I'd love to see them both turned back into two way roads, but they still have to be able to handle the traffic since Cedar/Larch/N East is the busiest and only continuous north south street through the city.
It looks like it would be difficult to fit more than a three-lane road within the footprint of Larch or Cedar and I'm not sure two three-lane roads would adequately move traffic. If they do a study and find that configuration is good enough then I'm all for it, if not then they have to find another solution. The best solution would probably be to acquire a little bit of land along the one way portion of Cedar and make it either five lanes or four lanes with turnoffs, then make Larch a two-lane side road with on street parking. If that's not feasible then adding an extra northbound lane north of Michigan and an extra southbound lane south of Michigan to one of the streets might be a solution.
Anyone know if Cedar/Larch/N East falls under state jurisdiction in the same way Saginaw/Oakland and most of MLK does? If so then they would have a lot of say in any reconfiguration of that street.
A rotary or traffic circle could be the answer at Cedar and 496 there is a lot of land there. a circle could bring in the two way Larch and Cedar spin into and out of the five lane S.Cedar, and the highway entrance and exit ramps. Then back to the north you could get onto Larch or Cedar from the circle. Traffic circles have been proven to be the safest way to intersect several roads that come together.
Another way to go would be keep the on ways streets, shifting down to two lanes in each direction, with wider sidewalks protecting pedestrians with higher plantings and curbing. Also take out the parking lane on Larch near the VOA they are little used.
It's surprising that the press release didn't come out last week. Was there a chance that the site work would find an issue preventing construction from starting?
@MichMatters I think he's trying to wait as long as he can to do the part on Cedar to see how the casino thing plays out, whether that gets built would have a huge effect on what goes there.
The Marketplace expansion itself is unexciting, but I guess that was what should have been expected of this expansion. I was just hoping to be surprised with a building facing Shiawassee and/or Cedar. It's still great to see another building downtown, especially a (somewhat) higher end residential building.
This is a great thing for downtown. I have been noticing that even on weekends there are people downtown, patronizing the businesses that are open. I think it is true that people these days like a real urban environment. It is so cool that he said all of his downtown properties are fully occupied, I am hoping this will lead to more developments. I was hoping they would choose a different color scheme, but the guy likes green and yellow!
I was thinking the same thing about the casino. The current drawings depict a large parking structure along Cedar?? The space next to the Lansing Center is not that large where are they going to put these things? I also think he will wait to build on that area
Once the Cedar Street properties are built, the rest of MarketPlace will lose a lot of street frontage for advertising etc. I think Gillespie is delaying Cedar St expansion until MarketPlace phase 1 and 2 are fully occupied, and might try to leverage their worth and occupancy to get a larger loan for the Cedar St property so he can build bigger.
This would allow the Cedar St building to peek over MarketPlace phase 1 and 2, so top floor occupants can still get a view of the river and skyline. They would also get a prime view of the baseball field.
I hadn't thought about that with the black brick but you are right. Whether intentional or by accident it's kind of a nice touch given the proximity.
I'd like to see them use more quality materials where it counts in general. There are some local architecture firms, that I wont name, that have this down despite so so deigns for the most part. I mean, look at the Lansing center for example. It's got some nice quality materials at the street side, lesser on the river side and then just cheap corrugated metal siding around the rest. It's possible to give a high end look economically.
At least they couldn't bid on City Hall! It'd be a multicolored mess.
I like the black brick too. Over on Michigan the "Avenue" building looks better than the drawings as well. I am growing use to the colorful sidings on these new buildings but if you get up close they do look kind of cheap. The "Skyvue" building comes to mind. I think they could use colored glazed bricks for color and it would look better. I am liking the colors more because I think they look better than all glass, and are an interesting addition to the landscape, just pick better colors. Is there going to be another building in the Market Place project fronting Cedar?
Comments
It looks like it would be difficult to fit more than a three-lane road within the footprint of Larch or Cedar and I'm not sure two three-lane roads would adequately move traffic. If they do a study and find that configuration is good enough then I'm all for it, if not then they have to find another solution. The best solution would probably be to acquire a little bit of land along the one way portion of Cedar and make it either five lanes or four lanes with turnoffs, then make Larch a two-lane side road with on street parking. If that's not feasible then adding an extra northbound lane north of Michigan and an extra southbound lane south of Michigan to one of the streets might be a solution.
Anyone know if Cedar/Larch/N East falls under state jurisdiction in the same way Saginaw/Oakland and most of MLK does? If so then they would have a lot of say in any reconfiguration of that street.
Another way to go would be keep the on ways streets, shifting down to two lanes in each direction, with wider sidewalks protecting pedestrians with higher plantings and curbing. Also take out the parking lane on Larch near the VOA they are little used.
The LSJ has an article about the Market Place expansion,
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2017/02/13/riverfront-apartments-added-downtown-lansing-marketplace/97853362/
@MichMatters I think he's trying to wait as long as he can to do the part on Cedar to see how the casino thing plays out, whether that gets built would have a huge effect on what goes there.
The Marketplace expansion itself is unexciting, but I guess that was what should have been expected of this expansion. I was just hoping to be surprised with a building facing Shiawassee and/or Cedar. It's still great to see another building downtown, especially a (somewhat) higher end residential building.
This is a great thing for downtown. I have been noticing that even on weekends there are people downtown, patronizing the businesses that are open. I think it is true that people these days like a real urban environment. It is so cool that he said all of his downtown properties are fully occupied, I am hoping this will lead to more developments. I was hoping they would choose a different color scheme, but the guy likes green and yellow!
I was thinking the same thing about the casino. The current drawings depict a large parking structure along Cedar?? The space next to the Lansing Center is not that large where are they going to put these things? I also think he will wait to build on that area
Once the Cedar Street properties are built, the rest of MarketPlace will lose a lot of street frontage for advertising etc. I think Gillespie is delaying Cedar St expansion until MarketPlace phase 1 and 2 are fully occupied, and might try to leverage their worth and occupancy to get a larger loan for the Cedar St property so he can build bigger.
This would allow the Cedar St building to peek over MarketPlace phase 1 and 2, so top floor occupants can still get a view of the river and skyline. They would also get a prime view of the baseball field.
I hadn't thought about that with the black brick but you are right. Whether intentional or by accident it's kind of a nice touch given the proximity.
I'd like to see them use more quality materials where it counts in general. There are some local architecture firms, that I wont name, that have this down despite so so deigns for the most part. I mean, look at the Lansing center for example. It's got some nice quality materials at the street side, lesser on the river side and then just cheap corrugated metal siding around the rest. It's possible to give a high end look economically.
At least they couldn't bid on City Hall! It'd be a multicolored mess.
I like the black brick too. Over on Michigan the "Avenue" building looks better than the drawings as well. I am growing use to the colorful sidings on these new buildings but if you get up close they do look kind of cheap. The "Skyvue" building comes to mind. I think they could use colored glazed bricks for color and it would look better. I am liking the colors more because I think they look better than all glass, and are an interesting addition to the landscape, just pick better colors. Is there going to be another building in the Market Place project fronting Cedar?