Hey, what's that (and other miscellanea)?

[GRDadof3]

On 8/23/2019 at 10:10 AM, joeDowntown said:

Ok, yes, I remember it now. They also had a rendering for a conceptual building near Crescent park. To me, these were always explorations by the architect picking spots they new and envisioning a new use (I remember them doing a nice concept for the underutilized strip mall at Cascade and 28th). Unless someone has intel that these were commissioned concepts?

Joe

They were on Visbeen's website in their portfolio of "conceptual"projects. It didn't say it was Market and Fulton but we all figured it out pretty easily. 

I think it was when it hit the Press that Wayne Visbeen asked me to pull it down. And it disappeared from their website. 

[joeDowntown]

FlannelJax is opening a Grand Rapids location. Sounds like a good activity for downtown. Wonder where they’ll open shop? They already have jobs posted for the GR location.

https://www.grbj.com/articles/94186-ax-throwing-chain-targets-grand-rapids

 

[ironyisadeadscene]

I have a question about Wilcox Park. What is with the "bowl" feature on the south side along Robinson? It's clearly artificial and I wonder if there's a reason for it.

[GR_Urbanist]

I always imagined it was the original area of a body of water that was once there, that was drained, leaving the bowl.

[RegalTDP]

5 hours ago, ironyisadeadscene said:

I have a question about Wilcox Park. What is with the "bowl" feature on the south side along Robinson? It's clearly artificial and I wonder if there's a reason for it.

I think it used to be a skating rink.  That's my guess because Pinewood Park in Kentwood has a similar bowl in the corner of the field.  They used to fill it with water in Wintertime and let it freeze.  I'm not sure why they stopped doing that - maybe it wasn't safe or maybe nobody used it.

[Gorath]

I don't know if it is true, but it may have been a velodrome.

 

[ironyisadeadscene]

18 hours ago, RegalTDP said:

I think it used to be a skating rink.  That's my guess because Pinewood Park in Kentwood has a similar bowl in the corner of the field.  They used to fill it with water in Wintertime and let it freeze.  I'm not sure why they stopped doing that - maybe it wasn't safe or maybe nobody used it.

I looked at Google maps at Pinewood and couldn't locate this well. Maybe I'm taking similar too seriously.

[RegalTDP]

6 hours ago, ironyisadeadscene said:

I looked at Google maps at Pinewood and couldn't locate this well. Maybe I'm taking similar too seriously.

Oh, sorry if I overstated - only really similar in that they're both artificial indentations in the ground.  At Pinewood it's more of a rectangle and it's easy to miss if you didn't know it was there.  It's a depression about 1-2 feet lower than the rest of the park, which is mostly a flat field.  My memory is hazy on when they stopped flooding the area at Pinewood, but it would have been 30-35 years ago.  Come to think about it, that's around the time the Kentwood Ice Arena was built.  I have no idea if they would have done this at Wilcox Park too, it's just my theory.  I figure it would have been done many years earlier, and the features would be more deliberate.

 

 

Edited September 8, 2019 by RegalTDP

[ironyisadeadscene]

19 hours ago, RegalTDP said:

Oh, sorry if I overstated - only really similar in that they're both artificial indentations in the ground.  At Pinewood it's more of a rectangle and it's easy to miss if you didn't know it was there.  It's a depression about 1-2 feet lower than the rest of the park, which is mostly a flat field.  My memory is hazy on when they stopped flooding the area at Pinewood, but it would have been 30-35 years ago.  Come to think about it, that's around the time the Kentwood Ice Arena was built.  I have no idea if they would have done this at Wilcox Park too, it's just my theory.  I figure it would have been done many years earlier, and the features would be more deliberate.

 

 

You're awesome. Thank you!

Wilcox is just very uniform and very deliberate.  The velodrome makes sense, IMO, but so does the water feature as well.

Edited September 9, 2019 by ironyisadeadscene

[EastownLeo]

On 9/8/2019 at 5:16 AM, Gorath said:

I don't know if it is true, but it may have been a velodrome.

 

Not a Velodrome.

The area near Robinson was a pond water feature. It has been filled in,  but the same rock still remains.

Edited September 9, 2019 by EastownLeo

[EastownLeo]

5 hours ago, ironyisadeadscene said:

You're awesome. Thank you!

Wilcox is just very uniform and very deliberate.  The velodrome makes sense, IMO, but so does the water feature as well.

Wilcox also used to have a poolhouse.

[ironyisadeadscene]

4 hours ago, EastownLeo said:

Not a Velodrome.

The area near Robinson was a pond water feature. It has been filled in,  but the same rock still remains.

The rock is photographed from the same side.  But it's clearly been turned

[EastownLeo]

16 hours ago, ironyisadeadscene said:

The rock is photographed from the same side.  But it's clearly been turned

Yeah, I took the photo of the rock.  I wanted to show that it was the same.  I am guessing the stone "curbs" that surrounded the pool are still there.  The bushes in the old photo are probably the same bushes that are still there to this day.

[wingbert]

21 hours ago, EastownLeo said:

Not a Velodrome.

The area near Robinson was a pond water feature. It has been filled in,  but the same rock still remains.

Looks like a velodrome that was turned into a pond before being completely filled in.  The mystery deepens...

[RegalTDP]

2 hours ago, wingbert said:

Looks like a velodrome that was turned into a pond before being completely filled in.  The mystery deepens...

