That's great! It's the first parking structure that I know of for Old Town. I remember going to a Royce 5'9" concert at the Temple Club while I was in college at MSU. It's a beautiful building.
I wonder if the parking structure would be directly behind the building and how many floors they are thinking of. I would hope that it wouldn't block the full south-face of the building, allowing for some nice views from the upper floor apartments (what's not already blocked by the Cedar Street School building, of course). Hopefully they only need two floors of parking but three floors would be nice for eventual use if other projects nearby want to expand and make a deal with these developers.
Considering that we have torn down so many historic buildings in Lansing, it is great that this one is going to be repurposed. It is beautiful and unique.
I wonder what could be done to tame the traffic and make a more comfortable environment for pedestrians at this corner. Cedar Street really cuts Old Town in two. I have never walked beyond the pet shop. I think that the eastern blocks of Old Town would benefit from some sort of better safer pedestrian access. One idea I have is a four-way stop light for pedestrians with all traffic stopped including right turns. Also lowering the speed limit on Cedar/Larch, folks really haul down that overpass right into a very busy area around the pet shop and the Speedway. At times it is kind of scary to slow down to make the turn into the pet shop with people coming up behind you at 50+mph.
Yes, I think that is the major issue. The traffic on Cedar and Larch need to be a lot slower, and we can probably reduce the number of lanes on each road by at least 1 lane. I like the 4-way stop, which could be only activated when a pedestrian requests it.
Something I just randomly noticed yesterday while driving through Old Town, yesterday, was that the top of the "Looney Moon" building at 204 East Grand River looks to be unfinished. We'd brought the renovation of the stunning old building up back in October 2016 when they were requesting an OPRA certificate for the project.
I didn't get a good enough look, and it's hard to given it's height, but either they were reconstructing the western wall of the very top floor, or it'd been long reconstructed and they simply faced it with a rather reflective (and cheap-looking) material. It's not super visible given that the neighboring building comes up just a floor below the top roofline of this one, but I noticed it because the evening sun hits it and makes it super noticeable against all the bricks along the low skyline.
This was the one for which they were proposing a renovation for which would include office space in the basement, retail/commercial space on the ground floor, 2 "micro-apartments" on the second floor, and two traditional apartments on the top floor and roof.
I went and looked on the city website and they show a building permit that lasted from late 2017 to late 2018. So it sounds like this one was renovated, which you'd expect since it was proposed in late 2016. Anyone, know what I'm talking about? I see the Peabody Group out of Okemos were the architects, but there website is sparse. The last permits I see that ended this year are one for some electrical and plumbing work, and for signage.
This project[roof top expansion] has been under construction for at least a year. I have not seen the siding, but it looks like a there would be a great view from up there.
Yes, the building looks better now, a newer picture from 2017 is on googlemaps.com. They have removed the modern panels above the entrance and renovated the old storefront. I believe that the renovation is still going on. Are there any photos of Darius Moon? He must have been quite a good salesman for his designs, as most are quite ornate and fanciful with so many extra details that must have been expensive. "Yes, I want two decorative pillars, one each on the second and third-floor facade"! I wish today's developers in Lansing would take a lesson from Moon and create more interesting and yes even beautiful design plans and then "sell" those plans to the backers.
I noticed a computer-generated depiction of an amphitheater stage proposed for the riverfront area near the fish latter. It may be that it's a computer generation but I think this looks something like an old underpass for a road no longer there left standing alone. We could use a little of Moon's talent for these designs today.
Just a little brainstorm on the idea, the fish ladder itself is already an amphitheater in shape, how about modifying the bowl area by adding rows of bench seating inside the bowl, and using the "cement squares" area next to the old pumphouse as the stage. Cover the flowing water channel with glass/transparent plastic so you can still see it. Short of that something could be done to make the fish ladder more attractive, right now it's a lot of stained and dirty cement.
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That's great! It's the first parking structure that I know of for Old Town. I remember going to a Royce 5'9" concert at the Temple Club while I was in college at MSU. It's a beautiful building.
