Well, it looks like the vacation of the block of Eigth Street between Jerome and Michigan is moving along pretty quickly. This goes to the Development and Planning Committee (D&P) this coming Tuesday. The Planning Board only placed three conditions on approval mostly dealing with easements for utilities. If any of you believe like I do that they should add a condition that Sparrow keep pedestrian access through their new parking lot where the street will have been pulled up, I'd like you to write council asking them to consider that.
Currently, the city is only 'asking' that Sparrow consider pedestrian access in their design of the site. Not including this provision pushes the residents of the rather dense neighborhood directly north of Jerome a block west (Hosmer) or east (Penn), which may not seem like a lot but Penn, especially, is not that pleasant a walk. But more than that, I just think it just needs to be done of principle to send Sparrow the signal that they can't just keep turning the area around Michigan and Penn into super-blocks for their campus. They need to be sent the message that they need to think up more creative solutions to their preceived problems.
The minutes for last month's planning board meeting are out. The project manager for Sparrow's surgery center was asked by the board about pedestrian movement between Jerome and Michigan, and the project manager confirmed that they will have a walkway through the property that will line up roughly with Eight Street.
Still not happy about this, but this alleviates my biggest concern of things that would could effect.
That they call this a 'tower' kind of amuses me, but they are building a new building along Jerome. They do say that like it's other tower, this one has the ability to grow 5 more stories when warranted.
LANSING – Sparrow Health System plans to spend $800 million to build new medical facilities, including a five-story tower at its Michigan Avenue campus.
Sparrow Hospital President Alan Vierling said the new tower will optimize the space within the existing emergency department, in-patient area and labor and delivery unit.
“This is a game changer across the board for us,” Vierling said.
Sparrow will move to private patient rooms during the addition of the five-story tower and the gradual renovation of the main building, Dover said. Switching to private rooms will mean more efficient care for patients and an easier flow for health care staff, he said.
The entire 10th floor of the main hospital tower has been converted to negative pressure isolation rooms.
Aside from moving to private rooms, the facility upgrade will add 40 observation beds to increase capacity in the emergency department, remodel the emergency department, add new labor and delivery rooms and restructure maternity care within the hospital, Vierling said.
We also get a rendering of the new surgical center on Michigan. This is looking east-northeast up the street:
Three stories, 100,000 sq ft; it will include the surgery center plus medical offices.
I'm happy to see Sparrow expanding, the additional jobs will be nice and I'm glad they're not tearing down Eastern for this. That being said I'm still not a fan of the surgical center project, I don't like the vacating of a street and I don't like the design of the building.
Yeah, it's really contrary to the zoned use of that land. It's oriented to its parking lot on one of main streets, so it will do nothing to activate the sidewalk out front. And the backhouse operations look to be facing another thoroughfare: Pennsylvania.
And the architecture is just a rehash of the design they've done for all of their recent properties and hospitals. Just an all-around poor use of prime real estate; they honestly could have put it right off Jerome, too.
I'm kind of afraid to see the site plan for it to see just how small the footprint is relative to parking lot footprint, and what the corner of Michigan and Penn will look like since that looks to be the back of the building.
I guess it is the large amount of land we have to build on that is the reason most building don't make it beyond five or six stories in Lansing, it may be cheaper to build horizontally! Some bolder design should be considered, and buildings fronting the street would be better, as pointed out, than parking lots. The McLaren building is good example of nicer than it has to be, these drawings are just OK but seem to be "outback buildings" like an industrial park not a nice downtown design. What are the planning for the area where they demolished a large building near 8th Ave and Michigan Ave.? I am hoping a parking lot is not what they are planning.
Looking at next week's planning board agenda, it appears that Sparrow is proposing building another skywalk; this one would go over Pennsylvania (closer to Jerome than Michigan) to connect the new surgical center with the main campus parking garage. Rendering looking south from Jerome:
I have nothing to complain about here. The Penn side of the new surgical center isn't as bad as I thought it would be, at least it's built up relatively close to the street and the design is bland but unoffensive.
Comments
https://www.lansingmi.gov/267/City-Council
Currently, the city is only 'asking' that Sparrow consider pedestrian access in their design of the site. Not including this provision pushes the residents of the rather dense neighborhood directly north of Jerome a block west (Hosmer) or east (Penn), which may not seem like a lot but Penn, especially, is not that pleasant a walk. But more than that, I just think it just needs to be done of principle to send Sparrow the signal that they can't just keep turning the area around Michigan and Penn into super-blocks for their campus. They need to be sent the message that they need to think up more creative solutions to their preceived problems.
Still not happy about this, but this alleviates my biggest concern of things that would could effect.
Sparrow unveils $800 million investment, including five-story tower at Lansing hospital
We also get a rendering of the new surgical center on Michigan. This is looking east-northeast up the street:
Three stories, 100,000 sq ft; it will include the surgery center plus medical offices.
And the architecture is just a rehash of the design they've done for all of their recent properties and hospitals. Just an all-around poor use of prime real estate; they honestly could have put it right off Jerome, too.
I'm kind of afraid to see the site plan for it to see just how small the footprint is relative to parking lot footprint, and what the corner of Michigan and Penn will look like since that looks to be the back of the building.