Downtown Flint construction,projects & Photo post

[VeeFan]

As far as I know, the only information about the historic tree park was the article in the Flint Journal a few months ago.

[Allan]

Dnast,

I found that powerpoint presentation. It's 53 MB though...a bit too large for email. Haha.

[dnast]

http://www.YouSendIt.com is your friend

You could just send to yourself and post the link if you'd like. Even though the site doesn't say it, they'd allow probably 100 downloads of that file before it goes down. It'll be easier to share it that way.

[Allan]

Ok, here is the link to the Powerpoint presentation.

http://s4.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1IO60L4LE7RRU07VW31K63PM0J

[dnast]

Thanks a million! I was gonna have to look through about 300 CDs for that.

[Allan]

Thanks a million! I was gonna have to look through about 300 CDs for that.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You're welcome. I found it when I was trying to find stuff I could delete so that I could transfer the rest of my photos from my laptop to me PC. I have way too many photos...I definately need a much bigger hard drive. I only put about 10% of them on before I ran out of space. Actually, I need a whole new computer, but I have a feeling that that is not going to happen for a while.

[dnast]

Man, how big is your hard drive? I guess those photos do take up a lot of space when they're 1-2mb a piece before resizing, though.

[dnast]

Workers are removing the (marble?) siding of First St. Lofts. I'm not sure why, though. What's underneath looks like large, bland concrete blocks. I'm guessing they're going to replace the marble with whatever was there in the 20's.

Here's a picture from Sunday. A lot more has been removed since then.

Here's a shot of the Land Bank Center and a getaway van, also from Sunday.

Lastly, here's a bad shot of the whole block. I had to turn the brightness way up. Hopefully there's something in the works for the old bookstore (with the carriage on it) and the "house" building so the block will be complete. (And yes there were actually people downtown on a Sunday )

[Pachuco]

Great pics of the land bank center, the did the facade so quickly, it's unbealivable ! I think theres a club planned by uptown develoments in the bookstore, I'm not really sure though. The surpirise to me is that the coffee house hasn't even finished its' facade ! But I suppose greatness takes time

Edited May 11, 2005 by Pachuco

[dnast]

Thanks.

The Economy building does seem to be taking a lot longer than expected. Hopefully they're getting a lot of work done on the inside. I believe they're redoing all the electrical and plumbing in the building, so that could be one reason.

Now that you mention it, I remember some plans being mentioned for the old bookstore. They'll probably want to finish some of these other projects before they get to it. I guess I'll have to be patient.

[VeeFan]

I could have sworn I made a post in here earlier....

Anyhoo, great pictures. If only something could be done about that ugly house thing, that block would look so much better when the Land Bank renovations are finished.

Also, has anyone noticed that a lot of the building with the dark facades have this attempt at stain-glass on some part of the facade? The Lunch Studio has one, and there are a few buildings closer to Court St. that have it also.

[dnast]

Thanks.

Yeah, that house-looking building just looks weird.

I'm not sure what you mean about stained glass look, unless you're just talking about how the glass is tinted. If so, it looks okay on the Lunch Studio, but I think it takes away from Bailiwick's. The windows are so dark that it looks very uninviting and you can't tell whether the place is open or not. If I hadn't seen people going in and out of the place I would've thought it was closed down.

[VeeFan]

I can't remember now if it's the Lunch Studio that had the thing on it. But it was a section of glass on the upper quarter of the building. It was red, yellow, and I think there was a little bit of green and blue in there too.

It there's nothing on the Lunch Studio, then it might be the building with the Carriage on it (I can't think of the name right now).

[Pachuco]

I can't remember now if it's the Lunch Studio that had the thing on it.  But it was a section of glass on the upper quarter of the building.  It was red, yellow, and I think there was a little bit of green and blue in there too.

It there's nothing on the Lunch Studio, then it might be the building with the Carriage on it (I can't think of the name right now).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Robert David Allan building ? Atleast I thinks thats what it's called.

[Pachuco]

I have this weirf feeling,but do any of you remember the article in the Flint Journal about downtown Flint titled "Firm Offer" , well it showed a sketch of the "500 Block Building" with an arch, but now instead it has an atrium now.

