Jump to content

Cherry Street Landing - A Rendered View


joeDowntown

Recommended Posts

Those of you familiar with downtown Grand Rapids have certainly noticed a change in the last five years as Cherry Street Landing has taken shape. It is an area long neglected with many vacant buildings. Due to the efforts of a couple of companies, it is alive and well (and growing every day). Unfortunately, I do not have true photos (as some of the buildings are still being worked on) but here are some renderings. I thought out of towners might be interested. Downtown GR truly is in the middle of a re-birth!

1. Milner (Before):

milner.jpg

2. Milner (Replaced):

beta-rendering.jpg

3. Bank of Holland (new - was a parking lot):

bankofholland.jpg

4. Cooley Law School (previously a abandoned clothing factory):

cooley.jpg

This is just a couple of the highlights. Western Michigan University, United Way, EQ3 Furniture, Black Rose Irish Pub, Design Plus Architecture and a couple of office building also have been renovated. It is really looking nice! Next on the plate is living space for Cooley students as well as condominiums and potentially an 1100 seat concert hall (once rumored to be a House of Blues).

Joe

Link to comment
Share on other sites


  • Replies 13
  • Created
  • Last Reply

From what I hear, the Milner was too far gone. It was built as a boarding house type hotel with support beams everywhere. They did a feasability study on it to try and turn it into a hotel and had a hardtime even fitting a bathroom in each room. It had trees growing through the roof and had been vacant since the early eighties. The nice thing is they saved most of the ornamental work and used it on the inside of the building. The elevator vestibule looks pretty cool with a mixed of salvaged and new materials.

Joe

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm glad that they saved the ornamental work. When Detroit demolishes a building all the old detail goes straight to the landfill. :(

It would have been possible to save the old facade. Ann Arbor has done this several times. They would need to erect a saffolding around the facade and then tie the facade to the scaffolding. The interior can then be completely gutted, including the columns and supporting beams. New beams and columns would be installed, and the interior could be finished off. This is all very expensive, however. For a more ornate building it would have been worth it, but not for something as ordinary as the Milner.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

I'm glad that they saved the ornamental work.  When Detroit demolishes a building all the old detail goes straight to the landfill. :(

It would have been possible to save the old facade.  Ann Arbor has done this several times.  They would need to erect a saffolding around the facade and then tie the facade to the scaffolding.  The interior can then be completely gutted, including the columns and supporting beams.  New beams and columns would be installed, and the interior could be finished off.  This is all very expensive, however.  For a more ornate building it would have been worth it, but not for something as ordinary as the Milner.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Unfortunately that sounds a tad bit expensiv, which is a big hurdle to doing something like that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

mpchicago,

Not that I have seen. I think it is still available. Interestingly, the Senior Center across the street (in the Dwelling Place owned apartment building) is leaving for bigger digs and this is supposed to open up for market rate retail/restaurant space. It's good to see that the ground floor of this building will become useful again.

Joe

Does anyone know if someone has taken up shop in the ground floor space in the BETA Design Building.  I thought I recall word of a Restaurant going in?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

mpchicago,

Not that I have seen. I think it is still available. Interestingly, the Senior Center across the street (in the Dwelling Place owned apartment building) is leaving for bigger digs and this is supposed to open up for market rate retail/restaurant space. It's good to see that the ground floor of this building will become useful again.

Joe

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Joe:

Are you talking about the Weston Apartment Building on Ionia? I really like that building with the arched windows in the upper floors.

Also, did anyone watch WXMI News at Ten tonight (Thursday) and hear where the new parking ramp is going to be built in the Heartside area? I just caught the last part of it and didn't hear where.

Jeff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always thought that it was to be built behind the arena.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have heard (granted, it was a long time ago) that they were gonna make the arena into a stadium style situation and expand it further south instead of the 'horseshoe" it is now...anyone heard otherwise?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah, here it is. As much as I complain about the GR Press :P

City gets offer for parking ramp

Friday, July 15, 2005

By Jim Harger

The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS -- City parking commissioners hope to get 370 spaces of relief from a parking shortage looming in the Heartside area.

Rockford Construction and RDV Corp. offered to build the city a six-story parking ramp on a vacant lot they own next door to the Cooley Law School at Western Michigan University.

I'm just glad they are not doing a ramp on Ionia for now. Ionia could be such a cool street with more mixed use.

And as far as I know, that is the plan for the arena, but they haven't looked at doing that for a long time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah, here it is.  As much as I complain about the GR Press :P

City gets offer for parking ramp

Friday, July 15, 2005

By Jim Harger

The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS -- City parking commissioners hope to get 370 spaces of relief from a parking shortage looming in the Heartside area.

Rockford Construction and RDV Corp. offered to build the city a six-story parking ramp on a vacant lot they own next door to the Cooley Law School at Western Michigan University.

I'm just glad they are not doing a ramp on Ionia for now.  Ionia could be such a cool street with more mixed use.

And as far as I know, that is the plan for the arena, but they haven't looked at doing that for a long time.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Call me crazy, but I think the last thing we need in downtown GR is more &$#@ing parking...

We already have ramps at Amway Grand, Lyon, Ionia, 2 on Ottawa by the arena, GRCC, Plaza Towers (although its private), government center, bridgewater place...

I never have a problem finding a place to park. After all, my feet work just fine. So I have to walk for three minutes every now and then...big deal!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.