Several pieces of heavy-duty equipment could be seen on the 9-acre site late Wednesday afternoon as contractors with Macomb Township-based Colasanti Construction Services Inc. prepped for initial work on a 24-story apartment tower being built on the property. A worker at the scene Thursday said 100-foot deep caissons were being drilled.
A building permit issued for the property allows for site, civil engineering and foundation work "only for future multifamily dwelling." The developer, Detroit-based Sterling Group, applied for a permit for the building itself on Jan. 28 although the city declined to release any information on it Thursday pending the final outcome of the permit review.
In the Crain’s article they basically say that in terms of permits all they applied for is the foundation for a multi-family dwelling, and there’s nothing specific about design or anything, so I’d hope/assume what we see is a very preliminary design just to show the massing and not the actual facade. If that’s not the case it would be quite disappointing.
The architectural firm listed in the article is Neumann Smith which has a pretty hefty portfolio across Metro Detroit with far more detail in their renders for similar residential projects. Needless to say, but yea that's a placeholder for the potential height and size.
What's concerning is that a tower that big only takes up 1/3 of the site. There's room for at least two to three towers of that size and it'd be a waste of space if only one tower was built and the rest was greenspace/plaza/parking.
Based on the number of floors and the unit count it's going to be about the same size as Riverfront Towers next door.
I think the rendering makes it look stubbier than it is, because of the lens and the perspective correction.
With the riverfront site, I feel like an accordion design, like Riverfront Towers or the Pontchartrain Hotel would be better. People don't really want views of parking garages and freeway interchanges, they want views of the river or of downtown.
The renderings are described as being a concept in the Free Press article. Hopefully we'll get something better in the end, but with Neumann Smith I'm expecting competently executed generic corporate architecture.
Just remember, at least it's not a City Club development.
^ supposed to have an office tower there as well. It well may turn into something large. The picture in the article shows there is plenty of space there.
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