That is the whitest dorm renderings I've ever seen.
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So yeah there was my hinted critique. It's a diverse dorm, but renderings don't suggest that.
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So with Borders out of business now, what do you all think should be done with the soon to be shuttered downtown store?
If some of you can remember way back, it used to be a Jacobsons. When viewed from above, you can see it was several different buildings at one time. I'd say this place is at the end of its useful life. To upgrade a wood framed structure into anything seems nightmarish. Knock it down and build a 2-3 story building in its place. |
University of Michigan plans $116 million renovation to East Quad dormitory
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Ann Arbor CFO warns that 60-day purchase delay possible for Village Green deal
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Here's a PDF presentation I found of the Varsity in Ann Arbor. I have to say that I'm really not impressed with it. Why does everything new in Ann Arbor have to be so damn ugly.
http://annarborchronicle.com/wp-cont...011%200601.pdf |
Not only is the building itself bad but that .pdf is too. The layouts are all over the place, there's all kinds of crazy fonts going on (the drawings actually use one of those horrible fake hand lettering "blueprint" fonts), the photography is bad. On one of the photography pages the photos don't even line up on the haphazard grid they tried to use for that page, it's off a few pixels. According to their design narrative section, they followed the design guideline rules to the minimum. They also explain their flat brick facade and silly metal thing (err, "iconic vertical element"). And they even criticize the surrounding buildings!
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At least some positive news:
http://annarbor.com/business-review/...us-government/ They mention U of M's construction boom, but not mentioned is despite adding millions of square feet, energy and maintenance costs have not gone up all that much since much of the renovations to older buildings and new structures have focused on energy efficiency. |
"Financial prudence", aka continuously raising tuition rates.
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I usually get to Ann Arbor once every week and I noticed that the Zaragon West (Zaragon 2) construction is now proceeding at a rapid pace:
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6081/...69fbe53c_b.jpg Photo Credit: Me on flickr This picture was taken 6 weeks after my previous one of this project. |
Thanks Jim for the update. This one will really add some nice substance to that area.
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High-rise rush continues: Another apartment development proposed for downtown Ann Arbor
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This is good news. Increasing the concentration of students closer to business districts will guarantee these areas will continue to grow.
It will also help boost rental vacancies in neighborhoods that were originally single family homes. More empty homes in student neighborhoods will guarantee renovations to dilapidated properties and possibly a reversal of the exodus of families from the city to the suburbs as rentals return to single family. It will also cause rents to fall to more reasonable levels and force certain landlords out of the business who shouldn't be in it in the first place. |
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I agree with the first half of your statement, but working in housing and community development the last 5 years doesn't give me any such hope for rentals returning to single family owner occupied units. That occurrence is extremely rare in my experience. Generally, rentals are bare bones, and the landlords rip out or paint over architectural details that make a home unique and desirable. This is more often out of necessity to keep up with the turnover of destructive renters/students. Second, landlords generally don't sell these properties because they're so lucrative...unless the landlords downright fail (which is hard to do in a college town). And if they do sell, they usually revert right back to rentals for the aforementioned reasons. The landlords could probably still turn a profit in Ann Arbor if the rents fell by 50%. A third reason is that college towns are transient places, with many people coming and going, buying and selling. Couple this with many houses being upside down on their mortgages, even in nice places like Ann Arbor. If my SO and I move out of very well located house between MSU and downtown, we'd almost certainly turn it into a rental for this reason. It's probably going to take a decade before homes regain their lost equity. Why sell and take a loss when you can keep it and turn a profit from well off grad students? So I'm not very hopeful that these homes would revert to owner occupancy, but I guess anything could happen. I would predict that this would have little more affect than drawing more kids to these rental houses from outlying areas, particularly those who would rather live nearer to downtown but previously couldn't afford it. |
Zaragon West Update
Construction is up to 9th floor on Zaragon West.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6178/...55b19f9b_b.jpg Photo Credit: Me on Flickr View showing Ann Arbor's tallest building, Tower Plaza, in the background. http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6073/...3287ed08_b.jpg Me on Flickr |
13-story downtown high-rise draws criticism at Ann Arbor Planning Commission meeting
http://www.annarbor.com/assets_c/201...x303-88818.jpg An aerial view of the project known as The Varsity, shown in yellow, as viewed from the southeast on Washington Street in downtown Ann Arbor. Shown in the background is Sloan Plaza condominiums on Huron Street. To the left is 411 Lofts, and to the right is the First Baptist Church. A proposal for a new 13-story student high-rise in the heart of downtown Ann Arbor was met with some resistance at Tuesday night's Planning Commission meeting. The general concept of The Varsity — a dense housing development catering to University of Michigan students — appears to have support, but a few details remain to be worked out. http://www.annarbor.com/news/13-stor...ssion-meeting/ |
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In other news, seems the brand new North quad building has become a popular place http://annarbor.com/news/students-si...ity-overflows/ |
Another article on Ann Arbor's future transit plans.
http://annarbor.com/news/ann-arbor-o...nd-streetcars/ Really? 20 years to get a system like this in place? What is it with modern planning today? We should know better by now that forecasts made decades down the road are pretty much useless. Heck, forecasts made in the 90's probably would have shown growth on the city periphery miles out more than it is in these present times of zero growth. Even then funding for ambitious plans that may be available now, can evaporate in the future. So as long as the University maintains a relatively dense footprint, a corridor's beginning, end and points in between should be relatively static for half a century. Not to mention, North Campus has plenty of room to grow. Just get whatever system is chosen planned in 1-2 years and built in another 2-3 years. Even a system operating by 2016 is too late to address the current problems of overcrowded buses. Well at least it's a source of work for planners who will study, revise, study, and revise for many years to come. |
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