COBO Renderings

[gthomas]

I hope the plans consist of moving the main entrance to the international detroit riverside, construct an glasswall with no obstructed views looking onto the river from all floors...also tearing down Joe Loius Arena for a national hotel ...like a..W Hotel or a Hyatt Regency. Adding a hotel is a smart way to generate business to cobo. Also expand west and bild another level of commercial space. The main thing is to use the valuable waterways...making it inviting and to get folks using the riverwalk more! Add visual thing thats pleasing to the eyes and ears....like an large water feature or an artistic, bold public art displays surrounding the center.
Expand your horizon and think outside the box, use bold and striking architecture to bring people down to experience the NEW Cobo Center....

[MIRepublic]

So let me get this straight... the renderings are finished but we have to pay f$cking money to see them?

WTF? How did you infer that from anything written?

[Rocko]

I hope they include a downtown stub end train station at Cobo on the corner of Washington Blvd and Congress...the future of mass transit and commuter rail from the suburbs!! Coming right downtown to the newly renovated Cobo!!

[Gistok]

One of the recent rehab plans kept Cobo Arena and the circular drive from Atwater up to Jefferson/Washington Blvd. It was supposed to be retrofitted as convention space. As a perfectly circular rotunda, there's certainly some interesting possibilities for it. although I'm not sure how well it would fit as single level convention space.

[DetroitPlanner]

I hope they include a downtown stub end train station at Cobo on the corner of Washington Blvd and Congress...the future of mass transit and commuter rail from the suburbs!! Coming right downtown to the newly renovated Cobo!!

Why? There was a stub end station already put into the Joe Louis project, and the train never came... 30 years and still waiting.

[Spitty]

WTF? How did you infer that from anything written?

Dude I was joking, so chill TF out.

[Stosh]

So here's an old article [[Aug 08) with renderings which also mentions the 166,700 number. Basically looks like they've filled in Cobo Arena.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article.../SUB/16549245#

The reuse of Cobo Hall is a big addition of space for any trade show, not to mention the NAIAS. I wonder whether they will add space later within the Cobo Arena area. That's a lot of vertical space that's being wasted, if going by the proposed drawings. Adding a floor directly across would double the space available.

[Rocko]

DPlanner - there was a gap left in the Joe Louis parking garage along the ground floor for tracks to some day be laid for a station in that area, but they were never laid. It's not like anything else was built to support a station at or near this site. If Detroit is really going ahead with mass transit [[commuter rail from AA, and later Pontiac, and Woodward Ave. light rail, etc), a downtown station seems approperiate plan for the future. I can think of no better or more downtown location than at the corner of Congress and Washington, as part of the expanded Cobo project. That would be more downtown than either MCS, Fort Street, or Brush Street were.

[Gistok]

The reuse of Cobo Hall is a big addition of space for any trade show, not to mention the NAIAS. I wonder whether they will add space later within the Cobo Arena area. That's a lot of vertical space that's being wasted, if going by the proposed drawings. Adding a floor directly across would double the space available.

They could probably have 3 levels within the soaring rotunda of Cobo Arena [[top one for ballrooms?), but with convention space at Cobo rather drab looking, this tall airy rotunda would be a nice focal point for Cobo Hall.

Although we don't know the specifics of the new plans for Cobo Hall, something tells me that this part of the plan may be kept, as an architecturally pleasing example of adaptive reuse.

[Stosh]

They could probably have 3 levels within the soaring rotunda of Cobo Arena [[top one for ballrooms?), but with convention space at Cobo rather drab looking, this tall airy rotunda would be a nice focal point for Cobo Hall.

Although we don't know the specifics of the new plans for Cobo Hall, something tells me that this part of the plan may be kept, as an architecturally pleasing example of adaptive reuse.

It's important to remember that there's going to be some significant demolition within that hall. Gutting the 3 levels of seating will leave some significant scarring of the interior structure of the arena, as it was an intergral portion of it's initial use.

A soaring ceiling doesn't do much for the bottom line either. I'd think that heating and cooling that space would be a nightmare, and probably is now, even in it's present form. That's probably why it lies dark most of the time now.

