Accident Fund Headquarters (Ottawa Street Station Redevelopment)

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Comments

  • I felt the same way looking at it without the stack. It seems larger, and it especially seems taller without the stack.

    One thing I'd like to know is what they are going to do in front of the building along Grand, theres a lot of space between the power plant and the street, there used to be a decent sized building there. I hope they either build out onto the space, maybe their lobby od something or that they use the space as sort of a park, with some fountains and/or statues.
  • See now I thought it looked weird without the stack. Of course I was looking backwards while exiting the 496 on my way home today, so I'm going to not judge it until I get a real good look at it. I did notice that there was a large gap in the skyline where the stack should have been. It looked kinda empty without it there. Made me kinda sad.
  • edited December 2007
    Guess what? I'll have some photos for you guys for the first time in a long time either today or tomorrow.

    I personally think it looks very naked without the stack, and particularly as part of the skyline. It actually looks shorter to me. What the stack did was a wonderful job of framing the skyline when viewed from the east, the best view of the skyline. You had the stack anchoring the northend of the skyline, the Capitol and the Michigan National Tower co-anchoring the center of the skyline, and the Grand tower anchoring the southern end of the skyline. The removal of the stack, while some may argue makes the building look better, totally throws off that balance.

    But, I'm sure I'll get use to it. I don't have any other choice, do I?

    *EDIT* Here they are...

    December 20-21

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    Christmas Day

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    (The part of the garage you see in the foreground will be demolished!)
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    (the pieces of the steel stack that are to be recycled)
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  • Thanks for the pictures LMich. What I notice, is before, pictures that contained the building were far more zoomed out in order to capture the smokestack too. Many of your new pictures are much closer to the building, since the stack is gone, and that makes the building appear bigger to me as I view them on my monitor.
  • That same effect holds true in real life, instead of focusing on the stack and building, you can focus only on the building, making it seem bigger.
  • edited December 2007
    I added a few more. Personally, I still don't think it looks bigger and I see the thing just about every day.

    BTW, a nice comparison of a picture I took back in the fall and one a few days ago...

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    And, here are the two buildings to be brought down for the new office addition that will be connected to the newly redeveloped station:

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    The neon letters on the station should be coming down soon, as well.
  • There is something going on at the Ottawa Street Station's coal field behind the Grand Building...

    But, don't they still have to clean this particular section of land up before they can do anything? I seem to remember when there was talks of developing a few years back that they have to go through some remediation first. Also, I'm pretty sure the addition isn't going to be built until after the renovation of the actual station is done so maybe this is clean-up work and/or demolition prep work for the two buildings on the coal field.
  • Having not seen exactly what's happening, it's hard to say. Curious.

    Considering the property has yet to change ownership to Christman/Accident Fund, I'm guessing that it's not work directly connected to construction. And the other buildings along Grand Avenue would likely come down before construction of the new office building would begin.

    Perhaps basic work related to the big crane and the stack coming down? Loading the pieces of the stack? Considering the size of some of that equipment, I would guess they might have some basic grading to do after driving around back there too.

    It's going to be some months before we see the start of new buildings going up or the power plant itself being renovated. The chiller towers also need to come down first.
  • OK, I just realized that they were cleaning up the site after taking the chimney down. No work was going on, today. Supposedly the neon letters were supposed to come down, today, wheather permitting, but they didn't.
  • The letters are being taken down, today. They've started on the west face.
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