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Reviews of the 275 Fulton Place design


GRDadof3

What do you think of the 275 Fulton Place designs?  

161 members have voted

  1. 1. Rate the 275 Fulton Place design

    • 1.0 - I think it's just awful and not right for that spot and/or GR
      16
    • 2.5 - I wish it was something else, or designed differently
      18
    • 5.0 - I can live with it
      18
    • 7.5 - I think it looks pretty good, but I would tweak a few things
      57
    • 10.0 - I think it's sophisticated, well thought out and the best project so far for downtown
      51
    • Other
      1


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I figured it might be worthwhile to see how the new 275 Fulton Place design rates with our little community. Pleast rate it on a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being the best. You can add additional comments as to your impressions and rating.

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It just looks very off balance. It ruins any view coming going west on the street. It feels like part of the building is falling into the road. Is the purpose of its design to allow a view of the river for the building behind.

I like the look but transparent drawings end up being masses of blue tinted glass that creates a block rather than a see through feel.

Why not design the building to hover over the rivers edge, rather that using the verticle use the horizontal.

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It's very eye catching, but will they really be able to build the tower by Fulton like that? It looks like it would fall over in a strong wind. Forgive me, I'm not an architect.

Regardless, it fills in a parking lot and interacts well with the river, so it's cool in my book.

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I think it's a well executed design. Imagine being at Division and looking west and seeing a building almost magically levitating. I'm sure that's what will look like from that angle.

I just hope the architect's vision can remain throughout the entire process.

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Just plain awful. Oh, goodie! More glass! How ingenious! Goes so well with Plaza Towers.....of course what does that matter. Look at the other atrocities in town....the Meijer Heart Center, the engineering building at GVSU. This city has some worst architecture and it keeps getting worse.

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Just plain awful. Oh, goodie! More glass! How ingenious! Goes so well with Plaza Towers.....of course what does that matter. Look at the other atrocities in town....the Meijer Heart Center, the engineering building at GVSU. This city has some worst architecture and it keeps getting worse.
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It's insanely modern, which is great and I like it, but with the new GRAM not far away, it would be nice to see a little variety start falling into place. I'm thinking the new 12-story(?) condo building in Hartside will provide that nice contrast.

I give the buildind a 9, particularly because it is green, two because it doesn't have a garage screaming, "hey, look at me first", and 3 because it is urban and is placed well on the waterfront (nonobstructive). :)

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To repost what I said in the other thread:

1) The cantilever along Fulton. Too big, too open, too empty, too tall, and honestly, I'd be afraid to walk under that. Get the world's best engineers to tell me it's safe, I still might just cross to the other side of the street if I walk by. The ONLY elements keeping that thing up under the tallest part of the tower are two V-shaped beams, and they certainly aren't too far apart compared to what's above them.

2) The facade on the lower floors on the NW side facing the river. What is that? It stands out and looks out-of-place.

3) The glass is nice, but that's all there is to the building. At least add some sort of small frame to the corners or something.

And I suppose I will have to add that it does seem a bit out of balance. Some extra vertical shape to the long stretch between the north and south towers could fix this, along with the removal of the cantilever concept.

The best idea I've seen for downtown, IMHO, is 240 Ionia. Here's to hoping that gets off the ground.

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I like how this will give a sloping effect to the skyline. Instead of just a wall of a few buildings on the riverfront, this makes the downtown build up to a central core. Of course, it would really help if there were a couple of highrises in the central business district to back up the riverfront, but it's still pretty good.

As for the "lean", I think they're trying to do a reverse mirror of Plaza Towers. I'm not entirely sure they did it effectively, though.

Overall, it would be a nice addition to the skyline!

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I like it! I think it will help take the "stodgieness" factor away from GR and give it a little more modern edge. The only reservation I have is what has been previously mentioned, and that is the parking wall near the river. I would like to see the river side of the building open to the river with restaurants or retail facing it. The whole east side of the river in that area is pretty closed off, the only way to even see it is if you are walking along side it.

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<_<

Holy cow...

:wacko: As you know I thought this location, this idea seemed kooky, and perhaps misguided... well nothings changed...

Onto my comment:

If you're going to build something that ugly, at least have the balls to completely piss off the residents of Plaza towers, and just build it right in front of PT, because at least then the cluster**** would be complete. Perhaps its the idea of company transparency that lead to this design, but I'd much rather think its the idea of employee toilet flushing.

I'm all for glass, but this is just... this is just ridiculous. It looks like two ice cubes about to fall off of a plate. (literally) It honestly just looks like a mess... like the architect was being super careful to accommodate PT. It honestly doesn't jibe with PT at all... Why not at least TRY to make it look like perhaps it was some part of PT's future to have this here, and less like it was some part of someone's plan to just add blocks to see if we can make it look "somewhat ok" You're taking a somewhat decent building, and adding on a massive Lego-like fortress to it, that looks tacky and out of place.

Teacher, hit me with the grade please:

D-

Why not an F? Because sometimes you give the D- as a sign of pity.

Now I liked the GRAM, Why? because it was it's own entity. Its not like its an addition to an existing building (no matter how hard this development tries, it will be an addition)

I might even like this building, if it were to stand alone, and change a few things but in addition to PT? its a slap in the face.

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I appreciate the architects attempt to do something different; I really do, but the execution of the idea just isn't working for me. While I'm admittedly not a big fan of Deconstructivism (and this definitely has elements of it), this one's a little more tame, and the glass is nice. That said, the design is too disjointed looking, too assymetrical for my tastes, and your eyes don't follow the lines real well when trying to focus on it. Hopefully, these more modern design will get better with time, and Grand Rapids will see better and more refined modern designs. It's a shame, though, that this first attempt couldn't be tucked away in a less prominent and valuable spot, though.

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For those of you pontificating on the design (which I've been guilty of too :) ), here's the architect's website that I forgot to post:

http://www.meyer-vanschooten.nl/

I wouldn't say it's a "first attempt".

Personally I am jumping with joy that this building doesn't look a thing like Plaza Towers. :thumbsup: For such a convolutedly narrow site to work with, the river coming in at an angle, the environmentally-conscious design, and the challenges of incorporating Plaza Towers while not offending it, this design might just be an award-winning solution in my book.

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It kind of looks like the profile of a bi-plane. I do like it though, it will be a nice addition to the riverside.

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I think that the negative views on this project will turn out to be alot like the initial reactions to Icon on Bond. A significant number of us who originally thought that design was terrible in every way ended up liking a majority of the real thing. This project strikes me as receiving the same reaction. Once built, I believe that a fair amount of the naysayers will change there views to an "I can deal with it" vote.

One other point: When they built the Plaza Towers, it really did not fit any properties around it, either. Nor did the Amway Grand Plaza or Bridgewater. I think that this will fit into a ever-growing field of architectural designs that add character to the downtown area.

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