Lazy, Lansing Summer Day: Part II

[RustTown]

Looking up Capitol at the church district. The Central United Methodist Church can see be seen in the foreground.

A time machine along Ottawa just a block east of the Central United Methodist.

Looking back up the street...

Looking back down the street...

Back on the square. The Washington Office Building is under renovation. I hear the base will be redone to open it back up like it used to be. A state department will occupy the top half of the building with the current tenants either keeping place or being moved down to the bottom floors. lol

Out of downtown JUST to the south lies the Cooley Gardens and Michigan Women's Hall of Justice. They both lie on a river bluff that rises over 40' above the Grand River on a bend.

The Gardens...

Sunken gardens...

A view of the river below. They have the bluff pretty well blocked off with trees and decorative gates, but not all of it is.

The Michigan Women's Hall of Fame

View of the central core from the gardens. Capitol Avenue terminates at the gardens as do most of the north-to-south downtown streets which meet the freeway and service drives.

Next door surrounding the Cooley Gardens on almost everyside accept the river side is the Oldsmobile Headquarters Building and the SPRAWLING Grand River Assembly Plant that takes up quite a few city blocks along the river and freeway.

Once again, the Eckert Station which anchors the southern end of this huge industrial complex and just north of Moores Park.

Across the river are the Fountain Place Apartments.

Lastly, two random pics of mayoral candidate billboards. These two men are the front runners, though incumbent mayor Tony Benavides is running far behind Bernero.

Old Vision

New Vision

[statedude3]

Thanks for the tour LMich. Though I live here and see these sites almost daily, I never get tired of seeing them. The Cooley Gardens are beautiful. Another favorite place of mine is the Rose Gardens at Francis Park, and the river overlook from there. Lansing has no shortage of nice areas; it's just not the area that the public sees too much.

I think the downtown area as a whole is ready for some new streetscapes. It appears that the current "capital loop project" is going to take care of repaving the roads, but I would like to see some cleaner lots and more creativity on the corners.

Also, I wish they would bring back the public art, like the "people sculptures" that were down here a year ago, or something like the current cars that adorn the Detroit area.

[RustTown]

It's funny because Lansing was the one that originally had the cars on display.

Yeah, the Rose Garden outlook is one of my favorites...

[statedude3]

your right! I had forgotten that we did have the car thing going for a while (I went to school in GR for that period of time). I miss the public art immensely.

[GRDadof3]

Back on the square.  The Washington Office Building is under renovation.  I hear the base will be redone to open it back up like it used to be.  A state department will occupy the top half of the building with the current tenants either keeping place or being moved down to the bottom floors.  lol

LMich, nice pics of Lansing. I can't believe I grew up there and I don't remember that building. It looks very similar to the YMCA Building in GR going condo (maybe the same design firm?):

[hood]

Wow, those two buildings look very much alike. At least you guys have/had a nice YMCA building, Lansing's is abandoned an boarded up, the floor plots are way too small to be of much use as lofts or just about anything else, plus it is sort of seperated from the main part of downtown, not much, but just enough to hinder development.

[GRDadof3]

Wow, those two buildings look very much alike. At least you guys have/had a nice YMCA building, Lansing's is abandoned an boarded up, the floor plots are way too small to be of much use as lofts or just about anything else, plus it is sort of seperated from the main part of downtown, not much, but just enough to hinder development.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You're right. That building is pretty plain The YMCA in GR moved out just recently to their new facility:

And the old one posted above is going to be condos, with a rooftop patio and all. Second Story Properties is developing it, which does a lot of historic renovations.

[hood]

I hope the state continues to move out of leased space and into it's own buildings, especially in the Prudden building's case, it will make some nice lofts or apartments someday, I also beleive that project concerning the old City Club has stalled, I emailed Councilmember Bauer when I heard they were going to tear it down and she said the city is opposed to tearing down the City Club and was working with the developer on alternative plans that would allow construction right up to the river, if the old building could be saved, that was in April of '04. Records do however show it was bought on 1/6/2005 by MSK Management, expect something to be happening soon.

[RustTown]

Lansing's YMCA also moved out to a newer building. But it's in the suburbs. What a shame.

Anyway, I really never thought they would save the actual City Club Building. To be quite frank, it was crowded out long ago and was only a matter of time before it was demolished. With the building of the parking deck on the river directly to the north and the giant Grand Tower just to the south I was surprised it wasn't torn down sooner.

I do know, that whatever happens this land will be redeveloped, especially if the Ottawa Street Station get's off the ground and running. Personally, I'd like to see them use this small strip of land as a park like they did with Wentworth Park. That's the ONLY way they can extend the rivertrail on the western side of the river unless they build an expensive elevated boardwalk.

