False Hope....Which proposed construction project were you most excited for?

[lizaanne]

Gateway Shoppes - or whatever the heck it's called. All they seem to do is push various piles of dirt around.

[drippyhollows]

I know its not a construction project but i was sort of disappointed to see the State Theater renamed
the Fillmore. This isnt NYC, its not SF either

[313WX]

I'm still excited for the other two towers of the Fisher Building, though its been more than 5 years since they were proposed.

Same for the Book Tower.

Wow, I can only imagine how big of an impact the 81-story Book Tower would have on the skyline.

[begingri]

I'm still excited for the other two towers of the Fisher Building, though its been more than 5 years since they were proposed.

Do you mean like 80? Or did someone recently seriously propose constructing the other two towers?

[Bham1982]

Farbman Group owns the Fisher Building. They had to move earth and sky to get that thing filled up.

Call up Andy Farbman and ask him to add two 80-floor towers. I'm sure he'll get right to it, LOL.

Some of these projects may happen at some point [[say Shops at Gateway or the other Campus Martius sites).

Others were never really serious proposals, such as Cadillac Centre. No one really took that seriously.

[gnome]

I failed to read the OP correctly and missed the "last five years" provision. Hence I should not have brought up the Fisher or Book Bldgs, let alone the Woodward Plan.

As far as the last five years goes, ... heck so many of those failed projects are tied to The Felon, that I'm reticent to name any one project.

Can anyone point to a clean-yet-failed project? Certainly not turning MCS into PoPo HQ, not the 2nd Span ...

[bartock]

Farbman Group owns the Fisher Building. They had to move earth and sky to get that thing filled up.

Call up Andy Farbman and ask him to add two 80-floor towers. I'm sure he'll get right to it, LOL.

Some of these projects may happen at some point [[say Shops at Gateway or the other Campus Martius sites).

Others were never really serious proposals, such as Cadillac Centre. No one really took that seriously.

Agreed. Kwame "announced" this out of the blue and lo and behold, the shit hit the fan on him a day or two later.

[DetroitHabitater]

FBI building on porter. It would of been ugly and anti-urban as sin, but i bet it would of deterred crime even more in the area.

[Junkin4Life]

Any body familiar with Africantown Marketplace???. The site on Chene Street between Mack and I-94 would be perfect

[Mind field]

In order:

1. Bank of America regional headquarters moving downtown. Jobs, jobs, jobs is critical to downtown's recovery.

2. David Whitney building restoration. I know this may still come to fruition, but plans have been announced before with nothing happening.

3. The condos on top of the Book Cadillac parking garage by the Roxbury Group. They looked very nice.

[Gistok]

I know its not a construction project but i was sort of disappointed to see the State Theater renamed
the Fillmore. This isnt NYC, its not SF either

Drippyhollows... that theatre has undergone more name changes than most... it opened as the State in 1925... changed to the Palms-State in 1937, became the Palms in 1949, and was renamed back to the State in 1982 [[note: it is in the Francis Palms Building).

But the folks at LiveNations who own the Fillmore brand and renamed the [[leased) theatre have been doing some nice work on kickstarting the job of restoring the theatre.

Chuck Forbes [[building and theatre owner) had started restoration of the theatre back in the 1990s. Chuck Forbes completely restored the outer lobby and rotunda lobby over a decade ago. The grand foyer got started [[all the faux marble columns were restored. And the procenium arch framing the stage in the auditorium were also completely restored under Forbes.

However, because the grand foyer is 3 stories tall, and the auditorium is 8 stories tall... the upper reaches of both grand spaces... still had their 80 years of grime and nicotine staining, as well as peeling paint. Reason is... the restoration of these lofty spaces would have required scaffolding to both, and would have required downtime for the theatre... a costly undertaking on both accounts.

The new Fillmore theatre manage [[his name is Ben, but I cannot remember his last name)... has come up with some very creative solutions to restoring these spaces that don't require performance downtime or costly scaffolding. There are new ways to restore the plasterwork... such as the new extended cherry pickers that can be driven into the building for the day... and have a very long reach that can get to some very lofty plasterwork. There is also a 2nd option of some scaffolding that can be suspended from the sidewalls without requiring a full "tinker toy" buildup of support.

Ben has done a great job of restoring the barrel vaulted ceiling of the grand foyer, and is in the process of doing auditorium restoration. I am excited to see this August [[when the Preservation Wayne theatre tours take place... I'm the State/Fillmore onsite guide).... to see what additional parts of the theatre have been restored.

