  Ray Member Username: Ray Post Number: 887 Registered: 06-2004 |
Has anyone seen it? http://www.metromodemedia.com/ innovationnews/Google0020.aspx They had an open house which got some media. I love this quote: "To many local officials, the worker-friendly offices seemed revelatory if not downright eccentric. Chuckles of amusement and, occassionally, disbelief accompanied the tour. Of course, anyone who's spent time on the West Coast, would feel right at home with Google's unconventional design choices, high tech flourishes and easy access to free food." Christ, it's like showing an electric light to the natives. What's scary is that these awed natives are from Ann Arbor, our allegedly cosmopolitan tech center. I just spent a year going through the process of relocating/updating two of our facilities in SE Mich and I was stunned to find that the region (we didn't look downtown) is almost completely devoid of decent office space. And I'm not picky. There are hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of office buildings it the Bay Area that I would happily work in. But suburban Detroit is a WASTELAND of bad office space. Part of the blame is in our organization too, which was completely culturally incapable of adapting to modern office design. Hopefully as more people see Google's office, we will accellerate our long delayed entry into the 21st century. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 2793 Registered: 02-2005 |
I believe what you say about the all the crap office space in metro Detroit. I clearly have not seen the interior but I think that Google is moving into a butt-ugly building. They updated the McKinley Town Centre at Division and Liberty, which I believe was previously home to TCF bank and the A2 office of Bodman LLP. But that building is so non-descript. Updating it is like trying to decorate dog shit. I may be way off, but if they are to reach their goal for total number of employees in A2, they will need more space. I hope to God that they develop the nasty looking block to the north of McKinley, where there are a couple parking lots and a couple 1-2 stories butt-ugly 1960s retail buildings. Parts of that block look like they're being preped for development. Don't get me wrong, Google coming to downtown A2 is excellent news, in spite of the added rush hour traffic on already busy streets like Division and 5th Ave. My complaints about McKinley are really just architectural, and based on my wish that Google would build a new high-rise instead. | ||
Gmich99 Member Username: Gmich99 Post Number: 196 Registered: 11-2005 |
No surprise Detroit cannot compete with the Bay area for office space, we hardly build more than a couple of significant office buildings a decade in downtown Detroit. | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 830 Registered: 04-2006 |
"My complaints about McKinley are really just architectural, and based on my wish that Google would build a new high-rise instead." I think Ann Arbor put a restriction on high-rise construction (similar to SF's), no? I know there is a restriction for new construction on South U, at least (5 stories I believe). | ||
Alexei289 Member Username: Alexei289 Post Number: 1308 Registered: 11-2004 |
I have no problem with eccentric architecture... if its mixed in with stuff from other periods. Unfortunatly, the styles these days are reverting to the hack and slash styles of the 70s... where as little as 5 years ago... most people said "wtf were we thinking back then. I do have to admit, that traditional architecture is poping up more and more in buildings and in residential use. Many luxury homes today now include wood floors, wood cabinets, stone countertops, stone tile, and crown moldings. Years ago... the white walls and white carpet was all the rage... and its good that we are returning to natural materials that will last several lifetimes of beauty. | ||
Alexei289 Member Username: Alexei289 Post Number: 1309 Registered: 11-2004 |
I mean think about it... Trees can be replanted and farmed.. Stone is everywhere.. I dont think we will ever have a shortage of rock... and both last nearly forever... Brick is made out of clay.. which there is no way we could ever run out of.. any quicker than we can run out of dirt. Most spent quarries usually turn into recreational lakes.. and waste can be recycled. AND THEY LOOK GOOD... Laminate, stucco, and other garbage materials that are used today screw the environment, are limited by materials, and look like shit... | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 2796 Registered: 02-2005 |
I agree with Alexei's analysis. Iheartthed, Ann Arbor recently raised the limit for the South U. corridor to 11 stories. A new apartment building near the corner of South U. and East U. (replacing the Anberry) will be 11 stories. I should look it up, but I don't believe there is a restriction on height in the A2 CBD (nor should there be). If there is, I'm sure variances are do-able...look at Tower Plaza. I think it's critical to get some height in downtown A2, and the perfect place to get some more commercial or mixed use up-building is the area right around Google i.e. around Washington/Huron/Division where you have some surface lots and ugly little buildings. West of 5th most of the blocks are filled in with original storefronts, and the State St. corridor is pretty codified, but this area in between needs some height, and is primed for some building. | ||
