DETROIT | Development & Construction: Motown Lowdown

[mousquet]

Héhé, watch LMich excited like a kid at his brand new toy...
That's lovely.

Originally Posted by LMich

I just thought they'd have announced the vehicle vendor, since the deadline was on the first, and they'd already narrowed it down to three companies last month.

Which ones? Any thin chance they eventually choose Alstom's compact Citadis? That'd be heck of beautiful. Well hey, it'd be manufactured, even partly engineered and definitely fully customized in the US anyway, just as pretty much anything both originally foreign and significant sold to the US (whose market is not really so free ), and could well be the hottest if properly customized. And like by far. I think it could let Detroit downright show off the shiniest, sexiest, like most arrogant streetcar of entire North America. That'd be quite something awesome and funny along their old habit in designing shiny looking cars... Guess the only actual problem is that the Alstom prices might not be the most competitive at all, that indeed may turn them off.

[LMich]

That's the thing, they didn't even make public the three companies in consideration. BTW, this project is on a fairly tight budget, so I don't expect anything flashy, at all. Maybe, when we get an actual publically-funded system up and running there might be some investment in something more permanent, but at the moment, this one, short line is kind of meant as a demonstration project to see if they can convince the new regional transit authority to eventually expand it.

BTW, aside from wanting to see something shiny and new, this thing was originally proposed back in 2006. So, this inching to the beginning of the end just makes one really anxious. It has been like pulling teeth just to get the project to this point. I'm squirming waiting to see it finally all come together.

[mousquet]

^ I know, but at this point, a light rail network seems very likely anyway. It really looks like they're done with all of the hardest, now, and the streetcar/light rail market is booming all over the world quite including the US, so I don't see how it would spare any major city, even Detroit.

Of course, it's up to M1 to take the best possible advantage of competition between various manufacturers. They will need some nice looking vehicles to convince the most skeptical of the locals. When it comes to the looks of vehicles only, Citadis is cool for their customizable fronts and large windows, that's their most noticeable distinction when compared to competitors. That said, the livery of vehicles remains the most important, I believe. I just saw the Siemens S70 of Salt Lake City for instance. Well yes, it looks better than decent, I find.

No matter what manufacturer, they'll have to show a nice livery, then people should like it.

[LMich]

They really don't. That it's a different mode of transit from the bus alone will sell it. The livery doesn't need to be flashy, though, that would be nice.

And, no, a light rail system is not inevitable for Detroit. In fact, the transit legislation passed back in late 2012 for Metro Detroit requires a unanimous vote of the transit board for rail, while only a simple majority is needed for BRT. It's why a BRT system is currently being developed for the region with no mention of rail beyond what the private M-1 Rail company has organized.

It is never safe to assume that Detroit is going to follow national trends, particularly when local government bodies are struggling to provide basic services. There is still much education to be done to convince the region to support anything much above BRT, and the way the transit legislation was written actually discourages anything above the transit mode of BRT.

[animatedmartian]

I had a thought, but then I eated it.

[animatedmartian]

Troy zoning change triggers boulevard's building boom
By Nathan Skid. December 08, 2013





A 2011 change to Troy's zoning laws is spurring construction along a three-mile stretch of Big Beaver Road, representing at least $11 million in economic development.

Since 2012, seven projects have broken ground along Big Beaver between Rochester and Adams roads — bringing in about 30 national brands, encompassing restaurants, hotels and retailers.

Among them are Granite City Food and Brewery, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, Piada Italian Street Food, Sprint, Bonefish Grille, Carrabba's Italian Grill, Halo Burger, Flagstar Bank, Tim Hortons and La-Z-Boy Furniture.

Brent Savidant, the city of Troy's planning director, said that once the Detroit Medical Center breaks ground on its 70,000-square-foot, $42 million children's outpatient specialty center at 350 W. Big Beaver, it will spur more activity.

