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GVSU Downtown Development


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32 minutes ago, joeDowntown said:

. There's a couple of interesting articles in Crain's Grand Rapids (formerly MIBiz and GR Business Journal) about GVSU's plans for the downtown campus:

 

The publisher of Crain's Communication is Mary Kramer, a former Grand Rapids resident, GVSU graduate and GVSU board member.  I wonder if that has anything to do with Crain's taking over MIBiz and breaking this GVSU story?  

CRAINS: leadership - Mary Kramer

 

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1 hour ago, GR_Urbanist said:

I'm glad I'm not the only one going "Huh? How do they plan on this?".

There is only two aspects of that site. The original mid-rise, and the addition that they just built!

Maybe they are talking about building it on the small parking lot, and part of the "plaza"?

This map that someone had posted a while back helps it make more sense. Looks like the mid-rise will be renovated, with the property between GVSU and the museum being the new addition. 

Looks like the student housing will surround the new green space, and the student center will be tucked in right next to 131:

No mention in the article of the DeVos One Stop that is on the map. And I wonder if they'll build the Parking Structure north to replace the parking taken by the green space?

67528051_Pagefromgvsu_master_plan_update_2022__final_document_web.thumb.jpg.fccc560a7c775c5ea13acb22957062fe.jpg

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3 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

There's a couple of interesting articles in Crain's Grand Rapids (formerly MIBiz and GR Business Journal) about GVSU's plans for the downtown campus:

- $140M repurposing of the Eberhard Center into "Blue Dot Lab":

"The university plans to demolish a portion of the academic building, which opened in 1988, and construct a new addition in its place, increasing the building’s square footage to 175,000 square feet. Construction could take three years, according to GVSU’s most recent capital outlay plan. " - Link

Looking at the rendering, I'm a little confused where / what this looks like on the plat of land. 

  • Double student housing on the downtown campus (from 400 to 800) in 2 new buildings
  • New student center and dining building - four or five stories tall near U.S.-131, Fulton Street and the riverwalk.
  • Turn the Mount Vernon parking lot (in from the the William Seidman Center) into green space 
  • Start to convert other lots into ramps or buildings (future)

 

GVSU-Blue-Dot-Lab-rendering-768x435.png

I'm fairly certain this is an old conceptual rendering. If you look back at the previous Capital Outlay Plans, the Blue Dot Lab was originally planned for the Allendale campus. 

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3 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

There's a couple of interesting articles in Crain's Grand Rapids (formerly MIBiz and GR Business Journal) about GVSU's plans for the downtown campus:

- $140M repurposing of the Eberhard Center into "Blue Dot Lab":

"The university plans to demolish a portion of the academic building, which opened in 1988, and construct a new addition in its place, increasing the building’s square footage to 175,000 square feet. Construction could take three years, according to GVSU’s most recent capital outlay plan. " - Link

Looking at the rendering, I'm a little confused where / what this looks like on the plat of land. 

  • Double student housing on the downtown campus (from 400 to 800) in 2 new buildings
  • New student center and dining building - four or five stories tall near U.S.-131, Fulton Street and the riverwalk.
  • Turn the Mount Vernon parking lot (in from the the William Seidman Center) into green space 
  • Start to convert other lots into ramps or buildings (future)

 

GVSU-Blue-Dot-Lab-rendering-768x435.png

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but it sounds like they're going to demo the "tower" and expand on it?

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4 minutes ago, Cookin_peacocks said:

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but it sounds like they're going to demo the "tower" and expand on it?

I think you are. :) If you look at the map, the Eberhard building looks to be in the "renovation" purple area. I think the blue area which extends west towards 131 (and across the street from the museum parking ramp) is the expansion.

@demhem is probably right (and the reason it is throwing me off). It looks more like an Allendale building than something that would go in that area. So maybe an old rendering.

Joe
 

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3 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

There's a couple of interesting articles in Crain's Grand Rapids (formerly MIBiz and GR Business Journal) about GVSU's plans for the downtown campus:

- $140M repurposing of the Eberhard Center into "Blue Dot Lab":

"The university plans to demolish a portion of the academic building, which opened in 1988, and construct a new addition in its place, increasing the building’s square footage to 175,000 square feet. Construction could take three years, according to GVSU’s most recent capital outlay plan. " - Link

Looking at the rendering, I'm a little confused where / what this looks like on the plat of land. 

