sonic
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Posts posted by sonic
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I know I haven't posted in a loooong time, but I saw some of my pics reposted here, and I figured I'd share a couple more! :-) Sharing the previous two at higher res. Enjoy. Let me know if you want to know where to find more of my shots!
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From what I can tell, these stations will be located on the edges of the street, rather than the center. That is disappointing, as I think it makes an eventual upgrade to light rail less likely.
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"For starters, I think they should ditch the "Celebration!" name and signage. Give the theater a classy name and move away from the look of existing Celebration! locations. The current name and signage is really tacky, IMO." I agree. On Harvard Square there is a Dunkin' Doughnuts where the branding is concealed and goes by the name "Eliot Street Cafe." I'm sure there are other examples, but it's the only one I can think of right now. Something similar would be nice for Celebration.. andrew.w points out that the rendering shows a sign that reads "MIDTOWN".
On the subject of architects, I toured FTC&H headquarters as a high school student and have since then been generally underwhelmed by their work. Still, for this theater, I don't think we should hope for anything like the Chicago Public Library, though, like x99, I am also a fan. We already have world-class/innovative/interesting architecture (witness Vinoly's Van Andel Institute). We've half proven ourselves as a city. But we're not there quite yet. For a theater, making a "statement" should be the last of anyone's concern--if, and when, MSU decides to build on the former GRPress site, there is an opportunity to make a statement. But for a theater, some serious, urban, generic, architecture, like that seen on a wide scale in any major city, is what is needed. Nothing fancy, just plain urban (eg. the Chicago AMC discussed above). That, IMHO, is the opportunity to be seized. That, in itself, would be a statement. In a way, it would mean Grand Rapids taking itself slightly more seriously as a city.
As for parking, I am not against on-site parking per se, but there is no reason parking should not/could not be somehow integrated into the building--there are plenty of local examples of that approach, i.e. the UICA, and 38 Commerce, so Loeks/the architects should be well aware of that option.
Finally, to respond to Quercus' comment about the area between 131, the transit district, and Ionia-Oakes, I have always dreamed of something like this for GR:
A great way of bridging/integrating urban spaces. This is John Street in Liverpool, but this type of street is seen in Hong Kong, Tokyo and I'm sure other places as well. Something like this would be a nice way of connecting the Van Andel Arena as it expands, to the theater, and environs.
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I like to gripe about parking lots as much as the next guy, but lack of parking is a valid point. This building appears to be rather sprawling instead of being vertically oriented. Personally, I would like to see them put the theater on top of the Government Center ramp. We can donate the Calder to Padnos. Heh, heh, heh.
Seriously, though, this would be a nice development, although I really wish they would do something more substantial with the building other than this glass-and-metallish-crap-encased-suburbanesque-vomit-inducing stink bomb. (Fire the architects. Now.) Something like the AMC River East 21 in Chicago would be nice. (Yeah, right--won't happen). Toss in a ramp like the Ellis ramp on Pearl between Ottawa and Monroe, with ticketing and retail on the ground floor, and the theaters above, with a snazzy "sky lobby" accessed by a trio of huge glass elevators. (Loeks' has the scratch for it--call it a "gift" to downtown). And I don't even want to think about the gaudy, heinous Celebration!(!!!!!!!) interior this will probably have. Here's a challenge: Make the old Cinemarks that Loeks bought look like dumps. Go whole hog "vintage" with a grand lobby, and a proper marquee out front. Won't ever happen, but a guy can dream, can't he? (I'm so greedy--griping about the ugly design of a proposed downtown theater. Really?)
Yes! Yes! Yes!
"Something like the AMC River East 21 in Chicago would be nice." Yep, or the Yonge and Dundas AMC in Toronto, or any of the theaters in Times Square in NYC. Question is, how can we exercise our collective muscle to help make something like that happen, rather than the "glass-and-metallish-crap-encased-suburbanesque-vomit-inducing stink bomb"?
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I doubt the event will be mentioned, or only mentioned briefly by a reporter or two. Despite the fact that GR has garnered a lot of attention the past month or so it seems, and many of my friend/coworkers know I'm from Grand Rapids, not one has said anything to me about the lipdub, the murders, or now, the death/burial of Mrs. Ford in GR. I've told many people to check out the lipdub, and some did (and liked it), but if I hadn't bothered to urge them to check out the lipdub, I don't think many, if any, would have ever noticed it. For that matter, a friend of mine told me she had no idea where GR is. I've showed her many times where it is on my "hand", but I had to walk her through it one more time. Granted, she's not very a good at understanding driving directions, let alone knowing US geography. Sorry guys, but that's the perspective from Denver, good or bad.