A name change to "Fillmore" is a very small price to pay for the creative ways of finishing the theatre restoration... a slow process now in its' 2nd decade.

Also... the addition of a large [[and costly) collection of nicely framed Fillmore concert posters [[from NYC and San Francisco) adds a nice colorful artistic touch to the otherwise blank walls of the outer lobby and grand foyer of the Fillmore Theatre.

And they've added some nice "Fillmore style" crystal chandeliers to the rotunda lobby and auditorium side walls. These chandeliers would seem rather old fashioned and gaudy in any lesser venue... but they fit in perfectly with the opulent Italian Renaissance interior spaces of the Detroit Fillmore.

[Hypestyles]

Any body familiar with Africantown Marketplace???. The site on Chene Street between Mack and I-94 would be perfect

hopefully an immigration initiative and a push for foreign investment from diverse countries, can help push this into eventually happening..

[Khorasaurus]

It didn't happen and never really got past the "pretty pictures" stage, but Cadillac Centre would have been a game-changer. It would have connected Greektown to Campus Martius, brought serious retail to downtown Detroit, and completed the streetwall surrounding the park. It also would have dramatically increased the population of that area and likely created numerous smaller spinoff projects.

Of course, you could say that about any fictional project on a major downtown empty lot. This one just had some nice pictures to get people's hopes up.

[Junkin4Life]

hopefully an immigration initiative and a push for foreign investment from diverse countries, can help push this into eventually happening..

Does this means that it won't happen anytime soon? After all, the AfricanTown strip would be similar to MexicanTown.

[dtowncitylover]

I was really excited for the Freedom Gondola! XD

[Junkin4Life]

I was hoping they would add trolleys on the other side of the Dequindre Cut.

[Junkin4Life]

I have forgotten about the expansion of I-94 from I-96 to Conner. That proposal was completely forgotten and has not been thought about ever since.... I was hoping the construction would start BUT its been put on hold or something. http://http://www.youtube.com/user/M...19/lrfv-9zm7zY

[royce]

Looking at the list, it can be depressing, but just think about the last 5 years as a loss for most of the country. Other cities must have lists twice as long of proposed developments that never got off the ground. Also, consider all of the progress Detroit has made in the last 5 years. It's pretty impressive considering we're fighting back against a half-century-long period of unabated decline and disinvestment.

I was walking down the Riverwalk over the weekend and just admiring all of the prime development potential. Developers would have to be crazy to not do anything with that open land. Someday, many of the areas that presently look run down and undeveloped will be the most valuable property this state has ever seen. Sometimes it can be tiresome at how long the city's recovery is taking, but it has already begun. I know deep down that Detroit's best days lie ahead. 50 years of continuous decline seems like a long time, but in the context of history, it is nothing more than a moment.

The second paragraph would make sense if you were'nt talking about Detroit. Currently, instead of developers building multi-level residential units and retail along the riverfront, the City of Detroit is planning on taking some of the most prime real estate along the east riverfront and use it for a sewage retention basin, which will stretch from Rivard and Atwater to Orleans and Atwater or even further east. Nothing will be allowed to be built on this property, except grass [[think of all the land in front of Water Works Park). Drive down Atwater and to the north you'll see what appears to be a cargo container surrounded by one or two trucks, some pipes, and a port-o-potty.

I think the construction of this sewage basin is taking place as I write. Now, just to note, just south of Atwater is a huge area of parkland that is ideal for this sewage retention basin. However, the Milliken State Park is there and the City of Detroit, and the State of Michigan didn't coordinate development plans. So now instead of having park land south of Atwater, we will have park land on the north as well, allowing for very little development along Atwater. Now, if you look to our neighbors to the south, you will see that Windsor is also building a sewage retention basin too. However, their basin is going to the north of Riverside Drive where they already have park land.

False hope? Although nothing had officially been planned for the east riverfront, except the RiverWalk, I envisioned Detroit's true rebirth happening along the east riverfront with ground-level stores and cafes lining Atwater, with residential units above. I mean, what was all the hoop-la about regarding the tearing down of the cement silos so that the riverfront would open up to the citizens of Detroit if all that the city could come up with is a sewage retention basin? Now, I see no hope that the east riverfront will ever become what it could have become.

[Lowell]

I'm still excited for the other two towers of the Fisher Building, though its been more than 5 years since they were proposed.

That^ maybe when the first cracks of the decline started. And... 1953 hmmm... alleged year of Detroit's peak population.

[brainwizzard]

Hands down, the North Corktown Pump Track.

HAHA, you rule.