Interesting. Never knew their was a mezzanine lobby.
EDIT: Okay, finally got some information back on the historic and existing setup of the lobby.
The 1957 photo is indeed looking west towards the Treasurer's office, and it looks smaller than the current lobby because of it was. The original lobby was very simple and didn't include the fountain, escalator, etc...which didn't come until the northern expansion of the lobby in 1961 when the BWL headquarters was built on the land to the north in 1962. In fact, it's very easy to see exactly where the lobby was expanded, today, because the red granite columns you see outside the lobby on the south face of the building, were also present outside the lobby on the north face of the building. Today, those northern columns that stood outside the north window wall are...inside the lobby, itself. More than that, you can also see exactly where the old north window-wall was inside the lobby as you can make out the old line of the window-wall on the ceiling.
My biggest realization that made everything fall into place in my understanding of the current state of the lobby was that the land to the north of city hall (having been the site of the old city hall) was already city-owned, of course. What that means, practically, is that there wasn't a need for a property line north of the original north window-wall of city hall. What this means is that while the back of the lobby is a straight line, for the rest of the property there are a series of projections and recesses that pay no respect to the current property line. It's why it's so difficult to describe the "back" of the building, because it's not just one place. With the current property line becoming apparent in the late 90's when the State bought the land north of city hall, there are parts of City Hall on the State side of the property line, and there are parts of the State House Office Building on the city side of the property line. Some of these areas are accessible by the party on the other side of the line; some are physically cut off an inaccessible to the party to which they belong. For instance, there is a State file room physically a part of City Hall on the city side of the line which is accessible from the State House Office Building, but not directly accessible from City Hall, I think. If I read my source correctly, this area includes the Capitol Avenue exit, and thhe area above it. On the picture I posted on the last page, that whole area in between the two vertical building lines - despite being physically matching with city hall - is actually state property and the city and state share the Capitol Avenue exit, which is an emergency exit.
I totally had the orientation of the escalator and stairs (and location of both) incorrect. The escalator rose from south-to-north along the mechanical core of the building, which is visible to the back of the lobby and offset to the right just a bit when you enter the building. The staircase the article speaks of is still visible in the northwest corner of the lobby and also goes south-to-north hitting a back wall of the lobby and then crawling from their west-to-east. Both the escalator and staircase brought you to a small mezzanine that stretched along the entire back wall of the lobby. It had three doors from which you then entered the 30th Circuit Court (now located in Mason and at the Veterans Building downtown), which lined up with the second floors of the old BWL Office Building. With the building of the State House Office Building, while the mezzanine platform, staircase and escalator are still all there, it looks like the doorways were bricked up, painted over and became just another part of the wall. The mezzanine platform is still accessible from the staircase in the northwest corner of the lobby and is used for seasonal storage. The escalator is still there but is now boxed up (covered on its west and south sides by walls), and the outside of the walls are used to display art. So, yeah, they did an excellent job hiding it.
Lastly, the fountain was, in fact, totally on the floor of the lobby. Today, a rectangular platform has been built around the basin. The platform is where the mayor often makes announcements and where speaking events and such are held; you see it on the news quite a bit. You'd never know a fountain was there.
Speaking of the post office, I saw on EastLansingInfo today that the post office location in the MSU Union is closing. People will be redirected to the East Lansing branch at Abbot Road and Saginaw.
Indeed those were beautiful buildings and could have been a real source of pride for the city. They could have made for beautiful law office or any other type of business even if the city built City Hall at another location.
I think the galling thing is that the photo shows that both of the buildings could have been saved. A tight squeeze for sure, but it wasn't absolutely necessary to tear down those buildings even with the city hall having been built at the site. Another photo that shows this:
They wouldn't have gotten the plaza, but it literally could have fitted without tearing down the old annex/post office. Or what the pictures show is that they could have torn down either of the two instead of both.
But, at the time, the idea was that everything had to be new, new, new. Detroit did the same thing with its old city hall. The argument was always that there wasn't enough space, that they didn't have enough light, that they weren't "comfortable," blah blah blah...now year's later some of the same claims are being made against Lansing's current city hall.
There are so many questions that come to mind when I look at this building. One that I always think of is what did they do with all of those stone bricks and window and door frames? I know the Mayor then wanted Lansing to be a more modern
I was reading a Lansing history book published in the 80's "Out Of A Wilderness" which tells about the same story as the others I have looked at. There were a few things the stuck out for me in this book. The Native Americans were "removed" from our counties in the 1850's by the Federal Government and the settlers soon missed them, as they natives knew much more about how to survive and were of great help to the original European Americans who came to this area. Also, that Lansing was a later development, many other Michigan cities were civilized and "modern" while there was nothing but forest here. I think that is why our city is laid out with wide streets and even grid pattern as it was more planned than older cities that grew more organically. In more recent history there is a great photo of what looks to be a nearly complete new City Hall with the old one still standing in the courtyard. The old one looked small and sad like it knew what was going to happen! Another photo that struck me was of the Capitol Building in 1980, it was painted fence post white which was pealing from the dome revealing big black patches, it looked a mess. That really made me appreciate how beautiful the building looks now that we are taking better care of it.