Kpm Member Username: Kpm Post Number: 42 Registered: 08-2005 |
More Google news: Google opening up office, cyber café in downtown Birmingham metromode, 5/24/2007 Googlers working away in Birmingham will soon be a common site in the city's downtown. The Internet search giant plans to lease 17,000 square feet of Class A office space in the new 325 N. Old Woodward Ave. development. Google plans to move 150 employees to the location and set up a public cyber café in the building's ground floor retail space on Willis Street. http://metromodemedia.com/devn ews/Google0020.aspx | ||
Kraemerdesigngroup Member Username: Kraemerdesigngroup Post Number: 65 Registered: 10-2005 |
Ray - give it a month or two and we will post photos of the Ann Arbor project. It came out well. The Birmingham project has been designed and construction will start in a week. BK | ||
Wolverine Member Username: Wolverine Post Number: 328 Registered: 04-2004 |
KDG, did you work specifically with google in the construction of the new offices, or were you involved in the improvements on the McKinley Center? Because I saw renderings for another project that I think was tied to the center going up across the street and wasn't sure if you knew anything about it. | ||
Kraemerdesigngroup Member Username: Kraemerdesigngroup Post Number: 67 Registered: 10-2005 |
Wolverine - we designed the interiors (no work on the renovation of the building). BK | ||
Citylover Member Username: Citylover Post Number: 2349 Registered: 07-2004 |
Regarding Ann Arbor needing more height downtown..............fuck off all of you!!!! Ann Arbor to those of us that are actually Ann Arborites needs to look like it is. Ann Arbor is good because it looks the way it looks. If y'all want tall and big and different go somewhere else.What makes Ann Arbor desirable is what it is; not some trumped up consultant(Calthorpe) bullshit about what it should be. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 2807 Registered: 02-2005 |
Wow somebody isn't defensive or anything. Read my post. Most of the existing areas of downtown A2 are great. We mostly have 2-5 story old brick storefronts. It's grand. We should keep all of those. But in our CBD, how is it okay to have surface lots and butt-ugly buildings? Walk along Washington St. and take a look at the building at the NE corner of Division, which is surrounded by lots, and then the "Ann Arbor Professional Building," a hideous 2-story next to the congregational church. I'm not proposing a superblock high-rise here, but maybe a multi-component mid-rise either in modern or neo-traditional design with construction of higher quality than that current shit. Even walking down Liberty, the main downtown connector between Main and campus, you see multiple little warts of buildings with no purpose other than basic first floor retail. Some of these buildings would be too small for even the little shopping district on Kercheval Rd. in Grosse Pointe. Instead of these 1-2 story buildings we need 3-6 story buildings where we can have the storefronts on the ground and living arrangements upstairs. Ann Arbor needs to take itself seriously (it's gonna be up near 150,000 people within a decade), and also take a good look at itself, because not everything here is perfection. We think we're the perfect small city, when we could do a lot better. Many, who I resent as much as you, complain about the neighborhoods surrounding downtown as being too low-density (too many detached homes). I think just about all of our neighborhoods should be left as-is. They're beautiful. Downtown is different, and inside of a State/William/Huron/1st perimeter, I don't see how building up could ruin the city. There's no reason to be scared of heights. What sane person would think that Domino's farms (I know it's not in A2 I'm just using the building as an example) is a good use of space? Occupying that much land? It's hideous. But that is an example of a demand for square footage being suppressed into low-rise format as per your wishes. Should Google, or the next major employer that--God help us-- will come here, be forced to spread their offices across the city in those little 1-story shanties, or will A2 let them building something substantial? Look at all the low-density sprawl around the perimeter of A2. If the city enabled and encouraged upbuilding in downtown, most of that residential demand could be redirected and used to build something better. | ||
Wolverine Member Username: Wolverine Post Number: 330 Registered: 04-2004 |
Citylover sounds just like those 4th ward residents. Nothing over 5 stories, nothing over 5!! Please, as long as we aren't replacing Ann Arbor's older fabric and building butt ugly structures, I'm fine with a few more towers. There's plenty of empty lots here and there throughout the downtown that would be perfect for some height. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 2808 Registered: 02-2005 |
