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JW Marriott Hotel

GRDadof3

By GRDadof3
in Grand Rapids

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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Uggh! I just watched the video, and it's what I expected. It's not only the blank wall at the street level at Pearl, but it rises up 3 stories above the trees as well, and it just looks like pre-cast concrete with two different color tones. It cracks me up. It's almost as if they are hoping to impress people by the 3D computer graphics so that they won't notice what they are looking at?? And the lobby area facing the river looks pretty impressive, but it's going to be uncomfortably bright in there in the afternoon. Just my humble opinion. ;)

http://www.alticorhotel.com/video.html

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torgo Town

torgo

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Uggh! I just watched the video, and it's what I expected. It's not only the blank wall at the street level at Pearl, but it rises up 3 stories above the trees as well, and it just looks like pre-cast concrete with two different color tones. It cracks me up. It's almost as if they are hoping to impress people by the 3D computer graphics so that they won't notice what they are looking at?? And the lobby area facing the river looks pretty impressive, but it's going to be uncomfortably bright in there in the afternoon. Just my humble opinion. ;)

I think that is exactly what the video is supposed to do. A few trees and a snazzy video will have people too enthralled to go "Hey...why aren't there any windows?" That stupid box belongs out on 28th Street, not downtown. Ugghh indeed. The hotel looks very impressive, indeed. Its the rest of the project that has me concerned.

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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It's kind of strange too that they oriented the entire "gateway" of the building toward that little Louis Street dead end. by doing that, they dumped all of the mechanical portions of the ballroom building (security offices, kitchen, maintenance, service entrances, etc.) at Pearl Street. Check out the first 3 floors of the site plans:

http://www.alticorhotel.com/site_plans.html

This is the only one I could figure out how to post due to them being FLASH files:

alticor4.jpg

This big "block" on the corner appears to contain stairwells. Why not enclose them in glass???

alticor3.jpg

If you watch the video again, as you round the corner from Campau to Louis Street, you feel like you are pulling into a high-security drop off point. Maybe that was their intention? It does appear that there are some kind of windows on the ground floor of the new ramp, but that's it.

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torgo Town

torgo

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It's kind of strange too that they oriented the entire "gateway" of the building toward that little Louis Street dead end. by doing that, they dumped all of the mechanical portions of the ballroom building (security offices, kitchen, maintenance, service entrances, etc.) at Pearl Street. Check out the first 3 floors of the site plans:

This is the only one I could figure out how to post due to them being FLASH files:

This big "block" on the corner appears to contain stairwells. Why not enclose them in glass???

If you watch the video again, as you round the corner from Campau to Louis Street, you feel like you are pulling into a high-security drop off point. Maybe that was their intention? It does appear that there are some kind of windows on the ground floor of the new ramp, but that's it.

What really gets me is that they didn't appear to give an ounce of thought to what the Pearl Street environment was going to be. Instead of a blank wall, why not a few windows? Even if there is nothing worth looking at, at least it would break up the monotony of the wall. Instead of three rows of trees, why not some well-maintained planters with some benches and tables, or a statue, a or piece of art, or some displays, or exhibits of historical significance? Instead of that long hallway/alley across from the Amway Grand Entrance, why couldn't they put a nice doorway on the corner facing Pearl and move the hallway inside? The way it looks now, when Amway Grand patrons emerge on to Pearl, there will be a huge ominous blank wall staring at them from across the street. That whole design there is extremely disappointing from what I can see.

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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I'm going to shoot an e-mail to Beta Design Group about these issues. I know they've already started excavating, but it's not unusual to tweak design while under construction. They need to get more windows on that Pearl Street side. Even if they have to put windows on that second floor storage room that don't actually work, that would be better. Does anyone know who the local contact there is on this?

