It's an improvement but you'd think they'd go a bit more 'bold.'

Portions of the stadium were recently renovated not too many years ago. I think the idea is to merge the two together without the stadium looking too hodgepodge.

They essentially trying to hide the exposed concrete structure, and I think they do a fairly decent job of that with the stone. I like that they are going with a spartan - pun intended - renovation, and not some crazy deconstructionist crap or something too cheekily PoMo, which is what the 2005 addition was.

Looks like East Lansing is closer to picking a developer for the multi-building City Center II project. It appears that only DTN of East Lansing and Lurvey White of Flint are left, is leaning heavily towards the latter:

I'm glad they are leaning away from the local guys. DTN has a reputation for cheapness, and they are seemingly not wanting to work with the neighbors, whereas the city seems to be hugely impressed with Lurvey White. I went to their website and they look like they do good work, certainly better than anything DTN could offer. I believe I posted a snippet of the Lurvey White's plan on the previous page, and it's the one that most respects and builds on the streetscape.

The really ambitious (two ten-story towers) Studio Intrigue proposal was cut.

Davenport Addition
 

Well in other news it looks like a stairwell is being appended to the south-facing rear-end of the new Davenport building on Allegan (former 5/3 Bank).

Also, the back and west sides (haven't seen from the east yet) are being painted black, or at least for now.

It's not clear sure how far they're taking the paint job, or if they plan on doing anything interesting on that ugly, front 1960's facade facing Allegan.

A short photo update:

Market Place: soil remediation work is starting. They tore up the old parking lot and the foundations of the old Lansing City Market. They are going to be taking out quite a bit of soil, as there are all kinds of contaminents since most of the riverfront used to be heavily industrialized.

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Knapp's: Work continues on this mixed-use conversion of this old department-story-turned-office-building. They've started adding the windows.

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REO Town Cogeneration Plant & LBWL Headquarters: This is just about done.

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REO Town Streetscape Reconstruction: This is also just about done. The sidewalks are overbuilt, but that's not exactly a problem. They've also place a small media the runs most of the street between Malcolm X and South streets. It's really nice, and it should set the stage for much larger building being built along it.

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East Village: This has moved very quickly. The hill is just about completely developed now, and stuff is selling out before they cab build it. I've complained about the suburban nature of the whole thing, but considering this was mostly an empty field in the inner-city for much of the city's history, and considering the lots are quite a bit smaller (they are actually average-sized city lots) than what you'd find in the suburbs, it could have been worse. Though, a better argument is that if they were going to plat it out on average sized city lots, they could have done alot better with both the siteplan and the cheap-suburbanish architecture.

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Or at least put the garages in the back. But I guess front-facing garages (which I think are a blight) is not much of a Mid-Michigan concern right now.

I totally agree, man. Outside of them being your typical developer of suburban crap, I'd also assume the front-facing garages had to do with the fact that while the lots have a width similar to that of other established neighborhoods on the Eastside (though, they are a bit wider), they are quite a bit more shallow/not as long as your average lot on the Eastside. Heck, in a perfect world, these all would have been attached single-family homes like the part of the site facing Saginaw.

I guess the good news is that this probably couldn't make it through the new form-based zoning that Bernero just got passed as part of his budget. This will now allow the city to regulate growth not simply by use but by aesthetics. The new zoning is a direct result of Niowave building a literal pollbarn at their site up in the historic Walnut Neighborhood.

It's taken forever, but it finally looks as if the city won't just have to take anything that comes its way because it technically fitted the zoning classifications.

This isn't going to happen, but it seems that carting off what exists of Lansing Township - five non-contiguous pieces scattered around the urban area - is getting brought up more and more, these days. Lansing would have to be in a far better fiscal situation for this to even get rolling - why would the township want to join a city running perpetual budget deficits? - but Lansing Township hasn't made logistical sense since Lansing's annexation of most of the rest of it cut it into pieces during the 60's.

