GBD, yeah the Washinton pedestrian mall was a weird thing. I spent a lot of time there in the late nineties/early 2000's skateboarding on those old fountains. Before the skatepark was built the plaza was the most likely place to meet other skateboarders (along with the amphitheater down by the water at Lansing Center). It was magical and we had so much fun there......but rarely saw anyone else using that space, and the city is probably better off without it.
I remember hearing about that art piece being controversial and a waste of money (in the grand scheme I cannot understand why people are such tightwads about money.....it's just made up anyways, right?). But some little known history is that the sculpture put Lansing on the map because there was a photo of some skater doing a trick on it (the base had an incline that served as a kind of ramp) and the photo was on the cover of a national skateboarding magazine.
Yeah I remember that photo and all the coverage it got. That was an awesome photo and a great skate spot, it was sad for us skaters when the mall got ripped up. I also had the same experience, never were there any office workers, students, or other pedestrians on the mall.
Very cool photo! I did not know what year they took out the mall, I was thinking it was in the 90's. The trees look nice so they must have cut them down first thing!:}
Thanks for posting these photos. The trees did look nice. I wonder if they saved any of them? I always disliked the textured cement walled outdoor rooms they tried to create. They were a feature of indoor malls that did not translate to the outdoors. I try to think of how they could have been more successful. It was a decent concept but the reality of the mall was an expensive failure. I remember wanting to like it very much, but when I would go there I would be the only person actually sitting out there in a downtown full of people. I wonder if that architecture frim ever got another contract to build a pedestrian mall? I hope not!
The mall didn't have to fail. I don't think it was all the architect's fault. We needed ground floor retail and restaurants on the mall. We also needed people living downtown and businesses and places for people to go and stay active late in to the evening. Much of downtown would become a ghost town at 5:01pm. The mall only helped make it worse but it didn't have to fail if the other parts were better.
Comments
...for its preservation, I should say
GBD, yeah the Washinton pedestrian mall was a weird thing. I spent a lot of time there in the late nineties/early 2000's skateboarding on those old fountains. Before the skatepark was built the plaza was the most likely place to meet other skateboarders (along with the amphitheater down by the water at Lansing Center). It was magical and we had so much fun there......but rarely saw anyone else using that space, and the city is probably better off without it.
I remember hearing about that art piece being controversial and a waste of money (in the grand scheme I cannot understand why people are such tightwads about money.....it's just made up anyways, right?). But some little known history is that the sculpture put Lansing on the map because there was a photo of some skater doing a trick on it (the base had an incline that served as a kind of ramp) and the photo was on the cover of a national skateboarding magazine.
pretty sure this was the photo. Also an interesting interview with a Lansing-bred photographer:
https://skatejawn.com/mike-blabac-interview/
Yeah I remember that photo and all the coverage it got. That was an awesome photo and a great skate spot, it was sad for us skaters when the mall got ripped up. I also had the same experience, never were there any office workers, students, or other pedestrians on the mall.
Uh oh, do we need to start a Lansing Skateboarding thread???
Very cool photo! I did not know what year they took out the mall, I was thinking it was in the 90's. The trees look nice so they must have cut them down first thing!:}
Thanks for posting these photos. The trees did look nice. I wonder if they saved any of them? I always disliked the textured cement walled outdoor rooms they tried to create. They were a feature of indoor malls that did not translate to the outdoors. I try to think of how they could have been more successful. It was a decent concept but the reality of the mall was an expensive failure. I remember wanting to like it very much, but when I would go there I would be the only person actually sitting out there in a downtown full of people. I wonder if that architecture frim ever got another contract to build a pedestrian mall? I hope not!
The mall didn't have to fail. I don't think it was all the architect's fault. We needed ground floor retail and restaurants on the mall. We also needed people living downtown and businesses and places for people to go and stay active late in to the evening. Much of downtown would become a ghost town at 5:01pm. The mall only helped make it worse but it didn't have to fail if the other parts were better.