The picture you're talking about was taken not that long after the pictures on this page were. I swear it's been posted here before. In the courtyard is the city hall annex and post office; the city hall was behind the current city hall at Capitol and Ottawa (fronting on Ottawa).
"Out of the Wilderness" is a wonderful book. I have an old copy of it. The book talks about that though the Native Americans used the area around Lansing (hunting grounds), Lansing was so wild and undeveloped that there weren't any Native American settlements where the city is today, unlike a lot of other Michigan cities. It was mostly a pass-through. There wasn't even a seasonal village where the city center is; I believe Okemos and DeWitt had seasonal villages.
Oh, and Lansing looks like it does today because it was entirely planned. There wasn't really a "Lansing" here prior to the announcement of the move of the state capital to the area. For its first decade it was basically a small clearing in the woods on the river where Old Town is. It likely would have remained a tiny village along the likes of Portland or DeWitt or something had the capital not been located, here. In its early years prior to the the announcement of the capital, Mason was the big dog in town since it'd been chosen as the county seat. Actually, it wasn't until the railroads reached the city in the 1860's that Lansing took off.
I always love the story of how they chose the city. Every single community of any size within the interior of the state was jocking to be the new capitol, and because of that, no one settlement could get enough votes during the legislative session to become the capital. I can't remember how many votes they say were taken, but I believe it was dozens and it lasted hours, and Lansing was basically thrown out there as a joke compromise because there was no city here. And, well, the rest is history. lol
It is too bad they did not just incorporate the old into the new, it is interesting to see a building fitting into the Plaza space. I guess they could build a hotel there.
Our history is why we should not really compare Lansing with cites like Ann Arbor that are decades older and have a more centralized downtown where we have four downtowns if you include East Lansing.
Comments
Interesting. Never knew their was a mezzanine lobby.
EDIT: Okay, finally got some information back on the historic and existing setup of the lobby.
The 1957 photo is indeed looking west towards the Treasurer's office, and it looks smaller than the current lobby because of it was. The original lobby was very simple and didn't include the fountain, escalator, etc...which didn't come until the northern expansion of the lobby in 1961 when the BWL headquarters was built on the land to the north in 1962. In fact, it's very easy to see exactly where the lobby was expanded, today, because the red granite columns you see outside the lobby on the south face of the building, were also present outside the lobby on the north face of the building. Today, those northern columns that stood outside the north window wall are...inside the lobby, itself. More than that, you can also see exactly where the old north window-wall was inside the lobby as you can make out the old line of the window-wall on the ceiling.
My biggest realization that made everything fall into place in my understanding of the current state of the lobby was that the land to the north of city hall (having been the site of the old city hall) was already city-owned, of course. What that means, practically, is that there wasn't a need for a property line north of the original north window-wall of city hall. What this means is that while the back of the lobby is a straight line, for the rest of the property there are a series of projections and recesses that pay no respect to the current property line. It's why it's so difficult to describe the "back" of the building, because it's not just one place. With the current property line becoming apparent in the late 90's when the State bought the land north of city hall, there are parts of City Hall on the State side of the property line, and there are parts of the State House Office Building on the city side of the property line. Some of these areas are accessible by the party on the other side of the line; some are physically cut off an inaccessible to the party to which they belong. For instance, there is a State file room physically a part of City Hall on the city side of the line which is accessible from the State House Office Building, but not directly accessible from City Hall, I think. If I read my source correctly, this area includes the Capitol Avenue exit, and thhe area above it. On the picture I posted on the last page, that whole area in between the two vertical building lines - despite being physically matching with city hall - is actually state property and the city and state share the Capitol Avenue exit, which is an emergency exit.
I totally had the orientation of the escalator and stairs (and location of both) incorrect. The escalator rose from south-to-north along the mechanical core of the building, which is visible to the back of the lobby and offset to the right just a bit when you enter the building. The staircase the article speaks of is still visible in the northwest corner of the lobby and also goes south-to-north hitting a back wall of the lobby and then crawling from their west-to-east. Both the escalator and staircase brought you to a small mezzanine that stretched along the entire back wall of the lobby. It had three doors from which you then entered the 30th Circuit Court (now located in Mason and at the Veterans Building downtown), which lined up with the second floors of the old BWL Office Building. With the building of the State House Office Building, while the mezzanine platform, staircase and escalator are still all there, it looks like the doorways were bricked up, painted over and became just another part of the wall. The mezzanine platform is still accessible from the staircase in the northwest corner of the lobby and is used for seasonal storage. The escalator is still there but is now boxed up (covered on its west and south sides by walls), and the outside of the walls are used to display art. So, yeah, they did an excellent job hiding it.
