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Bank's chief likes downtown

DetroitMan

By DetroitMan
in Detroit

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Jasoncw Hamlet

Jasoncw

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For me, I don't care if someone is new, and knows nothing, I just don't like it when people start stringing together, and trying to pass off a bunch of nonsense to justify whatever they were saying. That's what ends up happening in a lot of these threads. Someone says something that's wrong, and then starts adding to the story to try to make it right, and of course it always just gets more absurd. People should just be honest about what they know and don't know, and be willing to learn more.

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wolverine Town

wolverine

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Actually, the reason why urban planet instituted an age cap was to admit members who had a reasonable amount of knowledge and could provide thoughtful discussion. By age 16, one should be able to know that if he or she were to live in a city like Troy, it would be a suburb and that almost everything in the central city is urban. There are definitely gray areas. However, most of us know by instinct that when we are in an area where the structural footprint forms a considerably small proportion to the overall land area, we are looking at suburb, reguardless of building height.

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tapezord Hamlet

tapezord

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While it is easy to see that major detroit redevelopment, at least from the news standpoint, has slowed considerably, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore what is ACTUALY happening. Something that is becoming the new reality in Detroit. There are a number of key developments that I feel are what Detroit has been looking for. These include the following:

-Book Caddy

-Appartments on Woodward at Forest Street

-1225 Woodward

-Greektown Casino (minus garage)

-The Griswold

As for not coming back here because of a supposed influx of less educated, I am going to have to disagree. Moreover, I am going to go further and tag this thread as being a little snobbish to someone who is not an urban planner of architect. I am an engineer, so, by nature, that means I hate the aforementioned aloof professions. However, I learn alot from you guys and its important to see how you think as members of your respective professions. Additionally, as the professionals, its equally important to see how the regular guys think. The real challengs in redeveloping Detroit lies not in the construction, funding and planning difficulties, but moreso in the attitudes and lifestyles of typical Detroiters. I hate to say it, but I think Detroiters are largely followers and rarely doers (look no further than the freeway situation on game days... I still chuckle seeing a mile long backup of cars on 75 while i fly by unimpeded on Michigan Avenue... you guys don't even know your city!!).

It seems that so many of my fellow detroiters lack vision and dreams of what detroit should be. Without these, there is no chance. Once we as a region start to empower those with ideas and vision, I think we can save Detroit. That is why a site like this, with a match of uninformed and well-informed is a great starting point at transforming the path of the region.

Now, getting back on point. Lets be honest here, there really isn't a ton to talk about right now in terms of NEW development stories. So now, lets look at the horizon. What can we expect in the next year? Here are some gueses:

-DTOGS will be releasing their locally preferred alternative within the next 3 months. This will really start to move transit closer to reality than anyone has seen in the past 50 years. No freaking joke here either. This doesn't mean it will get built, but we'll be knocking on the freakin door of preliminary engineering. Its hard not to get excited about that.

-Detroit-Ann Arbor --- wait, semcog is running this, never mind, nothing to talk about.

-The opening of the Book

-The FBI monstrosity

-The prosperity of the Detroit Casinos and the possible spinoff developments (point to vision on this one, some developer will have the balls to do something... I hope)

-Midtown/Downtown development of a new arena? (talk about old bit... still fun to talk about though!)

-Bank of America

-David Hall Loans-4-Idiots Inc.

-New Marathon Refinery (YES!!!, I love industrial photography)

-Capitol Park (keep an eye on this guy... I have a good feeling about it)

-Continuned Midtown and Wayne Development

So while I can agree with some of what is said, I would be cautious to totally abandon this site because of some of the newbies. I think a lot of them are just curious and excited about Detroit and don't have a ton to bring to the table other than that. That excitement is what we need to build.

Lets get one thing straight though. 200 foot wide right-of-way roads are not urban. Never will be either, end of story. :-)

And urbanites, its our job to argue with them until they agree. There is plenty of work to do.

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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So while I can agree with some of what is said, I would be cautious to totally abandon this site because of some of the newbies. I think a lot of them are just curious and excited about Detroit and don't have a ton to bring to the table other than that. That excitement is what we need to build.

Lets get one thing straight though. 200 foot wide right-of-way roads are not urban. Never will be either, end of story. :-)

And urbanites, its our job to argue with them until they agree. There is plenty of work to do.

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tapezord Hamlet

tapezord

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No, you're right that it's pretty rare in the U.S.. Just showing that the canucks have pulled it off (with mixed results). You'll notice in the Missassauga link that there are areas that look a lot like Troy and Southfield (un-urban), so they aren't perfect. :)
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tracer1138 Whistle-Stop

tracer1138

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Continuing briefly on this tangent...

