Wow, these actuall look taller than the previous proposals. I'm thoroughly surprised. I'm not sure the architecture is an interesting, but I really thought they were going to down-scale this majorly.
Yeah, they do look a little boring. But that's not such a bad thing as long as they use decent materials. And the other renderings the make the buildings look a bit more dolled up at street level.
Small aside... every time I see a bird's eye rendering of the Abbot/GR intersection, I think about how nice it would be to see a large, edgy, ultramodern glass-and-steel high rise built behind the original façade of the curved building on the east side of the Abbot.
It honestly does look like it was supposed to be a base/podium of a larger building. So long as th extra floors were set back a bit, I'd also like to see something built above it (as opposed to it being demolished and rebuilt, out-right).
Oh, and the more I looked at the renderings after my initial post, I'm a bit worried about the materials used for the hotel portion. You can't make out 100% what it is, but it looks like really plain pre-cast concrete panels, which I think would be unacceptable for such a prominent building. I hope I'm wrong and that's just because of the "artistic" nature of the renderings.
The residential building isn't a huge change from what they had before save for the orientation. But, the colors on this one are also a bit more subdued than I'd like, especially when you consider the vivid brick/brick veneer that will face The Hub and Center City. Though, maybe materials is where they had to cut back since they didn't cut back on height.
Anyway, I'm really just happy to see that this wasn't down-graded to some generic four-story buildings or something, which is honestly what I thought was going to end up happening after the fiasco with Park District. In all honesty, my favorite proposal for this site was the most unconventional one, architecturally: Museum Place.
This new proposal is about what I expected and I think it's my favorite proposal out of the long line of proposals I've seen for the site. I did like one of the Michigan Museum Place designs but I still wasn't a fan of a single monolithic building on that site, I'm much happier to see it split in two.
As for the design, the apartment building is definitely bland but it's a brick-clad building that I assume will be good quality so I can't complain too much. The hotel building is more interesting, it looks like it may have an exposed concrete structure a la Lansing Towers. I'll be interested to see more/better renderings.
I liked what they said about the hotel building will reflect MSU architecture. I would hope that means sort of Prairie Modern I'm thinking the Library the Kresge Art Department Building, the Music Building. I do not think this means Academic Gothic but that would be cool if they did a modern take on that style.
Looking at the renderings - though these will certainly be modified - I don't see how they are saying the current plans for the hotel it will reflect MSU. They will have to do better than what is currently renered to do that. That looks like bare - not even gussied up by painting it - concrete to me.
So, I do hope you're right. At least the apartment building looks presentable and complimentary to campus.
Looking at the elevation included, I'm relieved. It looks like the facade of the hotel is just light-colored brick and not exposed, untreated concrete, so it was just the renderings making it look like that. I also noticed that the apartment building is actually a bit over the 140 feet high limit when measured from its lowest point (and extra 2 feet) and the height doens't include the mechanical penthouse.
Comments
Wow, these actuall look taller than the previous proposals. I'm thoroughly surprised. I'm not sure the architecture is an interesting, but I really thought they were going to down-scale this majorly.
Yeah, they do look a little boring. But that's not such a bad thing as long as they use decent materials. And the other renderings the make the buildings look a bit more dolled up at street level.
Small aside... every time I see a bird's eye rendering of the Abbot/GR intersection, I think about how nice it would be to see a large, edgy, ultramodern glass-and-steel high rise built behind the original façade of the curved building on the east side of the Abbot.
It honestly does look like it was supposed to be a base/podium of a larger building. So long as th extra floors were set back a bit, I'd also like to see something built above it (as opposed to it being demolished and rebuilt, out-right).
Oh, and the more I looked at the renderings after my initial post, I'm a bit worried about the materials used for the hotel portion. You can't make out 100% what it is, but it looks like really plain pre-cast concrete panels, which I think would be unacceptable for such a prominent building. I hope I'm wrong and that's just because of the "artistic" nature of the renderings.
The residential building isn't a huge change from what they had before save for the orientation. But, the colors on this one are also a bit more subdued than I'd like, especially when you consider the vivid brick/brick veneer that will face The Hub and Center City. Though, maybe materials is where they had to cut back since they didn't cut back on height.
Anyway, I'm really just happy to see that this wasn't down-graded to some generic four-story buildings or something, which is honestly what I thought was going to end up happening after the fiasco with Park District. In all honesty, my favorite proposal for this site was the most unconventional one, architecturally: Museum Place.
This new proposal is about what I expected and I think it's my favorite proposal out of the long line of proposals I've seen for the site. I did like one of the Michigan Museum Place designs but I still wasn't a fan of a single monolithic building on that site, I'm much happier to see it split in two.
As for the design, the apartment building is definitely bland but it's a brick-clad building that I assume will be good quality so I can't complain too much. The hotel building is more interesting, it looks like it may have an exposed concrete structure a la Lansing Towers. I'll be interested to see more/better renderings.
Looks like the Lansing State Journal has picked up on this.
https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/2018/06/20/developers-submit-new-plans-park-district-downtown-east-lansing-graduate-hotel-apartments/717336002/
Can you imagine having four or five tower cranes on the skyline all at once? The three here right now are impressive.
I liked what they said about the hotel building will reflect MSU architecture. I would hope that means sort of Prairie Modern I'm thinking the Library the Kresge Art Department Building, the Music Building. I do not think this means Academic Gothic but that would be cool if they did a modern take on that style.
Looking at the renderings - though these will certainly be modified - I don't see how they are saying the current plans for the hotel it will reflect MSU. They will have to do better than what is currently renered to do that. That looks like bare - not even gussied up by painting it - concrete to me.
So, I do hope you're right. At least the apartment building looks presentable and complimentary to campus.
I was thinking these are just preliminary renderings, I hope so!
Here's the full packet for this new Park District plan. It went before the downtown development authority, last night:
http://eastlansing.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=410&meta_id=64141
Looking at the elevation included, I'm relieved. It looks like the facade of the hotel is just light-colored brick and not exposed, untreated concrete, so it was just the renderings making it look like that. I also noticed that the apartment building is actually a bit over the 140 feet high limit when measured from its lowest point (and extra 2 feet) and the height doens't include the mechanical penthouse.