Haha. Ok. Actually, Eastwood somewhat blurs the distinction between mall and strip-mall. It's concentrated, like a mall- but also has drive up parking. The main building in question is different than that, yes... It has a parking garage (a good thing) and is mixed use (also a good thing). I am impressed with the glass facade that extends the square footage on the first floor of the parking garage and will dominate the view at street level. Also, the garage looks like it uses a similar mesh material to the one built by Accident Fund (which looks nice but shouldn't be on the river).
The Township Master Plan calls for this section of the development to be more densely developed than Eastwood, a sort of planned urbanism. It is a simulated urban environment in a sub-urban area. This architecture seems pretty consistent with that style of planning, for better or worse. I am not always a fan of this style of planning- but it's happening- and I do think it will attract visitors to the area.
When comparing the head-on elevation released before and the side elevation released yesterday, I would say that it is a vast improvement over the existing Eastwood style and incomparable to anything south of 496. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. However, I think if you look at some of the other work put out by the architects of the smaller building, you'll see that they really do have an eye for detail- and they have experience with many different types of projects:
http://www.built-form.net/
Maybe you feel like it's not their best work. Maybe you don't like their style. That's cool.
Looks like the parking deck is a project of the Lansing-Melborne group:
http://www.lansingmelbourne.com/projects.shtml
Here's a document that I haven't seen before. It sheds some new light on the master plan and also the architectural style desired:
http://www.lansingmelbournegroup.com/documents/Eastwood%20Project%20Book_051310.pdf
I see that they use Madison and Ann Arbor as comparable markets in their study. I think that's both ambitious and accurate. However, I believe that both of those regions have emphasized multiple transportation modes- particularly public transportation, pedestrian, and bike traffic. That absolutely does need to be emphasized here. I know we've discussed it before- but I would like to see some connection for pedestrian/ bike traffic with the offices and hotels on the east side of 127. I would also like to see a corridor to Old Town and the Frandor/ Mich Ave area for future development. These area are all within 2 1/2 miles and should be considered easily reachable on a bike.
If the project book you're talking about is the Melbourne Group link, that is a totally different project. I believe that would have been the plan for the hotel and office building that were proposed before, when they were fighting for the stimulus money, the first post in this forum is describing this project. I'm assuming that the township is still hoping for a project of similar scale to this proposal for that land along the freeway north of Champp's.
The site plan definitely doesn't match. I think they were pushed north by the cinema expansion. I guess the cinema owners get their pick. They do bring a lot of customers to Eastwood. Also, the scale of the project seems to have been taken down a notch- and probably rightly so. We've discussed before the greater need for hotels rooms in the city (downtown and/ or maybe at the Red Cedar GC redevelopment) than at Eastwood. I'm sure that there will be a hotel at the site, but I think it could be a combined hotel-office building (if they want a high rise), rather than a complex as shown in the Lansing-Melbourne document. Perhaps this is why they're trying to move on the residential construction instead of the hotel right now. There is simply more demand for it.
I was referencing the Lansing-Melbourne document to show what type of an atmosphere the Township is aiming for. The original township master plan shows "Showtime Drive" being a transitional "downtown," with both residential (because they plan to build more apartments, condos. and houses to the north) and commercial (Eastwood to the south). The current development is in line with that thinking. Both the master plan and the L-M document indicate that they want to build upward with a somewhat modern style. The proposed apartment building will be (approximately) as tall as the Fifth-Third building east of 127- and much more, uh, stark.
As it is, the parking garage is fairly unnecessary. Leads one to believe that they still desire the hotel and some fairly dense retail and office. It's a proven model; have customers coming and going all the time, for diverse purposes. I do hope they address the traffic issue on Lake Lansing road- and build a walkway before somebody gets hurt!
The township’s board last week unanimously approved the six-story, 128-room hotel that would be part of The Heights at Eastwood expansion at Eastwood Towne Center.
Other key notes and dates:
[ulist][li]82,000 square feet[/li][li]The developer would apply for a building permit by Sept. 1 and start laying the foundation by Sept. 15.[/li][li]Vertical construction would start Oct. 15 and Hyatt Place would open Sept. 15, 2013.[/li][/ulist]
Wondering if there is a market for two new hotels in the Eastwood vicinity (making 5 total)? Will this draw more visitors/conferences to town or will this only draw away from the existing downtown/Okemos/westside hotels?
A couple hotels are in the process of being converted to apartments. The Marriott hotel at the corner of Hagadorn and Grand River in East Lansing as well as the former Clarion hotel near Dunckel and 127 are both in stages of being transitioned to student rentals, so this might have been the opening for the Fairfield Inn in this market.
Comments
The Township Master Plan calls for this section of the development to be more densely developed than Eastwood, a sort of planned urbanism. It is a simulated urban environment in a sub-urban area. This architecture seems pretty consistent with that style of planning, for better or worse. I am not always a fan of this style of planning- but it's happening- and I do think it will attract visitors to the area.
When comparing the head-on elevation released before and the side elevation released yesterday, I would say that it is a vast improvement over the existing Eastwood style and incomparable to anything south of 496. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. However, I think if you look at some of the other work put out by the architects of the smaller building, you'll see that they really do have an eye for detail- and they have experience with many different types of projects:
http://www.built-form.net/
Maybe you feel like it's not their best work. Maybe you don't like their style. That's cool.
Looks like the parking deck is a project of the Lansing-Melborne group:
http://www.lansingmelbourne.com/projects.shtml
Here's a document that I haven't seen before. It sheds some new light on the master plan and also the architectural style desired:
http://www.lansingmelbournegroup.com/documents/Eastwood%20Project%20Book_051310.pdf
I see that they use Madison and Ann Arbor as comparable markets in their study. I think that's both ambitious and accurate. However, I believe that both of those regions have emphasized multiple transportation modes- particularly public transportation, pedestrian, and bike traffic. That absolutely does need to be emphasized here. I know we've discussed it before- but I would like to see some connection for pedestrian/ bike traffic with the offices and hotels on the east side of 127. I would also like to see a corridor to Old Town and the Frandor/ Mich Ave area for future development. These area are all within 2 1/2 miles and should be considered easily reachable on a bike.
I was referencing the Lansing-Melbourne document to show what type of an atmosphere the Township is aiming for. The original township master plan shows "Showtime Drive" being a transitional "downtown," with both residential (because they plan to build more apartments, condos. and houses to the north) and commercial (Eastwood to the south). The current development is in line with that thinking. Both the master plan and the L-M document indicate that they want to build upward with a somewhat modern style. The proposed apartment building will be (approximately) as tall as the Fifth-Third building east of 127- and much more, uh, stark.
As it is, the parking garage is fairly unnecessary. Leads one to believe that they still desire the hotel and some fairly dense retail and office. It's a proven model; have customers coming and going all the time, for diverse purposes. I do hope they address the traffic issue on Lake Lansing road- and build a walkway before somebody gets hurt!
[ulist][li]82,000 square feet[/li][li]The developer would apply for a building permit by Sept. 1 and start laying the foundation by Sept. 15.[/li][li]Vertical construction would start Oct. 15 and Hyatt Place would open Sept. 15, 2013.[/li][/ulist]