If the intent would be to create usable, cost effective space, partitioning the levels to correspond with the existing floor plan entry ways, insulating each floor, walls and ceilings would be the way to go. The first floor would still have a larger ceiling area, but the second and third floors could be shut down if not being used.

[Gistok]

It's important to remember that there's going to be some significant demolition within that hall. Gutting the 3 levels of seating will leave some significant scarring of the interior structure of the arena, as it was an intergral portion of it's initial use.

A soaring ceiling doesn't do much for the bottom line either. I'd think that heating and cooling that space would be a nightmare, and probably is now, even in it's present form. That's probably why it lies dark most of the time now.

If the intent would be to create usable, cost effective space, partitioning the levels to correspond with the existing floor plan entry ways, insulating each floor, walls and ceilings would be the way to go. The first floor would still have a larger ceiling area, but the second and third floors could be shut down if not being used.

I doubt that heating/cooling will be any more of a problem for the tall arena space, than it is right now in the soaring multilevel lobby of Cobo.

The auditorum of the State/Filmore Theatre soars to 85 feet, and that of the Fox Theatre soars to 105 ft., and these don't have heating/cooling issues, even with all their open lobby spaces. A bigger problem could be acoustics [[echoes).... that's where horsehair in the ceiling could come into play...

However dividing the arena into 3 levels would not be a bad way to go... having lower exhibition space [[escalator down from main halls, with an exhibition mezzanine above that [[escalator up from the main halls) could be done. The 3rd level could be where they relocated the riverfront ballroom[[s), and in that way expand the main floor exhibition area towards the river.

They could put windows into a 3rd floor ballroom level [[for great vistas of the water and downtown) reminiscent of California's Catalina Island Casino ballroom on the top level of a similar circular building. [[see attached pic)

Of course this is just a pipe dream, since we don't know what's in store for the arena.

[Stosh]

I doubt that heating/cooling will be any more of a problem for the tall arena space, than it is right now in the soaring multilevel lobby of Cobo.

The auditorum of the State/Filmore Theatre soars to 85 feet, and that of the Fox Theatre soars to 105 ft., and these don't have heating/cooling issues, even with all their open lobby spaces. A bigger problem could be acoustics [[echoes).... that's where horsehair in the ceiling could come into play...

Comparables to Cobo would be the Joe Louis Arena and the Palace, not the Fox / Fillmore. Those benefit from added insulated properties from exterior buildings on the sides. I'd wonder what exactly those heating and cooling costs actually run, both at the theatres, and at Cobo Arena. I'd be willing to bet that the costs are actually a little more than one might think. And of course they probably cut heating and cooling when not being used as well.

However dividing the arena into 3 levels would not be a bad way to go... having lower exhibition space [[escalator down from main halls, with an exhibition mezzanine above that [[escalator up from the main halls) could be done. The 3rd level could be where they relocated the riverfront ballroom[[s), and in that way expand the main floor exhibition area towards the river.

Also a large freight elevator would be helpful for displays.

They could put windows into a 3rd floor ballroom level [[for great vistas of the water and downtown) reminiscent of California's Catalina Island Casino ballroom on the top level of a similar circular building. [[see attached pic)

Of course this is just a pipe dream, since we don't know what's in store for the arena.

I suppose it's up to the authority to hash it out, but it's always a fun thing to speculate.

[Gistok]

Some grand spaces, like the RenCen or Dearborn Hyatt Regency lobbies, keep their air conditioning going continuously during the summer.

I kinda doubt that they keep the other places you mentioned continuously cooled in the summer. I was in the Fox with the air off one time during a slow week, and it was hot and muggy. Reminds me why the old movie palaces closed during the summer [[until the later 20s) before the advent of air conditioning [[theatres were among the first buildings to be air conditioned).

But with the massive heating/cooling plants in these large venues [[as well as enormous vent systems), I'm sure that these places become comfortable in a relative short time.

I bet Cobo has different heating/cooling climate control areas for different parts of the building.