blueradon

Yeah now that I look at it - the other red square is a tad bit too small Heck - could even do the whole thing as one big parking ramp and build it nice like the ones downtown. Better than a surface lot! And yes - I did make that today - took me an hour compared to them probably taking a month or two

Oh thank the lord for this day

I think it looks like a GRAM wannabe only vertical. I think they need to try something else. (I love the GRAM don't get me wrong - I just don't want every building in town to look like it)

This is my idea for what should be done. Since we all hate one thing the most about lifestyle centers is the sea of parking - I tried to hide it as much as I can - only really leaving one open area from beltline where you could visibly see the parking lot. I guess you can say that some people may not even go in there if they don't see from the road itself that you can park somewhere to shop around. I wanted to keep the retail as close to beltline as I could - and I actually set it up so that people will have to walk on the sidewalk on beltline to get to some of the stores. It adds great frontage instead of the popular regime of placing the buildings backwards. The one thing I did like about their plan was the pond that separates the buildings between neighboring homes. I think this provides a great buffer zone and adds opportunity for other things to be placed around it instead of a parking lot. Map legend is as follows: Pink - Retail only Dark Purple - Mix-use (office/retail with apartments on 2nd and 3rd floors) Orange - Office use with apartments/condo on 2nd and 3rd floors Yellow - service office buildings (restaurants, banks, etc) Blue - Parking Lots (but you could also consider the main roads having angled parking as well Red - Parking Garages (at least 2 stories - to match the height of the buildings) Green - Apartments/Condos/Townhomes Examples of apartment/condo buildings: Mixed-use buildings:

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I hate it. Let's face it. It's one giant strip mall split up into thirds. There's no true "streetscape" and "walkability" between the buildings, they're smashed in between parking lots?! Lifestyle Center my dairy air. This developer has the land to create something marvelous for this corner. As mentioned he could do high scale apartments or condo's...give them a complete modern look. And if anything, I think that traffic light that goes into celebration village from beltline should be a shared traffic light for the other side of the street. I know - even though it's just one more traffic light added to that street - it's not going to do any good if they have to add another one for people to turn left into the property itself and creating a chaotic road situation. Some example of things that could be built there (and heck even some mixed use buildings would be nice)

To add to your skepticism - West Virginia University has a PRT system Couldn't you just picture one of these going from GVSU to Downtown via the Grand River? or Lake Mi Dr?

This is a small and personal HAH moment for me - in the past I have talked about different companies (one in particular) who had plans for designing a transit system in the form of little pod cars that can seat 4 instead of 1 long train cab. Everybody that responded seemed to think this would never happen... Until now The Heathrow Airport now has the cars that will transport people from terminal to terminal - and in Sweden, the city of Saguna is considering to install this into their town. Article

Wonder if Meijer is going to try and do the M@C layout - if they do - chances are that it's going to be implemented in future if not all stores.

Interesting Article I found on Treehugger - though nothing really THAT new per say. Article Link Although some cities may act like it, streets aren't just for private vehicles. They are for pedestrians, bicyclists, skateboarders, public transportation vehicles, and so on and so forth. This idea is certainly not new news to most TH readers, but what is new is that now some localities are actually doing something about it. Progressive localities such as Seattle, Charlotte and Sacramento are starting to design streets specifically to serve multiple uses, not just one dominant type of transportation... This is a great example of why Michigan St does not need to be expanded to 6 lanes.

I don't think anyone could have said it better

I guess some people can't fathom the thought of GR going vertical instead of horizontal. I think it adds a lot of depth to the city - i.e. Monroe Center.

I wish Meijer could do something like this Fat chance, right?c But this is exactly the kind of parking lot design that Meijer needs to have - wide sidewalks between parking spots - although instead of the landscape there should be little ramps to get your cart down to your car thus eliminating (or reducing) the need for people to push carts behind cars with the risk of getting hit - or getting your car banged up. And then every so many spots have an accessible ramp to place your cart It's all about pedestrianalism folks. (my new word of the day)

Is it just me or could anyone imagine another story or two being built on top of it? I think that would be cool.

I think that looks pretty awesome for that corner especially...my only hope is that the view from the corner will be played up a lot as far as looks and will compliment the other buildings. I'm sure it will though.

Hard Work + Comission =

This is beyond off-topic - but I'm a huge Tom Petty fan and I love Stevie Nicks too - I ran across this video from a recent performance in 2006 - love this song and wanted to share it I wish those two would have come to VanAndel together

Thanks - I'm going to try and work on another one -- hopefully I can get it done before Tin Man comes on tonight

I'm so darn mad. I was working on an urban meijer concept this morning and was in a hurry to bring the dog back inside after making a couple screen shots and I didn't save the sketchup file and now it's no more I at least managed to get 2 screen shots before I left the program...I was in quite early stages from anything concrete - but here is what I ended up with before I lost it

Are they getting rid of the ridiculously tall light fixtures now? NICE! I always thought it would have been cool to have ground lights on each side of the pavement shining towards the middle - and you could do them in different colors and such. Only problem would probably be in the winter if snow is on top of it all...and not to mention plows scraping them.

They had the sensors in Raleigh - very effective and for me to know if I should start going the back way or not

I agree it is definitely better -- I don't think it's black though - from the pictures it looks like a dark blueish-gray color to me with some more muted shades of lighter blue I personally think most of the brick buildings downtown should get repainted in different colors - but not like a hot pink or anything of that nature. It would give more character from a street view instead of a monotone street with the same colored brick. But some brick buildings are nice on its own - just not ALL of them.

Well perhaps say if they do end up putting a divided highway on 28th st like the beltline and left a larger medium between the roads that could decrease the setback somewhat- depends on all what is in the way I suppose.

Are there any plans to have a line go down 28th street? I think that would be an essential strip for public transportation...and the beltline

All I can say is I don't want to be next to one of those bad boys or the transformer when lightning strikes

Yeah someone I know that works at Meijer said that all the stores will eventually have the electronic boards - not ASAP or anything but soon. Ok so I did some revamping on my project (somewhat) I thought it'd be a better idea to bring the e4 into play in the front and give it some attention... now on to the interior!