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Skyline Balance


cheshireguy

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Pretty much everything around Calder needs to be bulldozed over and rebuilt save the statue itslef. The rest of the city just needs infill on the many parking lots, warehouses, and suburban businesses which dot the landscape.

Totally agree. We're new to GR. We were walking from Sundance Grille back towards the Boardwalk, and said, what the hell, let's walk through the government/Calder Plaza. Found out it can't be done. The plazas are not connected. Had to cross a parking lot. Unable to get to to Monroe through the plaza. Unable to get to Michigan through the plaza. Move the Calder and start over. The plaza thing was a 60's 70's thing. Look at the abomination that is downtown Pontiac.

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I like most of the buildings in the plaza area, but agree they just need to be better connected for walking, the federal building and the GR press buildings need to torndown and replaced with some midrisers IMO there are 2 spots that should be reserved for highrises to balance the skyline, the new art museam took my hopes of having a 500+ footer right in the middle of everything but now that riverhouse and all the medical buildings are being built there is a gap in the middle and its shifting north. There also needs to be something away from the river but not too far. That said 1) the 5/3 parking lot is ideal 2)Lion and Ottawa is OK

NOw just waiting for that 500 foot signiture to grace the skyline from the 5/3 parking lot

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Unable to get to to Monroe through the plaza.

You can totally get to Monroe through Calder Plaza, there's a stairwell on the back side of the county building. It's poorly marked (meaning, not at all) but it's there.

I say keep the buildings and sculpture, but reengineer entire property for accessibility. Then building on the 5/3 lot next door, the Federal property and the GRPress.

So much balance!

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The One First National Center in Omaha. It's over 600 ft tall. But honestly, it's the only notable building in Omaha in my humble opinion. If we had a building like that in GR, our skyline would be leaps and bounds above Omaha's (and Des Moines, and maybe even Kansas City's).

That is one of my favorite "shorter" tall buildings right up there with Pittsburgh's PPG place, Comerica tower in the D, 1 KC place, and frost bank in Austin

If there could just be the demand for a similar signiture office tower in GR and placed near lion/ottawa, our skyline would would for sure be above Omaha and DM and up there with KC

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Do you guys realize that just two new 25 - 30 story buildings downtown would require 1000 parking spaces? (2 buildings at 500,000 sq ft each x 1 space/1000 sq ft, which is the current city requirement)? That means each building would have a 7 or 8 story parking garage at ground level, which the developers would essentially get 0 income off of. Sure they can add it into rent, but it's nowhere near what they can earn on 7 or 8 floors of leasable space. 1000 more cars dropped on the Lyon and Ottawa area at 8:30 and 5:00 would be how congested? And there aren't that many new DASH parking spots in the works. How badly do we need mass transit in 5 years, not 20?

I wonder if Dan Devos would love to build Lyon&Ottawa and be able to leave out the parking ramp. Or the owners of 50 Monroe. Or Hinman.

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You have to go through the building?

No, there's a glass enclosed stairwell that goes down to the Monroe Avenue entrance into the City/County complex. If you're on Monroe, you would enter that "tunnel" across from the convention center that has a big frog painted on the wall, and take the stairs up. It is poorly marked, and I always expect the door to be locked from the upper plaza area (but it's not).

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If we had a building like that in GR, our skyline would be leaps and bounds above Omaha's (and Des Moines, and maybe even Kansas City's).

I respectfully disagree with that sentiment. Having been to Omaha, Des Moines and Kansas City, IMO we have a ways to go yet before we catch up to them. What would really help is if we ever get the UPGR tower off the ground, it would improve downtown a lot. :thumbsup:

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Here's a sketchup file of one of my ideal GR skylines. The yellow buildings are new while the white buildings are existing structures.

improvedskylineru5.jpg

Starting from the north. the parking lots of the GR Ford Museum would be replaced by more condo towers (assuming that market is put back on track by the proposed streetcar system. Then a Signature tower would be built on the 5/3 parking lot then clustered with 20-35 story buildings. 50 Monroe would get the second tallest building. The Fulton and Market Ave. parking lot would be a perfect spot for a large PAC. Lastly, infill accented with 18 story buildings sprinkled here and there would do wonders to bolster Heartside's skyline. Infill through out the core completes the picture.

