DETROIT | Development & Construction: Motown Lowdown

[LMich]

I don't know why they keep putting out these childish renderings. It makes everything look so unprofessional. It's not like Cobo couldn't spend a bit of money and get Kraemer Design Group or SmithGroup of someone to do these. It distracts from whatever news they are trying to convey.

[deja vu]

Originally Posted by LMich

I don't know why they keep putting out these childish renderings. It makes everything look so unprofessional. It's not like Cobo couldn't spend a bit of money and get Kraemer Design Group or SmithGroup of someone to do these. It distracts from whatever news they are trying to convey.

I don't know if they were going for playful, cartoony, carefree, or what, but I agree, it looks bad.

The people look like a colony of penguins. Especially the ones that are seated.

[animatedmartian]

Originally Posted by LMich

I don't know why they keep putting out these childish renderings. It makes everything look so unprofessional. It's not like Cobo couldn't spend a bit of money and get Kraemer Design Group or SmithGroup of someone to do these. It distracts from whatever news they are trying to convey.

Don't really need that much effort just to show that the Auto Show exhibits can be outside if it's during June. It's almost self-explanatory, lol.

Though, if there is some deeper meaning to it, the color scheme does give me a West Coast or Florida vibe, if maybe festival-like. I think the point is that summertime is when Detroit's vibrancy can be shown off instead of during the dead cold of winter.

[Warrenite84]

Nothing like a June thundershower to add pizzazz to the outdoor displays! ( I admit I prefer to come downtown during the winter when nothing else is going on. It certainly helps the bars and restaurants during a quiet time of the year.) So ok, let's try it for a few years and see how well it does...

[LMich]

Well this came out of nowhere. Sucks for Midland, though.

Google Streetview

Chemical Bank to move headquarters to Detroit, bringing 500-plus employees

By Kirk Pinho, Crain's Detroit Business

July 25, 2018

The largest Michigan-based bank is moving its headquarters to Michigan's largest city.

In one of the biggest corporate recruitment wins for the city in recent memory, Chemical Bank (NASDAQ: CHFC), currently based in Midland, it expects to move 500 or so employees into a new high-rise at Woodward Avenue and Elizabeth Street in downtown Detroit. The building would be next to the Ilitch family's Little Caesars Global Resource Center.

The plan calls for completion within the next 2 1/2 years.

The move, which is not expected to reduce the bank's labor force in its current Midland headquarters, would also reconfigure the downtown skyline as Chemical Bank plans a new 20-story building at 2047 Woodward Ave. That property is owned by 28 Associates LLC, an entity registered to Eli Halpern, general counsel to Detroit-based real estate company Sterling Group, which is run by Gary Torgow, the chairman of Chemical Bank.

[detroit_alive]

Originally Posted by LMich

Well this came out of nowhere. Sucks for Midland, though.

From the article:
The move, which is not expected to reduce the bank's labor force in its current Midland headquarters, would also reconfigure the downtown skyline as Chemical Bank plans a new 20-story building at 2047 Woodward Ave.

This is great news for downtown. Can't wait to see what the architects have in mind.

[LMich]

I saw that, but there is no way you're moving a headquarters and it not at least in the short-term effecting employment. It's basically the same thing Comerica told Detroit. They wouldn't be calling this a move if it was just an expansion. EDIT: Now seeing a bank official's ambiguous comment about keeping a "large staff" in Midland. I have no doubt they'll keep workers in Midland, but it's happy-talk to pretend like this isn't a move of a headquarters that won't effect overall employment levels in the place they are leaving.

Oh no, no, no. Not good.



What the heck is that screen doing there?

[The North One]

Pretty sure it's covering up parking, urgh, hopefully they end up covering it with glass, whatever this is great news. Detroit is increasingly becoming a financial center and all the banks should be centrally located in the state's most important city.

I'm assuming they're associated with DOW right?

[animatedmartian]

The green screen is most definitely parking. Though the green is probably the most distracting part.

The other thing is that the rendering kinda makes the building look slightly bigger than the parking lot that currently exists there. They wouldn't be able to demolish the building next door, right? Otherwise that's a really tight squeeze.

It also looks a bit too similar to LCHQ, imo. Aside from the pizza-wedge facade and stainless steel on the side of LCHQ, this design has similar motifs. I was thinking the design might had been more creative with parking off-site somewhere.

[rlw777]

Awesome. I'm a little surprised at the location choice. Despite Little Caesars being there I don't think of the part of Woodward as being prime real estate for corporate HQ's

[detroit_alive]

Originally Posted by The North One

Pretty sure it's covering up parking, urgh, hopefully they end up covering it with glass, whatever this is great news.

They won't. Covering parking with glass is expensive and will be one of the first things VE'd out of the project when costs start mounting. I just wish they would've pushed the parking towards the back of the lot to keep the Woodward frontage leasable space.

