I could be mistaken but the picture MichMatters posted looks like weeds in the flower bed at the bottom of the photo. If those are intentional plantings their positioning seem quite random and not thought out :P
I'm for saving the City Hall. No one will build anything like it again in this city. And when there's so much vacant land downtown, why is demolition such a priority? The City Hall building is a great example of the international style. Like I always tell people, there was a time when nobody could see any value in classical buildings like the original City Hall that was demolished for the current one.
Now we'd be thrilled to still have the original City Hall.
I just don't see why Midwestern cities need to do so much demolition downtown. We confine urban redevelopment to these tiny little pockets while thousands of lookalike suburban homes from every era are preserved. It just seems like the priorities are out of wack.
I'm not against moving City Hall but I'd much rather see the building preserved rather than reclad or tore down. Just like with the Farnum Building, the architecture of City Hall has grown on me. It's also a good point that there's just too much vacant land, parking lots and underused space to justify tearing down a building like City Hall. I find it hard to believe that it'd even be economical to do.
Buying Capitol Tower would make for an interesting option for more space at the current City Hall in combination with a comprehensive renovation of City Hall itself. I like that idea, especially if we still get expanded county facilities downtown, perhaps just an addition to the south of their current building on Kalamazoo.
City Hall looks like a lot of our parks in Lansing, as in why did they stop taking care of it? It is a great example of Mid-century International Style and is clad in sandstone and marble. The plaza in front which looks really bad right now was meant to be a gathering place for workers and visitors. The base relief [sp?] sculpture on the front is beautiful. This building represents a time when Lansing wanted to assert itself as a modern and dynamic city of the 20th century. They had pride in buildings like city hall and I believe that they thought Lansing was on it's way to being an urban center with tall shinny buildings with an attractive downtown. That is not quite what happened. While I could see a hotel there, I would rather they keep our city government center sitting squarely across the street from the state government center. When they look out the windows in the Capitol they can see exactly how their governance effects the city outside the Capitol.
The LSJ has a story on their front page about documents related to selling and redeveloping city hall. They link to http://lansingcityhallredevelopment.com/ which is the website advertising the redevelopment.
I am pretty against this. I don't think the city should be giving up prime real estate, and I don't think the city will get the better end of this deal. Either City Hall will become a tenant of some landlord and be stuck with perpetual lease fees, or they will end up in a smaller and/or more expensive building that doesn't necessarily solve their current problems.
This to me looks like it is set up to make a chosen developer very rich at the expense of the constituents of Lansing.
@MichMatters , I thought it was amusing to see the Capitol Club tower reappear...way for them to be creative. Also, I agree, if people want to redevelop around the Capitol why not focus on the surface parking lots or garages? I recently interviewed at another firm downtown, currently work downtown but had taken parking for granted, and they complained about how full the lots and garages are in terms of monthly permits. Perhaps there is a need for more vertical developments with parking decks that exceed requirements for the project. It surprised me that we have a several month waiting list on parking while surface lots and garages are abundant.
@Jared , I used to support and like Virg but I'm really getting sick of these shady deals. The current building seems more than adequate, prime location and a great example of international style architecture in the midwest. They will not be able to construct something even remotely as high end and tasteful as the current city hall for their budget. Gillespie would probably do it and have a mess of multi colored panels on it. Further more, the sale price seems like it's ridiculously low for its location and encouraging its demolition.
I saw an article where Virg said it would take $60 million to renovate the current city hall, working in architecture that number seems absurdly high. While renovations do tend to run more than a new build, $60 million is ridiculous. I would like to know why there was not a study done on the feasibility and cost of renovation. I have to say, state projects are a nightmare to deal with because of things like that but at least they're more logical and smart with their money, sometimes.
I work at a top architecture firm nationally and with various major developers and I haven't even heard of rumblings of this proposal in my office. They're keeping it suspiciously low key for some "odd" reason. Way to go for Virg, leaving office with a bang by destroying our second great city hall...
I'll stop before this just turns into a full out rant!
I hadn't really realized this was that serious of a proposal until reading the City Pulse article. I'll just say that this needs to be stopped. There's absolutely no reason to be pushing through a sale of City Hall at this point, much less for that price. If this sale goes through we'll end up with City Hall demolished and a mediocre building or a parking lot in its place.
I have been wondering about the project going on at the south entrance to the Capitol Building. I am not sure that I have heard what is going on there. I know they were talking about how much repair the building needs, is this the beginning of that work?
Thanks for the information. It is good to know they are serious about the upkeep of the Capitol.
I noticed an story about the old warehouse next to 496 on Hosmer Street. Neogen has been the company rehabilitating that building since last winter. It is good to see this area get some activity and Neogen has found a better place to build a warehouse type building. I have not seen anything happening at the large warehouse up the street towards Kalamazoo. There was a story about that building becoming a self storage business about a year ago.