Savidant said the spike in development along Big Beaver is due to the city's continual shift from a post World War II planning model, where office towers had to be far-removed from the street, parking lots were in front of buildings and each property could have only one use.

"Previously, Troy employed a single-use, or Euclidean, zoning style, which required separate uses for each space," Savidant said. "So residential was separate from commercial, which was separate from retail and residential."

Savidant said one of the biggest changes came in 2011 when the city amended its zoning ordinance to allow mixed-use development and development in existing parking lots and eased parking restrictions.

It also forced parking lots to be put behind new buildings, a move that Savidant said will encourage more foot traffic by moving the front of the building closer to the street.

"The ordinance changes make the things we wanted most, like walkability and mixed-use development, the easiest to accomplish," Savidant said. "That helps strengthen the presence of infrastructure along Big Beaver Road, which we hope will encourage more development."
...

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...-building-boom

[animatedmartian]

Also, in Troy news.

Molina ponders move to downtown Detroit
By Kirk Pinho. December 08, 2013



Molina Healthcare of Michigan may go from suburban living to city dwelling.

The state's third-largest Medicaid HMO, which has about 60,000 square feet in the two-building Liberty Center office complex at Big Beaver and Livernois roads in Troy, is exploring a relocation of its 300 employees to downtown Detroit, according to real estate sources.

Sources said one of Molina's top downtown prospects is the 415,000-square-foot Detroit Media Partnership building, home of The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. The DMP announced in January that it would sell the building and move its 600 employees to another downtown location by next summer.

Southfield also is a possibility.

"We are considering our options. We have not decided where to locate," said Stephen Harris, CEO of Molina Healthcare of Michigan. "Our lease is up. We are trying to get to a decision as quickly as possible."

Molina's lease expires on Aug. 31, according to Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service CoStar Group Inc. The 139,000-square-foot building at 100 W. Big Beaver is 97 percent leased, according to CoStar.

A Molina move downtown would put it near one of its chief competitors, Detroit-based Meridian Health Plan of Michigan, which plans to move into a new, $111-million office building, construction on which is expected to begin by early 2015. Meridian would move in by early 2017.

...

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...wntown-detroit

[mind field]

Hopefully they make the right choice, downtown Detroit!

[LMich]

Glad to hear about the changes to the zoning code in Troy. Development should have always been given more options, but better late than never.

Also good to hear that Meridian Health Plan already seems to be influencing more moves before they've even put shovels in the ground. BTW, I guess I just never really looked closely at it, but I had no idea that the old Detroit News Building they are talking about moving into was over 400,000 square feet.


IMG_6302 A by markh0421, on Flickr

[animatedmartian]

A Museum Grows On Kercheval; Its Founders Are Out-Of-Town Artists Who Dig Detroit
Bill McGraw. December 8th, 2013



With its boarded-up windows and predictable graffiti, the two-story building that was once the headquarters of Sibley Lumber looks empty and forlorn, like tens of thousands of similar structures across Detroit. Some of the floors inside are unsafe to walk on.

Yet Julia Solis, an artist and urban explorer who splits her time between Detroit and New York, sees something else when she wanders through the dusty rooms. She sees a museum. And not your run-of-the-mill museum, but an institution devoted to art, wonder, curiosity and adventure. The kind of idiosyncratic place that arises in big cities when a critical mass of artists comes together.

The museum of wonder has a name –- the Seafoam Palace -- and it has an impressive roster of backers who have both artistic and urban-guerilla credentials: About a dozen artists, some of whom have national art-world reputations, including Monica Canilao, Dorothy Trojanowski, an artist and designer and John Law, the co-founder of the Burning Man festival who commutes between Detroit and San Francisco.

None of the museum backers grew up in metro Detroit, though four have moved here in recent years.