I was wondering what would happen with the former Genesee Elementary after it was largely vacated, this year. It looks like a local developer has found an really creative reuse for it, and best yet, he's going to reconstruct the thing including the cupola that's been missing forever:

This was news back in late April that I missed, but Lansing's Michigan/Grand River Avenue BRT line has taken a formal step forward, moving into the FTA's Project Development Phase. The press release:

Some news on the old General Motors sites that straddle the border of Lansing and Lansing Township on the far westside (Lansing Craft Centre, Lansing Metal Center, Lansing Car Assembly (LCA) - Verlinden). Not good news, but not totally unexpected given the forumer uses of the site:

Basically, the trust is saying that they are only going to clean up the site to the point that it can support industrial and/or commercial development; if a developer wants to do any kind of residential, they'd have to remediate it further. The city will be slightly disappointed to here this since these are giant sites where they wanted to do mixed use.

My hope is that we can find some grants and/or some magnanimous, deep-pocketed developer to really get these sites to where we can do anything with them. Aerial of the sites:

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Lansing Car Assembly - Plant #6 by NewCityOne, on Flickr

Some shots courtesy of Develop Metro Lansing of the Ann Street Plaza developments in the center of downtown East Lansing:

The Residences

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St. Anne Lofts

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The Residences actually look way better than the renderings. St Anne Lofts actually ended up looking much worse than the renderings.

It seems like this thing has gone through a million hoops, and there is still not a rendering of it, but 600 East Michigan at the eastern end of downtown Lansing was finally granted a rezoning. From the Lansing City Pulse:

BTW, Lansing is launching a 3 month bike share pilot in August 4. A Michigan start-up is behind it. Not a service I see myself using, but I hope it does well because I can see tourist in particular using it since the inner-city River Trail connects most of activity nodes in the city center.

Update on Davenport's renovated downtown campus in the former Fifth Third Bank Building:

After a months-long and contentious debate, the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission finally approved by a vote of 10-9 to put an expansion of the Michigan Flyer bus line to Ann Arbor and Detroit Metro into the regional transportation plan, opening up a grant to expand serivce of the bus line:

It was a contentious debate as this will most definitely take flyers from Capitol Region International Airport, but the debate is about how many. The Michigan Flyer also makes the case that the biggest loser or competition is not what the Flyere does to Capitol Region International, but what it will do to Metro's parking garages since the target audience for this expansion is Lansingites already driving down to Detroit. Essentially, they are making the case that this is also about efficiency and the environment because they'll be taking cars off the freeway.

In a perfect world, you'd see a regional rail connection to Metro, which seems like a no-brainer, but there is currently no passenger rail service between Michigan's largest city and its capital, which is only 85-or-so miles from downtown to downtown and even less than that to their respective urban fringes, of course.

The REO Town Plant officially came online, yesterday. Apparently, it's the first new construction power plant in the state in 25 year:

This cuts the BWL's overall emissions by 20%, and cuts mercury and sulfur dioxide emissions by 99% by allowing for the closure of three of the six units at the nearby, massive coal-fired Eckert Station.

Funny enough (or silly enough): one insider at the airport personally related to me that a lot of this contention isn't just about taking traffic and revenue from the airport, but personal animosity between a couple airport/county officials and the operator of Mich Flyer.

I thought my eyes had been playing tricks on me when I saw something shiney on the roof of the capitol, but I guess it was real. They've been really harping in the media on the new carpet in the chambers, though. Meh.

I don't seem to remember the roof renovation of the other wing seven years ago. Now, if the state government was progressive enough with enough attention to detail to realize how bad a surface lot literally behind the state capitol for state senators looks...It's blight as far as I'm concerned.

A few updates...

- The LSJ is reporting that the developers of the massive Red Cedar municipal golf course redevelopment ($100 million and 61 acres) say that the plan is still moving forward, but doesn't give any additional information. Again, we're treated to talk of national retailers and hoteliers and housing developers falling all over themselves to get in on the project, but little more. The county drain commissioner is still waiting on Lansing to file a petition that would allow him to start the environmental re-engineering of the flood plain. To be honest, I wouldn't sad to see this scaled down or not happen at all.

