way on the street level on both side of the highway. So is this drain project still on schedule to begin this year? I have not heard anything about it for a while.
I'm pretty sure Morgan Lane is a city street, at least I have seen police giving out tickets for speeding on Morgan Lane and I didn't think that is something really enforced on private roads.
The sidewalks around the building and, actually, into the courtyard (which is still unfinished) are now open, I was walking by today. Standby for photos...
Thanks for the photos! This building is so cool, I think what makes me the happiest about it is the lack of drama around its construction and proposal/planning process. If we could get a few more of these in the pipeline along the Michigan Ave / Grand River corridor it would make a huge difference.
It really does feel like a development that belongs in a downtown, somehow strange where it ended up. Hopefully it prompts that area to become more downtowny.
Was in town for a couple of days and HOLY COW is this building big. It looks great, but it is in a whole other scale vs the rest of the area. Hopefully when the development across the street gets a little more traction it will look a little less conspicuous.
Comments
As part of my continuing crusade to get some more crosswalks on Michigan Avenue west of Harrison, I emailed the SkyVue development today to suggest THEY ask the city / MiDOT for some more crosswalks. Received the following reply:
"Thank you for the suggestion! We are doing everything we can to eliminate walking across the street by putting a bus stop at the building to make transportation easier, but I will most certainly mention this to the management. Have a great night"
Yes the sidewalk and crosswalk situation is horrible. It's impossible to walk along Clippert (sidewalk appears and disappears on the east side and is mostly non-existent on the west side), and the lack of cross walks along Michigan Ave make crossing there a real-life game of Frogger.
But also, there is really poor pedestrian access within Frandor. Walking from shops on the west side of Frandor to the east side, there is no pedestrian-protected path. Walkers are forced to walk down one of the parking lanes and hope that people reversing or pulling in to spaces see them before hitting them. Walking with small children through there must be a nightmare.
The only pedestrian-friendly routes are along the perimeter, far from convenient and as a result far under-used.
I have also be wondering about the whole Red Cedar Frandor area. The "Morgan Lane" entrance next to the Sky Vue is almost totally one huge pot hole. I am wondering if this part of Morgan Lane is a city street. I think if they curbed and installed pedestrian and bike ways along that lane going all the way through to Sellers Ave that would offer a safe way in. More like Eastwood, with streets and sidewalks, the parking areas have inner lanes with fewer cuts into the street. It seems like that is kind of what they are planning with the drain project, what my question is are they going to reorganize the whole Frandor district? I could also see them landscaping the hillsides of 127, and maybe a bike way on the street level on both side of the highway. So is this drain project still on schedule to begin this year? I have not heard anything about it for a while.
I'm pretty sure Morgan Lane is a city street, at least I have seen police giving out tickets for speeding on Morgan Lane and I didn't think that is something really enforced on private roads.
The sidewalks around the building and, actually, into the courtyard (which is still unfinished) are now open, I was walking by today. Standby for photos...
Thanks for the photos! This building is so cool, I think what makes me the happiest about it is the lack of drama around its construction and proposal/planning process. If we could get a few more of these in the pipeline along the Michigan Ave / Grand River corridor it would make a huge difference.
Nice pictures!
It really does feel like a development that belongs in a downtown, somehow strange where it ended up. Hopefully it prompts that area to become more downtowny.
Was in town for a couple of days and HOLY COW is this building big. It looks great, but it is in a whole other scale vs the rest of the area. Hopefully when the development across the street gets a little more traction it will look a little less conspicuous.