I'm still worried as to what exactly the BWL is going to build here, the last story from City Pulse stated they would select from several of the designs presented to the public. As far as I know there was no indication of what design they would choose or that they would go with the public's favorite. Here's to really hoping for an improved version of the faux-facade design.
@gbinlansing Regarding all the tree cutting, I'm with you on that they could be a little more conservative with how they're trimming the trees. One positive side of this is that maybe somebody will start to make a push for burying utilities.
The website for the project says that a public announcement for the final design will happen either late spring or early summer. More than that, I was able to find some RFPs for the project on the website for the North American Procurement Council, and a bid for 3 new transformers was due yesterday, and a bid seeking a construction manager for the project is due next Tuesday.
I think the persistently funniest/saddest thing is that in the very first site plan/scheme you can clearly see that the footprint of the substation could easily fit on the General Motors parking lot directly to the west (and I've already calculated the parking lot to the south is more than enough land for this project).
I agree that it is such a seemingly simple solution to the whole thing would be put it in the parking lot. This fantasy about how wonderful the substation is going to be is kind of insane, they could have saved all the money from wrecking the garden by putting it in already industrialized area[that was once a park b.t.w.] on Townsend street.
It looks like they are wrapping up the lock replacement project at the Moorse Park damn. The crane has been taken down. While walking there Sunday I noticed that they have replaced many planks on the River Trail bridges, and the really gross looking dirty white foam that forms below the damn and gathers along the banks and in the cove there, in some places it was about two feet thick! I have noticed that this only seems to happen in the winter, but I have not seen the foam this thick before. I would assume that this is not a natural occurrence, like sea foam, but maybe it is. What I do know, is that it really looks bad!
There has never been a lock on the river as far as I know. I've been wondering what they've been doing down there, though, and was just thinking last Saturday how long that crane had been up.
Man, I was hoping to make it down to the gardens before the Scott Center was torn down to document what was under the siding, but the weather scared me away, today. Well, it looks like they took it down today:
Looks like Preservation Lansing got a halfway decent shot of it, though, a few days ago:
Apparently, it was faced with stucco (like you see on homes over on Moores River Drive and Cambridge) and done in the Tudor-looking style, I think.
Perhaps I am using the wrong term, maybe flood gates is a better word for the big metal structures that have been replaced.
Yes the Jenison/Scott Center house was a stucco and timber Tudor style. If you remember this house was around the corner behind Cooley Gardens and they moved it to this site in the 70's. When I was a kid in the late 60's after they tore down the Scott House the site was fenced and the sunken garden was over grown with wild mertal [sp] flowers. It was very much a secret garden. Look at this house, it is really built! I just happened to be going out to my car when I heard the sound of the house being torn down. I have to say it was a painful sound the house was making as they ripped into it. That sound was followed by the sound of chain saws. Yea! Progress Yea! Electricity Yea Democracy! Yea! For a Big Beautiful Wall. Have you seen the depictions of the wall were they have people posing for pictures in front of the it, and a little jazz concert going on in a plaza? Also were they have people peeking through the wall to look at the sub station. Right, like that is going to happen. The whole thing is really a sad chapter in our history.
I Have been trying to avoid going by there, but you really can not help but notice the clear cut they have done at the sub station [no longer a park or garden]site. For a moment it looked like they were maybe going to leave the nice looking pines that arched over the sidewalk, but naw they were just the last to go. There is a twenty foot tall pile of wood chips there now. It makes me kind of sick to think there are people in the city who take great satisfaction from this sight.
It looks like they are going to start something at the substation site. They have put up all this new fencing that are on top of sort of orange "Jersey" barriers. I wish they would just get on with it. It's so hot and ugly there now.
I was just down South Washington for the first time in many months, and it is really jarring how "naked" the hill looks now without the trees, garden and house. I'm just glad we're likely to get a mayor who is big on collaberation and listening instead of "my way or the highway" Virg to be honest. He's currently trying to force a driveway through Ormond Park on the northeast side. It'll be nice to have someone in the mayor's office who don't see parks as inconviences and impediments to development and instead sees them as what they are supposed to be: a public amenity to be enjoyed by the citizens.