- The Capital Area Multi-Modal Gateway Project (i.e. CATA /Amtrak station redevelopment) will start construction, next month, where the current station stands at the crossroads of the CN and CSX railways (Amtrak is on the CN railway). I just saw the site plan, and while nothing seems to have really changed, I noticed something I'd never noticed before, and that while it, of course, shows an Amtrak platform, it also shows a platform along the CSX railway directly to the south marked "future commuter service." I've heard nothing of even the concept of a commuter trail in the metro area, so I shot off a quick-fast-and-in-a-hurry email to try and get some clarification on this. Realistically, since the CSX railway goes directly to the station to making up the literal eastern edge of downtown Lansing, you could conceivably have the service without having to build any additional new rail (maybe some sidings). At the same time, the East Lansing Amtrak station is so far removed from where any daily commuters would come from, it seems like an afterthought that they put it on the siteplan.

EDIT: Just did a little more digging to find that the potential "commuter" platform on the CSX track on the south side of the station is in case Lansing ever gets a rail service to Detroit and Grand Rapids. I don't think they understand what "commuter" means. These distances would get us regional/intercity service, not commuter service.

20 year old carpet? Yuck! Maybe they should use carpet tile and they can replace pieces whenever.

I hadn't even realize this building was vacant. They sure did keep up the exterior for it to have been abandoned that long and no one really notice it:

While much of the talk about Niowave has been around their building of a corrugated metal polebarn in the middle of the historic Walnut neighborhood in North Lansing - a controversy which after years has still yet to be addressed, and which has become the longest running city issue I've seen in years - the company has finally revealed exactly what they will be using the expansion for:

Some heady stuff going on at the little northside Walnut School, let me tell you. It's funny, because rumors of something big have had neighbors worried since they put the polebarn up, but they'd never tell anyone what they were doing.

The good news? Eastside metro residents will have another upscale shopping option come 2015? The bad news? This is literally blocks from other local, inependently-owned upscale health food grocery stores. If they'd have moved this just west inside East Lansing, this would be such a better idea:

I have a bad feeling this will be oversaturation for such a small metro, particularly since they will be so incredibly concentrated in one end of the area. I guess the only question is who ends up going out of business?

Looks like FRIB keeps moving forward:

This thing would have started sooner, but the dicking around in Congress makes it impossible to know when we might actually start seeing anything other than prep and preliminary work on this beast.

Looks like Meridian Township - essentially a suburb of a suburb - is really starting to rev up. It's kind of surprising considering how anti-development the township has historically been, or at least very picky in what they approve and don't approve of.

This is a interesting concept for the area.

I'm still not completely clear on how the building-top apartments will be accessed, though.

Another massive student and young professional housing complex going up at Chandler Crossing in Bath Township (suburban East Lansing):

The thing will be so large the developers are offering to build a police mini-station and donate it to the township upon completion. I found it strange that the article didn't say the number of units.

I felt the need to make it known that I read this thread every time you update it, LMich. Even if I don't comment. :) Always good to read about new things happening in my hometown.

2772 Beds!! Holy cow, that's huge. That's like a compact census tract in a big downtown.

Did a bit more research and found out that this will be over 400 units. It's really a shame that East Lansing has been so anti-development in its core, that they have been central in forcing these massive student complexes outside its borders. This is nothing more than sprawl.

There is litearlly one CATA bus route (#26) that serves what has essentially become a village in Bath Township. It's funny that East Lansing basically threw in the towel on the redo of Red Cedar Village adjacent to campus, which directly contributed to sprawl to the north. I can't even imagine what it'd be like in Lansing and East Lansing if even half the housing that's been added in Bath Township and East Lansing's suburban Northern Tier had been built along or near the Michigan/Grand River Avenue corridor.

You'd think there would be a desire to creep up Michigan into Lansing. Just ridiculous if you ask me.

It blows my mind how off-limits Lansing seems when it comes to development in the Lansing-East Lansing border region. I could understand if Lansing had as many problems, as say, Flint. But there are perfectly livable areas on the eastside that could be so much better with better connection to the two city's cores.

I hope this is slightly remedied with the BRT line down Michigan, but that's still years off. It's just so strange. There really isn't any rivalry between the two cities, or any kind of deep-seated antipathy to the other. There is nothing that happened in the past that you can single out as some kind of event that changed the relationship. Everyone just seems to accept that Lansing is the government and industrial town, and that East Lansing is the collegetown, and that there is no reason to mix them despite them literally bordering one another. US-127 is a significant physical boundary, but even that doesn't really explain the psychological disconnect.