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Yeah, I've really got to wonder about those comparisons with other cities. I think even Dayton has a better (or at least denser) skyline than us. Or look at just about any Canadian city. Hamilton, ON has a far more complete-looking skyline than Grand Rapids and it's very comparable in size.

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Omaha, boring:

omaskyline.jpg

Dayton, eh...did they have a sale on tan granite?

Skyline15.JPG

Des Moines, hmm....the style of that tallest has been done ad nausuem. Their second tallest is our city building only taller (the one you guys love so much).

skyline.gif

I'm not even a fan of Kansas City's

skyline.jpg

and their tallest looks like my air filter in my car:

180px-1kcp.png

They're all chocked full of buildings that were built in the 70's and 80's. The only difference is that they're a bit taller than GR's. Density, schmensity.

One, maybe two new 25 - 30 story building in Grand Rapids, and with RiverHouse and the Children's Hospital, and game over.

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They're all chocked full of buildings that were built in the 70's and 80's. The only difference is that they're a bit taller than GR's. Density, schmensity.

One, maybe two new 25 - 30 story building in Grand Rapids, and with RiverHouse and the Children's Hospital, and game over.

Sounds like someone is suffering from skyline envy (j/k). :thumbsup:

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^Haha, i agree about that GRDad, i hate that website, lol.

Anyway, i like GR's skyline, and with all the new buildings, its going to get even better. But, IMO, every skyline is different. It depends on where the city is; if it rises out of cornfeilds like Des Moines, it is more boring than if it rises out of hills. Also, when it was built. Detroit has a ton of great scapers from the 20's, which are beautiful, and Hong Kong has sleek modern glass towers, which are beautiful. They are all differnt, so it is hard to compare them, and in some cases, its apples to oranges.

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When I think impressive skyline, I think Chicago and San Fransisco. =p I think ours is on the right road, just needs to progress a little. Some infill west of Seward would be nice, because in honesty, I'm not a fan of how Riverhouse will become a giant book-end on the silhouette from the north and south. Everything else going on should balance the skyline well in the other areas, though.

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New York City is the most impressive skyline.

If you have ever sat at the airport in NYC, you get an absolutely amazing view of downtown.

What I like about our skyline is that the buildings that line the Grand River are not too tall. When (not if) we get some taller structures in the core of the city, the current high rises will not completely block them from view. The balance needs to be in depth as much as it needs to be in width. I think that our skyline is shaping up to be a real gem.

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The only limiting factor to a deep skyline as you suggest is the fact DT is is blocked from growing east by Heritage Hill and the Michigan Hill neighborhood on the north side of 196 and east of Division Ave. If we could get a cluster of big 'scrapers around the 50 Monroe area or in and around Calder Plaza, then infill the rest of the core we'd be in good shape.

New York City is the most impressive skyline.

If you have ever sat at the airport in NYC, you get an absolutely amazing view of downtown.

What I like about our skyline is that the buildings that line the Grand River are not too tall. When (not if) we get some taller structures in the core of the city, the current high rises will not completely block them from view. The balance needs to be in depth as much as it needs to be in width. I think that our skyline is shaping up to be a real gem.

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The only limiting factor to a deep skyline as you suggest is the fact DT is is blocked from growing east by Heritage Hill and the Michigan Hill neighborhood on the north side of 196 and east of Division Ave. If we could get a cluster of big 'scrapers around the 50 Monroe area or in and around Calder Plaza, then infill the rest of the core we'd be in good shape.

There are a lot of surface lots to be infilled and useless buildings to be torn down (the northeast corner of Michigan and Monroe comes to mind) before we need to worry about becoming limited by Heritage Hill or Belknap.

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That would help. Imploding the GR press building would make alot of room to cluster more tall buildings near Calder Plaza. Also While we are at it. Let's remove the architectural disgrace that is the Post office building and replace it with something better.

There are a lot of surface lots to be infilled and useless buildings to be torn down (the northeast corner of Michigan and Monroe comes to mind) before we need to worry about becoming limited by Heritage Hill or Belknap.
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