Well today I went to Flintarches.com and took a look at the slide show and showed an arched building with red brick and look just like the sketch in the journal only the building with the arch was on the right side of the PSI building where downtown dollar sits and some other buisiness.

So is this building going to be remodeled or was this a big mistake ?

[dnast]

It was red, yellow, and I think there was a little bit of green and blue in there too.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I vaguely recall seeing something like that. I'll have to pay more attention next time I'm downtown.

Edit: I wasn't even looking for it, but if you go to www.theUncommonSense.com and look at the photo on the contact page; is that what you're talking about?

I have this weirf feeling,but do any of you remember the article in the Flint Journal about downtown Flint titled "Firm Offer" , well it showed a sketch of the "500 Block Building" with an arch, but now instead it has an atrium now.

        Well today I went to Flintarches.com and took a look at the slide show and showed an arched building with red brick and look just like the sketch in the      journal only the building with the arch was on the right side of the PSI building where downtown dollar sits and some other buisiness.

So is this building going to be remodeled or was this a big mistake ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The renderings on FlintArches.com are pretty old (to give you an idea of how old - that site was created to inform people of the fund-raising going on to get the arches, and the renderings were shown before that site was online). I'm pretty sure those were revealed to the public even before any of the current projects were announced. I believe they were just long-term ideas of what downtown could look like.

The funny thing about those renderings is that, except for First St. Lofts, none of the buildings so far look like what was shown on the Future Flint renderings. The good thing is, in my opinion, the projects in reality all look better (well, we'll have to see about the Economy building).

Edited May 12, 2005 by dnast

[RustTown]

Random question, but does anyone know when the original Citizen's Bank Building (north tower) was built? We are missing that information over at skyscrapers.com

[Pachuco]

I think somewhere in the 30s, 34 or something near that, Dnast should know.

[VeeFan]

I looked at the Uncommon Sense site, and that's not what I'm talking about. lol What I've seen isn't by any other windows, and you can barely even tell at first that it's a stain-glass window. It's at times like this I wish I had a digital camera.... lol

[RustTown]

While I'm at it, are there currently ANY offices left in the Genesee Towers or is the thing completely vacant? Also, is the parking garage usuable or has it been closed as well.

[dnast]

I wrote a semi-long response yesterday, but I guess I never hit 'submit'...

I don't know for sure about the Citizen's Bank building, but I from what I recall from old photos, I believe it was built in the 20's between the time the 352 and Mott Foundation buildings were built.

As far as Genesee Towers, I have no idea if there are any offices inside. If so, they're probably just the offices of the owner. Unless things have changed, the city had prohibited the owner from leasing space in the building.

When I saw walking around last Sunday, I saw cars in the parking structure portion, but the gate was locked. So I guess that doesn't help much either, lol. To answer an older question, some of those cars I saw were parked in the gap between the two sections of the building.

LOL, VeeFan. It was worth a try. You could get one of those cheap disposable digital cameras

[Allan]

The Citizens Bank Building was constructed in 1928.

The last time I was downtown (September 2004) Genesee Towers was completely empty. The city has said that it is unsafe for occupancy. I would assume that it's still vacant, unless the owner atually had some work done to it. Usually the local kids just use the parking ramp as a skateboard park. Haha.

[dnast]

Hmm...I'm not saying yours is wrong, but my source says 1927.

Speaking of skateboard parks, I wonder how well SPARC is doing with bringing a skate park downtown. They have monthly meetings, but you never hear anything. If done correctly, and with the right location, it could be a nice draw since there aren't many skate parks in the Flint area and people come downtown to skate, anyway.

Edited May 14, 2005 by dnast

[Allan]

Maybe the building was started in 1927 & finished in 1928? I can't seem to find my info on the building, so I have no idea. It's so hard to research Flint...there isn't much out there. So much has been lost over time....

[dnast]

I was thinking the same thing. The article I read just said it was "built in 1927", so there's a chance.

I totally agree about researching Flint. Doing it online is almost impossible. I want to find the book "A Pictoral History of Flint". I'm hoping it will have dates for most of the significant building in the city. I'm not willing to just order it until I know, though. I might try to find something from the Flint chapter of the AIA, too.