I've definitely seen an uptick in more students on the Eastside in the last few years. I've lived here for awhile now and have never seen so many cyclists commuting down Kalamazoo daily (both directions in fact). They seem to be the more hipster/bohemian students. However, many students seem to still think of Lansing as "the ghetto". I guess that's to be expected from 45,000 naive suburban Detroit kids. Generalization, sure, but not too far off.

I agree, and hope the BRT can change the image of at least the Eastside and spur more development.

Speaking of the Eastside, while there always seems to be talk of a "comeback", I just noticed the other day that the 2000 block of East Michigan has more vacancies I've seen in years. This is the block with Emils and the Green Door and such. I mean, it's looking rough. And, really, this has happened over just the past year, maybe even six months.

Really, if someone would just come along and develop some of the vacant lots immediately to the east of this strip, it could probably turn the strip around. I remember just a few years ago when every storefront on this block was full. I wonder what's happening, or if it's just part of the natural cycle that just so happened to have some concentrated turnover. There's been a palpable slowdown in development in the region in recent years, even while some big projects (i.e. Knapps) are taking off.

So, after the massive student housing announced in Meridian Township and then in Bath Township, another significant housing development is announced for Bath down the street from Chandler Crossings: Orchards at Michigan State.

This student sprawl is really taking back off since the recession. It's part of the reason why formerly rustic Bath Township is now a solidly Democratic community; they control every township-wide office. In fact, the only major township board bordering Lansing or East Lansing that is still controlled by Republicans is DeWitt Township to the north for some odd reason.

How do these students get to class? Do they actually drive? This must have huge implications on parking accommodation on campus. I feel like this is a night and day situation from U of M where living distant from campus was considered a miserable situation and parking near campus was considered an "ultra luxury"

This all just seems to defy all trends where kids graduate, go off to school and want to live near all the action. Many ditch the car and opt to walk, bike, or take transit wherever they need to be.

I really dislike all this development. It's sprawly and suburban. Serves no good purpose for pushing higher density and upgraded transit corridors. It will encourage students to drive more, and drives the market away from sustainable, walkable and interesting communities.

With only one bus route up that way connecting the complexes to campus, I'd imagine most students drive in, but I don't have the numbers. Parking isn't particularly convenient or cheap on campus, which makes this kind of development particularly odd. The commuter lot is huge, but it's on the far southside of campus, and you're expected to take the bus or bike into the heart of campus. As with most other campuses, I imagine, freshman aren't allowed cars on campus without some kind of compelling reason, and the bus system on campus is quite extensive. Most people get around on bus and bikes.

Still, MSU always claims to either have the largest, or one of the largest, on-campus dormitory systems in the country, so it's not as if no one lives on campus (I think it's between 15,000 to 20,000 students live in the dormitories), and you've got thousands of others in the adjacent student ghettos.

It's a really weird set-up, and something definitely isn't adding up. If I had to guess, I'd imagine that these complexes, while definitely student-oriented, are also home to a lot of folks who simply work on campus.

Thanks for the background LMich. I wish development would focus NW of campus. Is it unreasonable to suggest more student development on Lansing's east side or would there be pushback? I could also imagine Frandor being redeveloped into some impressive shopping center with student housing above it. That would almost be too perfect. Couple that with a major transit corridor zooming past someday.

The area immediately south of Frandor, south of Michigan Avenue, (the old Red Cedar Golf Course) is currently planned as a massive mixed-use development, with a lot of student housing along with offices, retail and hotel space. Frandor, itself - formerly an indoor mall, BTW - isn't planned for any major changes, development-wise, outside of plans to bust up some of the parking lot to facilitate better drainage. This entire area is basically the site of a former creek they diverted beneath Frandor. The thing is nothing more than a floodplain, which is why all new student housing that's been built along Michigan Avenue in this border region is required to start the housing units on the second floor with parking on the first.

