I read that the Money Ball Company is about to open their new headquarters on W. Saginaw in a rehabbed building in the old commercial district east of MLK. I hope this will be the start of renewal of that area. It could be a nice "old town" type district.
I imagine that filling the basement in with sand was a cheap way to deal with foundation problems, it'll keep it from caving in without having to do any significant repair work.
The sand isn't to build on it's to stabilize the foundation from the inside and keep it from caving in, I've usually heard of simple fill dirt being used to fill in basements but sand makes sense because it drains well, doesn't compact and is relatively easy to move in and out. I'd assume they drained any water before filling it in, the long-term standing water was probably behind the damage that forced them to fill in the basement.
As someone in the architectural field, this just seems like a really weird project and a building that wasn't worth saving. Not every old building should be saved...nor are they all historic. I'm not sure much money was saved salvaging this long gone building...
The infill is also really weird. I'm going to have to ask the structural engineers in my office. Maybe he misspoke but it all sounds so odd...
ICLB is proposing the same kind of row houses on a site on MLK at W Genesee and two of them on S Pennsylvania south of E Kalamazoo. I think it is becoming their go-to model to recoup costs and such. They have run into a few space issues with setbacks and fire truck access. The Planning & Zoning Office is looking to make changes to corner lot setbacks (20' down to 10') to make in-fill easier and it does reflect what one sees in most historic neighborhoods anyway.
I was driving by Walter French today and saw that they're putting up fencing so work should begin before too long, this is one project that I'm particularly excited to see get going
I just saw that today as well! I was excited hoping that it's a sign that work is about to begin.
In other news, the City Pulse had an article today about a new low income and market rate apartment building accross from the CATA station. Seems like an interesting idea to locate those with limited means next to public transportation. Can't say that I hate the idea. It also sounded like CATA was looking at an admin building adjacent to the site that also would include housing. Did anyone else see this article?
Yeah, I get that criticism. The problem is, once you pass 4 or 5 stories, you're into "high rise" territory per code. That ups the costs because of all the additional requirements. I'll take this over nothing, but it would be nice to see more density, and done well. Hopefully as they continue to add and fill housing, that will help to change the projects we're seeing.
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The infill is also really weird. I'm going to have to ask the structural engineers in my office. Maybe he misspoke but it all sounds so odd...
In other news, the City Pulse had an article today about a new low income and market rate apartment building accross from the CATA station. Seems like an interesting idea to locate those with limited means next to public transportation. Can't say that I hate the idea. It also sounded like CATA was looking at an admin building adjacent to the site that also would include housing. Did anyone else see this article?