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Genesee Towers

VeeFan

By VeeFan
in Flint

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VeeFan Whistle-Stop

VeeFan

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Something smells fishy from both Vemulapalli and the FTD. He's not doing anything to maintain the building, but at the same time the FTD isn't doing anything to make the situation easier by acting as a hostile antagonist.

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dnast Hamlet

dnast

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Thanks. I didn't really want to buy the Sunday paper for one article. MLive gets on my nerves when they do that.

I think Genesee Towers is a goner. Vemulapalli obviously can't afford to fix the building, and city leaders don't have enough foresight to fix and reclad it. I wouldn't be so against it, but last I heard, the plan was to tear it down and build another parking structure in its place.

I wish I was more knowledgable in this type stuff, but I wonder... What are the costs of demolishing and building a new parking structure compared to just fixing the building and just using the parking structure already in the building? How much more for decent recladding?

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Allan Metropolis

Allan

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I'm not sure how much it would be to reclad Genesee Towers. It depends on how it was constructed and what materials are used in the recladding.

I do know that the building cannot stand as is for much longer. The facade must be repaired. I was walking in Detroit last week and pieces of an abandoned building's facade fell onto the sidewalk right in front of me. Had I been walking slightly faster, the bricks would've fallen on my head from 8 stories up! I immediately called Building Saftey & Engineering, but it wasn't until Saturday that they finally got around to doing something about it.

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Michi Burg

Michi

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No news clippings? Thanks for the info. I think I was guilty of that once already. I've written "I won't post news clippings" 100 times on the blackboard already...is that enough?

Genessee Towers are such a hot topic of discussion in Flint lately.

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VeeFan Whistle-Stop

VeeFan

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I've been bad apparently too now. :P Must be my turn to write on the blackboard. ;)

The article basically said that the owner of Genesee Towers plans to do some work on the ramp, and instead of putting up a barricade, he put fliers on the cars parked below the Towers to warn them about falling debris. The Flint Transporation Department is trying to intervene saying he needs a permit to do it, but he says he has a permit. It's a mess, and just another chapter in the controversy of the Towers.

I don't know if anyone has ever seen pictures from Church Street in New York, but there are a very buildings there that remind me so much of Genesee Towers. Same vertical lines running down the sides, and the same strip of dark windows running across the top. Only real difference is that the buildings aren't divided in two.

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  • 1 month later...
Allan Metropolis

Allan

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So now Vemulapalli starts to repair the facade of Genesee Towers but doesn't erect an enclosure to protect pedestrians who walk by the building. The city rescinds his permit, and he starts complaining about how he is just trying to finish repairing the building. You'd think he'd at least check into things further...isn't covering the sidewalk just common sense when you're working on a building's facade? This is the second story about Vemulapalli in a week...last week it was the illegal paint he purchased for the building's metal parts.

http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index....1280.xml&coll=5

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Allan Metropolis

Allan

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Yeah. It has supposedly been vacant since 1997, although I know for a fact that the group that recalled Mayor Stanley in 2002 had their headquarters at the University Club on the 19th floor. In fact, as of May 2005 the University Club's address is still listed at 1900 Genesee Towers. The Ruth Mott Fund is supposedly located at 1726. North American Network Solutions was located on the 14th floor as of 2000. There appears to be a few tenants in the building, although the doors are locked almost all the time. Maybe I should call up the leasing office and see what happens when I try to lease space there. :lol:

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wolverine Town

wolverine

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The building is a huge liability. You can even walk into the parking structure and there is no one to stop you. The ceiling was breaking apart, and I worried one of the slabs might just suddenly come down. When I was going around the corner for the 3rd level of the ramp, it was gated off, but a hard pull opened the gate. I was able to get pretty far up. I doubt this guy is taking care of it. It was so easy for me to get in, why isn't he doing anything to prevent some people from going in who might vandalize the place?

EDIT: I was guilty once of posting a full article too. lol I wonder if U.P. can just put a disclaimer that they are not responsible for their forumer's actions. Then again, they can edit our posts, so I guess they are responsible. Sorry Allan :lol:

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RustTown City

RustTown

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I'm sure he's doesn't do anything because he really can't, like many slumlords all across the country. You have to look no further than Detroit to see this.

Of course, he could do minimal upkeep and maintenance until he finds someone that will buy it from him, and it looks as if he's trying to do that now. Maybe this is the start of something good, especially with the development going on in downtown Flint these days. I would love to see this building up an running again. As it is now, it is a huge blemish on the face of downtown. When I was in Flint a few year or two ago you could feel how much of blemish it really was on the downtown landscape. Just imagine how much more life a renovated Genesee Tower would pump back into downtown. I'm sure it would spur development, as well, and cause other developers to take a chance.

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Allan Metropolis

Allan

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I'd really like to see them put a new facade on it. The current one is awful. But there are plenty of other issues that exist...like the fire sprinklers that don't work, or the parking structure. The parking structure is the most dangerous part of the building.

Kumar claims to have put $3-4million into the building, but I highly doubt that.

Wolverine, as far as posting whole articles goes, the posts that already contained full news articles were grandfathered in when we added the rule.

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wolverine Town

wolverine

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I think a bluish glass facade would look nice. Blue glass buildings seem to look really nice next to limestone buildings. They could do variants in glass color to make the floors recognizable. Anything, but those vertical panels would be nice. Here's what I think it should look like. I used MS Paint, and drew it quickly, no hating!

newgen.jpg

I drew this assuming there would not be a lot of money available for a renovation. Basically, I stripped those ugly panels of the building, and replaced them with ones that looked like glass. The parking structure would have metal frames in the openings that would match the windows above. A mesh would be placed over that to hide the ramps. Some sort of cladding that mimicks limestone could be placed over the concrete sections. I also added metal awnings above the ground floor retail.

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RustTown City

RustTown

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Nice!

Since I do drawings for skyscraperpage.com diagram I should draw my own dream renovation for Genesee Tower. I've always dreamed of them replacing the concrete facade with polished limestone, or polished red-brick, and replace the windows with blue, semi-reflective glass. I would also open up the bottom as you did adding metal awnings to reflect the modernity of the building.

I'll see what I can do for a drawing in the next few days...

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dnast Hamlet

dnast

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Nice work with the drawing! That would be a welcome improvement. Looking at it, it's kinda hard to imagine Genesee Towers actually looking somewhat nice, lol.

And while they're at it, they should change the name, too. If anything, at least take the 's' off "Towers".

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