Hinman project - new 13 story hotel at 10 Ionia

[joeDowntown]

It’s going to be a fantastic building. I bet it’ll be a lot of people’s favorite once built. 

Joe

[HavingAhoot]

On 1/18/2019 at 6:44 PM, joeDowntown said:

It’s going to be a fantastic building. I bet it’ll be a lot of people’s favorite once built. 

Joe

Ha it already is.. Honorable mentions go to McKay,  801 Monroe, 27 Library, Pantlind Hotel

[Guest]

Am I the only one that's a little surprised there's only a chain link fence around this giant hole?  I would have thought for sure they would put up concrete barriers.  

[joeDowntown]

[GRDadof3]

12 hours ago, Floyd_Z said:

Am I the only one that's a little surprised there's only a chain link fence around this giant hole?  I would have thought for sure they would put up concrete barriers.  

To keep suicide bombers from driving into it? 

[MJLO]

22 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

To keep suicide bombers from driving into it? 

Or drunk coeds heading back to the Westside from a bar on Ionia at 2am?

[GRDadof3]

48 minutes ago, MJLO said:

Or drunk coeds heading back to the Westside from a bar on Ionia at 2am?

They would have driven into the Sheldon/Division hole already. 

[GVSUChris]

[kwl]

One can only wonder if they've got a building up their sleeves for the parking garage parcel?

Also, cue John Wick?

[Prankster]

31 minutes ago, kwl said:

One can only wonder if they've got a building up their sleeves for the parking garage parcel?

Also, cue John Wick?

So they will only accept gold coins? 

[joeDowntown]

I hope they light the top like the rendering shows.

[GRDadof3]

9 hours ago, GVSUChris said:

Damn that is sexy.  

[jonrapley]

It's still kinda weird to see a skywalk to such a small parking ramp, however this still remains a very exciting project. 

[EastCoaster93]

The project looks great. So much better than some of the value engineered hotels and apartments that are springing up in GR and across the country. I tend to think it fits that lot way more than a 40+ story tower would. However, I’m still perplexed that Hinman wouldn’t renovate the parking garage to make it look a little more asthetically pleasing. The skywalk going towards that structure just looks odd. Hopefully that parking garage gets demolished soon for another development. It’s a perfect area in that rapidly expanding part of town. 

[HavingAhoot]

20 hours ago, GVSUChris said:

I like the building. And I know we've been over this over and over but proportion wise it even looks like it had 5 stories chopped from it.

[GR_Urbanist]

3 hours ago, HavingAhoot said:

I like the building. And I know we've been over this over and over but proportion wise it even looks like it had 5 stories chopped from it. 

On paper, at least, it did!

 

But I just think in term of the history of McKay Tower, and that at some point in the future it will get more floors, and really look "whole".

[GRDadof3]

14 hours ago, EastCoaster93 said:

The project looks great. So much better than some of the value engineered hotels and apartments that are springing up in GR and across the country. I tend to think it fits that lot way more than a 40+ story tower would. However, I’m still perplexed that Hinman wouldn’t renovate the parking garage to make it look a little more asthetically pleasing. The skywalk going towards that structure just looks odd. Hopefully that parking garage gets demolished soon for another development. It’s a perfect area in that rapidly expanding part of town. 

The hotel lobby is going to be on the second floor, which might be part of the reason for the skywalk. I do believe one drawing had the ground floor of the parking ramp fixed up a bit, with windows added. Does Hinman still own the building at Ionia and Monroe Center? Where the City Flats banquet space is? I thought that ramp provided parking for those tenants as well. 

[The ATX]

On 2/7/2019 at 11:04 AM, GVSUChris said:

That rendering looks a lot like a project in Austin called The Flatiron.  Only the one in G.R. is twice as tall.

Link

[GRDadof3]

12 hours ago, The ATX said:

That rendering looks a lot like a project in Austin called The Flatiron.  Only the one in G.R. is twice as tall.

Link

I like the over-pronounced cornice at the top of that one. Nice. 

[joeDowntown]

On 2/8/2019 at 12:06 PM, GR_Urbanist said:

On paper, at least, it did!

 

But I just think in term of the history of McKay Tower, and that at some point in the future it will get more floors, and really look "whole".

I’ve heard the “they can just add floors later” comment in a few threads lately. Is that even feasible? I thought buildings were engineered in such a way that they know how much weight they are going to bear.

Along with elevator shafts, etc. I’m just interested from someone “in the know” if adding stories to most buildings is possible after the fact, or is height kind of predetermined when it’s still on paper? 

People have also mentioned adding significant stories to the DeVos owned building on Monroe.

Seems like adding a story or two wouldn’t be too hard (and we’ve seen this multiple times around town) but adding anything to big would require massive re-engineering. 

The Mckay tower was a bit of a different beast. It was a pretty small building, probably didn’t have elevators, and probably everything but the facade was gutted/redone in the process. 

Truly curious on this question. 

Joe

[GRDadof3]

17 minutes ago, joeDowntown said:

I’ve heard the “they can just add floors later” comment in a few threads lately. Is that even feasible? I thought buildings were engineered in such a way that they know how much weight they are going to bear.

Along with elevator shafts, etc. I’m just interested from someone “in the know” if adding stories to most buildings is possible after the fact, or is height kind of predetermined when it’s still on paper? 

People have also mentioned adding significant stories to the DeVos owned building on Monroe.

Seems like adding a story or two wouldn’t be too hard (and we’ve seen this multiple times around town) but adding anything to big would require massive re-engineering. 

The Mckay tower was a bit of a different beast. It was a pretty small building, probably didn’t have elevators, and probably everything but the facade was gutted/redone in the process. 

Truly curious on this question. 

Joe

I think with a steel-framed building you can add on quite a bit. The weight of the curtain wall is carried by each steel frame. Obviously there are limits, especially for expanding elevator shafts and what is needed for fire code. I would think it's only feasible though in really really hot urban real estate markets with scarcity of land, like Hong Kong or Tokyo. 

A couple of floors, like the penthouses that have been added to a bunch of downtown GR buildings, not a problem. 

[Raildude's dad]

I would think beefing up the columns etc for additional floors wouldn't cost much if done with initial construction. If built to minimize initial construction cost, that probably rules out additional floors later.

[wingbert]

On 2/7/2019 at 12:04 PM, GVSUChris said:

Why do I keep hearing Skee-Lo in my head when I look at that image?

[Guest]

So it looks like they dug down pretty deep and then filled most of the hole with sand.  Hopefully foundation work will start soon.

[HavingAhoot]

Projected completion date?