FWIW We probably shouldn't feel too slighted. Surprisingly enough, I've met people (Americans and Canadians) who don't know where New York City is.
I also met someone who went to NYC, and had no idea it is near the ocean.
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GR Press article about a feature in Men's Journal
http://www.mlive.com...ice_things.html
And, the feature itself:
http://media.trb.com...20-08095336.pdf
As the GR Press article points out, maybe the best part is that we're listed as Grand Rapids--not as Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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Not to get off topic but, seeing Two Fountain Place in your first pic made me remember my long held fantasy of seeing them build a Meijer in there.
The views from Gallery on Fulton's apartments are about as awesome as you would expect, maybe moreso.
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It is an elevator tower finished in brick.
ugh... that sucks. way to break with the style of the rest of the building, which even though its not the greatest, was nonethess at least uniform aside from the tower...
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I cringe every time I see those photos.
I don't think it's so much a question of what is art, but of basic aesthetics... some things are just ugly. And, those table and chairs imho fit the bill. Again, i'm just voicing an opinion, but they just looked *tacky* up there on the bridge.
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I'm not a big fan of the waves, and would have preferred something more along the lines of what GRdad posted. I'll admit though that it could have been a lot worse. Does anyone know if that black section on the south side of the HDCH is still unfinished? It sure looks like it, but I haven't looked at it closely.
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With the cladding going onto the tower, I can't help but to be reminded of vinyl siding, or a pole-barn each time I look at this building.
yes, its too bad about the aluminum siding. I just had a look at John's April pics (thanks for those by the way, John), and I can only hope it ends up looking better when finished.
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I know AirTran coming to GR is not new news....
This was in USA today:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=76575.blog
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You're right - 28th/Beltline is completely impractical. I should've made it clearer I was speaking in hyperbole, envisioning this massive circle like the Lambeth Bridge Roundabout from European Vacation, or even better, the "Magic Roundabout" in Swindon, England:
Definitely my favorite intersection of all time!
Would love to see it in action for myself one day.I hear what you're saying, and I agree circles on the Beltline wouldn't be a bad thing, but my point was that my first intersections of choice would be ones where traffic is coming, going, and turning in all directions in fairly equal proportions. On East Beltline intersections, a heavy majority of the traffic is north/south, so a heavy majority of green light time is given to those directions. As it is now, you can drive from 28th to Knapp in 10 minutes, and on to West River in another 10. That's as fast as non-freeway corridor is going to get; we couldn't ask for better. And if you want to make the Beltline safer and more gas-efficient, you could put express lanes that pass over the intersections instead of circles.
It's true that Michigan Lefts are getting installed all over the place in corners that don't need them, like on 44th Street, for example. I would look to that route and others like it first.
Good points. The flyover idea for the beltline is a nice one. But at that point it's almost an expressway. I seem to remember in Virginia in particular many high capacity roads use a system like that. Of course it is probably in use elsewhere as well. I guess re-working the Beltline won't be high on the priority list, when all is said and done, there are many more pressing issues. Chicago drive, and 44th, as you mentioned are good corridors to eye for some sort of re-working. Perhaps it won't be roundabouts that are deemed most effective, they don't work in every situation.
BTW, that famous diagram of the roundabout threw me for a huge loop when I saw it for the first time. Have you seen the actual picture of it? I found it via google images, and it looks almost exactly like the diagram. Good example of how the Brits can get out of hand with the roundabouts sometimes. I dont know how the roads are in that particular area, but something tells me that they could have worked out somthing a bit less complicated than that...
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Roundabouts on major corridors like like East Beltline only make sense if there's an intersection with another major corridor, and there aren't really any out there. Most of the streets crossing it, like Fulton or Leonard or Knapp, have pretty light traffic, and most of the people crossing those intersections aren't making turns (that's why they use Michigan Lefts - they keep traffic moving straight in respective directions).
On the other hand, East Beltline/28th Street is a pretty big intersection, and they COULD put a roundabout there, but the double left-turn lane configuration they have now is working just fine, IMO. 28th Street does get backed up sometimes, but not to a point where it's worth tearing up the ground.
Check out the mid-June posts in this thread... We discussed the HYRAIL idea in more detail. The way I see it, any money spent on these tracks would be much better spent investing in high-speed rail. But that's just me.
