It looks like work on this project in underway at the lots on Farm Lane at Mt Hope, the old pavement has been raised and they seem to be putting down sand and stone for the base of a permeable pavement.[I don't know but that is what it looks like]. They are saving the trees in the lot which is nice. The private company building and running the project seems odd, as does the tax abatement. It seems like no one will build anything without a tax abatement. I know the MSU gets power from other companies as well as making it's own, it seems like this is a project MSU could have taken on itself.
@gbinlansing Those lots are being repaved separately from the solar project and I think you're right about them being permeable (I can't find it now but I think they mentioned the lots being permeable in one of their construction updates).
I saw how the main street was repaved in the town where I lived back in 2012. The work out at Farm lane looked like the same process. They remove the whole road bed and dig down at least 8 feet and create a drain with sand, crushed and then whole stones which form the new road bed. People were quite skeptical about it, but the pavement works really well. This also keeps a lot of pollution from going into the local harbor. I have posted this before but hey if you are into pavement and road building it might be interesting to see. go to Provincetownview.com and click on Town Hall, that camera looks right at the street where you can see it looks like most any black top. It looks really great even after four years.
There are so many potential solar parking lots in the area, it could be a great way to make electricity
I am sure it is all been discussed before, but are these new apartments replacing the old U-village at the same number, or as it seems, are they adding to the number of apartments. Is is going to be a very busy area that is for sure. It is interesting that they are building so many new apartments on campus. When I went to MSU freshman and sophomores had to live on campus, the were putting three in a room back then, unless you were from the Lansing area, I could not get into campus housing coming from Lansing. So if that is still the case, who are all these people who are going to fill all these apartments? There must be a lot of grad students these days.
The number of new apartments is less than those it is replacing. Remember, all of Cherry Lane and most of Spartan Village have been removed. There are less families choosing to stay in university housing nowadays, and the more students are requesting private "single" rooms instead of having roommates.
MSU now only requires freshman to live on campus, and freshmen living within 50 mile(?) radius of MSU need to opt-out of living in the dorms. Many choose to live in the dorms anyways as it is easier to make friends and closer to classes.
The emptiness where Cherry Lane once stood still feels really weird to me when I come on campus. I would like to see many more trees planted, as well as some large scale shaping of the landscape with some added hills and valleys in there to make the area more interesting.
The master plan shows the University Village/Cherry Lane along with the current Spartan Village property as being mixed use and are amongst the properties expected to be developed by 2031 (stated as being "Building Opportunities-20 year horizon" as of 2011). There's a lot of land there, I'm interested to see what they come up with for it.
The master plan also shows the College of Osteopathic Medicine getting a new 173k sq ft building in the 5-20 year time frame (as of 2011), of more relevance now as it could hint at the size of the MSU portion of the possible new hospital.
The master plan is a lot to take in, thanks for providing answers to my questions, even though they seem obvious, or I might seem uninformed.
My brother lived in Spartan Village while going to vet. school in the 60's. That place was packed with students and their kids, it had an away from campus feel, the apartments were pretty basic. My brother actually set his on fire by putting a cloth over a lamp shade with the light on. [not too smart]. Everyone got out OK. I think they asked him to leave after that!
It seems like landscaping is a big part of the Master Plans so it will be interesting to see how they will landscape all these new spaces.
Say... what happened with the Howard Johnson on Trowbridge? Noticed passing by today that it looked closed. Found a review online from someone who stayed there on January 31 of this year who was told that was the last day the hotel would be open, and that it would "be demolished". Anybody know why? Good location I should think. Stayed there once myself before we moved to Lansing, no complaints. Huh.
Comments
There are so many potential solar parking lots in the area, it could be a great way to make electricity
MSU now only requires freshman to live on campus, and freshmen living within 50 mile(?) radius of MSU need to opt-out of living in the dorms. Many choose to live in the dorms anyways as it is easier to make friends and closer to classes.
The emptiness where Cherry Lane once stood still feels really weird to me when I come on campus. I would like to see many more trees planted, as well as some large scale shaping of the landscape with some added hills and valleys in there to make the area more interesting.
The master plan also shows the College of Osteopathic Medicine getting a new 173k sq ft building in the 5-20 year time frame (as of 2011), of more relevance now as it could hint at the size of the MSU portion of the possible new hospital.
MSU Master Plan 2011 update - pdf
My brother lived in Spartan Village while going to vet. school in the 60's. That place was packed with students and their kids, it had an away from campus feel, the apartments were pretty basic. My brother actually set his on fire by putting a cloth over a lamp shade with the light on. [not too smart]. Everyone got out OK. I think they asked him to leave after that!
It seems like landscaping is a big part of the Master Plans so it will be interesting to see how they will landscape all these new spaces.