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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Here are the minutes from the February planning commission meeting, where a lot of those issues we are discussing were brought, but yet they seem to have been glossed right over. Most of the discussion kept going back to the skywalks <_<

http://www.ci.grand-rapids.mi.us/meeting.p...49&type=minutes

and here is Beta Design Groups general info e-mail address:

[email protected]

and the principle at Lohan in charge of this project is John Arzarian Jr (from one of the articles):

http://www.lohan.com/contact.asp

(the only Lohan contact info)

Oh, and I shouldn't forget our elected officials:

http://www.ci.grand-rapids.mi.us/index.pl?page_id=777

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torgo Town

torgo

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Here are some pertinent excerpts from the minutes (thanks GrDad):

Ms. Works asked to see the elevation that will replace the Israels building along Pearl.

Currently as one walks west along the south side of Pearl it is unfriendly. The Israels

building, with its transparency, used to be the friendly spot one could walk toward. She

is concerned that that is being replaced with something welcoming. Ms. Works asked

what the fa

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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The windows are not on the "big block" on the corner, but are tucked back into that recessed area to the right in the rendering. I just sent an e-mail to Bill Hoyt at the planning commission and cc'd Mike Lloyd at the Grand Rapids Press. Why do I feel like we are the only ones concerned about this?? They could at least add glass to the service stairwell at the corner of Campau and Pearl up to the third floor, which would make a world of difference.

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Nitro Burg

Nitro

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and the principle at Lohan in charge of this project is John Arzarian Jr (from one of the articles):

http://www.lohan.com/contact.asp

(the only Lohan contact info)

Actually the principle in charge of that project is Michael Kaufman. You can ask him all the questions you like on Oct. 27th when the AIA brings him to town. There is usually a $10 fee for non AIA members.

Check out this link. http://www.gvaia.org/f/octoberposter.pdf

Nitro

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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Actually the principle in charge of that project is Michael Kaufman. You can ask him all the questions you like on Oct. 27th when the AIA brings him to town. There is usually a $10 fee for non AIA members.

Check out this link. http://www.gvaia.org/f/octoberposter.pdf

Nitro

Thanks for the tip Nitro. I'll resend my e-mail to her. They should reprint that flyer showing the Pearl Street elevation, and I bet they'd sell the program out :P

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torgo Town

torgo

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Looking closer at the renderings, there might be some windows along Pearl, but not many. They are pretty darn disguised behind the trees, though. In this image the ugly part on the corner dominates the picture, I don't know why they did that.

hotel_pearlSt_3.jpg

These next two renderings are a little different. It looks the corner of Pearl and Campau is gonna be a stairwell, and it sticks out a little. Moving westward along Pearl, where the wall recesses, is where the windows might be, but they are hard to see in the top rendering. I like the pattern in which the trees are planted better in the first pic than the bottom one. They oughta put a bunch of tables or benches or something there to create a more pedestrian-friendly environment. Theres a good sized planter there, too.

hotel_pearlSt_2.jpg

hotel_pearlSt_1.jpg

Does anyone have a Pearl Street elevation without all the trees and crap in the way? That would be the best way to tell...

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Nitro Burg

Nitro

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Geez, had to go back three pages to find this thread.

Michael Kaufman from Lohan was the featured speaker at the AIA meeting last night. He talked about the history of the Lohan firm growing from Mies Van der Rohe to the firm that they are today. One thing I didn't realize is that they are the firm that designed the "space ship" at Soldier Field in Chicago. Still don't feel comfy about that one.

He also talked quite a bit about the J.W. Marriott and showed quite a few renderings and a three minute animation that was done for marketing. If it gets built like the animation it should be pretty darn sweet. There is supposed to be a full height atrium that is located near the elevator core. When you get off of the elevators to go to your room you are looking at the atrium and the river beyond. It was very cool.

The reason for the park type setting along Pearl was that they didn't want to confict with the automobile traffic entering and exiting the Amway Grand. That end of the building that is near Pearl is administrative offices.

It should prove interesting.

Nitro

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torgo Town

torgo

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A nice big sculpture would probably win me over on this one. :) I still think the Pearl side looks crappy. Especially the 7 months we don't have leaves... ;)

Joe

Yah, that would help a lot. The Pearl Street side will have reasonably decent transparency; it won't be totally blank. Boring? Maybe, but at least it'll have windows. ;)

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