Detroit developments in 2006

[Allan]

Does anyone know what is going on with Comos????

In my downtown neighbourhood many of us have been waiting for a long time and the work seems to be very slow on it,,,

Como's is coming along. They ran into a lot of problems, so it taking longer than expected. There were holes in the floor where they didn't think there were holes. And they spent about a month digging out the basement.

[WBG4]

the Detroit Commerce Building

Which building is that? i need pix :\ cause i honestly can't place it

[Allan]

[WBG4]

Does it have another name?

[Allan]

150 Michigan/Detroit Commerce Building/People's Outfitting Company Building

[Michi]

The Commerce Building does not have to come down at all. The reason it is being demolished is because people WANT it demolished. There are creative ways around this that could make the overall project a unique one.

First of all, the current gravel lot at Michigan and Griswold is large enough for a sizeable parking garage. Second, making hotel guests walk from parking spaces is inexcusable. Upper class urban hotels in New York, Phila, New Orleans don't have massive parking garages on top of them. Afterall, that's what valet is for. Imagine if this block never became abandoned. I'm sure the Book Cadillac HOTEL would still be just as profitable because the Commerce Building would be occupied as office or converted residential.

Next, you wouldn't be walking through an abandoned building from the garage to the BC. Whatever floor the skywalk takes you from the BC to the floor at the Commerce Bldg (say the second) can be developed into restaurant/retail. A further connection (at the same floor level) will take you to a level of the parking garage that could be reserved for the convention space. Parking would begin on level 3...through 25...or however ungodly huge the stupid thing needs to be.

So, as you can see, there's ways around this. Detroit just isn't creative or outgoing enough to think outside the box. We've got the little dose of excitement for renovation hearsay, but when it comes to creating something special and unique, we severely lack the brainpower and resources.

I believe that no one has the right to tear down a perfectly reusable, historic building for a parking garage. Especially, when by historic preservation standards, historic architecture adds not only to the quality of life, but economic stimulus (through tourism and livability) as well.

It's a crying shame.

[detroitfan]

You can be as creative as you want it still has to make financial sense, to build a 500 space garage where say would cost so much it'd make BC and Lafayette undoable. Until we have a real mass transit system banks are going required developers have obcene amounts of dedicated parking which obviously takes up more space and in this case threatens usuable buildings

[Michi]

No it doesn't. Hey, how about trying something new...laying off the excuses!

[wolverine]

Today (or yesterday shall I say) in Chicago I saw this very large garage that occupied a very narrow footprint. I ran inside to do a little research and found that the structure was 12 levels with about 40 spaces per level. The main parking surface was a continuous ramp winding around a steeper helix ramp for exiting traffic. The footprint of the ramp is smaller than the size of the parcel in Detroit which means a similar structure in Detroit would hold more than 500 spaces.

Here are my thoughts.

An automated structure is probably a better consideration for parking. It's basically the future of parking. A lot of big cities have them except for Detroit, which finally built one on Woodward. Many hotels offer valet parking, so having an automated structure would be nothing new to hotel guests. The structure would be a lot more aesthetically pleasing and free up adjoining land for development and increased tax base.

So here is my thoughts.

The BC people are so desperate to move ahead with this project, they want to take the easy way out and build a large parking structure.

There is a lack of "parking innovation" in Michigan, but Detroit builds the most ubsurdly inefficent parking structures around (land-wise). Visit Ann Arbor to see examples of succesful vertical parking not seen elsewhere in SE Michgan.

It's a quick move to remove an eyesore.

Lack of interest in redeveloping valuable land seems to be a disease within the CBD, otherwise we wouldn't dedicate it to building more parking structures

If there was, parking structures in Detroit would be higher, consolidated, and we wouldn't need more.

Punching a tunnel through People's outfitting would be dirt cheap as opposed to a demolition.

[RustTown]

Then, we need to find some contacts directly involved with this project and spam them to high heaven. Maybe I'm being a bit of an optimist (first time in a long time), but I think that if they were made to read all of these examples of efficient parking systems they may have a change of heart. If there is no interest, let's create it.

[Allan]

I will mention this to some higher up people when I see them at breakfast in the morning. At least if I don't sleep through it like I did last weekend, that is. LOL.

[Michi]

^lol...

Anyone plan on going to the FOBC monthly meeting on the 21st? Maybe I will think about attending and raising this issue. The FOBC have always impressed me with their knowledge of historic preservation and similar issues, especially relating to Detroit.

I'm very adamant about this. To me, it is about competing against other cities. I see other cities going out of their way to preserve their history (in instances like this w/ the Commerce Bldg), and I get so frustrated with my own city when it seems like they accept the "well, we're not good enough" approach to building world class.

[Zissou]

I completely agree Michi. Commerce Building could be converted into residential and create a great district right there. Theres absolutely zero reason not to try and persue this. This is something the city should be thinking about.

[RustTown]

Any nearly ANY other major, historic city in this country (and some not that old) the B-C AND the Commerce would be saved, if even not at the same time. There are a few recent demolitions that can be loosely (or even rightly) justified, this would not be one of them, IMO.

[wolverine]

It is quite suprising, and you don't even have to leave Michigan to find a lot of support for preservation. It's incredibly difficult to get historic buildings demolished here in Ann Arbor. A new 10 story building proposal was tabled until the developers could work out a plan to move 2 crappy and uninteresting, two story framehouses off the site and up the street. I thought it was a joke when I heard it. If that crap can get spared, Detroit is in serious trouble when it comes to preservation. I really hope something can be worked out.

[RustTown]

BUT, Ann Arbor is a rarity in Michigan in more ways than one, and especially on preservation. I mean look in any other city be it Lansing, Grand Rapids, Flint, Kalamazoo...I'll use Kalamazoo since they currently (or already did) are tearing down one of their prominent, historic downtown towers. Phizer (spelling?) is tearing down the historic, something like 14-story, Upjohn Headquarters Building in Kalamazoo for no other reason than to simply build a suburban campus (their own words) and they got away with it. I'd almost rather they simply moved out of the city to building a campus in the suburbs than to decrease density in the middle of their downtown.

Another example is Lansing leveling nearly everything (an entire neighborhood) west of the Capitol for a few state offices and acres of parking.

Historic preservation is neither very popular or organized in Michigan. There are some great success stories, but it's usually only about one building.