Hudson's Site Building Thread

**Jason** · February-22-17, 06:00 PM

Based on the renderings, many aspects of this design make good sense.

One problem with the Hudsons site is that it's very deep. This design solves that problem by having an atrium in the center of the block, with other circulation spaces [[the gaps you can see from the street) coming off of it. The atrium also aides in navigating the various program elements [[you can look up the atrium and see where you need to get), and an atrium is a more pleasant circulation experience than the standard bank of elevators.

The gaps also seem to correspond to the various programs, making them legible. This also aides in navigation.

The office section being divided that way is also useful for leasing to tenants. It looks like there's basically three office buildings above the rest, each articulated. So a company could lease one of the entire "buildings", instead of being just one tenant buried on floor #5-6 or whatever.

The gaps on the facade also break down the scale of the facade to something more comparable to the surrounding buildings. But it does this without being completely contrived or artificial. It makes sense to break up the massing in that way, and the facades of each section relate to the function of the spaces behind it. This is in contrast to many buildings which have a large number of facade types covering up uniform office space behind it.

imo the swoops and bends and whatnot don't really have much architectural basis and are there for flash/wow/branding/PR. I'm not personally a fan of that kind of capitalist or commercialized spectacle. But Gilbert certainly is, since it has been the core of the designwork in many of his properties. It doesn't mean that everything has to be orthogonal or that there can never be visual interest or spatial richness, but imo it should be more principled and should evolve naturally and be integrated with other design considerations. There's really no reason for the apartment tower to be so bent.

I do like that the tower is slender. The sad state of downtown allowed us to almost entirely dodge the overscaled mega fat office behemoth skyscrapers from the 70s onwards. One Detroit Center is much thicker than its neighboring buildings, but it's thinner than it could have been and the overall proportions help it. Detroit is slightly more like European cities where the skyscrapers have always been smaller scale. The McNamara Federal Building is our primary chunky tower.

**Danny** · February-23-17, 09:14 AM

Very beautiful and taller than the Ren Cen. Gilberttown Detroit first Glass covered very tall skyscraper since 1977. Way to Go Gilbert! He's thinking BIG BIG BIG!!!

Now that's a OCP Building.

**Danny** · February-22-19, 04:27 PM

[[sniff sniff) I smell United Bank of Switzerland coming to Gilberttown Detroit.

**LeightonGeo** · February-23-19, 12:00 AM

Originally Posted by Danny

[[sniff sniff) I smell United Bank of Switzerland coming to Gilberttown Detroit.

I don't get it.

**Danny** · February-23-19, 12:24 AM

Originally Posted by LeightonGeo

I don't get it.

Go to Gilberttown Detroit and find out.

**Van Dyke Brown** · February-26-19, 07:26 PM

*****

Originally Posted by Danny

[[sniff sniff) I smell United Bank of Switzerland coming to Gilberttown Detroit.

*****

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**expatriate** · March-01-19, 10:37 AM

If everyone who works in this building drives to work, which is the norm in this city, I foresee massive gridlock which will be compounded when all the other rehabs become populated.

**401don** · March-01-19, 12:50 PM

Originally Posted by expatriate

If everyone who works in this building drives to work, which is the norm in this city, I foresee massive gridlock which will be compounded when all the other rehabs become populated.

Massive gridlock? Compared to Chicago, Toronto, Atlanta, etc. Detroit is still a ghost town at rush hour.

**Danny** · March-01-19, 04:42 PM

J.L.Hudson's started his store as a 4 floor clothier on Woodward Ave. between E. Grand River St. and Gratiot St. Then he brought one whole block, tear down some buildings and made his flagship store. It's going take a while for Gilbert Tower to be built.

What do think it takes to built Trump Tower in New York City?

10 years!!!!

**Danny** · December-31-19, 07:05 PM

Gilbert is making an investment risk of building his tower in the Hudson. His skyscraper will be the beacon of the Detroit's Third renaissance. He got some buyers and other investors. He will not make an announcement about his secret plans until the time is right.

**angry_fred** · January-01-20, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by Danny

Gilbert is making an investment risk of building his tower in the Hudson. His skyscraper will be the beacon of the Detroit's Third renaissance. He got some buyers and other investors. He will not make an announcement about his secret plans until the time is right.

Is this speculation or do you know something that the rest of us don't?

