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Medical Mile/Michigan Street Developments


joeDowntown

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A) I can make out my camera bag

b) I was wearing a long black coat

C) I walked past the three women chatting at the top of the steps about 1 minute later

I've sort of been trying to get on that camera for a while, so I always note the time when i walk through that area. Today was my lucky day.

Impressive.... Kinda like wining the lotto.... but not really :D

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That looks pretty cool. You must have been one heck of an etch-a-sketch artist when you were younger. :thumbsup:

I posted this in the uber thread, but thought I would add it here as well. This should make for an interesting scene coming into downtown from the East. People new to the area will probably think Health Hill is the whole "downtown":
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"People new to the area will probably think Health Hill is the whole "downtown":

i was thinking the same thing recently, but i also think that RH will be very visable from a lot of places, even if it is the only thingt hat clears the hill from that veiw

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"People new to the area will probably think Health Hill is the whole "downtown":

i was thinking the same thing recently, but i also think that RH will be very visable from a lot of places, even if it is the only thingt hat clears the hill from that veiw

Yeah, I wasn't saying that in a bad way, just a new interesting dynamic to downtown. Health Hill will be the new largest concentration of workers downtown when all is said and done.

Thanks joe. No, I didn't do skylines with the etch-a-sketch if that's what you mean. :)

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From how I view the giant parking ramp, it does not matter to me if the developers included it in the design or not. Beside until a mass transit system more robust than the RAPID bus system is implemented we're kind of stuck with cars for now. However my complaint about the ramp is the same complaint I have for Icon on Bond's ground floor wall. Developers ignored many various options to dress up the street level frontage of the complex to favor the fortress of solitude look. But overall, given the nature of this complex I think it looks presentable. Besides it seems that the Michigan St. side of the parking ramp has level floor decks which puts the ramps in the middle or back back of the structure. Given that Hospitals seem to never stop growing and expanding (well in Spectrum's case at least) could the level portions of the parking deck be converted into other uses sometime in the future?

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I posted this in the uber thread, but thought I would add it here as well. This should make for an interesting scene coming into downtown from the East. People new to the area will probably think Health Hill is the whole "downtown":

455288146_7d80b4b6dd_o.jpg

Are they widening the highway down in the bottom right hand corner?

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Are they widening the highway down in the bottom right hand corner?

My guess is extending the ramp not quite into a destination lane, but just longer to support higher traffic volume to the off ramp and increase safety. When I did work out on that stretch of highway it seemed like that was one of the busiest off ramps and backed up a bit.

Edit: I just looked a little closer, you can see the stakes in the ground. Those represent the edge of the pavement and you can see that it tapers off from where they started work on the shoulder all the way up to the ramp currently starts.

Edit 2: I look closer yet again and see the other side. It looks like they are lengthening the on ramp over there. The roller is packing the sand down (unless it is roller compacted concrete, but I doubt they used that).

Edited by Grand Rapidian
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From how I view the giant parking ramp, it does not matter to me if the developers included it in the design or not. Beside until a mass transit system more robust than the RAPID bus system is implemented we're kind of stuck with cars for now. However my complaint about the ramp is the same complaint I have for Icon on Bond's ground floor wall. Developers ignored many various options to dress up the street level frontage of the complex to favor the fortress of solitude look. But overall, given the nature of this complex I think it looks presentable. Besides it seems that the Michigan St. side of the parking ramp has level floor decks which puts the ramps in the middle or back back of the structure. Given that Hospitals seem to never stop growing and expanding (well in Spectrum's case at least) could the level portions of the parking deck be converted into other uses sometime in the future?

Even the "level" portions slope to drains so there would still be the issue of trying to make it flat. The floor to floor heights on most levels are also too short to work for other functions. The clear height is about 8' on most levels throughout the deck.

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My guess is extending the ramp not quite into a destination lane, but just longer to support higher traffic volume to the off ramp and increase safety. When I did work out on that stretch of highway it seemed like that was one of the busiest off ramps and backed up a bit.

Edit: I just looked a little closer, you can see the stakes in the ground. Those represent the edge of the pavement and you can see that it tapers off from where they started work on the shoulder all the way up to the ramp currently starts.

Edit 2: I look closer yet again and see the other side. It looks like they are lengthening the on ramp over there. The roller is packing the sand down (unless it is roller compacted concrete, but I doubt they used that).

I'm pretty sure they are beefing up the outside shoulders so they can run 2 lanes of traffic while constructing the new bridge in the center. 1 lane will be the current right lane and the other will be where the old shoulder was. When they get the center rebuilt, they will shift the 2 lanes to the new bridge and rebuild the outside 2 lanes. They did the same thing last year on I-96 east of the East Beltline and I-196 over Divison, Ionia and Ottawa.

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Has Spectrum installed a construction cam anywhere? Top of the Heart Center / Top of the west wing of the hospital / top of VAI? It would be great if they had one you could pan like the one the art museum installed. All that construction there on the hill is just begging for one. I didn't see anything on the Spectrum Health website.

:dontknow:

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Yesterday at the groundbreaking ceremony, David Van Andel said that on the back side of the building facing east there will be a four-story glass wall overlooking Crescent Park. He also mentioned he had some ideas for making some enhancements to the park itself.

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Here's a picture of Spectrum proper without its original lobby. So it looks to me that both the Children's Hospital and the new Lobby will be constructed in one shot. Hell, what am I saying? :rofl: With the construction blitz going on up there, I might as well say that everything up on the hill is being built in one shot! :yahoo:

constructioninfrontofsppf9.jpg

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