I had the same thought on Clara's. I'm big on historical preservation/adaptation and I'm not sure I'm a fan of this. Even replacing simple windows of this Era I wouldn't be a fan of. Windows of that age are easily repaired and easily outlast replacement windows. The stained glass aspect makes them costly to repair but it's such an important element to that building. To divide up that "great hall" space would be horrible in my opinion. Gillespie really isn't impressing me in terms of sensitivity to local history...nor the architects they've used.
@Lymon89 Agreed, I've been fulling stripping and reglazing all the windows in my house. I don't think the stained glass windows should even be that difficult to fix if you're not dealing with broken glass. I managed to regrout and repair some of the lead on some leaded windows in my old house without any prior experience, it wasn't terribly difficult. Gillespie developments have been mostly disappointing (not to beat a dead horse, it's been discussed here many times), I've been hoping that his developments would build some sort of critical mass that would bring in other players but that hasn't really happened yet.
Fox 47 had a story today about less state workers and they interviewed Gentilozzi, he said they will have details of a new multi family development within a few weeks. They alluded to it involving the Atrium Building, he also owns the parking lot at Michigan & Grand and the two-floor empty building adjacent to it among other properties around downtown. My big question is will this be another 4-5 floor stick built building or will Lansing finally get its first new construction residential high rise downtown in decades?
There was that mention of the local venture capital guy who wanted to build a high rise, I wouldn't be surprised to see him partnering with a developer. One of the downtown organizations' Facebook groups recently posted a picture of that abandoned building on Grand and mentioned something about upcoming news as well. Regardless, even an 8 or 10 floor building would be impressive relative to what we've seen lately.
Regarding the lot on Pere Marquette, it does seem obvious that it should be appraised and a public sale also seems to be a good idea on just about any city property that isn't going through an RFP. I do still wish the city would just bite the bullet and finance a parking garage somewhere sensible within the Stadium District.
I noticed they put a nice curb bump-out on St. Joseph downtown where you turn right onto Walnut. It looks like that whole right turn lane might become street parking. They had some bollards put up blocking it all off, I’d assume until they repaint it and put signage up, so people don’t fly into the newly extended curb.
I was also wondering if that was going to be parking, I'm not sure how parallel parking on that part of St Joe will work out the way people drive there though.
I'm actually kind of glad they are killing off that slip lane. I'd use it in the morning from time to time and it always felt so dangerous even if northbound traffic wasn't supposed to merge into that lane. Makes sense even moreso given that the two-way conversion is imminent.
@MichMatters I made it by there today and I'm surprised at what it looks like underneath there as well, I'll never understand why someone paid thousands of dollars to put ugly, relatively high-maintenance wood paneling over attractive and low maintenance brick. Regardless of the use, I'm always happy to see life breathed into an attractive old building.
There is an article about the plans for the City Market building on the LSJ.com, there has been a refinement of the renovation that has moved the shuffle boards courts from a second level to an indoor outdoor patio on the riverfront side and the whole interior will be a food and bar court. They also plan an outdoor shuffle board court on the north side overlooking the beach area. I guess it does sound better to have the activity areas on the riverfront which will animate the building with people playing shuffle board [?]. A lot of folks play these "cornhole"[that used to mean something quite different when I was a kid!:}] and "beer pong" games and even this new one where all the kids do is bounce a dice off the old beer pong table and score that somehow. If people find those games entertaining I think they will like drinking and playing a slightly more sophisticated game. The depictions are not real inspiring. Please make it less warehouse pole barn.
Comments
https://www.fox47news.com/neighborhoods/downtown-old-town-reo-town/there-are-fewer-state-workers-in-lansings-downtown-but-there-may-soon-be-more-apartments
Regarding the lot on Pere Marquette, it does seem obvious that it should be appraised and a public sale also seems to be a good idea on just about any city property that isn't going through an RFP. I do still wish the city would just bite the bullet and finance a parking garage somewhere sensible within the Stadium District.