Midtown Development

[andrew.w]

The arches on the Crystal Lofts replicate the original ones that were there. Those windows look the same as the ones they replaced. If you mean why was that style chosen originally, I do not know.

And yes, the corner piece will be repaired as well.

[TheDetroitCity99]

yay!yay!yay!yay!yay!yay!Look at all of those construction workers. It's like someone sent a giant team and said fix up the city!!Absolutly breathtaking!!

[tapezord]

yay!yay!yay!yay!yay!yay!Look at all of those construction workers. It's like someone sent a giant team and said fix up the city!!Absolutly breathtaking!!

[TheDetroitCity99]

it wasn't me, i swear!

[tapezord]

roger penske

[Michi]

November 03, 2007

So ugly, lol.

Yay!

[tapezord]

November 03, 2007

So ugly, lol.

[Michi]

Yah, I keep looking at the rendering and telling myself, c'mon...everything's going to turn out ok. So long as it doesn't rain and dissolve the facade.

Every day when I ride home from work, I keep anticipating the start of the second level of construction...I've been doing this since August. ARG! Any day now.

[Ka3kab]

Here was an article from the Traverse City Record-Eagle about the development at Wayne State and Midtown in general. I'm sure it's just a story ripped from the Free Press or the News so I'm almost sure most of you have seen it. My point in showing here though is that finally, here was a good story about Detroit in an outstate newspaper, in Traverse City of all places.

[Michi]

The more and more Detroit reflects the positives of the rest of America's big cities, the more and more it is going to become difficult to deny it and only rely on false perceptions of death.

[wolverine]

Ouch, belly flop.

For those concerned, the fact that this is already looking ugly has nothing to do with the amount of money invested in the project. It's a really a result of poor design. SE Michigan is in desperate need of talented architects who are willing to make good visual impact in a city in transition. Unfortunately, out of all the graduating architecture students in my class, no one really stuck around here in Michigan, because what they see above. I'm curious why new low income housing projects in Chicago, constructed at much cheaper costs can pull of a rich and well constructed facade >>> See Cabrini Green Redevelopment.

I think our renovations are pretty damn good, but the buildings were designed almost 100 years back.

[tapezord]

Ouch, belly flop.

For those concerned, the fact that this is already looking ugly has nothing to do with the amount of money invested in the project. It's a really a result of poor design. SE Michigan is in desperate need of talented architects who are willing to make good visual impact in a city in transition. Unfortunately, out of all the graduating architecture students in my class, no one really stuck around here in Michigan, because what they see above. I'm curious why new low income housing projects in Chicago, constructed at much cheaper costs can pull of a rich and well constructed facade >>> See Cabrini Green Redevelopment.

I think our renovations are pretty damn good, but the buildings were designed almost 100 years back.

[detroitfan]

Remember, it was WSU who picked the developer and first approved this project, though since it was a parking lot it likely required rezoning. It was mentioned on this forum that precast concrete was going to be used, we saw the same renderings and all of us thought this to be a pretty nice project. So I have a hard time faulting WSU or the planning commission for approving this project when I thought it'd turn out better myself.

[Michi]

Though I don't know all the details behind the forbidden curtain regarding this project and the decisions that were made to get it off the ground, I would imagine that WSU is more to "blame" for the cheapness than the city, as detfan stated, it is their project and investment.

The original proposal involved a Chicago development firm that came to speak to my class one night a couple of years ago. They had a really nice plan of condos and apartments actually in a village format. The buildings completely surrounded the garages (I think there were two) and the developer couldn't stress enough the term, "eyes on the street".

For some reason or another, WSU dropped this original plan and S. Univ. Village when quiet for quite some time. The news of this current development came up rather quickly, so obviously, despite all of us nosies, there was stuff going on behind the scene and the end result is what we're getting. I do recall somewhere, some time, that it was mentioned that WSU thought the original proposal was too risky for the investment. I don't know how true that is, but I would have rather seen that pull through. Windows and storefronts on Forest? You bet. Now, it's just another blank space used for entering and exiting cars. It does nothing for Forest and its unpleasing aesthetic and pedestrian unfriendliness...although I would imagine that there will be improvements, especially since the garage will be a major pedestrian connector to main campus. Hopefully, that surface lot across the street will be developed with something quality in the near future being that whatever the use is, they have ample parking across the street!

[YoungProfDetroit]

The overall finished project can only help the area.

I'm a new developer in town that is very interested to hear anyone's thoughts on the future of this neighborhood and the adjacent areas.

Please share.

[dtown]

Man, that facade is crap. Hopefully it looks better when its all put together. I guess a new building in the neighborhood can't really hurt it, though.

[Michi]

Yah, the pukey pink slabs twinkle in the sunlight because it has that wierd, textured, sandpaper-like finish to it. I hope it's not made out of sand! lol

Welcome to the area, Detprof! Anyone who'se spent time in Detroit (proper) knows how much of a gold mine Midtown is, as well as the central business district and property along and adjacent to the riverfront. This country is in a major transition between generations of lifestyles where 50 years ago, the change was to develop and grow by keeping up with the suburbs and cars. Now, we've "run that well dry" both literally and figuratively. Planning for the future in cities means planning for the young and old together as one element and then planning for everyone else in addition.

