65 Monroe Center

[Veloise]

...

Yep, what this town needs is more UK-style red phone booths. Give all the aspiring bands a place to pose for album cover photos (since there are no local institutions with DO NOT PICK UP HITCHIKERS signs).

[snoogit]

I imagine our poor contractor has given up on us now

Now im not as talented with photoshop as I'd like to be, but I can give some hints:

The front should be a dark brick, like a grey-ish brick maybe something like this:

and at the top of the building, have something like a shield, or other decoration that would contain a recreation of this guy:

I would say it should be like a white inlay with the eagle carved into it and somehow make it stand out (either paint it black, or fill it in with some kind of material, I dont know the processes by which that works)

I'd also put columns into the structure, realistically what im describing is starting to sound like one of those old 40's style gangster movie police stations.

Restore the windows, I'd say have them be a white-ish color so they stand out, use a dark brick facade, at least on the front of the building (cleaning up the brick thats on the sides) some nice white roman-esque columns could be added with the old eagles on top of them, or the colums could be at the base of an aluminum sign, that would have the name of whatever is in there bah its hard to describe whats in my head. I wish I was better at drawing this stuff out

[Allison Slater]

Welcome, intovb. I look very much foward to watching this project unfold. Good luck!

I agree. I used to hate this building, but have since come to appreciate it's (potential) aesthetic beauty. Of course detailing is expensive, but a few extrior garnishes could go a long way. An otherwise boring black cube becomes quite classy:

That building looks beautiful.. combiner the ideas of that with the classic white stripe of the current building DT with the stripe up on that third floor... mmm.

[Veloise]

And in exchange for our pro bono design work, save us a first-floor coffee house space for the Offishul UP Lounge.

[michaelskis]

Two questions:

1. Anyone know why the third story was removed?

2. Dad, where did you find that old picture?

For the record, I'm glad the black facade is coming off, and hope they don't replace it with something similar.

Why was the 3rd and 4th stories removed?

I think that the building has been hacked up so horribly that it is going to be difficult to do much with it. Personally I think that they should strip it down to barley a shell, sandblast the bricks, rebuild the windows (but so that they can contain contemporary windows) and rebuild all four stories in its full grandeur, then replace as much of the interior with the original wood work as possible.

[snoogit]

And in exchange for our pro bono design work, save us a first-floor coffee house space for the Offishul UP Lounge.

Do we really need two coffee houses on Monroe Center?

edit: three if you count the Bookstore.

[MJLO]

is Monroe Center destined to turn into a glorified food court? Not much else but restaurants there with a few other things strewn in between.

[snoogit]

is Monroe Center destined to turn into a glorified food court? Not much else but restaurants there with a few other things strewn in between.

I hope not I'd like to see either a consumer electronics store, or some other type of retail store to go into this spot. I think its be great to have a place to buy your iPod, and access the internet all at once.

[torgo]

I'm kind of surprised that the cellular providers haven't taken up shop downtown yet. With all the people who work down here who are constantly on the phone, it seems like a no-brainer to me.

[Nitro]

I'm kind of surprised that the cellular providers haven't taken up shop downtown yet. With all the people who work down here who are constantly on the phone, it seems like a no-brainer to me.

Argh!!! No!!! Death to cell phone and check cashing stores!!!!! If we were in Detroit I'd add unisex hair salons. They are like an urban plague.

[torgo]

Argh!!! No!!! Death to cell phone and check cashing stores!!!!! If we were in Detroit I'd add unisex hair salons. They are like an urban plague.

I'm not advocating them, just sayin that I'm surprised, that's all. sheesh!

[zenstyle]

Argh!!! No!!! Death to cell phone and check cashing stores!!!!! If we were in Detroit I'd add unisex hair salons. They are like an urban plague.

Add here-today-gone-tonight nail salons to that list.

[Prankster]

I'd like to see any hard goods retailer set up shop downtown. Restaurants/coffeehouses/cafes are great, but we need to move beyond that initial stage of redevelopment downtown and get moving on bringing some real retail in.

[Kayak1]

I have always thought an "urban outfitter" would do well downtown. A great example would be the Outpost in downtown Holland. With EMS closing, the only similar store is Bill and Pauls.

[Greedo]

That corner would be a great spot for a new Apple store.

Yeah, a big, modern rectangle, right on the corner.

Have MERCY that would be awesome.

[snoogit]

That corner would be a great spot for a new Apple store.

Yeah, a big, modern rectangle, right on the corner.

Have MERCY that would be awesome.

as long as it doesnt look like an overgrown mac-mini it probably would be okay.

[Greedo]

It could look like this proposal for downtown Boston. And it would rule.

[dbrok]

Photos from this afternoon with the outer shell almost completely gone:

[GRDadof3]

For chris sake, would ya cover yourself!

[Yankee Fan]

Since the brick looks in bad shape and it is too costly to replace it, would it be possible to use that "broken-ness" and create a kind of "garden wall" whereby the look of a broken building would add some depth to the building's facade and the green from the gardens (think draped flowers not vines) would provide a relaxing, homey type feel to that corner? You could probably build out brick steps in certain places to make the look more dramatic.

[civitas]

Since the brick looks in bad shape and it is too costly to replace it, would it be possible to use that "broken-ness" and create a kind of "garden wall" whereby the look of a broken building would add some depth to the building's facade and the green from the gardens (think draped flowers not vines) would provide a relaxing, homey type feel to that corner? You could probably build out brick steps in certain places to make the look more dramatic.

There is hope for brokenness from a theological perspective. For this building it appears fatal.

I hope the owner bought the building right and/or has the money to complete a proper restoration.

[MJLO]

do we know what if any future plans are in store for the building? I mean obviously something has to be happening. The building is having work done to it.

I'm going to get criticized for this, but I wouldn't mind seeing National retailers like Gap and maybe some other mall stores going in on Monroe Center. Personally I don't mind national corporate chains, and when those kind of things start going in downtown, you'll pretty much know we are starting to get where we want downtown to go. In terms of health and sustainability.

[mpchicago]

There is hope for brokenness from a theological perspective. For this building it appears fatal.

I hope the owner bought the building right and/or has the money to complete a proper restoration.

Agreed. They appear to have opened a can of worms here.

[snoogit]

do we know what if any future plans are in store for the building? I mean obviously something has to be happening. The building is having work done to it.

I'm going to get criticized for this, but I wouldn't mind seeing National retailers like Gap and maybe some other mall stores going in on Monroe Center. Personally I don't mind national corporate chains, and when those kind of things start going in downtown, you'll pretty much know we are starting to get where we want downtown to go. In terms of health and sustainability.

I would love to see national chains go in Monroe Center. I agree with the statement it would be the turning point that we have attained true health and stability. Theres probably only room for one maybe two fashion stores on Monroe Center. My guess is a Banana Republic, and a High-end Mens Clothier would do better on MC then "The GAP"

I could also see the retail spilling out onto Division, Especially if the Keeler building is given a good yanking from its current owner, and is restored properly. That part of town would be great for college-aged fashion stores, and similar places. To compare to national chain stores, places like "Hot Topic", and EB Games could do very well there.

[GRDadof3]

It looked like they were sand-blasting the black paint off the back portion yesterday.

Any updates intovb?