Comments
I could be mistaken but the picture MichMatters posted looks like weeds in the flower bed at the bottom of the photo. If those are intentional plantings their positioning seem quite random and not thought out :P
Debate about the merits of tearing down the current city hall building; lansingcitypulse.com/article-15127-Lansing-City-Hall.html
So suddenly we care about bland "mid-century modern" when we can barely be bothered to save actual historic sites. City Hall is an eye sore. Okay.
I'm for saving the City Hall. No one will build anything like it again in this city. And when there's so much vacant land downtown, why is demolition such a priority? The City Hall building is a great example of the international style. Like I always tell people, there was a time when nobody could see any value in classical buildings like the original City Hall that was demolished for the current one.
Now we'd be thrilled to still have the original City Hall.
I just don't see why Midwestern cities need to do so much demolition downtown. We confine urban redevelopment to these tiny little pockets while thousands of lookalike suburban homes from every era are preserved. It just seems like the priorities are out of wack.
I'm not against moving City Hall but I'd much rather see the building preserved rather than reclad or tore down. Just like with the Farnum Building, the architecture of City Hall has grown on me. It's also a good point that there's just too much vacant land, parking lots and underused space to justify tearing down a building like City Hall. I find it hard to believe that it'd even be economical to do.
Buying Capitol Tower would make for an interesting option for more space at the current City Hall in combination with a comprehensive renovation of City Hall itself. I like that idea, especially if we still get expanded county facilities downtown, perhaps just an addition to the south of their current building on Kalamazoo.
City Hall looks like a lot of our parks in Lansing, as in why did they stop taking care of it? It is a great example of Mid-century International Style and is clad in sandstone and marble. The plaza in front which looks really bad right now was meant to be a gathering place for workers and visitors. The base relief [sp?] sculpture on the front is beautiful. This building represents a time when Lansing wanted to assert itself as a modern and dynamic city of the 20th century. They had pride in buildings like city hall and I believe that they thought Lansing was on it's way to being an urban center with tall shinny buildings with an attractive downtown. That is not quite what happened. While I could see a hotel there, I would rather they keep our city government center sitting squarely across the street from the state government center. When they look out the windows in the Capitol they can see exactly how their governance effects the city outside the Capitol.
The LSJ has a story on their front page about documents related to selling and redeveloping city hall. They link to http://lansingcityhallredevelopment.com/ which is the website advertising the redevelopment.
I am pretty against this. I don't think the city should be giving up prime real estate, and I don't think the city will get the better end of this deal. Either City Hall will become a tenant of some landlord and be stuck with perpetual lease fees, or they will end up in a smaller and/or more expensive building that doesn't necessarily solve their current problems.
This to me looks like it is set up to make a chosen developer very rich at the expense of the constituents of Lansing.
@MichMatters , I thought it was amusing to see the Capitol Club tower reappear...way for them to be creative. Also, I agree, if people want to redevelop around the Capitol why not focus on the surface parking lots or garages? I recently interviewed at another firm downtown, currently work downtown but had taken parking for granted, and they complained about how full the lots and garages are in terms of monthly permits. Perhaps there is a need for more vertical developments with parking decks that exceed requirements for the project. It surprised me that we have a several month waiting list on parking while surface lots and garages are abundant.
@Jared , I used to support and like Virg but I'm really getting sick of these shady deals. The current building seems more than adequate, prime location and a great example of international style architecture in the midwest. They will not be able to construct something even remotely as high end and tasteful as the current city hall for their budget. Gillespie would probably do it and have a mess of multi colored panels on it. Further more, the sale price seems like it's ridiculously low for its location and encouraging its demolition.
I saw an article where Virg said it would take $60 million to renovate the current city hall, working in architecture that number seems absurdly high. While renovations do tend to run more than a new build, $60 million is ridiculous. I would like to know why there was not a study done on the feasibility and cost of renovation. I have to say, state projects are a nightmare to deal with because of things like that but at least they're more logical and smart with their money, sometimes.
I work at a top architecture firm nationally and with various major developers and I haven't even heard of rumblings of this proposal in my office. They're keeping it suspiciously low key for some "odd" reason. Way to go for Virg, leaving office with a bang by destroying our second great city hall...
I'll stop before this just turns into a full out rant!
I hadn't really realized this was that serious of a proposal until reading the City Pulse article. I'll just say that this needs to be stopped. There's absolutely no reason to be pushing through a sale of City Hall at this point, much less for that price. If this sale goes through we'll end up with City Hall demolished and a mediocre building or a parking lot in its place.
I have been wondering about the project going on at the south entrance to the Capitol Building. I am not sure that I have heard what is going on there. I know they were talking about how much repair the building needs, is this the beginning of that work?
Thanks for the information. It is good to know they are serious about the upkeep of the Capitol.
I noticed an story about the old warehouse next to 496 on Hosmer Street. Neogen has been the company rehabilitating that building since last winter. It is good to see this area get some activity and Neogen has found a better place to build a warehouse type building. I have not seen anything happening at the large warehouse up the street towards Kalamazoo. There was a story about that building becoming a self storage business about a year ago.