DETROIT | Hudson's Detroit | 685 FT & 240 FT | 49 & 14 FLOORS

[Prezrezc]

Let's just assume for moment that this is the finalized design.

Having lookedmore closely at the hi-res pic, I like how the top emulates on its own terms the aesthetic purpose of 30 Hudson Yards' ob deck. Needless to say, in NYC something like this at a paltry----800' prolly won't make sense in most parts of it. Here, it does. In perticular, the overall form does seem to pay close attention to its surroundings. An older skyline like downtown Detroit's needs carefully considered modernization.

I hope it's part of greater effort to revitalize a long-neglected city with a lot of history...GM, Joe Louis, Gordie Howe, George "the Aminal" Steele...

[animatedmartian]

Hudson's tower design has its head in the clouds but keeps its eyes on the street
John Gallagher, Detroit Free Press. October 1, 2017.



The latest renderings of businessman Dan Gilbert's Hudson's site project show significant changes from the concept released last February.

Understanding those changes is important to really get what Gilbert hopes to accomplish in the heart of Detroit.

The original design struck many of us as architecture with a capital "A," the sort of High Art object that rises in status-conscious places like Dubai and Singapore. While very dramatic, it looked, perhaps, like a somewhat obvious attempt to land on the covers of design magazines around the world.

The new version released recently sheds a lot of the more obvious attempts at drama. Gone are those curvy, swoopy slashes through the building. Gone, too, are the leaf-like metallic panels that cascaded down the face in a sort of screen.

Instead, the new rendering shows a building that, while thoroughly modern and still eye-popping, pays much more attention to street-level interactions.

....

http://www.freep.com/story/money/bus...ign/670695001/

[LMich]

Barton Malow is holding a pre-bidding process on November 10th for the project:

DETROIT, Oct. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Michigan-based construction services company Barton Malow will be hosting an event at the Greektown Casino-Hotel to showcase bid opportunities for the new Hudson's Site Development. The event, which will be held on November 10th from 9AM to 12PM, is meant to detail how Detroit contractors, suppliers, engineering, non-trade companies and more can get involved in the project's construction. Barton Malow is in search of companies who can self-perform one (or many) of the various tasks required to give Detroit a new, iconic building that celebrates the rich history of the site.

The project is set to break ground at the end of 2017 with a completion goal of Summer 2022. Developed by Bedrock, a Detroit-based full-service commercial real estate firm, the Hudson's Site Development Project will be around 800 feet tall and total one-million square-feet of mixed-use space. The building will feature an architecturally and programmatically rich design, which aims to attract and engage the public.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...300530390.html

[Docta_Love]

Glad to hear looks like everything is proceeding as planned after the initial delays, i was a lil worried with the Monroe Block development planned for 1st Q of 2018 that things may get pushed back slightly.

[animatedmartian]

Council mulls brownfield plan for Gilbert's $2.14 billion in building projects
By KIRK PINHO. Crain's Detroit. November 9, 2017.

The Detroit City Council is mulling approval of a transformational brownfield plan that would be the first of its kind approved in Michigan under a new state law aimed at reducing financing gaps for large-scale construction projects.

In September, Dan Gilbert's Bedrock LLC lumped together four major developments and redevelopments in downtown Detroit totaling $2.14 billion, more than four times the $500 million threshold to qualify to capture certain state sales and income taxes under the state's new MITHrive legislation. The tax captures are designed to bridge the gap that often exists between a project's cost and how much traditional financing it can secure based on the rents it can command.

....

If the council greenlights the brownfield plan, it goes to the state for final approval, said Whitney Eichinger, vice president of communications for Gilbert's Rock Ventures LLC.

....

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...on-in-building

[animatedmartian]

Here's the approximate timeline for the project:

• end of 2017-spring 2018: demolition, earth retention, temporary electrical installation
  
• summer/fall 2018: demolition of some of the underground garage foundation
  
• fall 2018: building tower foundations
  
• spring 2019: parking deck foundations and structure
  
• spring 2019: building the tower structure
  
• summer 2019: building the block structure
  
• fall 2019: mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection system installation
  
• fall 2019: site utilities
  
• fall/winter 2020: enclosure of the block and tower
  
• winter 2020: elevator and escalator installation
  
• spring 2021: building interiors and finishes
  
• summer 2022: final site work

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...e-construction

[subterranean]

Holy crap, that's a long time.

[LMich]

At first blush it appears excessive...until you realize that there is at least two different projects: completely reconstructing a large, underground parking garage, and then building a skyscraper and adjacent giant mid-rise building. And the trickiest part of this is actually the garage reconstruction.

[Docta_Love]

I've actually been very curious this whole time about what's going to happen to the underground parking garage because the garage was partially built using the extremely sturdy foundation of the old Hudsons building. I love the idea that the new "hudsons" tower would be built at least in some small way on the foundation of the original. However it states that there will be a partial reconstruction of the garage as it was only designed to support a 15-30 floor tower so some retrofitting and reconstruction is certainly needed. I would be very interested to find out exactly what's going to become of the remains of the Hudsons building foundation and if at least to a small degree will it be integrated into the construction of the new tower or if the underground garage work is to completely reconstruct the foundation.