**Danny** · January-30-20, 01:49 PM

Gilbert Tower will not the biggest building in Michigan. Don't think too big, Gilbert. Detroit is still trying shake off the Coleman Young to Kwame Kilpatrick years. Investors will come if you can prove this city got guts.

**Danny** · February-02-20, 04:51 PM

That's is why Gilbert can't think big in his building project. Now the Hudson's Tower might by 700 feet.

**Scottathew** · March-13-21, 09:03 PM

Good size concrete pour on a Saturday!

**Danny** · November-19-21, 06:49 AM

I wish that Gilbert built a 100 story building.

**mikeg19** · November-19-21, 08:41 AM

Originally Posted by Danny

I wish that Gilbert built a 100 story building.

Maybe he will. He just bought the old Stroh's site on the Riverfront. Throw up a massive tower there along the river. Then Maybe Jerome Bettis or whoever owns the Uniroyal Site will finally put up something there. Or not.

**stasu1213** · August-30-22, 07:02 PM

What offices are planning to move into the Block portion?

**stasu1213** · November-14-22, 12:31 PM

I wonder why it had taken only 4 years to build the RenCen, 31/2 years to build to build the Compuware Building, 3 years to build Comerica Tower, 2 years to build the addition to the Compuware Building. Now it's taking more than 6 years to even get The Block portion of the Hudson site to finally get it's skin covering, will take up to 8 years for the tower part to be completed, 6 + years to renovate The Book Tower, and the Monroe Block had been reduced to an entertainment block. Am I missing something here? Had contractors been switched from those whom had gotten the job done in a timely manner to those who appear to stretch out the construction of projects just to keep the steady paychecks coming. It make Detroit look less desirable to other corporations or businesses whom are looking for cities to operate in

**angry_fred** · November-14-22, 02:02 PM

Originally Posted by stasu1213

I wonder why it had taken only 4 years to build the RenCen, 31/2 years to build to build the Compuware Building, 3 years to build Comerica Tower, 2 years to build the addition to the Compuware Building. Now it's taking more than 6 years to even get The Block portion of the Hudson site to finally get it's skin covering, will take up to 8 years for the tower part to be completed, 6 + years to renovate The Book Tower, and the Monroe Block had been reduced to an entertainment block. Am I missing something here? Had contractors been switched from those whom had gotten the job done in a timely manner to those who appear to stretch out the construction of projects just to keep the steady paychecks coming. It make Detroit look less desirable to other corporations or businesses whom are looking for cities to operate in

Indeed you are missing something - the three slow projects you mentioned are all Bedrock. They're pretty clearly oversubscribed right now so they're probably not spending the money as quickly as some would like to see. Add that to the fact that we have a construction labor shortage and you get long construction times.

If you look beyond bedrock, you'll see that the exchange, the Louis, MCS, Godfrey, and the Perennial are all more or less on track

**Satiricalivory** · November-14-22, 03:14 PM

Originally Posted by angry_fred

Indeed you are missing something - the three slow projects you mentioned are all Bedrock.

They're also all by far the biggest, most expensive and highest quality projects in the city other than MCS. So lets not forget that.

**stasu1213** · November-14-22, 04:14 PM

Originally Posted by angry_fred

Indeed you are missing something - the three slow projects you mentioned are all Bedrock. They're pretty clearly oversubscribed right now so they're probably not spending the money as quickly as some would like to see. Add that to the fact that we have a construction labor shortage and you get long construction times.

If you look beyond bedrock, you'll see that the exchange, the Louis, MCS, Godfrey, and the Perennial are all more or less on track

Get rid of the 53% hiring og Detroiters rule and hire qualified people from the tro County areas and there will be no shortages

**angry_fred** · November-14-22, 05:01 PM

Originally Posted by stasu1213

Get rid of the 53% hiring og Detroiters rule and hire qualified people from the tro County areas and there will be no shortages

That's a bold statement. It might ease things a bit but contractors everywhere are pretty backed up

**stasu1213** · November-15-22, 03:25 PM

Originally Posted by angry_fred

That's a bold statement. It might ease things a bit but contractors everywhere are pretty backed up

It has been reported that the Illitches were fined multiple of times for not having enough Detroiters working on the LCA. Instead of opening academies that bore famous african american names on them why not open more vocational schools that will prep young Detroiters for these positions.