They have big plans: In addition to exhibits, the organizers eventually would like to hold classes and workshops on such subjects as photography, publishing, and audio. Solis mentions the possibility of a radio station. They also want to publish a small journal of eclectic arcana to accompany the rotating collections, and they’re in discussions to form an alliance of small artistic museums throughout the country to share resources and exhibitions.

The museum isn’t scheduled to open for about a year, but it already has focused creative energy on a corner – Beaufait and Kercheval, two blocks east of the Capuchin monastery and soup kitchen -- that is far from the brainpower corridor that stretches from Eastern Market through Midtown and downtown to Corktown. The museum's neighborhood is old, poor and slowly disappearing, and the arrival of a museum of wonder is bound to be a curiosity in itself.

“We’re starting to feel out the idea of raising money,” Solis said. “We want to raise money, but so does everybody else. There’s so many people coming into Detroit and doing stuff like this.”

....

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/artic...t#.UqXSUtI84zC

Full size of the building. It's not terribly big, but probably more than enough for an artsy neighborhood museum.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Si...Detroit_MI.jpg

[subterranean]

^ Close enough to the villages and downtown that I could see it working. I find this fascinating.

[animatedmartian]

Originally Posted by subterranean

^ Close enough to the villages and downtown that I could see it working. I find this fascinating.

To be fair, it seems like it's going to be more of a hipster hangout than a yuppie one. It's not too far from the Heidelberg Project and there's a lot of urban farming in this area. It's also sort of "in shadow" of Elmwood Cemetery in relation to downtown so it kinda has that "off the beaten" path feel (meaning you kinda have to zig-zag to reach this area).

The lead artist also has done a lot of ruin porn photography and likes finding odd items. Most of the museum's success will likely come from a niche audience.

[subterranean]

Sure, it won't be without its struggles if it gets off the ground. But I welcome anything arts & culture related coming to the city. We need more risk-takers.

[animatedmartian]

Progress update on the Woodward Garden Apartments, now known as 3901 Woodward. The website labels this as a luxury apartment, but that's honestly an oversell. It's nice, but not luxurious. Regardless it's surely going to get filled up by medical workers once it opens next month.















Via Curbed:http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2...apartments.php

[animatedmartian]

Originally Posted by subterranean

Sure, it won't be without its struggles if it gets off the ground. But I welcome anything arts & culture related coming to the city. We need more risk-takers.

Speaking of which, terribly tragic news, but the Heidelberg Project has been hit with 8 arson attacks within the last several months. The most recent one was on Sunday. This aerial video shows the project currently but also a really opening perspective on how scattered the homes are in the neighborhood.

• Video Link

While this isn't the first time Tyree Guyton has had to face destruction of his works, most notably by the city during the 90s, these latest string of arsons seem to be targeted and happen regularly. I'm not sure why someone would deliberately set these houses on fire unless they're getting off on seeing someone's work destroyed or looking for attention. The Heidelberg Project is pretty well known and gets visitors pretty much every day. Even if people's personal opinion on the project think it's ugly or whatever, it's still pretty messed up that someone would set fire to it.

[subterranean]

Such a goddamn tragedy.

[subterranean]

Tonight and tomorrow, SEMCOG is conducting its last public meetings of the year on the topic of the Woodward BRT.

Details at:
http://www.woodwardanalysis.com/pdfs...ommunities.pdf

[animatedmartian]

^That really should be a light rail route. But yea, money, politics, blah blah blah. At least if it gets its own ROW then that's better than nothing, and possibly in the future, the lanes could easily be upgraded for LRT. But that's just being optimistic.

[animatedmartian]

The Metropolitan Building seems to be facing demolition by neglect.


By comparison, here's what the base looked like back in September, only a few short months ago.



Via Curbed. http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2...n-building.php

[hudkina]

Graffiti is only superficial. The building's biggest "threat" is the fact that most of the windows look out to some dirty alleys and there isn't immediately adjacent parking. What would be interesting is if a renovation included creating "green alleys" with hanging gardens, etc. Something that won't make the view so bleak.