Is it possible we share a sworn enemy in Corb?

All you have to do is look at Brasilia or former soviet blocks to see how that kind of development turns out.

-back to topic though...

As far the bank moving downtown Detroit vs. "downtown" Troy, from my uneducated perspective it seems that ultimately it will come down to the values of the decision makers. If they're the type of people interested in community and quality of life and gaining a loyal customer base by being good neighbors (without looking at specific values of promoting urban living) they'll move downtown. If they're interested in the convenience of their workers and the bottom line, they'll probably end up in Troy. From where I'm standing, that's the pivot point.

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wolverine Town

wolverine

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Well, you never know. For a bank that's moving into this market (or at least replacing one) it always helps to show you are good steward to downtown revitalization.

A lot of people hate Corb......probably more his city design principals rather than individual architecture. He did do some nice buildings, but he ruined his reputation with the Contemporary City. If you haven't, read Towards a New Architecture, browse through a copy. (please don't ever buy it) He has some good points, but his odd personality and one sided views tend to get in the way.

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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Well, you never know. For a bank that's moving into this market (or at least replacing one) it always helps to show you are good steward to downtown revitalization.

A lot of people hate Corb......probably more his city design principals rather than individual architecture. He did do some nice buildings, but he ruined his reputation with the Contemporary City. If you haven't, read Towards a New Architecture, browse through a copy. (please don't ever buy it) He has some good points, but his odd personality and one sided views tend to get in the way.

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nofunk Whistle-Stop

nofunk

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I was REALLY hoping no one would post that horrible image ^ or at least no one would mention COR-BOOZER.

Those are 400 yd long blocks. I can't remember the percentage of occupied land, but it's very low. It was a suburban replacement for the city (Paris)

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MJLO City

MJLO

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Not to derail this current rant, since it seems that people have taken the good news of downtown Detroit having yet another ingredient helping it, and turned it into an inter-regional debate as to which satelite core in metro Detroit is most urban. But back to the original point, I want a little speculation. I couldn't care less which of Detroits suburbs has the most "urban feel" the creation of those areas all helped in the demise of the region as a whole. I want to know, Where would Bank of America go? I know they are just "talking". But having gone across country and seen the bank in a number of cities, i'd say it's certain, they will move downtown, and break the stagnation of regional companies over the last 40 years. Would they go into one of the many exisiting buildings, would they build a new signature tower? Does this news translate into good news for Michigans satelite cities? Seeing as when they go into a state they take an interest all over. Would they possibly invest in Downtown Flint, Lansing, Saginaw? What do y'all think?

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MJLO City

MJLO

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yeah Comerica isn't up and leaving, just moving the corporate powerhouses. They have to much going on here to up and leaving it all. I was thinking right next to compuware could be good. You could pretty much build it to any height and the footings are already set. But if I had to put my money on something I would they they would go along Griswold. Or somewhere on Jefferson. Tho it would be awsome to see something fill the Stat footprint on circus park. But anywhere downtown would be awsome.

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CGunn Unincorporated Area

CGunn

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yeah Comerica isn't up and leaving, just moving the corporate powerhouses. They have to much going on here to up and leaving it all. I was thinking right next to compuware could be good. You could pretty much build it to any height and the footings are already set. But if I had to put my money on something I would they they would go along Griswold. Or somewhere on Jefferson. Tho it would be awsome to see something fill the Stat footprint on circus park. But anywhere downtown would be awsome.
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tomcampion Unincorporated Area

tomcampion

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Bank of America consolidating its Michigan operations downtown sounds great. Instead of building a shiny new steel and glass tower, what if BOA renovated an existing tower on the skyline? Are there any vacant or near vacant buildings in the financial district/CBD that Bank of America could occupy? Do any of these buildings have big enough floorplates that companies desire these days?

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Jasoncw Hamlet

Jasoncw

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150 West Jefferson (Class A) has three consecutive floors of space. I don't know how much space BOA would need. I'm guessing more than that though.

211 West Fort Street (Class A) has some space too.

I can't find any availability info on One Woodward Avenue.

But there are some sexy parking lots next to Compuware that would love to have buildings on them. :)

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tapezord Hamlet

tapezord

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The Monroe block could be a major spash development that BOA might like. The location is about a prominant as you can get downtown and depending on height, you will have the potential for nighly exposure in the skyline from Comerica Park home runs to right field :).

I bet you could pair the BOA offices up with some retail, a theatre and maybe residential. And why not have BOA handle project financing. Nice Impact!

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