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Medical Hill - Tower 25

sparky05

By sparky05
in Grand Rapids

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Prankster Burg

Prankster

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Because all the neutropenic cancer patients would loooooove to ride mass transit. Cough, sneeze, whoops, you've got meningitis. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I like the wall. It would certainly seem that the $250mil budget for the Children's Hospital, or the $xx mil for the cancer center (hell, $7.5 mil for the new lobby) could absorb a few extra windows. But this building has a purpose, to cure the sick. The sick, who would probably not be too thrilled about parking their cars "somewhere" to hop on mass transit to get radiation treatments. At what point should function be sacrificed for form? Say what you will about exceptions to transparency (I'm not saying the hospital should get a free pass on this) but to suggest a new hospital shouldn't have parking for patients is ludicrous (tamias, this isn't directed at you). It simply doesn't make sense to group hospitals in with condos with offices. Different users, different needs. Should the heart of DT have some sort of mass transit? Sure. But including the Medical Mile with that is a waste of money, IMO, as the end users are vastly different.

Soooo...anyways...I'm drinking a Bells HopSlam, how about the weather? ;-)

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designcritic Whistle-Stop

designcritic

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Can someone answer this question for me: I noticed in the recent pictures (above) and also today when I was downtown that the middle section of steel on both the East and West end are painted white, while the rest is dark steel color. Is there a reason for this? Is it a different type of steal or will something unique be there on all the floors (bathrooms/stairs).
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DwntwnGeo Hamlet

DwntwnGeo

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The center section at the X-bracing is painted with intumescent paint whereas the rest of the steel will be receiving normal sprayed-on fireproofing. The reason for the intumescent is that the steel will be exposed (visible through the curtainwall and from inside). You can see where the bridge will connect on the third floor because it has a rectangular box-out.
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ArsEcclesiae Unincorporated Area

ArsEcclesiae

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Something that I find a little sad is that the view from Belknapp looking downtown will be obstructed by those big buildings. Like in the picture above, "before" you can see the Immanual Lutheran and the other buildings downtown...while in the "after" the big buildings sort of steel the view into downtown.

...sigh...the downside of developement...change...

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suydam Hamlet

suydam

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Something that I find a little sad is that the view from Belknapp looking downtown will be obstructed by those big buildings. Like in the picture above, "before" you can see the Immanual Lutheran and the other buildings downtown...while in the "after" the big buildings sort of steel the view into downtown.

...sigh...the downside of developement...change...

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joeDowntown Metropolis

joeDowntown

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If I'm not mistaken, the architects paid a fair amount of attention to the north sides of the building. At least as far as the cancer center is concerned, it has a lot of stepped levels. Not just a flat facade. It will be interesting to see how it looks when they start putting the skin on.

Joe

Very true...however I am of the impression that the back sides of those buildings (Facing Ford Freeway) are not going to be overly attractive. I am all for developement though...don't get me wrong, and I also would say that what is going up is much better by far then what was there.
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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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If I'm not mistaken, the architects paid a fair amount of attention to the north sides of the building. At least as far as the cancer center is concerned, it has a lot of stepped levels. Not just a flat facade. It will be interesting to see how it looks when they start putting the skin on.

Joe

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downtownGRguy Unincorporated Area

downtownGRguy

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I think I may know the answer for the discrepency earlier in this thread regarding the cost to build a parking structure. I think one of you is quoting construction costs, and the other total costs, including land.

If a parking space is 10x20 and you figure doubling it for the alleyways, that is 400 sq ft. This would be the space inside the ramp, now add on driveways, setbacks, sidewalk space, etc. and you can probably figure 3x, so 600 sq ft. At $2,000,000 an acre for downtown land, that comes to over $27,500 for the land below one parking space. Now stack the spots 5 high, and you come up with $5,500 worth of land for each space. I don't have any experience with such things, so I am just throwing together some rough estimates. Perhaps someone here knows better and can confirm/deny?

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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I think I may know the answer for the discrepency earlier in this thread regarding the cost to build a parking structure. I think one of you is quoting construction costs, and the other total costs, including land.

If a parking space is 10x20 and you figure doubling it for the alleyways, that is 400 sq ft. This would be the space inside the ramp, now add on driveways, setbacks, sidewalk space, etc. and you can probably figure 3x, so 600 sq ft. At $2,000,000 an acre for downtown land, that comes to over $27,500 for the land below one parking space. Now stack the spots 5 high, and you come up with $5,500 worth of land for each space. I don't have any experience with such things, so I am just throwing together some rough estimates. Perhaps someone here knows better and can confirm/deny?

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designcritic Whistle-Stop

designcritic

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Right sparky. Based on the site plan, the bridge to the Children's Hospital will come from the as-yet-to-be-built tower. It appears that the one you photographed will be a "mini-receiving tower", that will then transition from the Michigan Street pedestrian bridge to another pedestrian bridge over the new drive into the complex.

452367485_1e7a7d2c67_o.jpg

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