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Rylee's Hardware


BigPlayJ

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I was having trouble visualizing this on the plans, thanks to the omission of other existing uses. Looks like it's on the south side of Michigan just east of the Speedway, roughly across from the seasonal ice cream place and laundromat.

View hovering above said ice cream, looking southish:

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&...1&encType=1

(wasn't here when the armory was)

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Lot of memories regarding this site. It was the old Army Reserve center. My Dad spent a lot of Wednesday nights at that place in the 50s and 60s. For real old timers, who remembers the old National Guard armory at Division and Michigan? It was torn down about 1960.

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I was having trouble visualizing this on the plans, thanks to the omission of other existing uses. Looks like it's on the south side of Michigan just east of the Speedway, roughly across from the seasonal ice cream place and laundromat.

View hovering above said ice cream, looking southish:

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&...1&encType=1

(wasn't here when the armory was)

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I resemble that comment :P I think it was torn down a few years later than 60. It was one of the last to be removed for the freeway and I'm pretty sure I rode the bus home from high school past it but my memory is going :silly:

For other: Proposed Riley's site is the vacant lot east of the Speedway.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Last week I went through the car wash next to the site to wash the last dregs of winter off my car and was looking around at the site trying to figure out where the Fuller Ave. access would be. The only way I see that happening is if the carwash shares their drive or the park allows a drive. I assume the latter is not likely to happen, so wonder if the carwash is going to remain. Anyone know more about where the Fuller access will be?

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Last week I went through the car wash next to the site to wash the last dregs of winter off my car and was looking around at the site trying to figure out where the Fuller Ave. access would be. The only way I see that happening is if the carwash shares their drive or the park allows a drive. I assume the latter is not likely to happen, so wonder if the carwash is going to remain. Anyone know more about where the Fuller access will be?
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I just got back from the Fulton Heights neighborhood association meeting where Rylee's move was discussed. The site plan has changed a bit from what's been posted here, though in a good way. I have a copy but I don't have a scanner. I know some other UPers are in the neighborhood so maybe one of them was also in attendance.

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I'm suprised by the placement of the Ace building...no concerns that it will be hidden and lost behind the office building, gas station and car wash? I suppose it is more of a "destination" store for area residents and doesn't necessarily have to have A-1 exposure off of Michigan Ave, but still...
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  • 3 months later...

The Rylee's people said at the Fulton Heights meeting a while back (this may have changed) that they were planning to have a mezzanine area of the store along with their offices upstairs. I was pretty sure any apartments planned were for above the retail section, though all we had to go by before was the site plan, not elevations.

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  • 1 month later...

So the question I have is: Are we urbanizing the city, or are we NOT urbanizing (sub-urbanizing) the city or are we creating a mixed-up middle???

In the site plan as presented in this thread, it would appear that we are doing the mixed-up middle thing, which is exactly what we should not be doing!! The site plan is not urban, nor is it suburban. The front strip engages the street, but not quite - notice that it is about five feet from the property line - probably with some junipers and fancy landscaping in the zone between the sidewalk and the building, while the Rylees building is suburbanized in its site planning, set back just like it would be on 28th street. Neither of the buildings are urban and neither will ever succeed in making a better urban realm. But atleast the Rylees is consistent and not trying to pretend it is something it is not.

In this case we are not urban, nor are we suburban.

It would appear that there are doors fronting the street on the front strip building...but are these doors the real front door or are they abstractions, with the real front doors on the rear, by the parking field?

This is not appropriate if we are trying to build a city. In a city or even in the country (on the rare occassions that it occurs) retail faces the street, with no setbacks, clear storefronts, front doors. The back is relegated to trash, parking, services, etc.

I would point to the subway building on the corner of Michigan and Fuller as an example of this mixed-up middle concept. (And something that this Rylees development is earily moving toward). Something that we can not afford to allow to permeate our city.

This subway building is neither suburban nor urban and as a result it is a failure. If this is the best we can hope for in the city, then we are doomed. Quit now.

The proper way to deal with this (at the subway building and probably at Rylees) is to take back Michigan Street and place on-street parking on both sides of the street. Then place the buildings - with a real front door and FULL storefronts - at the public sidewalk. Not punched hole openings that show the back corridor to the bathrooms. Not having a door on this pretend front is an insult to our intelligence. This building is essentially backing up to he sidewalk with the front facing inwards towards the parking lot. Yes it is brick and the planning commission probably made the developer jump through some hoops by putting in a required percentage of glass...and hey don't forget it is brick, so it must be OK.

For diagramatic purposes, it has no front and no back, but instead two half-assed backs.

In the event that you can not humanize the street with parking, then simply make it conventional suburban with a parking lot in front of it and save us the obligatory BS.

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I agree on many of your viewpoints except the fact that if there exist on-street parking on michgan than the traffic would become extra congested and a mess with people trying to parallel park with traffic rearing up behind them, there would have to be a parking lane opened up which is impossible at this point in time.

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