[hood]

I beleive an elevated boardwalk is the only choice, they should build it like the one by the lansing center and open it up to dining and retail, like that riverwalk or whatever it is that people always refer to in San Antonio. It could be a major boost for development, it may be key though to demolish the S Grand parking ramp, which isn't in too great of shape anyways, the sooner it comes down, the better, along with the Grandview building, which is in pretty rough shape inside since a portion of it was once a 3 story historic building which was built around on all sides.

[RustTown]

Yeah, Joan Bauer (the only one that seems to answer emails along with Geneva Smith from time to time), informed me a while back that in the grand scheme of things they are looking to bring down both the South Grand Parking Ramp and the Grandview Building which is really a waste of space right on the river there. I really think this is probably the biggest eyesore on the downtown riverfront at the moment.

It would be nice if they had a grand promenade with steps down to the river since the bank is so high right there. I've walked along the back of the parking deck, the Grandview boardwalk and the pedestrian area behind the Grand Tower and it really has a lot of potential (as with so many things in Lansing lol). If they can create an uban village on the Triangle Lot south of the Grand Tower, and then push the Rivertrail through to Cherry Hill Park and connect it at Riverpoint Park you'll have a solid pedestrian corridor from Old Town to REO Town which would be the original city of Lansing, the small rectangle along the riverfront.

[hood]

As you said and everyone knows, so much potential, so little action. but I have to disagree with you on the use of the Triangle site, I would still like to see the state police headquarters built there, which will happen, eventually

[RustTown]

That area would work much better a low and mid-rise residential district. At least part of it anyway. I think we should learn from our mistakes and quit putting office buildings on the riverfront. We need to open the riverfront up, and that would only further close it off.

[hood]

Yeah, but I'm almost desperate for a significant addition to Lansing's skyline, I suppose it's not very forward thinking though. I suppose anything high-density would do for me, 6+ floors.

[RustTown]

To tell you the truth, for awhile I was looking for something to boost the skyline but came to the realization that it's going to take Lansing quite a few more years before there is even a mid-rise boom around downtown. What I want to see downtown right now, it good, quality street-level density, because outside of Washington Square street-level density is severly lacking. I hope that if the state decides to build any new high-rises it will be on the westside of downtown near the Capitol Complex. I really think everything east of Washington simply needs to be filled in with density street level density and keep the skyline like it is - rising from the river to peak along Capitol.

[dunveth]

The State Police are leaving East Lansing?

[RustTown]

Yes. Currently, they are scattered all around the metro and want to consolidate, though, the money just isn't there yet. There is a proposed 17 story building downtown for them and other state offices.

I also hear that MSU is eager to take over the land or buildings that will be vacated by the MSP. Right now, that area is under utilized.

[hood]

As soon as they decide how big of building they want and how much they want to spend, they will build in downtown Lansing, almost surely at the "triangle site", at the NE corner of Kalamazoo & Grand.

I was thinking about the triangle site today and I have a good idea for the site, how about they restore River St. creating two triangular plots, on the west triangle they can build the State Police headquarters and on the east triangle they can build a large residential building, along the river. These sites would be more manageable and realistic in size, rather than having a mosterous site for a building with a relatively small footprint. If they had two "triangle" sites they could build both buildings right up to the street. I may try to draw out a sort of visionary plan for the site. Lmichigan, what do you use to draw your sketches on the Skyscpraperpage?

[RustTown]

I use simply Paint Shop Pro.

But, if they are going to build the headquarters they will not divide the sight. One of the BIG concerns (and it really shouldn't be) was terrorists attacks; specifically truck bomb attacks. They really wanted to build berms to block it off from the corner and streets, and wanted to originally put a huge parking deck in front of the building. I assume they may still be planning something similar, which is unfortunate.

That's what was worrying me about them wanting to move to this particular corner. To me, this is one of the gateways to downtown, and for a long time Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Granger really wanted to build an urban village here.

[hood]

I know the plans for the parking ramp have officially been scrapped, I think now that the panic has died down after 9/11 we may be able to rid ourselves of some of those dumb anti-terrorist ideas, after all, most are essentially worthless. I like the idea of a split site though, without something like that the project would be a huge waste of space. Maybe there could be twin residential high rises or somthing, I always liked the idea of restoring River St. whatever the project may be.

[RustTown]

Yeah, the current configuration of Cherry Street is a crime. It's almost completely useless. I also remember when it used to split the huge parking lot in half. It really relieved the turn lane on westbound Kalamazoo at Grand.