Lastly, the fountain was, in fact, totally on the floor of the lobby. Today, a rectangular platform has been built around the basin. The platform is where the mayor often makes announcements and where speaking events and such are held; you see it on the news quite a bit. You'd never know a fountain was there.
Another week and another historic photo. They've chose City Hall...again.
It'd really have been something if we could have saved both those old buildings.
Speaking of the post office, I saw on EastLansingInfo today that the post office location in the MSU Union is closing. People will be redirected to the East Lansing branch at Abbot Road and Saginaw.
Indeed those were beautiful buildings and could have been a real source of pride for the city. They could have made for beautiful law office or any other type of business even if the city built City Hall at another location.
Similar to the Grand Army of the Republic building in Detroit,
http://historicdetroit.org/building/grand-army-of-the-republic-building/
I think the galling thing is that the photo shows that both of the buildings could have been saved. A tight squeeze for sure, but it wasn't absolutely necessary to tear down those buildings even with the city hall having been built at the site. Another photo that shows this:
They wouldn't have gotten the plaza, but it literally could have fitted without tearing down the old annex/post office. Or what the pictures show is that they could have torn down either of the two instead of both.
But, at the time, the idea was that everything had to be new, new, new. Detroit did the same thing with its old city hall. The argument was always that there wasn't enough space, that they didn't have enough light, that they weren't "comfortable," blah blah blah...now year's later some of the same claims are being made against Lansing's current city hall.
Old Detroit City Hall
There are so many questions that come to mind when I look at this building. One that I always think of is what did they do with all of those stone bricks and window and door frames? I know the Mayor then wanted Lansing to be a more modern
I was reading a Lansing history book published in the 80's "Out Of A Wilderness" which tells about the same story as the others I have looked at. There were a few things the stuck out for me in this book. The Native Americans were "removed" from our counties in the 1850's by the Federal Government and the settlers soon missed them, as they natives knew much more about how to survive and were of great help to the original European Americans who came to this area. Also, that Lansing was a later development, many other Michigan cities were civilized and "modern" while there was nothing but forest here. I think that is why our city is laid out with wide streets and even grid pattern as it was more planned than older cities that grew more organically. In more recent history there is a great photo of what looks to be a nearly complete new City Hall with the old one still standing in the courtyard. The old one looked small and sad like it knew what was going to happen! Another photo that struck me was of the Capitol Building in 1980, it was painted fence post white which was pealing from the dome revealing big black patches, it looked a mess. That really made me appreciate how beautiful the building looks now that we are taking better care of it.
The picture you're talking about was taken not that long after the pictures on this page were. I swear it's been posted here before. In the courtyard is the city hall annex and post office; the city hall was behind the current city hall at Capitol and Ottawa (fronting on Ottawa).
"Out of the Wilderness" is a wonderful book. I have an old copy of it. The book talks about that though the Native Americans used the area around Lansing (hunting grounds), Lansing was so wild and undeveloped that there weren't any Native American settlements where the city is today, unlike a lot of other Michigan cities. It was mostly a pass-through. There wasn't even a seasonal village where the city center is; I believe Okemos and DeWitt had seasonal villages.
Oh, and Lansing looks like it does today because it was entirely planned. There wasn't really a "Lansing" here prior to the announcement of the move of the state capital to the area. For its first decade it was basically a small clearing in the woods on the river where Old Town is. It likely would have remained a tiny village along the likes of Portland or DeWitt or something had the capital not been located, here. In its early years prior to the the announcement of the capital, Mason was the big dog in town since it'd been chosen as the county seat. Actually, it wasn't until the railroads reached the city in the 1860's that Lansing took off.
I always love the story of how they chose the city. Every single community of any size within the interior of the state was jocking to be the new capitol, and because of that, no one settlement could get enough votes during the legislative session to become the capital. I can't remember how many votes they say were taken, but I believe it was dozens and it lasted hours, and Lansing was basically thrown out there as a joke compromise because there was no city here. And, well, the rest is history. lol
It is too bad they did not just incorporate the old into the new, it is interesting to see a building fitting into the Plaza space. I guess they could build a hotel there.
Our history is why we should not really compare Lansing with cites like Ann Arbor that are decades older and have a more centralized downtown where we have four downtowns if you include East Lansing.
Seeing that beautiful building replaced by the plaza is heartbreaking. Our city leaders were horrible about preserving worthy buildings.