One Campus Martius is Getting That Northern Addition

[mikeg19]

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...campus-martius

Looks like Gilbert confirmed that back wedge getting filled in at One Campus Martius. I wonder if it will just match the rest of the building or be something differet [[shorter, taller)?

[401don]

Gilbert builds on top of his garage and the Ilitches can't even build on their surface lots.

[Scottathew]

Gilbert builds on top of his garage and the Ilitches can't even build on their surface lots.

This would be on top of the building. The north side has a "notch out" where there is a portion of the building that is only three stories tall.

There are two main elevator banks, each with 10 elevator shafts, but only 8 elevators. So there is room for two new elevators within each existing elevator bank for a total of four new elevators.

The second and third floor contain businesses as well as a daycare center, gym, and cafeteria.

[EGrant]

Nice, someone can have an office in the newly renovated One Campus Martius that looks directly into their new apartment in the new Hudson's, only separated by 20 or so feet.

[warsaw7]

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...campus-martius

Looks like Gilbert confirmed that back wedge getting filled in at One Campus Martius. I wonder if it will just match the rest of the building or be something differet [[shorter, taller)?

I wonder if this addition will be glass enclosed to showcase the two murals. With the Shepard Fairey and How Nosm murals being new, photogenic and large in size, will this new addition take away from their visibility?

I understand that Dan Gilbert is a billionaire and the price of these murals were next to nothing for him and his industry, but still a lot of work went into creating them and they are definitely part of the downtown aesthetic.

[casscorridor]

I wonder if this addition will be glass enclosed to showcase the two murals. With the Shepard Fairey and How Nosm murals being new, photogenic and large in size, will this new addition take away from their visibility?

I understand that Dan Gilbert is a billionaire and the price of these murals were next to nothing for him and his industry, but still a lot of work went into creating them and they are definitely part of the downtown aesthetic.

does anyone care about these murals?

[hybridy]

does anyone care about these murals?

No...and the compuware building isn't terribly beautiful either

[warsaw7]

does anyone care about these murals?

Do you have to be so neg? A lot of people care about these murals seeing how every out of town artist have hosted enjoys seeing them and taking pictures of them.

My apologies if these murals don't cater to your liking, but a lot of people enjoy. I will admit however the compuware building is a bit of an eyesore and they would have looked better on a brick building.

[Scottathew]

The murals are on the back of elevator shafts. It is unlikely they can really do much to modify the wall. I would imagine they could leave the murals and they could appear inside of the building, interrupted by the spaces between the ceiling and the next floor.

[Atticus]

They are very nice murals that take what was previously a very bland wall, and makes it more visually appealing. However, a new addition to the building is probably an overall plus, even with the mural loss.

The other thing to remember is that even without the addition, the murals will be blocked from view from most locations if the proposed Hudson Block development happens. So since they are going to be blocked anyway, much better to have the north building addition.

[EGrant]

This is going to turn into a big ART vs. BUSINESS narrative.

It looks like that wall is composed of metal panels; maybe they can do something with the individual panels?

[Jason]

It looks like that wall is composed of metal panels; maybe they can do something with the individual panels?

Yeah a lot of it depends on how the mural was made. They're going to be disassembling the wall anyway so if they're a little more careful with it they should be able to remove the panels.

I think the real question is that now that you have a giant pile of mural panels what do you do with them?


I also have to defend the compuware building. Yes, it's very boring. But it must have taken a lot of discipline to do the right thing for the site, despite it being boring. The way the atrium deals with the depth of the site is very nice. The facade is compatible with the surrounding buildings without being pastiche or historicist and it does some subtle things with the balconies and mechanical floors. It fronts campus martius in an appropriate way. The scale is good. It presumably provides good floor plans for tenants. I personally can't think of how the overall building could have been done differently that would have been better. It's absolutely not perfect, or an amazing building, but like I said I appreciate that they did the right thing, even though it was also the boring thing. They were very responsible.

[Neilr]

If this does happen, it won't be the first time that new construction blocked the view of art work in Detroit.

When the Horace Rackham Building was built in the early 1940s, Marshall Fredericks was commissioned to carve multiple bas reliefs in white marble to decorate the exterior of the building. At that time, lawns encircled the whole building, filling the entire block so that the rear facade was fully visible from both Woodward and West Warren.
http://detroit1701.org/RackhamEducMemorialBldg.htm

Some years ago, WSU built a parking structure on the rear lawn, blocking the view of one of Frederick's most interesting, IMO, bas reliefs. Now, in order to see it you need go into the parking structure or down the service drive between the two buildings.

[Scottathew]

Hey folks! I can't provide pictures of this one, but I can report that inside of the One Campus Martius Building [[Compuware Building) that temporary walls are being constructed on the north side where the addition will happen. Employees were relocated out of the affected areas and now the areas are being reconfigured for the slightly diminished space.

For those of you not familiar, the building was made with 20 general-use elevator shafts, but only had 16 of the populated with cars. It would appear that work on the elevator shafts on the Woodward-side bank are wrapping up and the fully populated elevator bank is close to being online. There has also been a lot of work going on in the Monroe-side shafts. The Woodward side has also had the new control system put in place [[but not operational yet), where you choose the floor you're going to BEFORE you board the elevator. This way the system can group people into certain elevator cars based off of their destination for greater efficiency.