Here's the Steeple

It appears as though the Mother of Divine Mercy Parish's "Save Our Steeples" campaign has been a success.  Rather than removing St. Josaphat's damaged central steeple and capping the tower with a new roof, work began earlier this spring to restore the 200 foot structure and clad its exterior with new slate.

Notice

Waumbek Apartments (October, 2004)

Capitol Park on the Rise

Things are looking up for Capitol Park as renovation work picks up in one of downtown Detroit's oldest districts. Bedrock Real Estate are the ones responsible for kicking up the dust.

Work was already underway to renovate the Bamlet Building (1897) when Bedrock announced this week that it had acquired two additional buildings and a surface lot in Capital Park.

With the purchase of the Church Building (1895) at 45 W. Grand River Avenue and the six-story building at 119 State Street (1887), Bedrock now controls nearly 92,000 square feet of space within the district.

No announcement was made for the development of the 4,000 square foot lot next to The Grind strip club at 28 West Grand River Avenue, but Opportunity Detroit's Placemaking and Retail Vision suggests a residential/retail building at that location.

An earlier renovation of the Bamlet Building (September, 2004)

The Bamlet Building (May, 2014)

 The Bamlet Building (right) next to the Farwell Building (October, 2013)

The Bamlet Building (May, 2014)

The Church Building (September, 2004)

The Church Building (March, 2009)

119 State Street (May, 2014)

28 West Grand River Avenue (May, 2014)

Lawrence Technical University Has Designs on Midtown

The corner of Willis and Woodward has come alive as crews have begun excavating the future site of Lawrence Technical University's Detroit Center for Design + Technology.

The 30,000 square foot building will house LTU's Detroit Studio, along with Evans Architects Inc, DetroitSHOP, Studio Couture and Invest Detroit.  The facility is being constructed on the site of long since demolished Greystone Ballroom.

Construction Pace Quickening at Corktown Site

Well, we now know what the webcam that had been documenting the construction of The Z has been focusing on since the completion of that 10-story parking garage.  It turns out that the camera has been relocated to a lofty position in Corktown overlooking the construction of Dan Gilbert's new 66,000-square-foot data center and office complex.

Half of the building located at Rosa Parks and Porter Street will be used to house data servers and technology staff for Quicken Loans. The remainder of the office space, along with a portion of the server capacity, will be available for lease.

Work is scheduled to be be completed by January of 2015.