Rossetti relocation rumors

[hybridy]

I have it on good authority that Rossetti Architects is joing the suburban exodus to join Dan Gilbert's downtown empire. Formal announcement coming within a month or 2???

Rossetti is responsible for Ford Field, among other large projects. They're also responsible for the interiors of the Chase Building for Quicken

Rosetti will be vacating the Oakland Towne Square development in Southfield. I guess that 3rd tower won't ever be built.
http://signatureassociates.catylist....field-MI-48076

[SWMAP]

Wasn't Rossetti once on Washington Blvd.? I know they were downtown.

[Shollin]

Yay, more jobs shuffling around and no new job creation.

[Gannon]

Rumor confirmed by someone in the know in my group of friends. This one used to work there...

[EastsideAl]

Wasn't Rossetti once on Washington Blvd.? I know they were downtown.

I don't know if they were headquartered there, but they did do this to Washington Blvd.:



[[picture from DetroitFunk's site)

[rondinjp]

This is great news, I will tentatively keep my fingers crossed.

[Honky Tonk]

Yay, more jobs shuffling around and no new job creation.

It's like Dejavu all over again.....

[DetroitPlanner]

Rosetti used to be here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=washin...12,264.05,,0,0

I am fairly sure the architect of the monkey bars was in the employ of Detroit.

[p69rrh51]

I will give Matt a call and find out.

[D_Town]

Sooooo will all of Southfield eventually look like the Northland area with mostly empty office buildings?

[EastsideAl]

I am fairly sure the architect of the monkey bars was in the employ of Detroit.

And the architect "Detroit" employed was Rossetti:



From the AIA Guide to Detroit, 2003 - a much too-friendly description of this monstrosity:




I was working as a college student at City Council research at the time this project came across our desks. I worked with several others on a report strongly opposing this foolishness, but Rossetti's presentation was too slick, the desperation and backwardness of the city's economic development department too strong, and the inexplicable '70s and '80s pull of "revitalization" via the building of wholly un-vital concrete wastelands was too compelling, to stop the thing.

[dtowncitylover]

Correct me if I'm wrong and I'm sorry to get off topic, but wasn't Washington Blvd like it is today for most of its history? What was the reasoning behind the plaza? The same as the failed mall-ization of Woodward?

[tkelly1986]

How many people does Rossetii employ? As in, how many people could we expect to move downtown if this rumor is true?

[dbigsbe17]

This firm produces uninspired post modern architecture. Without being interrogative, can any of you who would like to look out your window and see this building in the first image, tell me why you'd prefer this to the second image?

[Islandman]

It's possible to like both. What's your point?

[Shollin]

Perhaps they need to design a time machine so they can build the building in the 2nd image.

[Honky Tonk]

Correct me if I'm wrong and I'm sorry to get off topic, but wasn't Washington Blvd like it is today for most of its history? What was the reasoning behind the plaza? The same as the failed mall-ization of Woodward?

When I was young, it was a 2 way street with an island in the middle, like Woodward. There also was short term metered parking, [[good luck!) on both sides of the street. Businesses began moving out shortly after the 67 Riots, because people stopped coming downtown, and business dropped off severly. When they decided to install the People Remover, because "every growing city had a monorail", they had hoped to revitalize the area by putting in what you see there, developing some apartment living, making it more walkable, and more user-friendly. [[monorail was going to save the area! We can connect different loops all the way to 8 mile!) The idea bombed, and you have the cluster #$@& you see in the photo.

[EastsideAl]

This firm produces uninspired post modern architecture. Without being interrogative, can any of you who would like to look out your window and see this building in the first image, tell me why you'd prefer this to the second image?

The first actually looks like really good post modern architecture. That is to say that it looks like the really nice upscale part of an industrial park.

But, hard as it is to believe today, old City Hall, and buildings like it, were seen as unsalvageably hideous back when they were torn down. So maybe the glass, concrete, and clad in cheap shiny stuff boxes they've been building most of my life will actually look as good as City Hall to someone someday.

Ever since the "success" of the Palace Rossetti has been making big money designing arenas and stadiums [[like Ford Field) that look like over-grown warehouses on the outside and franchise-owner money fountains on the inside.

[Neilr]

In the mid 1960s Giffels & Rossetti designed The Jeffersonian Apartments at 9000 East Jefferson.

[downtownguy]

Rosetti used to be here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=washin...12,264.05,,0,0

I am fairly sure the architect of the monkey bars was in the employ of Detroit.

I lived on Washington Blvd for most of the 80s and my balcony looked out over the monkey bars. I can't remember one person that came to visit me that was impressed by them. The only redeeming quality was that the long flourescent lights that ran under the monkey bars kept the boulevard well lit at night.

The irony was that Rosetti's office was, as DetroitPlanner points out, across the street from Cobo several blocks south of the eyesore. At least they didn't have to look at it every day. My recollection is that Rosetti didn't get much business in the city after that, and so moved to the burbs.

[Gannon]

I was working as a college student at City Council research at the time this project came across our desks. I worked with several others on a report strongly opposing this foolishness, but Rossetti's presentation was too slick, the desperation and backwardness of the city's economic development department too strong, and the inexplicable '70s and '80s pull of "revitalization" via the building of wholly un-vital concrete wastelands was too compelling, to stop the thing.

Nice. It must've felt good, in a way, when they came down then. Other than the waste and time lost to what could've been, of course.

It is oddly funny, then, to contrast the firm high-tailing it out of town after that fiasco...only to be drawn back by the new fiasco-master, Dan Gilbert himself.

Word is out every paint manufacturer is sending Quicken cheap buckets of all the paint they haven't been able to sell...and the furniture makers are having a blast emptying out their warehouses of misfit toys. Dan Gilbert is, single-handedly, causing a revolution in handling the recycling of horrid design elements! Yay!

[Gannon]

The entire 'new' downtown is going to look like pre-school. Can't wait.

[DetroitPlanner]

And the architect "Detroit" employed was Rossetti:



From the AIA Guide to Detroit, 2003 - a much too-friendly description of this monstrosity:




I was working as a college student at City Council research at the time this project came across our desks. I worked with several others on a report strongly opposing this foolishness, but Rossetti's presentation was too slick, the desperation and backwardness of the city's economic development department too strong, and the inexplicable '70s and '80s pull of "revitalization" via the building of wholly un-vital concrete wastelands was too compelling, to stop the thing.

I could have sworn it was Alex Pollock's work, but that was before my time.

[downtownguy]

I'm pretty sure the trolley idea was all Pollock's doing, but the monkey bars and plaza was all Rossetti. I liked the Trolley.

[Shollin]

I'll admit, I like the plaza minus the monkey bars.