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New Home For Opera Grand Rapids


mgreven

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From the Opera Grand Rapids website, just so no one is confused:

"The building will be named The Betty Van Andel Opera Center (BVAOC), in honor of one the Company's most avid supporters."

Oh, and Betty Van Andel was a ten-year member of the Opera Grand Rapids Board of Trustees and is currently an Honorary Director.

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I really wish the Steak & Shake look was just a bad dream, guess not. Odder than that though is the location. I can appreciate spreading out the cultural destinations so they aren't all in the same core area but if I'm thinking opera, I'm thinking Ada/Forest Hills. Personally, I'd head down the street a bit to Billy's (or the original Intersection back in the day) for my culture.

If you've got Van Andel and Gilmore money involved though it should be worthwhile.

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Well, I love the location, but I don't think it's for performances anyway.

What I also want to know is when is Gilmore opening the taco place there? Mmmmmmm.....

Yeah, it's not really for public performances (like the new Ballet center), AFAIK:

The 14,000-square-foot building will provide the company with a rehearsal hall, practice rooms, costume shop, storage for costumes and props, and administrative offices, among other amenities.

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... That corner has been a blackeye in this area for long enough, and it'll be great to welcome this building and those that use it to the Fulton Heights neighborhood!

It is nice to see something finally get built on that site. But it's another lost opportunity to make it a real transit hub. It's a big enough piece of dirt to have created a higher-rise, higher-density mixed use project.

If the Rapid then created a shuttle line running up Carlton that connected the #14 stop at Fulton and Carlton with the #6 route stop at Lake Drive and Carlton (the former Old Kent/5th3rd site being re-envisioned as a mixed use development) and then ran that same shuttle down Giddings to Franklin (near the new school on the old Ottawa Hills H.S. site) to connect with the #5 route, you'd really link some very walkable eastside neighborhoods to each other and to a very wide area via the Rapid and really facilitate more of a car-free lifestyle appeal in that part of town.

I mean you're talking about a location that's across the street from the only decent food market serving that entire area. And it's a stone's throw from the Farmer's Market. Given that, the proximity to Aquinas, and the fact it sits on a direct Rapid link to both Davenport and GVSU, and connecting by bus to Medical Mile from there is easy, you'd think they'd have seen the potential at that location for loft-like residential. Who knows. Maybe with the land left over Gilmore has something planned.

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It is nice to see something finally get built on that site. But it's another lost opportunity to make it a real transit hub. It's a big enough piece of dirt to have created a higher-rise, higher-density mixed use project.

If the Rapid then created a shuttle line running up Carlton that connected the #14 stop at Fulton and Carlton with the #6 route stop at Lake Drive and Carlton (the former Old Kent/5th3rd site being re-envisioned as a mixed use development) and then ran that same shuttle down Giddings to Franklin (near the new school on the old Ottawa Hills H.S. site) to connect with the #5 route, you'd really link some very walkable eastside neighborhoods to each other and to a very wide area via the Rapid and really facilitate more of a car-free lifestyle appeal in that part of town.

I mean you're talking about a location that's across the street from the only decent food market serving that entire area. And it's a stone's throw from the Farmer's Market. Given that, the proximity to Aquinas, and the fact it sits on a direct Rapid link to both Davenport and GVSU, and connecting by bus to Medical Mile from there is easy, you'd think they'd have seen the potential at that location for loft-like residential. Who knows. Maybe with the land left over Gilmore has something planned.

I don't see more than two stories going in here. Three stories is even pushing the height issue. The context of the surrounding neighborhood would really be damaged by something too tall. That said, mixed use in this location would be great. Maybe space for a few more businesses in addition to the opera company.

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I don't see more than two stories going in here. Three stories is even pushing the height issue. The context of the surrounding neighborhood would really be damaged by something too tall. That said, mixed use in this location would be great. Maybe space for a few more businesses in addition to the opera company.

Two stories, maybe three? A huge chunk of The Holland Home, directly across the street, is already 4 stories. In my mind, this site could've been something large enough to become a landmark, to convey the idea that there's a lot going on here...a destination where people are living, studying, working, eating, singing, and getting on and off the Rapid headed up and down Fulton...transit lines work best when they have an obvious destination...either the proposals for a renewed Farmer's Market area or some future development at Aquinas should include something prominent enough to serve as a landmark...As Fulton is the main E-W street of our city, and thus one of the keys to making the Rapid efficient, Fulton Heights needs to become the eastern anchor for a whole corridor. This site had the potential to make it so.

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...this site could've been something large enough to become a landmark, to convey the idea that there's a lot going on here...a destination where people are living, studying, working, eating, singing, and getting on and off the Rapid headed up and down Fulton...transit lines work best when they have an obvious destination...

Like these examples from Portland, OR...

http://burnsiderocket.com/

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2008/08/graham-street-l.html

post-12961-1242340765_thumb.jpg

post-12961-1242340794_thumb.jpg

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Two stories, maybe three? A huge chunk of The Holland Home, directly across the street, is already 4 stories. In my mind, this site could've been something large enough to become a landmark, to convey the idea that there's a lot going on here...a destination where people are living, studying, working, eating, singing, and getting on and off the Rapid headed up and down Fulton...transit lines work best when they have an obvious destination...either the proposals for a renewed Farmer's Market area or some future development at Aquinas should include something prominent enough to serve as a landmark...As Fulton is the main E-W street of our city, and thus one of the keys to making the Rapid efficient, Fulton Heights needs to become the eastern anchor for a whole corridor. This site had the potential to make it so.

I don't know. I think if it got too tall, and wasn't designed absolutely perfect, it would just be another new infill eyesore monstrosity. Three stories close to the street would still make it the dominate building.

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  • 5 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

Oh, is it just offices and practice areas or something?

Yeah, it's just meant to be a permanent home base for Opera Grand Rapids while they will still hold performances at larger venues. It'll have a small performance hall mainly used for rehearsals. I'm afraid the "Van Andel Center Metropolitan Opera House" is still a few years away :silly:

The renderings they've come out with haven't been much better than what we see now, but it least it's two-tone:

large_BVAOC-Rendering-453.jpg

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You can read all about it in the Fall "About The Green", Midtown's quarterly newsletter. We have a former newspaper reporter who moved to our neighborhood from Flint named Jeff Smith who wrote some excellent articles on the Opera Grand Rapids building, the Guatemalan grocery, Mahanaim, on Diamond just south of Fulton and the new Rylee's.

The Opera article is on page 6. Lots of great information in it. "About The Green" scoops the local media! :) I'm trying to get Jeff to post these stories to The Rapidian as well.

http://www.midtowngr.com/wp-content/upload...mna_fall_09.pdf

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Yeah, it's just meant to be a permanent home base for Opera Grand Rapids while they will still hold performances at larger venues. It'll have a small performance hall mainly used for rehearsals. I'm afraid the "Van Andel Center Metropolitan Opera House" is still a few years away :silly:

The renderings they've come out with haven't been much better than what we see now, but it least it's two-tone:

large_BVAOC-Rendering-453.jpg

The Civic Opera House in Chicago is, in my opinion, only so so on the outside. I have yet to go inside. I think a stuffy ornate building might continue the belief that operas are for stuffy, rich people and that it's boring. I like the two toned look for the new performance hall that will hopefully come not too many years away.

Right now the opera practices all around town, even in some abandoned building that I can't remember the name of...my friend's in the chorus and he keeps trying to get me to join. So I should know more but I'm thrilled to hear people still like opera.

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