2410 | 2420 Burton St SE - CWD

[twoshort]

Just got notice of a neighborhood meeting with CWD to discuss the planned redevelopment of the SE corner of Burton and Breton. Currently a vacant building and a vacant lot.  Anyone got the scoop, pre-meeting?

[GRBorn]

When's the meeting? Can you post the notice?

[twoshort]

June 6 7pm at Open Bible Church on Alger. There wasn't much more to the announcement than that.

[twoshort]

Rite Aid will be moving from inside Breton Village to the SE Corner of Breton and Burton allowing CWD to continue the process of de-malling Breton Village according to Scott Wierda.

I, for one, will be emailing the planning commission and request they accept CWDs proposal to push the building back in the site, instead of placing it at the sidewalk as per their urbanization guidelines.  Requiring that regardless of context is so silly to me.  

[GR_Urbanist]

1 hour ago, twoshort said:

Rite Aid will be moving from inside Breton Village to the SE Corner of Breton and Burton allowing CWD to continue the process of de-malling Breton Village according to Scott Wierda.

I, for one, will be emailing the planning commission and request they accept CWDs proposal to push the building back in the site, instead of placing it at the sidewalk as per their urbanization guidelines.  Requiring that regardless of context is so silly to me.  

That's interesting.

Why not have the building at the sidewalk? Shouldn't the efforts be about orienting buildings so that they front the sidewalk instead of behind a parking lot?

[twoshort]

On 6/8/2016 at 5:16 PM, GR_Urbanist said:

That's interesting.

Why not have the building at the sidewalk? Shouldn't the efforts be about orienting buildings so that they front the sidewalk instead of behind a parking lot?

Nothing else on the four corners is to the sidewalk. Not the gas station, nor bank, nor dentists office.  Those buildings will not be rebuilt or changed for decades (all recently renovated/purchase/leased with exception to gas station).  It simply isn't in context.  I despise that Subway building at Michigan and Fuller for much of the same reasons.

[GR_Urbanist]

42 minutes ago, twoshort said:

Nothing else on the four corners is to the sidewalk. Not the gas station, nor bank, nor dentists office.  Those buildings will not be rebuilt or changed for decades (all recently renovated/purchase/leased with exception to gas station).  It simply isn't in context.  I despise that Subway building at Michigan and Fuller for much of the same reasons.

That Subway building is horrid urbanism for sure because there is no interaction with the street... but it actually hits the sidewalk.

And I think that's why it is important that buildings do that even on broad streets like Burton/Breton.

 

These establishments will not be there forever. Eventually corporate HQ will pull the plug on this location, and the next tenant may not be a multi-million dollar national brand. It may even be a tacky outlet selling who knows what. But if that building is set behind a parking lot, it will just make the view even worse because now you have a marginal establishment, occupying a building with a ratty, likely unkempt lot, full of cracks, oil stains, and faded paint (with little money to keep it in good shape). There are tons of examples of this between Kalamazoo and Division on 28th street. Those places have to rely on bright, garish, and ever more tacky visual tricks to get people from the road that is several meters away to notice them.

At least at some point the Subway building CAN be fixed just like buildings in places like Uptown are altered to open up once boarded-up windows and abandoned sidewalk-facing doors are put back into use. Since those buildings were originally made to fit within a true urban context, it makes the job just that much easier even 30 years after they were originally covered-up. If Uptown was full of building set behind parking lots, it would never be where it is today. Those locations also don't need big signs on sticks to show people driving by that they exist.

Yes, those buildings at this particular intersection will be there for a long time yet, but urban development runs in cycles of 10s of years, and if you set down a marker now in favor of something that conforms to the simple notion of a building fronting the street to the sidewalk, then that case can be made in the future that when it comes time to rebuild the other corners, that they need to conform to the vision that was laid out today, instead of just putting in more of the same, because it's just how it has always been. Once Rite Aid moves on, then at least the building will sill have its more appealing and proper urban-oriented configuration, albeit out of place in the current context. It will have a better chance of landing a better tenant than if it was like its neighbors.