Grand Rapids City Hall To Get New Windows

[GRDadof3]

Probably not that big of news to most, but I know some people here will like this. The copper screens on three sides of the buildings, added in 1977, will come off as part of the renovation project.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/06/city_hall_will_get_new_windows.html

The non-screen side of the building:

[jwazzz]

I think that's great news - those screens were a real eyesore. And polishing the granite too - icing on the cake. Now, if they could just make Calder Plaza more accessible to pedestrians on the Monroe side...

[RustTown]

Sometimes, little changes like this can mean a huge thing visually. My city also has a modernist city hall with exterior screens interspered vertically with some panels of unknown material, and it just makes the building look horrible. This will be a nice architectural change, mostly because it wasn't a part of the original design as I understand it from reading the article.

I had no idea, BTW, that the building was clad in granite; I'd always assumed it was treated steel. You learn something new everyday.

[LA Dave]

Wow, it's about time. City Hall was built during a time when there was civic pride in civic architecture. Today, city Hall would probably be a double-wide.

[MJLO]

compared to the old city hall, it kind of feels like a double wide

[RustTown]

I was thinking the same thing. Just my preference, but when given the choice between the extremes of the over-extravagance of the past and less-is-more of the modernist era, I'll take the former almost every time. For what it is, the current building captures what it's trying to convery, but the former GR City Hall had to be one of the most beautiful and unique Romanesque structures in all of Michigan, hands down. One is replicable, and the other just isn't, anymore.

[gvsusean]

I was thinking the same thing. Just my preference, but when given the choice between the extremes of the over-extravagance of the past and less-is-more of the modernist era, I'll take the former almost every time. For what it is, the current building captures what it's trying to convery, but the former GR City Hall had to be one of the most beautiful and unique Romanesque structures in all of Michigan, hands down. One is replicable, and the other just isn't, anymore.

i wish there was some way to resurrect that place...not for its prior use or even the exact same layout.. I would like to see a throwback to that building.. like, historic exterior but modern interior.. it would be great for an art, design, or political science school... anyone here friends with devos? maybe we can convince UofM to move some school here

[RustTown]

i wish there was some way to resurrect that place...not for its prior use or even the exact same layout.. I would like to see a throwback to that building.. like, historic exterior but modern interior.. it would be great for an art, design, or political science school... anyone here friends with devos? maybe we can convince UofM to move some school here

LOL! I just realized I was thinking of the old county courthouse. Ignore all that. Well, except for the point about what can and can't be replicated. Actually, the old city hall looked a lot like the old Kent County Courthouse, didn't it? Neither of them exists.

[Allison Slater]

i wish there was some way to resurrect that place...not for its prior use or even the exact same layout.. I would like to see a throwback to that building.. like, historic exterior but modern interior.. it would be great for an art, design, or political science school... anyone here friends with devos? maybe we can convince UofM to move some school here

I've always thought about this in the back of my mind, although I always pictured it as some sort of public, civic use building. A place where any citisen can come into and relax, with other public uses on other floors. It could be built across from its old location in the parking lot at Lyon & Ottawa, serving to fill out that historic Ottawa corridor south of Lyon, and its design being a complete mirror of its former self across the street. The clocktower would fit on the skyline about the same place it used to. It could even be paired with some historic groups and actually built using period tools and techniques as a historical study, much like the castle currently under construction in France. But this would require someone willing to spend the money for such a building with such a use, likely a copy of the original blueprints if they exist any more, etc.