By planning for the young and elderly, you create cities that demand walkability and thus recreating them back to the human spirit...back from worshiping the rubber and metal clumps that we call automobiles. At the same time, people desire both, or all modes of transportation and therefore lifestyles, so I think once you set the standard to plan for the young and elderly, planning for everyone else (families) comes naturally. By young, I mean young professionals and those who dictate successful cities.

Midtown Detroit particularly is a blank canvas with a lot of assets from the past in which to work with. That makes it pretty unique and so real estate is going explode someday. (Explode in Detroit terms ). There are already some cases that it has and so once we start implimenting the foundations of permanent success (hint: mass transit), we will essentially be locking in our confidence that yes, we want Detroit to compete not only with other cities, but with itself to offer its citizens a world class place to exist like it once did.

[tracer1138]

The overall finished project can only help the area.

I'm a new developer in town that is very interested to hear anyone's thoughts on the future of this neighborhood and the adjacent areas.

Please share.

[Jasoncw]

It's disappointing to me how poor the design is on so many of these new projects. I'd love to design something for midtown like that, and I'd definitely try to do a good job with it. Like Wolverine said, something doesn't need to be expensive to be well designed.

As far as Midtown's future goes, if I had lots of money to go around investing with, I'd definitely put some in Midtown. It might be one of the only places in Detroit that I think it would be a genuinely good investment.

Young Prof Detroit, welcome to the forum. Whatever you do, no townhouses please, lol. I'm not familiar enough with architecture firms, but someone here can probably say what firms do good jobs at the types of buildings that would be built in Midtown. You could possibly do some kind of design competition as well, although I don't know how those are organized. I think there is a market of architecture/urban enthusiasts who would like to live in a modern high design type building, and as far as I know there aren't any of those in Midtown, or Downtown. Off the top of my head, I don't think there are any in all of metro Detroit.

But really the best thing to do is just participate on these forums, and of course to walk around Midtown.

[YoungProfDetroit]

Thank you for all for the valuable insight. From what I have gathered here and from speaking with local area residents, it seems like Midtown along with Downtown/Riverfront are going to pave the way for Detroit's success.

As to what I plan on bringing to Midtown, here is a quick description of a typical development:

• Ground floor retail, national chains preferably. These proven business models can work well in any high density area, it really comes down to giving them a good design and location within the target neighborhood or district.

• A mixture of environmental conscience luxury for-sale and rental housing. My developments are a blend of historic charm and modern sophistication.

• To date, nothing more than 4-5 levels.

In regards to mass transit, I don't see how Detroit can afford not to implement a LR line up Woodward to Royal Oak and Birmingham. Hopefully the area's leaders will move sooner than later on this project. Have there been any dates set?

[tracer1138]

check out the DTOGS website.

http://www.dtogs.com/main.html

for information on previous studies and long range transportation plans there's SEMCOG's page

http://www.semcog.org/

and given the proximity of the Amtrak station downtown, there's the Ann Arbor to Detroit transit study

http://www.annarbordetroitrapidtransitstudy.com/

There's hasn't been too much movement of late on a lot of these, but you can contact people at each of those pages specifically to get updates.

[hudkina]

You might have a problem attracting national chains to the city. They tend to view the market as unprofitable.

[Michi]

Sounds pretty educated to me, tracer.

[Michi]

YPD, sounds like you have some pretty good vision, however from an urban planner's standpoint (who isn't yet practicing) I would say that structures built along Woodward specifically, should be taller. There is a height-to-width ratio for roadway corridors that should be adhered to. I have to refer to one of my books for the details, but basically the concept is that to uphold an urban, walkable design, wider streets need taller buildings (not necessarily high rises).

A good visual of this would be the wide boulevards in Paris that are lined with the beautiful, what 8 to 15 story, architecturally significant structures? Washington DC is good at that too. I'm not assuming you plan to develop on Woodward, but I thought I would throw that out there. Places like the Ellington and South University Village, I would say are the MINIMUM height requirement that Woodward should create. As a vision for the future, think of the intersection of Woodward and Mack/MLK. You have the Ellington and Orchestra Place across the street that physically enhance the urban sense of place. On the two south sides, you have the Red Cross parking lot and a vacant, tattered lot on the west side. If there was a provision that demanded that those two lots be developed with the Ellington and OP as minimal density examples, think of how urban and vibrant those 4 corners could become...essentially spurring further urban development along both corridors and eventually contributing to the demand for mass transit in the near future.

I do like your focus on national chains though. I know a lot of people are critical of them and I am too, but I do realize that they are a necessary component of any retail presence. They offer name recognition that offers consumer confidence in knowing what to expect from them. In turn, the luring of consumers to the location would drive the demand and supply for local retail that would be significantly driven by the presence of national retail. The two then coexist and maybe compete successfully. All the best in your efforts with Detroit!

[TheDetroitCity99]

National chains have come to detroit and are making good profits, but I wouldn't go for the typical Starbucks and random stores. It would be great if you could get things like gap,cafes or even some upscale stores. Detroit has cheap discount stores, and then very upscale stores. It has nothing to suit the average joe. Thats why I think something like gap would make amazing profit.