[animatedmartian]

Originally Posted by Docta_Love

I've actually been very curious this whole time about what's going to happen to the underground parking garage because the garage was partially built using the extremely sturdy foundation of the old Hudsons building. I love the idea that the new "hudsons" tower would be built at least in some small way on the foundation of the original. However it states that there will be a partial reconstruction of the garage as it was only designed to support a 15-30 floor tower so some retrofitting and reconstruction is certainly needed. I would be very interested to find out exactly what's going to become of the remains of the Hudsons building foundation and if at least to a small degree will it be integrated into the construction of the new tower or if the underground garage work is to completely reconstruct the foundation.

The Hudson's original foundation is too shallow (around 40 feet deep) for a high rise of such proposed height. The new tower needs foundations that extend to bedrock which is something like 150 feet deep at that location. It's more likely the mid rise portion could use the original foundations.

[LMich]

Yep, this is an entire reworking of the site, which is why the construction period is so long. Both the existing garage and the future garage will be four stories - though the top level of the new garage will be a service level for the building and the valet:



But beyond this similarity this is an all-new construction.

[subterranean]

Understood. My one fear is that the next recession hits before this is completed and the project is downsized due to it being so ambitious.

[LMich]

That's my fear, too, though I'm afraid it will happen before they actually start building the tower. I think if the tower is well into construction when it happens it's less likely to be downsized. I guess if that were to happen, they'd more likely down-size the high-rise portion of the building, which contains most of the uses, as opposed to the largely residential skyscraper. Downtown housing seems to be decent even during recessions, but I'd bet it kill a lot of the office space in the high-rise portion.

We are overdue for a recession, though the good thing is that it'd be really difficult for it to be the same scope and size of the Great Recession, if there is any silver lining.

EDIT: Did some random searching for something else and came across this old cut-away of the old Hudson Department Store showing the four basement levels. The first and second basements were retail floors.


December 15, 1958 - Life Magazine

[animatedmartian]

Quoted from Detroit's compilation thread.

Originally Posted by Detroit

I took some pics while I was at the Hudson's Site Development meeting last Friday at Greektown. Figured you guys might like them!

[animatedmartian]

How Detroit's skyline will look with the New Hudson's tower via Mr. Hemi on Reddit.

Views from Windsor





View from Ren Cen



View from the south (for most people, this is almost the view they would see coming into Detroit after crossing the I-75 Rouge River bridge)



View from Comerica Park, likely will be shown often during broadcasted home Tiger games.



View from Campus Martius.

[LMich]

Imagine how tall the 536-foot One Monroe is going to look in renders 1, 3, 4, and 5. It's actually going to cover up quite a bit of the Hudson Site Tower in the first view.

[subterranean]

Epic.

[O-tacular]

I miss the old design. It was much more interesting and unique than this.

[Docta_Love]

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

The Hudson's original foundation is too shallow (around 40 feet deep) for a high rise of such proposed height. The new tower needs foundations that extend to bedrock which is something like 150 feet deep at that location. It's more likely the mid rise portion could use the original foundations.

Yeah kinda I figured that was probably going to be the case even with the massive size and bulk of steel reinforced concrete / brick masonry block wide original building a modern 800ft high-rise is a different beast. I'm not exactly sure what was saved from the original foundation as is but I remember that the O.G. Hudsons was overbuilt to a surprising degree. As we all found out during the implosion to the If memory serves it was the reinforced elevator shafts that were causing so many headaches for the demolition team & were cited as what caused part of the building to come down on the People Mover tracks. With of all the additions so I was curious if it would be possible let alone economical to save something of the original structure.

I also just noticed that the scale model has a less detailed Monroe Bock Development included as well I've like I've been day dreaming for months now what the skyline's gonna look like when this batch of Gilberts highrise developments & redevelopments are completed what effect they're going to have on the skyline especially when viewed from the north.

I'm worried about a recession too but i think the Hudsons Tower at least is going to be completed as envisioned its a prestige project the tower portion is residential downtown hasn't seen a new residential skyscraper since the 80's so demand prolly won't be an issue. Phase one of the Monroe Block redevelopment is most likely in the same boat also having a close groundbreaking date and also taking into consideration that contiguous blocks of class a office space downtown that are large enough for moderate to large size employers are only found now in the Ren Cen and one other building, so phase one would prolly go ahead as planned. But phase two would be in question no doubt but I think the District Detroit would be the biggest loser as it's the most ambitions and we have seen very little solid planning about the other 4 neighborhoods so far.

[LMich]

Ground breaking still coming December 1, and now they are only 1 approval way from total approval from this project to begin the process of construction:

Detroit council approves $250M tax breaks for Bedrock

By Christine Ferretti and Louis Aguilar | The Detroit News

November 21, 2017

Detroit — The City Council on Tuesday approved $250 million in new state tax incentives for Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock Detroit.

Bedrock needed council approval to get the incentives for four “transformational” projects that could redefine downtown. The plan has been met with some public rancor over the billionaire’s need for tax money to help finance the ambitious projects.

Fleisher said that there is one final approval needed at the state level and that’s expected in December or early 2018.

The four projects include creating the tallest building in the city on the empty historic Hudson’s site; developing three acres of mainly empty space for the Monroe Block, renovating the equivalent of 7.2 football fields of interior space at the long-dormant Book Tower and Building, and a major expansion of the One Campus Martius building.