I am happy to read in the LSJ about the city beginning the renovation of two of its public housing facilities on S Washington and W Waverly. This will improve the lives of the people who live there. It is a bit shocking to read there has been little investment made in these buildings in the past thirty years.
It reminds me of shipping containers. If that's what they're going for they will need to put in some fake extra lines where each shipping container would start/stop.
As a designer, I worked for a developer. It's the same cheap material in a pattern that's not all that common, yet. It's just vinyls version of "board and batten". Its still cheap, it's still vinyl. As someone with a masters in architecture, it's just outright depressing. With the relatively new age of the buildings, why bother?
I agree it looks really cheap. Why do they need new siding so soon, these buildings aren't that old? It would have been nice to see them use fiber cement siding if they're going to keep with using siding.
Thats my confuses me as well. It just seems like a waste of money and material to switch to a different style of the same so soon, unless there was some underlying moisture issue that they were addressing. I'd much rather see fiber cement over vinyl anyday.
I also really like the new MRA building, the design is contemporary with features like the two-story window bump-out, that fit into the design rather than looking like something added for a cheap little flair, like pine poles or false roof structures.
In addition to the LCC ramp, the city has been renovating the city-owned parking ramps around downtown for a while now, even the awful N. Grand Ave ramp looks a little brighter with freshly painted areas, they did leave the grey rope printed cement panels untouched. I guess so we never forget the original Brutalist cement walls from the pedestrian mall of the 1970s. Plant some ivy on those things! The other ramps do look better.
I like the lighting downtown idea and I sent a small donation. It is a start in the right direction for getting people downtown at night.
The taco place closed some time ago. It is good to see someone has enough faith in downtown to open a new restaurant/bar. Up the street, the games and puzzle shop is expanding into the next storefront where a bakery was briefly located. Seems like games and puzzles are in big demand during these stay-at-home times. Also downtown I have liked seeing the displays set up by some of the small businesses around town in the windows of Knapp's and other vacant storefronts, but it kind of makes me wish there were shops behind the window displays. A couple more unique destination type shops like Kositcheks The Peanut Shop and Summit Comics would make downtown a real retail district.
Comments
https://www.wilx.com/2020/12/15/city-of-lansing-to-begin-one-way-to-two-way-conversion-project/
In addition to the LCC ramp, the city has been renovating the city-owned parking ramps around downtown for a while now, even the awful N. Grand Ave ramp looks a little brighter with freshly painted areas, they did leave the grey rope printed cement panels untouched. I guess so we never forget the original Brutalist cement walls from the pedestrian mall of the 1970s. Plant some ivy on those things! The other ramps do look better.
I like the lighting downtown idea and I sent a small donation. It is a start in the right direction for getting people downtown at night.