I am impressed with these drawings, and there are no dated flat slab rooftop features! I will have to go take a look, but the drawings have City Hall signage depicted, I was just wondering if this was a hint that City Hall is moving or just a hopeful idea?
I noticed while I was out running today that American Asphalt was laying asphalt for the Bear Lake Pathway. They were doing the section from Wabash north to Forest Rd through the Beekman property. I'm guessing that the section from Wabash south to Cavanaugh will be done tomorrow or Friday. I can't wait!
If they actually do the entire Lake Trust block the way that's depicted there then I'd be a pretty happy guy. I noticed they had some new equipment there today, including an excavator over by the small office building, they may be tearing that down. I wonder if they're just remodeling the old HQ building or if they're starting on any of the new construction?
As far as it being the new City Hall I think that idea is still in limbo, more dead than alive. I'm still generally against the moving of City Hall but this building is a far better option than the LSJ building. It would still leave the question of what to do with the jail because what's depicted there certainly isn't large enough to include the jail and courts.
I took a look at the Lake Trust site and saw the depiction on the new signage, it does not very much like the depictions above, there seems to be a lot of the former cement façade included, it did not look "bad" but it is not all glass and light, so I guess the drawings are older. They were working in the building doing some interior demolition and there was excavating going on in the old parking lots. I wonder if the whole block is going to be constructed at the same time, the depiction on the fence sign just featured the "Lake" building.
I finally looked at the rendering on the banner for the Lake Trust site and all I can say is "meh". I don't mind them leaving the concrete facade largely or entirely intact but I do wonder about what they'll be adding to it, it's hard to tell from what I could see. I have my doubts about them doing any new construction but they are beginning to rip up the parking lot along Hillsdale so it should be apparent within a couple months or so if they're doing anything other than just repaving the lot there.
Great to see this is happening! If they could tame the traffic on S Cedar this area could become another "urban village/town" center like Old Town. How about "Frenchtown" [I know there is nothing very French there but the name is Old Lansing] or "South Cedar Village"?
I've long thought that the stretch of Cedar in between the river and Cavanagh has good potential to become sort of a semi-urban district with some mixed use buildings and apartments along Cedar along with a general trend to build closer to the street. In particular there's a cluster of older buildings including the Family Dollar, Jackpot and the couple mechanics shops near there that I've always thought could make for decent buildings if fixed up properly. I also like the unique older plaza just north of Holmes as well, it needs some serious love but could be an interesting little place.
Regardless of all that, I'm really glad to see the Walter French project moving forward. I saw that one of their documents showed a sketch of the building with the large historically accurate windows, that is comforting to see and I think it will make a massive difference in the look of the building.
There an article about the Lake Trust development in the LSJ.com [free] and I also saw a report on YouTube fox47 where they talk to the developer. He said the building's '60s Brutalist cement façade is a historic representation of this type of architecture, and therefore he wants to keep most of the details of the present building. Was that building built in the the '60s? I was thinking it was built in the '70s. I don't really agree with the significance of the design, but it's great that the building is being repurposed. There was no mention of what is going on with the S. Washington Ave side. I hope to hear the whole block is being developed.
I can't say I'm a huge fan of the building but brutalist designs have grown on me over the years and the Lake Trust building is decent. I'm not optimistic about what they'd end up doing if they were to heavily alter the facade so I'm content to see it largely stay as-is. The article does confirm that they're building a new 117 unit building at the NE corner of Capital & Hillsdale, they have excavated the footprint of the building already. It looks as though they wont be doing anything along Washington quite yet, I think this is one of the sites vying for the potential performing arts center, it's likely to be one of my personal favorite spots to see that project to go.
Comments
As far as it being the new City Hall I think that idea is still in limbo, more dead than alive. I'm still generally against the moving of City Hall but this building is a far better option than the LSJ building. It would still leave the question of what to do with the jail because what's depicted there certainly isn't large enough to include the jail and courts.
Regardless of all that, I'm really glad to see the Walter French project moving forward. I saw that one of their documents showed a sketch of the building with the large historically accurate windows, that is comforting to see and I think it will make a massive difference in the look of the building.