The new rendering is better than the last, but not as good as the original one with the light gold color IMO. I like the sharp angles better than the faceted curves, at least in this case. I'm disappointed that the garage over the street seems to uglier and less inviting in every iteration. It is what it is at this point.
I'm going to *attempt* to be less pessimistic and ornery, I'll worry about reassessing my stance come late 2027 when this thing is wrapping up. Besides just seeing if what's now underway lives up to expectations, we should have a really good idea whether to expect sustained growth and improvement carrying forward by that time.
EDIT: I also wanted to note that something is off with the scale of the new rendering, they shrunk Grand Tower or stretched Tower on Grand or something. It definitely looks off though.
@hood, I've thought the same. I need to be less pessimistic about this project. Coming back from some time out of town always has me very judgemental of our local developments lol. I just also hate to be in the "well it's decent...for Lansing" group. I'm going to try to be less pessimistic on this one though!
I hadn't noticed, but you're right...there is something entirely wrong on the scale of that. Probably exaggerating it intentionally but that's insanely taller than the Grand Tower and not what I was expecting.
They have been really good about sharing videos and stuff on Facebook, it's kind of nice to see. I hope they keep updates going on more than just Tower on Grand as the projects progress. They've also reminded me that the south Grand ramp offers good photo opportunities, I'll have to get up there.
The YouTube video from my May 20th post ends with a pretty cool 3d visualization of the entire construction process, definitely worth checking out. It does show a basement in that animation.
They had started tearing down the houses for Capitol Tower as of a few days ago so hopefully real work on that starts soon.
I checked out the downtown construction sites yesterday and saw crews installing steel beams up to one story at the high-rise site. The Latino workers gave me a double take as they left work passing by. I don't want to jinx anything, but I have not heard of any "ICE" actions around here. The vacant building across the street at Washtenaw and Grand was enclosed by fencing, is that building going to be demolished? Down the street the city hall building looks kind of small at least so far. Is it going to face Grand Ave. or Lenawee?
I don't know whether to expect that building at Washtenaw & Grand to be demolished, it doesn't have to be to make room for the parking garage or anything but I also wouldn't be surprised. I don't want to see it replaced by a parking lot but I also don't expect that building to exist long-term regardless.
The new city hall will be quite small, and it is unfortunately oriented to Lenawee. Part of what makes it a horrible joke of a design.
I noticed that the small building on Washtenaw across from the Grand Ave apt tower has been demolished with crews still clearing the site. I hope there will be something besides a surface parking lot built there.
Well that settles that then. Now the question is will it be surface parking or not? I can't imagine the city being too amenable to a surface lot on that corner. Maybe an expanded/reoriented parking ramp to serve the tower?
...So apparently the plan is now for a larger ramp that will extend to the corner, this will also serve as parking for the Prudden Apartments as efforts to tear down the InstyPrints building for a new ramp have been scrapped. That building will now host leasing offices and some apartments on the upper floors.
I'm content to see the parking ramp extend to that corner but I think more ground floor commercial space is a reasonable expectation from the city, and a logical investment from the developers perspective. It'd also be nice to see a little effort put into the aesthetics of the ramp since it will be much more prominent with this new configuration, but that's not a hill I'll die on here.
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I'm going to *attempt* to be less pessimistic and ornery, I'll worry about reassessing my stance come late 2027 when this thing is wrapping up. Besides just seeing if what's now underway lives up to expectations, we should have a really good idea whether to expect sustained growth and improvement carrying forward by that time.
EDIT: I also wanted to note that something is off with the scale of the new rendering, they shrunk Grand Tower or stretched Tower on Grand or something. It definitely looks off though.
I hadn't noticed, but you're right...there is something entirely wrong on the scale of that. Probably exaggerating it intentionally but that's insanely taller than the Grand Tower and not what I was expecting.
They had started tearing down the houses for Capitol Tower as of a few days ago so hopefully real work on that starts soon.
The new city hall will be quite small, and it is unfortunately oriented to Lenawee. Part of what makes it a horrible joke of a design.
I'm content to see the parking ramp extend to that corner but I think more ground floor commercial space is a reasonable expectation from the city, and a logical investment from the developers perspective. It'd also be nice to see a little effort put into the aesthetics of the ramp since it will be much more prominent with this new configuration, but that's not a hill I'll die on here.