Speaking of which, I think GR should lobby long and hard to the point of obnoxiousness towards inclusion in any high-speed rail projects that pop up in the midwest. Since we're kind of out of the way, it'll be tough, but I think GR should do everything it can not to be left out of this.
Regarding the roundabouts on the Beltline, I disagree that they need to be on high-capacity corridors. In fact I would argue the opposite. Remember that the purpose of a roundabout is to keep most of the traffic on the road MOVING. With the stoplights that we have now, many vehicles are required to STOP, not once, but twice. A roundabout slows traffic, of course, but it keeps moving; this is also a safety feature, and is much more environmentally sound (starting from a dead stop is very inefficient.) They would be perfect at mid-capacity corridors like 3-mile and Knapp, and possibly Leonard; Also possibly Cascade Rd. I would think that 28th and Beltline might be the last place we could put one, it is the busiest intersection in the area (as far as I remember) and might not benefit that much from a roundabout. We might also consider those median openings on Chicago drive that M-dot was recently pegging for closure...
The worst part is this idea keeps resurfacing every 3 years or so, taking peoples' eyes off the ball trying to institute true mass transit in Michigan.Indeed.
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John, I know we have roundabouts
that's why I mentioned the Beltline.In Britain there are roundabouts on many primary and secondary roads like the Beltline. Such roundabouts are much larger than those on Wealthy, of course, to accommodate the higher volume traffic and higher speeds.
to get back to the topic. I agree with Grdad, the GR-Detroit hydrogen rail thing sounds ridiculous.
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Not sure this is the right forum for this but... I was thinking about the recent initiatives to bring roundabouts to Michigan and Grand Rapids. It occurred to me that one place that could benefit greatly from roundabouts is the East Beltline. All of those Michigan lefts are unnecessary stops. It would be a lot easier to convert some of those intersections to roundabouts too, where there is much more space to do it than say, in an urban area. Just a thought...
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The Core or The Pulse sound like names for Nightclubs, and would be cool for such venues... I have personally thought "the Core" would be a good name for a club in the past. No personal offense indented, but as was previously mentioned, I think really considering the function of the venue here really makes a difference. "The addition" sounds good to me... I think the place needs to be named in the same vein as other venues of its type, like the sixteenth street mall in Denver, or the Sony Centre in Berlin. My point is that it is a venue that encompasses a lot of different functions, and it is a spot that will be a draw for people all over the area and beyond. We can't have a name that suggests a very specific function. That's why I personally think addition works well, (it doesnt seem too tied to any specifc idea, yet it has a certain cache,) which is liked in a way to the BOB and also why _____ Mall or _____Centre work well....
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This is sweet, it's exactly what we need, imho. like a more extensive version of the sony centre in Berlin, or the thing on the 16th street mall in Denver. I'm a big fan of the indoor/outdoor sort of thing.
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Okay, with official permission, here's some URLs to make it a little easier to check this out if you're interested:
http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/watch-...tion-initiative
www.transitionculture.org
www.transitiontowns.org
There are 2 of the 12 Transition steps where Detroit is ahead of GR or in a better position:
Detroit just announced community currency and they have a lot of vacant land that can be used to grow food. We'll have to go micro-local and everyone give their yards over to food not lawn production.
Not that this is a competition. The more cities that adopt the model, the better for everyone, everywhere.
Zenstyle, thanks for that post. I hadn't (and haven't) tried to find out if there are any U.S. cities that are "official" Transition Towns (if there is such a credential). While it might be an ego boost or PR generator to say one is the first, having others as models is useful. I find the categories mentioned in the video 'WATCH: Rob Hopkins Explains the Transition Initiative' (first URL) amusing: about 200 UK town are "mulling", 12 are "fully endorsed".
While I highly doubt that's what will be anounced, I am quite intrigued by this vision of the future. In many ways it seems a mix of Rousseau, Marx, Bakunin etc...
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Hey everybody, I've been lurking in this forum for a few years now, and I've enjoyed the information and discussions! I recently moved to Toronto, and I decided to join the form to keep up with developments in GR.
I was wondering... whet do you guys think about the exterior of the LHCP, I find it really lacks "something" like trim. The edges just look too rough to me, it just looks artificial, for lack of a better descriptor, it looks almost like they just plopped down the rendering of the building on the hillside. I really wish they'd add some "edging" to the sandstone, that would complete the look for me.
Would love to see it in action for myself one day.
that's why I mentioned the Beltline.
Hinman project - new 13 story hotel at 10 Ionia
in Grand Rapids
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Thanks Joe and everyone!! :-)