I really like the potential design of The Overlook. Having four floors along Larch is great, and three floors on the back side is reasonable. The mix of materials looks good too. That orange brick is seen in a lot of places around mid-Michigan, it's not something that I would suspect is regional, but it's nice to see it get used again. I guess this idea shows how The Outfield completely lacks anything focused on Larch, though that area is used as a pavilion and it had to go somewhere.
That's great to hear that the second phase of Marketplace will be getting underway soon. That sounds like we'll start seeing more equipment on site soon.
Regarding Marketplace, it's odd having something so close to construction and having no idea what the size or design of the building will be. I'm guessing the first rendering we'll see will either be posted onsite or on their social media.
Regarding the Raddison, I actually think that right across the street is just about the most likely spot for a large hotel downtown. That parking lot at Michigan & Grand along with the old two floor building to the south of it would make the perfect spot to fit a high rise and have room for a parking/retail/office annex. I also noticed the "The Overlook" conceptual development by Gillespie is itself being pitched as a hotel.
It looks like it'd be the 8/18/2008 meeting (that's when the development agreement was passed), but as far as I can tell meeting packets are only available back to 2011.
I know I could look it up, but doesn't the casino proposal have a hotel included?
Those must have been some desperate days back when they made this agreement. It got the hotel built so I guess it was a good thing. It will sure be nice to see a hotel being built somewhere besides the concrete factory district on the north side.
I really hope that City Hall isn't chosen as a site for a hotel. I doubt a new hotel would be as large as the current City Hall is, and I like the City Hall being across from the capital even though they are at different levels of governing. I still think a prime location for a hotel would be near Sparrow, and another hotel could be placed on Washington Square closer to Cooley.
A great place for a hotel would be the current City Market site. I love the idea of a city market, but what we have now is a bar and a cheese shop which is really a waste of a important place in the center of our city.[plus I really hate that pole barn] Another really good site would be the Lake Trust block on S.Washington. My third site would be the Grand Ave parking ramp at Allegan, this is another wasted space on the banks of the Grand River downtown. We give our cars the all best views here.
It is interesting to me that they are going to replace the Aurelius Road bridge, I still think of it as "new" in that I remember when they built it. Before they built that road you really did not want to go back into those woods, which were full of speeding trains, swamps, and "hobos"as the homeless really were called, that or tramps. Not a place for kids! Back then it seemed like a bridge to no-where. I hope they include the whole road way leading to the bridge as it is really broken up.
I remember them doing some pretty significant work on the Clemens bridge over 496/CSX tracks within the past few years, it was closed for a whole summer. The bridge over the CN tracks is separate and does look to be in pretty rough shape. It's good to see some of these bridges get attention, the North Grand River Ave bridge looks particularly bad.
I'm not at all familiar with the pre-496 configuration of Clemens/Aurelius, but I have wondered that myself.
Looking at Google Streetview it looks like the bridge over 496 did get some pretty extensive work, the whole topside of the bridge looks totally new. The bridge over the Grand River is also newer while that one over the CN tracks is looking rough.
There was no road there, Aurelius ended at Mt. Hope. It seems that some roads like this and Logan/MLK were over built, why a six lane divided highway right through a [my] neighborhood? They were built when GM and Oldsmobile were at their peck employment, so as everyone did back then,they thought that everything was going to just keep growing and we would need all that capacity. Over at Aurelius and Mt Hope one would have to turn left and go to Penn. Ave to cross the tracks and Red Cedar River, trucks had to go to Cedar Street on a four lane Mt Hope Ave.. It is surprising that they did not take out one side of Clemens to extend the highway to Michigan Ave. and I can not remember why they did not.
Comments
I really like the potential design of The Overlook. Having four floors along Larch is great, and three floors on the back side is reasonable. The mix of materials looks good too. That orange brick is seen in a lot of places around mid-Michigan, it's not something that I would suspect is regional, but it's nice to see it get used again. I guess this idea shows how The Outfield completely lacks anything focused on Larch, though that area is used as a pavilion and it had to go somewhere.
That's great to hear that the second phase of Marketplace will be getting underway soon. That sounds like we'll start seeing more equipment on site soon.
Regarding Marketplace, it's odd having something so close to construction and having no idea what the size or design of the building will be. I'm guessing the first rendering we'll see will either be posted onsite or on their social media.
Regarding the Raddison, I actually think that right across the street is just about the most likely spot for a large hotel downtown. That parking lot at Michigan & Grand along with the old two floor building to the south of it would make the perfect spot to fit a high rise and have room for a parking/retail/office annex. I also noticed the "The Overlook" conceptual development by Gillespie is itself being pitched as a hotel.
It looks like it'd be the 8/18/2008 meeting (that's when the development agreement was passed), but as far as I can tell meeting packets are only available back to 2011.
I know I could look it up, but doesn't the casino proposal have a hotel included?
Those must have been some desperate days back when they made this agreement. It got the hotel built so I guess it was a good thing. It will sure be nice to see a hotel being built somewhere besides the concrete factory district on the north side.
LOL at "concrete factory district" ... very true
I really hope that City Hall isn't chosen as a site for a hotel. I doubt a new hotel would be as large as the current City Hall is, and I like the City Hall being across from the capital even though they are at different levels of governing. I still think a prime location for a hotel would be near Sparrow, and another hotel could be placed on Washington Square closer to Cooley.
A great place for a hotel would be the current City Market site. I love the idea of a city market, but what we have now is a bar and a cheese shop which is really a waste of a important place in the center of our city.[plus I really hate that pole barn] Another really good site would be the Lake Trust block on S.Washington. My third site would be the Grand Ave parking ramp at Allegan, this is another wasted space on the banks of the Grand River downtown. We give our cars the all best views here.
It is interesting to me that they are going to replace the Aurelius Road bridge, I still think of it as "new" in that I remember when they built it. Before they built that road you really did not want to go back into those woods, which were full of speeding trains, swamps, and "hobos"as the homeless really were called, that or tramps. Not a place for kids! Back then it seemed like a bridge to no-where. I hope they include the whole road way leading to the bridge as it is really broken up.
I remember them doing some pretty significant work on the Clemens bridge over 496/CSX tracks within the past few years, it was closed for a whole summer. The bridge over the CN tracks is separate and does look to be in pretty rough shape. It's good to see some of these bridges get attention, the North Grand River Ave bridge looks particularly bad.
I'm not at all familiar with the pre-496 configuration of Clemens/Aurelius, but I have wondered that myself.
Looking at Google Streetview it looks like the bridge over 496 did get some pretty extensive work, the whole topside of the bridge looks totally new. The bridge over the Grand River is also newer while that one over the CN tracks is looking rough.
There was no road there, Aurelius ended at Mt. Hope. It seems that some roads like this and Logan/MLK were over built, why a six lane divided highway right through a [my] neighborhood? They were built when GM and Oldsmobile were at their peck employment, so as everyone did back then,they thought that everything was going to just keep growing and we would need all that capacity. Over at Aurelius and Mt Hope one would have to turn left and go to Penn. Ave to cross the tracks and Red Cedar River, trucks had to go to Cedar Street on a four lane Mt Hope Ave.. It is surprising that they did not take out one side of Clemens to extend the highway to Michigan Ave. and I can not remember why they did not.