I wonder if the parking structure would be directly behind the building and how many floors they are thinking of. I would hope that it wouldn't block the full south-face of the building, allowing for some nice views from the upper floor apartments (what's not already blocked by the Cedar Street School building, of course). Hopefully they only need two floors of parking but three floors would be nice for eventual use if other projects nearby want to expand and make a deal with these developers.
Considering that we have torn down so many historic buildings in Lansing, it is great that this one is going to be repurposed. It is beautiful and unique.
I wonder what could be done to tame the traffic and make a more comfortable environment for pedestrians at this corner. Cedar Street really cuts Old Town in two. I have never walked beyond the pet shop. I think that the eastern blocks of Old Town would benefit from some sort of better safer pedestrian access. One idea I have is a four-way stop light for pedestrians with all traffic stopped including right turns. Also lowering the speed limit on Cedar/Larch, folks really haul down that overpass right into a very busy area around the pet shop and the Speedway. At times it is kind of scary to slow down to make the turn into the pet shop with people coming up behind you at 50+mph.
Yes, I think that is the major issue. The traffic on Cedar and Larch need to be a lot slower, and we can probably reduce the number of lanes on each road by at least 1 lane. I like the 4-way stop, which could be only activated when a pedestrian requests it.
Something I just randomly noticed yesterday while driving through Old Town, yesterday, was that the top of the "Looney Moon" building at 204 East Grand River looks to be unfinished. We'd brought the renovation of the stunning old building up back in October 2016 when they were requesting an OPRA certificate for the project.
I didn't get a good enough look, and it's hard to given it's height, but either they were reconstructing the western wall of the very top floor, or it'd been long reconstructed and they simply faced it with a rather reflective (and cheap-looking) material. It's not super visible given that the neighboring building comes up just a floor below the top roofline of this one, but I noticed it because the evening sun hits it and makes it super noticeable against all the bricks along the low skyline.
This was the one for which they were proposing a renovation for which would include office space in the basement, retail/commercial space on the ground floor, 2 "micro-apartments" on the second floor, and two traditional apartments on the top floor and roof.
I went and looked on the city website and they show a building permit that lasted from late 2017 to late 2018. So it sounds like this one was renovated, which you'd expect since it was proposed in late 2016. Anyone, know what I'm talking about? I see the Peabody Group out of Okemos were the architects, but there website is sparse. The last permits I see that ended this year are one for some electrical and plumbing work, and for signage.
This project[roof top expansion] has been under construction for at least a year. I have not seen the siding, but it looks like a there would be a great view from up there.
Did you take that picture recently? Looking inside of the windows on the second floor it looks like I can see metal wall studs.
It's a picture linked from Flickr from 2011.
Oh sorry, I guess I should have clicked on the picture.
Yes, the building looks better now, a newer picture from 2017 is on googlemaps.com. They have removed the modern panels above the entrance and renovated the old storefront. I believe that the renovation is still going on. Are there any photos of Darius Moon? He must have been quite a good salesman for his designs, as most are quite ornate and fanciful with so many extra details that must have been expensive. "Yes, I want two decorative pillars, one each on the second and third-floor facade"! I wish today's developers in Lansing would take a lesson from Moon and create more interesting and yes even beautiful design plans and then "sell" those plans to the backers.
I noticed a computer-generated depiction of an amphitheater stage proposed for the riverfront area near the fish latter. It may be that it's a computer generation but I think this looks something like an old underpass for a road no longer there left standing alone. We could use a little of Moon's talent for these designs today.
Just a little brainstorm on the idea, the fish ladder itself is already an amphitheater in shape, how about modifying the bowl area by adding rows of bench seating inside the bowl, and using the "cement squares" area next to the old pumphouse as the stage. Cover the flowing water channel with glass/transparent plastic so you can still see it. Short of that something could be done to make the fish ladder more attractive, right now it's a lot of stained and dirty cement.
I noticed new windows are going in at the old Temple Club at the southeast corner of Larch and Grand River.