 

[EastownLeo]

1955, the pool looks to be filled in.  In 1947 the pool is visible.

[arcturus]

Any info on the large commercial structure going up just north of 96 easily visible eastbound between (I think) Walker & Bristol?

[RegalTDP]

55 minutes ago, arcturus said:

Any info on the large commercial structure going up just north of 96 easily visible eastbound between (I think) Walker & Bristol?

That must be part of Walkerview. Might be Falk North America's project - they announced a 78,000 sq. ft. building last December: https://mibiz.com/sections/real-estate-development/walkerview-continues-growth-spurt-as-industrial-vacancy-remains-low

 

Edited September 18, 2019 by RegalTDP

[joeDowntown]

This crap-tastic building on Ionia/Monroe center is getting some TLC. Unfortunately, it looks like they're just replacing a lot of rotting panels with the same, lousy panels.  Does anyone remember when this side of the building was SOAPSTONE. File under: what were they thinking?! At least they kept the Monroe facade intact. 

Joe

 

[GRDadof3]

Planet Rock, one of the largest (probably THE largest) indoor climbing gym company in the State is opening a location in Grand Rapids. They have 3 facilities I believe in total, on the East Side of the State.

Anyone recognize this warehouse? They won't say where it's going to be located yet.  This one looks huge. I frequent Terra Firma off of Cottage Grove as a relatively newcomer to the sport. TF is pretty much always packed, except in the mornings, so I imagine there's demand for more. 

 

[ironyisadeadscene]

What are these?

[demhem]

On 2/15/2020 at 7:09 PM, GRDadof3 said:

Planet Rock, one of the largest (probably THE largest) indoor climbing gym company in the State is opening a location in Grand Rapids. They have 3 facilities I believe in total, on the East Side of the State.

Anyone recognize this warehouse? They won't say where it's going to be located yet.  This one looks huge. I frequent Terra Firma off of Cottage Grove as a relatively newcomer to the sport. TF is pretty much always packed, except in the mornings, so I imagine there's demand for more. 

 

I would also love to know where this is. I first climbed at Planet Rock growing up on the east side of the state. I regularly climb at Higher Ground now, but this has my attention. 

[GR_Urbanist]

My guess is that it is the large, recently renovated, building just south of Wealthy on Market.

 

I used to have storage space there, and the spaces in the video look very much like the creepy, winding corridors that were inside.

[GRDadof3]

6 hours ago, GR_Urbanist said:

My guess is that it is the large, recently renovated, building just south of Wealthy on Market.

 

I used to have storage space there, and the spaces in the video look very much like the creepy, winding corridors that were inside.

Which building are you referring to? 

Here are some more clues. Looks like it's a one story warehouse and they've already begun demolishing parts of it, probably to make it taller (their gym in Madison Heights is apparently 5 stories tall). 

 

 

 

And another video. Looks like an older tan building with a two-story section.  Lots of pine trees nearby apparently. It could be in Wyoming or Walker too. So many warehouses scattered around there area.

And another big clue, it's around 40,000 square feet (they say it's twice as large as their Madison Heights location which is 20,000 sf).

 

 

7 hours ago, demhem said:

I would also love to know where this is. I first climbed at Planet Rock growing up on the east side of the state. I regularly climb at Higher Ground now, but this has my attention. 

We used to go to Higher Ground but my daughter talked me into switching to Terra Firma, which is all bouldering with no top ropes.  Just jump on a route and go, and it's all color-coded by skill level. So much more fun. And the vibe is great at TF. Good music, really nice people (working and climbing). I hope Planet Rock doesn't hurt their business, but really TF could stand to expand they're really busy on weekends and in the evenings when they have leagues going on. 

 

 

Whoa Nelly, Planet Rock's going to be in another league if it's going to be twice as large as their place in Madison Heights:

https://www.google.com/search?q=planet+rock+madison+heights&rlz=1C1ZKTG_enUS782US782&sxsrf=ACYBGNT07meedJWCE21hTfRLfc0D4VZPUA:1581964597752&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjuqJWvndnnAhX7mXIEHeWwANoQ_AUoAnoECA4QBA&biw=1707&bih=803&dpr=1.13#imgrc=CQJWSxgFiBLOXM

[demhem]

35 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

Which building are you referring to? 

Here are some more clues. Looks like it's a one story warehouse and they've already begun demolishing parts of it, probably to make it taller (their gym in Madison Heights is apparently 5 stories tall). 

 

 

 

And another video. Looks like an older tan building with a two-story section.  Lots of pine trees nearby apparently. It could be in Wyoming or Walker too. So many warehouses scattered around there area.

And another big clue, it's around 40,000 square feet (they say it's twice as large as their Madison Heights location which is 20,000 sf).

 

 

We used to go to Higher Ground but my daughter talked me into switching to Terra Firma, which is all bouldering with no top ropes.  Just jump on a route and go, and it's all color-coded by skill level. So much more fun. And the vibe is great at TF. Good music, really nice people (working and climbing). I hope Planet Rock doesn't hurt their business, but really TF could stand to expand they're really busy on weekends and in the evenings when they have leagues going on. 

 

That still doesn't give enough away! The brick facade and screening across the street might help narrow it down though...

I've been to TF. I like it, but HG is near my office, has top rope, and is less expensive.