  • Double student housing on the downtown campus (from 400 to 800) in 2 new buildings
  • New student center and dining building - four or five stories tall near U.S.-131, Fulton Street and the riverwalk.
  • Turn the Mount Vernon parking lot (in from the the William Seidman Center) into green space 
  • Start to convert other lots into ramps or buildings (future)

 

GVSU-Blue-Dot-Lab-rendering-768x435.png

Yeah that rendering makes absolutely no sense as a renovation to the Eberhard Center. Maybe that rendering is the "student center and dining building?"

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On 4/17/2023 at 9:53 AM, joeDowntown said:

There's a couple of interesting articles in Crain's Grand Rapids (formerly MIBiz and GR Business Journal) about GVSU's plans for the downtown campus:

- $140M repurposing of the Eberhard Center into "Blue Dot Lab":

"The university plans to demolish a portion of the academic building, which opened in 1988, and construct a new addition in its place, increasing the building’s square footage to 175,000 square feet. Construction could take three years, according to GVSU’s most recent capital outlay plan. " - Link

Looking at the rendering, I'm a little confused where / what this looks like on the plat of land. 

  • Double student housing on the downtown campus (from 400 to 800) in 2 new buildings
  • New student center and dining building - four or five stories tall near U.S.-131, Fulton Street and the riverwalk.
  • Turn the Mount Vernon parking lot (in from the the William Seidman Center) into green space 
  • Start to convert other lots into ramps or buildings (future)

 

GVSU-Blue-Dot-Lab-rendering-768x435.png

My assumption would be that they plan on replacing the two sections along Fulton. I can’t imagine they would tear down the 9 story building. 

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Is it just me or does it seem like nobody reads the whole thread before posting. :) LOL. No offense to anyone, I probably do it as well. Just noticing a lot of posts lately where someone answers someone else’s question, then someone follows up later without reading the answer. ;)

Again, not picking on anyone. Just an observation. ;)

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  • 2 months later...

GVSU quietly expanding their downtown footprint. And a shoutout to Chris Knape. He was such a great writer in his GR Press days, and always had good scoops on downtown development (now at GVSU):

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2023/06/grand-valley-state-grows-grand-rapids-campus-with-165m-land-purchase.html

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  • 4 months later...

An update on the Eberhard Center expansion. Looks like funding got approved from the state.

"The funding for GVSU’s Blue Dot Lab was included in a $625 million budget supplemental that lawmakers in the state House and Senate approved Thursday on mostly party-line votes and sent to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The Blue Dot Lab is a $140 million project that will revamp the Eberhard Center at GVSU’s downtown Grand Rapids Pew campus to house computer science, data science and transdisciplinary degrees in business, computing and the humanities."

https://www.crainsgrandrapids.com/news/technology/state-lawmakers-approve-30m-for-grand-valleys-downtown-grand-rapids-tech-center/

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1 hour ago, Zads said:

An update on the Eberhard Center expansion. Looks like funding got approved from the state.

"The funding for GVSU’s Blue Dot Lab was included in a $625 million budget supplemental that lawmakers in the state House and Senate approved Thursday on mostly party-line votes and sent to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The Blue Dot Lab is a $140 million project that will revamp the Eberhard Center at GVSU’s downtown Grand Rapids Pew campus to house computer science, data science and transdisciplinary degrees in business, computing and the humanities."

https://www.crainsgrandrapids.com/news/technology/state-lawmakers-approve-30m-for-grand-valleys-downtown-grand-rapids-tech-center/

It will be so nice to see that building get a facelift! It is such a tired and dated looking building right now. Almost anything is an improvement. 
 

IMG_9427.jpeg

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I like the look, but I really wish they'd not use the large blue lettering for signage. I don't know about anyone else, but to me the blue illuminated letters all blend together visually at night. They are so hard to look at and it doesn't matter how big they are. White lettering is so much more legible and still on brand for GVSU.

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On 11/3/2023 at 4:58 PM, numstead said:

I like the look, but I really wish they'd not use the large blue lettering for signage. I don't know about anyone else, but to me the blue illuminated letters all blend together visually at night. They are so hard to look at and it doesn't matter how big they are. White lettering is so much more legible and still on brand for GVSU.

So I noticed the other night that they most of GVSU's buildings downtown and by the hospital now have white letters [polite clapping]. The big standout is the Seidman Center which has some very small signage all in blue up at the top. It's completely illegible.

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  • 1 month later...

An update from MLive, behind a paywall.

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2023/12/state-commits-30m-to-build-grand-valley-state-downtown-grand-rapids-tech-center.html

Basically, this: "The new Blue Dot Lab, which will be added to GVSU’s downtown Grand Rapids campus, is slated to receive $30 million from the state as part of a $616 million supplemental funding bill that was approved by the state Legislature on Nov. 2. The bill is currently awaiting Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s signature."

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