A lot of questions with this one. What does the south facade look like? Why does it face away from downtown? Why does every new building need a cantilever roof? What material is that green parking screen? Is the ground level just a 1-story bank branch? Where is the main entry for the building? Etc etc.

A quick photoshop shows how much better this could look. I would also change the massing at the top to add more terraced step backs but that would be too much work to visualize.

[subterranean]

This will be a big bummer for Midland, where my parents live. I wonder what ultimately led to their decision to move. Midland has been trying hard for decades to invigorate its boring little downtown. It built a stadium and some of the best infill projects in the state for a city of its size. Also, Chemical Bank is not affiliated with Dow, but I'm sure there's some intermingled histories because I can't think of any other reason for the name. Dow has its own credit union, DCECU.

Interestingly enough, Chemical Bank is now the largest bank headquartered in Michigan since Comerica left. I bet they are just looking for more visibility, and what better place than across the street from Comerica Park? But if they are going to continue on a growth trend, I suggest they change their name

[The North One]

Yeah, I don't get the cantilever, it's not like Detroit is Pheonix and needs the shade. But I guess I don't really mind it either.

People are saying they might be the city's new banking partner.

[rlw777]

A few thoughts on the design

I wish it respected the historic street wall a little more perhaps with a full setback near the roof line of one of it's neighbors. LCHQ did a great job with this. The top of the pizza glass facade aligns with the top of Fox while the cantilever aligns with the top of the Fillmore.

The green wavy screen thing may make sense functionally if it's a cover for parking but it's so at odds with the design as a whole that they should just get rid of it and choose a different option for hiding parking. It looks tacked on. I get the sense that whoever designed this wavy crap took a look at LCHQ and wanted to do something similar but didn't actually think bout why the wavy pizza glass works on that building. The pizza glass works because it's a modern decorative facade that references the lines and scale of it's neighbors decorative facades.

The cantilever here does seem like a bit much. It seems like it's more about signage than useful shade.

[animatedmartian]

Originally Posted by detroit_alive

A quick photoshop shows how much better this could look. I would also change the massing at the top to add more terraced step backs but that would be too much work to visualize.

That already looks 10 times better if still only a bit plain. Still, a minor complaint overall. It's good to see more movement into the city. I'd imagine this pressures Olympia to build their residential projects sooner rather than later, especially the one planned across Woodward.

[DetroitSky]

I don’t think it looks that bad. I’m sure it will be changed some before construction begins. The parking lot currently there is a square, so if they’re planning on the rectangular shape that appears in the renders the building to the west will have to be demolished. That building is occupied and connected to Grand Park Centre over the alley. It also serves as parking for both buildings. Judging by the rendering, it appears the new building goes right up to north side of the Fyfe, meaning it would have to be cantilevered over the alley there.

Either way, this is great and surprising news.

[seabee1526]

Tight squeeze for a rectangular building.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/2047+W...9c15f240c65!8m2!3d42.337341!4d-83.051456


(I'd really like to see some interest in 2 or 3 tall buildings in the spaces between Washington and Bagley / Bagley and Adams).

[LMich]

I suspect this is going to get a redesign. It's really a bad rendering on top of it being a poor design. The massing is off for that lot and the surrounding buildings, and the screening absolutely ruins whatever few positive features it has.

The reason I suspect better renderings is the strangeness of it around the base which seem to show projection/inserts where it can't possible be on a tiny rectangular site like this. Despite it being modern and glass and relatively boring, my opinion is that the LC Headquarters is just a vastly better design simply do to the massing.


Tanya Moutzalias | MLive.com

[DetroitSky]

This Crain’s story states the following:

A building immediately to the west, which sits on 0.22 acres of property at 25 W. Elizabeth St., is expected to demolished to make way for the new high-rise. It is also owned by 28 Associates.

So the lot will consist of the parking lot on Woodward and W. Elizabeth and the site of the Michigan Mutual Liability Annex. This means the rectangular appearance of the building is correct.

Would be nice to see them build all the way to Cliff Bell’s. Even if it’s just a garage with ground floor retail there, anything’s better than that gravel parking lot that’s there now...

[LMich]

I don't know how I missed that. So the building immediately behind is coming down. I was trying to figure out how in the world they'd be able to build a self-park parking garage as part of the tower on a site as small as that corner parcel.


Emporis

Well, with that much space it makes even more sense and is even more feasible to keep the parking garage invisible from view from Woodward. There is really no reason why the parking portion has to be visible from the Woodward frontage for this, then, and I hope the city demands that they orient as far back along the site as possible.

BTW, I see that Neumann Smith is the design architect for this one, which is why I'm now even more surprised by the rendering.