I'm very disappointed that they plan to raze Eastern. I believe a condition of the sale should be the preservation of at least the part of the building that fronts Pennsylvania. If Sparrow buys this property, razes Eastern and builds something insignificant in it's place it will really help me lose more faith in this city. We've lost entirely too much of our turn of the century architecture and we didn't have much of a collection to begin with. I can't believe we continue to make the same short-sighted mistakes.
Up until now there was discussion of saving at least part of Eastern. I see no reason why at minimum the Pennsylvania facade couldn't be saved, call it an added cost of acquiring the property. There was also discussion before about retaining the field house, I wonder if that's still the plan?
This image is from page 13 of the purchase agreement, the district is retaining parcel E. The portion of land you're talking about south of Orchard St isn't outlined in the map, it may very well not be owned by the district.
Overall this may not be a horrible deal, if Sparrow manages to save the section of Eastern that fronts Pennsylvania I'll be happy, I don't think that's too unreasonable either. I'll also be interested to see if they come up with anything creative for the field house, there's certainly potential to turn it into a more often used venue.
I think that property is where the largest and oldest of the Boys Training School buildings were, it could still be publicly owned. If it is in private hands it could make for a nice albeit small neighborhood style development.
From what I saw on their web site the company seeking to redevelop the School for the Blind campus should be hired by Sparrow. It looks they have done many old school buildings very nicely. I hope they can retain the facade at least. Also build something that looks urban, the East Village part of the Boy's School land looks out of place and does not relate to the neighborhood in any way.
I am pretty sure that the Boy's school had some sort of agricultural enterprise on the north side, I could be wrong but it seems like I remember cornfields and planted rows that you could see going down Saginaw. Many State institutions grew some of their food and offered farm work as vocational rehabilitation.
I've been checking in on the webcam from time to time and work on the cancer center continued as the parking ramp was being completed, construction has just been slow. I can't imagine it'll be that much longer before the building goes above ground.
Drove by the project earlier today and noticed vertical steel beams in place in the cancer center portion of the land. Looks like it's time for it to start going vertical.
The steel frame seems to be up and they are starting to apply the glass on the lower floors. I think this will be a beautiful building, it just too bad that the parking ramp hides it from Michigan Ave. The new cafeteria also seem to be near finished, and looks great.
Now they just have to get some sort of pedestrian crossing plan for the mid-block there. I saw about ten people get off the bus cross and stand in the left turn lane waiting to cross the rest of the way. Although I have never heard that anyone was ever hurt there, it seems potentially dangerous, and people in the middle of the street also slows traffic.
Comments
-The new medical arts building on Saginaw was topped out last week.
-The structure is complete and they've finally begun on the facade for the new cafeteria
-The new parking structure is about half complete, I'd think it's safe to say the new cancer center should be going above ground at any time.
Also, Sparrow has website dedicated to construction updates (I'll add this link to the first post): Building Sparrow
This image is from page 13 of the purchase agreement, the district is retaining parcel E. The portion of land you're talking about south of Orchard St isn't outlined in the map, it may very well not be owned by the district.
Overall this may not be a horrible deal, if Sparrow manages to save the section of Eastern that fronts Pennsylvania I'll be happy, I don't think that's too unreasonable either. I'll also be interested to see if they come up with anything creative for the field house, there's certainly potential to turn it into a more often used venue.
I am pretty sure that the Boy's school had some sort of agricultural enterprise on the north side, I could be wrong but it seems like I remember cornfields and planted rows that you could see going down Saginaw. Many State institutions grew some of their food and offered farm work as vocational rehabilitation.
Now they just have to get some sort of pedestrian crossing plan for the mid-block there. I saw about ten people get off the bus cross and stand in the left turn lane waiting to cross the rest of the way. Although I have never heard that anyone was ever hurt there, it seems potentially dangerous, and people in the middle of the street also slows traffic.