Comments
I'm still worried as to what exactly the BWL is going to build here, the last story from City Pulse stated they would select from several of the designs presented to the public. As far as I know there was no indication of what design they would choose or that they would go with the public's favorite. Here's to really hoping for an improved version of the faux-facade design.
@gbinlansing Regarding all the tree cutting, I'm with you on that they could be a little more conservative with how they're trimming the trees. One positive side of this is that maybe somebody will start to make a push for burying utilities.
The website for the project says that a public announcement for the final design will happen either late spring or early summer. More than that, I was able to find some RFPs for the project on the website for the North American Procurement Council, and a bid for 3 new transformers was due yesterday, and a bid seeking a construction manager for the project is due next Tuesday.
Presentation of the Third Design Charrette
I think the persistently funniest/saddest thing is that in the very first site plan/scheme you can clearly see that the footprint of the substation could easily fit on the General Motors parking lot directly to the west (and I've already calculated the parking lot to the south is more than enough land for this project).
I agree that it is such a seemingly simple solution to the whole thing would be put it in the parking lot. This fantasy about how wonderful the substation is going to be is kind of insane, they could have saved all the money from wrecking the garden by putting it in already industrialized area[that was once a park b.t.w.] on Townsend street.
It looks like they are wrapping up the lock replacement project at the Moorse Park damn. The crane has been taken down. While walking there Sunday I noticed that they have replaced many planks on the River Trail bridges, and the really gross looking dirty white foam that forms below the damn and gathers along the banks and in the cove there, in some places it was about two feet thick! I have noticed that this only seems to happen in the winter, but I have not seen the foam this thick before. I would assume that this is not a natural occurrence, like sea foam, but maybe it is. What I do know, is that it really looks bad!
There has never been a lock on the river as far as I know. I've been wondering what they've been doing down there, though, and was just thinking last Saturday how long that crane had been up.
Man, I was hoping to make it down to the gardens before the Scott Center was torn down to document what was under the siding, but the weather scared me away, today. Well, it looks like they took it down today:
Looks like Preservation Lansing got a halfway decent shot of it, though, a few days ago:
Apparently, it was faced with stucco (like you see on homes over on Moores River Drive and Cambridge) and done in the Tudor-looking style, I think.
Perhaps I am using the wrong term, maybe flood gates is a better word for the big metal structures that have been replaced.
Yes the Jenison/Scott Center house was a stucco and timber Tudor style. If you remember this house was around the corner behind Cooley Gardens and they moved it to this site in the 70's. When I was a kid in the late 60's after they tore down the Scott House the site was fenced and the sunken garden was over grown with wild mertal [sp] flowers. It was very much a secret garden. Look at this house, it is really built! I just happened to be going out to my car when I heard the sound of the house being torn down. I have to say it was a painful sound the house was making as they ripped into it. That sound was followed by the sound of chain saws. Yea! Progress Yea! Electricity Yea Democracy! Yea! For a Big Beautiful Wall. Have you seen the depictions of the wall were they have people posing for pictures in front of the it, and a little jazz concert going on in a plaza? Also were they have people peeking through the wall to look at the sub station. Right, like that is going to happen. The whole thing is really a sad chapter in our history.
I Have been trying to avoid going by there, but you really can not help but notice the clear cut they have done at the sub station [no longer a park or garden]site. For a moment it looked like they were maybe going to leave the nice looking pines that arched over the sidewalk, but naw they were just the last to go. There is a twenty foot tall pile of wood chips there now. It makes me kind of sick to think there are people in the city who take great satisfaction from this sight.
It looks like they are going to start something at the substation site. They have put up all this new fencing that are on top of sort of orange "Jersey" barriers. I wish they would just get on with it. It's so hot and ugly there now.
I was just down South Washington for the first time in many months, and it is really jarring how "naked" the hill looks now without the trees, garden and house. I'm just glad we're likely to get a mayor who is big on collaberation and listening instead of "my way or the highway" Virg to be honest. He's currently trying to force a driveway through Ormond Park on the northeast side. It'll be nice to have someone in the mayor's office who don't see parks as inconviences and impediments to development and instead sees them as what they are supposed to be: a public amenity to be enjoyed by the citizens.
/rant