No one in the world in Lansing would object to more student housing on the Eastside, but for whatever reason as I said above, it's almost as if developers consider the area a no-go-zone. I really wish I understood planning in this area. Perhaps, it's the lack of planning, in general, but what makes this all the more odd is that the BRT is most definitely going to happen, so you'd think more development would set up along the corridor in anticipation.

A pretty significant piece of infill on the southwest edge of Old Town. This is directly south of the recently renovated historic Walker Building, which this developer also did:

BTW, speaking of the sprawl up in Bath Township we were talking about, I came across this Buzzfeed piece, yesterday, that addresses it in a single sentence:23 Signs You Went To Michigan State University

And, then one addressing the sprawled nature of the campus, itself:

Lastly, The Residences - the tallest building in downtown East Lansing, though, not the tallest building in the city - is nearly complete:

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Studio Intrigue Architects | Facebook

The South Lansing Pathway is moving forward. It's amazing how much the city's trail system has grown under Bernero. This will be better connect east and west. Lansing has good connections north and south, but relatively weak east-west connections.

Description:

Here is Lansing's Non-Motorized Plan for anyone interested.

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My beautiful, 10-storey 1916 building suffered a partial roof collapse today. Actually it was the brick ledge. The bricks had been bending out for some time, gravity did the rest. I believe the building itself is fine, although that ledge is NOT.

I was inside, directly underneath as it all came down outside my window. Can't say I wasn't expecting this...

One of my photos: http://i.imgur.com/9myDdDv.jpg?1

WILX story: http://www.wilx.com/topstories/headl...220952661.html

Let's hope the powers-that-be are kind to the engineering assessment and simply fix the ledge.

I actually drove near (Washington and Kalamazoo) here the day and time it happened, and was wondering what had happened up the street since I saw the cop cars. I was hoping it wasn't some kind of violent crime.

The facade never looked safe to me. Fortunately, it was the part within the alley that collapsed (I'd originally thought something had fallen on Allegan). It's not like the building is abandoned, so you'd think it would have been kept up better. What I'm worried about is what effect this will have on the Biggy Coffee on the ground floor. A lot of people probably are going to be scared away by this.

I just spoke with one of the owners. They're going ahead and doing further assessments on the north-facing and west-facing facades to check for problems. He mentioned they will most likely do some work on those walls as well to clean up perceptions at the very least. He's making the rounds to all the offices and I saw him speaking to the owner of our neighboring building to the west.

Biggby is open today. But without an air conditioner. The external unit was destroyed by the debris. Sidewalk scaffolding has been set up since yesterday to cover pedestrians, etc. Building was opened at about 7pm on the same day.

The rest of the building is safe and operating normally. I have AC which will be sorely needed today I suppose.

Yikes. Could have been worse. The parapets at the top of a building are definitely a place to keep an eye on. From what I can see in the photos, it looks like the face brick veneer (non structural) is what peeled away from top. If you get water infiltration in the coping or it seeps through the back of the parapet from the roof you'll get ice freezes and thaws or rust on brick ties. Sometimes its the expansion of water that will push the facade out of line and people will notice 'bowing' It's very important parapets around the top of the building are inspected often since it's where your roof plane meets and where water and snow come in contact with the building first.

So lucky no one was hurt. Lots of people, including myself, use that alley all of the time.

I see Cooley students using it as major path to get around the central business district all the time. It's a very busy alley.

BTW, isn't the neighboring Farnum Building (the one you mention to the west) owned by the state? Or does the state simply lease it? I'd always thought they were the owners.

There's a building in between Capitol and Farnum. Small 2-storey brick structure.

The Lansing Housing Commission is looking to redevelop Oliver Towers housing project in downtown Lansing. It's been out of action (save for the housing commission's headquarters) for thirteen years, now, unable to find a reuse. I don't know why this isn't a dormitory or student housing for Lansing Community College seeing as it's right across the street.

A pic of the building I took some time ago:

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Oliver Towers by NewCityOne, on Flickr

The good thing is that since the ground floor has been occupid the entire time, the housing commission kept it from turning into an abandoned building. And, with the building literally being two blocks north of the capitol, there is no reason this building (or the site, at least) shouldn't attract attention.