Exactly. I'm one of those 4th ward people, too (for a little while longer), but not out of touch with reality. | ||
Citylover Member Username: Citylover Post Number: 2350 Registered: 07-2004 |
I have been in A2 longer then the both of you most likely.Which of course does not give me any more of a right to spout off........what it does give me is a perspective that differs from yours. Ann Arbors downtown is completely different from wha it was forty years ago. There are two stores on Main st that are the same Schlanderers and Seyfrieds both jewelry stores.Other than that each location has had several incarnations, from retail to restaurant to book store to computer storeto...well you get the idea. Ann Arbors downtown has worked well for decades.So why is it so neccesary to bring heighth in? Who exactly is this gonna serve? So we don't have an abundance or even a lot of tall bldgs........so what.......again who is this gonna serve? If the town was hurting or losing several businesses then I might concede the points; but when something aint really broke why fix it? A good example is the Aneberry.Ann Arbor is not blessed with much good architecture(minus the U) yet here come some suburban Detroit developer with another generic condo/apt bldg which they speculate they can sell/rent to rich students parents...........and we lose a very cool bldg in the Aneberry. Mackinaw you said we can do a lot better.I say we don't need to.I want Ann Arbor to look the way it looks now_ there are may of us that grew up here that share that sentiment. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 2812 Registered: 02-2005 |
I agree about the Anberry. 11 stories there (I think that's what they're going for) doesn't fit, and the apartment house is historic (although it needed to be upgraded I'm told). I'll have to go take some photos of ugliness in the CBD to show that we can do better. I'm not demanding 30 story towers over these ugly blocks, just something better. At the 'T' corner of Thompson and Liberty--next to Google--is a new retail building using solid brick construction and zero setback from the sidewalk. It's a tad suburban looking but not bad. I think it is good and something as simple as that can replace some of the strange buildings around downtown. I think the vision for A2 needs to be small town style, tree-lined streets like we already have--maintaining the old housing stock to the best of our abilities-- in the neighborhoods, but infill and at least openness to height in the boundaries I mentioned above. Mid-rise apartments and condos...in the form of Ashley Mews and maybe even Tower Plaza...are what we could put to good use. If a development markets this aggressively to the type of person who is buying new construction down on A2-Saline or W. Liberty/Jackson, and gives them a parking spot, then it will probably curb sprawl. I'm sure the A2 you know and love has farmland and forests around its perimeter, not suburbia. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 3204 Registered: 10-2004 |
Only in five-county metro Detroit would some go ga-ga over the hiring of 150 workers (when hundreds of thousands of others there have lost--or will lose--their jobs). Some even go so far as to claim that Google's chosen office building is ugly--as if the vacant, formerly productive manufacturing plants that once employed dozens of thousands of laborers weren't. Come on! Who really gives a damn about the attractiveness of the buildings where they work? And then another ubiquitous DY misspeller adds: quote:And on and on... (Message edited by Livernoisyard on May 27, 2007) | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 2813 Registered: 02-2005 |
Good reason to be excited for UP TO 1,000 workers which is the actual amount we will see within a few years. | ||
Citylover Member Username: Citylover Post Number: 2351 Registered: 07-2004 |
Now I can get with that stuff Mackinaw.........I am reasonable......I only want A2 to maintain it's identity because it has worked. To answer your question LY; a lot of people care. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 3205 Registered: 10-2004 |
Why not ask the 200,000 or so who don't have their jobs anymore if they really cared about the trivialities about the architecture of their former workplaces? Somehow I'm finding a parallel about this thread and a certain Nero in a certain Italian city long ago. Even IF the number of Google workers increases sevenfold over the next ten years or so, they would then still be fewer in numbers than half those jobs currently being lost at AA's Pfizer alone and would be of all the local jobs currently being lost, when rounded (down in this case) to the nearest integer percentage. Sorry about my negativity, but I call them as I see them... I see GM and Chrysler winning eventually and a whole lot of others winding up in the local history books. Even a Google could wind up in the dust bin when technology advances. So even Google's long-term future isn't assured. |
