DETROIT | Little Caesars Arena & The District Detroit

[animatedmartian]

A couple of videos. The first is a short news clip in and around the arena.

• Video Link

Second is a hype video for the whole District Detroit.

• Video Link

Third is a pretty heartfelt story about the zamboni driver at the Joe.

• Video Link

[animatedmartian]

Trusses in place for Little Caesars Arena atrium
By ANNALISE FRANK

Iron Workers Local 25 and Detroit-based Ideal Contracting LLC finished work on steel trusses that span the walkway surrounding the Little Caesars Arena bowl, The District Detroit announced Thursday.

Installation of the trusses started the week of Feb. 1, with crews hoisting the white supports into place on the Via, a 61,000-square-foot covered walking area with offices, retail stores and restaurant options, The District Detroit said in a news release.

The 65 trusses are individually shaped, varying from 40 to 120 feet long. They connect to the arena on the inside and to new mixed-use buildings outside the arena, creating an atrium with a clear covering between the trusses that allows light in.

...

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...s-arena-atrium


Here are the webcam views. The interior arena view is currently out of focus, but so far there's just more chairs. There's also a new webcam for the Illitch School of Business being built 1 block north of the arena.









http://www.districtdetroit.com/live-web-cam/

[deja vu]

Very cool progress with those truss spans. The steel on the Little Caesar's headquarters is moving along at a quick pace too it seems.

[Rizzo]

Anyone notice the interior wall of the concourse looks like an Albert Kahn-esque factory facade. Very nicely done.

[subterranean]

Originally Posted by Hayward

Anyone notice the interior wall of the concourse looks like an Albert Kahn-esque factory facade. Very nicely done.

Good eye. Yea, kind of like a mini Fisher Body.

[detroit_alive]

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

So based on the type of construction, it looks like the structure going up on the south side of Henry is just going to be a prefab parking structure (likely with ground floor retail). Can anyone confirm? The original conceptual rendering showed residential with a garage behind:

[animatedmartian]

Originally Posted by detroit_alive

So based on the type of construction, it looks like the structure going up on the south side of Henry is just going to be a prefab parking structure (likely with ground floor retail). Can anyone confirm? The original conceptual rendering showed residential with a garage behind:

The mixed-use building located on Henry Street near Little Caesars Arena in The District Detroit’s Woodward Square neighborhood will create significant parking options for residents, visitors and fans and is expected to house thousands of square feet of exciting new retail space. Concepts for residential and office space uses in the building are also currently being explored. Detroit-based joint venture Colisanti-MiG is serving as the construction manager for the $24.4 million first phase of the building currently underway.

http://www.districtdetroit.com/press...strict-detroit

So yea, the ground retail is confirmed (all of the buildings facing Henry will have ground level retail) but the office/residential space is basically "Ehh...we'll see."

There's also going to be an upscale hotel on the corner of Woodward and Henry, but so far no start date has been announced. I'm assuming it's going to be not to soon after they finish using that lot as a staging area for the construction equipment.

[animatedmartian]

Sunday funday. More facade work on the southern building and the first section of glass on the atrium roof.





Yea, the building on the south side of Henry is starting to look like it'll just be another parking garage. Which is kinda sad because if you look at this shot, there's already two completed parking garages, in addition to a new one they built across from Comerica Park. Seems kind of excessive to me even accounting for Detroit's lack of major transit. They must be expecting a lot of people to show up at multiple various events or maybe some parking will be used for other expected residential/possible office spaces.



WSU/North side view.



More seats.



Two more floors to go on the LCHQ.



http://www.districtdetroit.com/live-web-cam/

[deja vu]

Yea, the building on the south side of Henry is starting to look like it'll just be another parking garage. Which is kinda sad because if you look at this shot, there's already two completed parking garages, in addition to a new one they built across from Comerica Park. Seems kind of excessive to me even accounting for Detroit's lack of major transit. They must be expecting a lot of people to show up at multiple various events or maybe some parking will be used for other expected residential/possible office spaces.

I would expect that ample parking studies had to be done to justify the many new parking spaces coming to the area; I’m curious about how far into the future they looked. But anything that alleviates vast swaths of surface parking, freeing those spots up for future development, is probably a step in the right direction.

[deja vu]

Edit: I realized I should have put this post under the general development thread so I moved it there.

[animatedmartian]

Ah, so it does look like the building on Henry Street will only be half parking garage. Seeing it from the angle opposite of the webcam, the northern half clearly looks like space for residential or office use. Though it does seem like the there's a lot more concrete to this structure more than what would be typical.

• Video Link

[pacifist112]

For what it's worth, I think I remember those are supposed to be loft style apartments, so in that regard the concrete kind of makes sense.

[detroit_alive]

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

Ah, so it does look like the building on Henry Street will only be half parking garage. Seeing it from the angle opposite of the webcam, the northern half clearly looks like space for residential or office use. Though it does seem like the there's a lot more concrete to this structure more than what would be typical.

Yeah I noticed that too. This photo album someone posted to reddit shows some side views of the garage which indicates a secondary use for the garage (different floor heights, different facade system, etc). They're about halfway through the album.

[animatedmartian]

Originally Posted by detroit_alive

Yeah I noticed that too. This photo album someone posted to reddit shows some side views of the garage which indicates a secondary use for the garage (different floor heights, different facade system, etc). They're about halfway through the album.

It's definitely not the hotel. The hotel is going to be built at the corner of Woodward and Henry. I'm starting to believe it's lofts like pacifist said. Ground photos help a lot, thanks for the link.

[animatedmartian]

Wayne State's new Mike Ilitch School of Business begins to take shape
By TYLER CLIFFORD. Crain's Detroit. April 11, 2017.



The new Wayne State University Mike Ilitch School of Business is taking shape with the initial steel structure erected at the new site at the corner of Woodward Avenue and Temple Street in downtown Detroit.

Construction of the $50 million development is being led by Detroit-based Christman-Brinker, a joint venture of Lansing-based The Christman Co. and commercial contracting firm Brinker Group, based in Detroit. Design is being led by Detroit-based architectural firm Smith Group JJR.

The new business school, about a half a mile south of WSU's main campus, neighbors the new Little Caesars Arena set to open this fall. The school sits on the north end of The District Detroit, the $1.2 billion multiuse development unfolding along Woodward Avenue.

Christman-Brinker President Larry Brinker Jr. and business school Dean Bob Forsythe were on site Tuesday to talk about the project.



...

The facility will provide 24 classrooms, a trading and data analytics lab, flexible community and collaboration space, a conference center and a 300-seat auditorium. Forsythe said the school will offer the space for companies to run a trading session and hold board meetings. The auditorium will include a stadium lift, which could allow automakers to show off their vehicles.

Forsythe said the university has yet to discuss the number of staff it will need to operate the facility, but he expects to serve about 3,700 students. He said the school has doubled the size of its graduate program in the past few years, while the undergraduate program has increased about 8 percent each year. Included in the design is space for potential expansion.

Wayne State will continue to teach freshman and sophomore courses at the Meyer and Anna Prentis Building and neighboring Helen L. DeRoy Auditorium on the university's main campus, Forsythe said.

Brinkler said construction is on budget and on time, with completion targeted in April 2018.

...

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...-to-take-shape







http://www.districtdetroit.com/live-web-cam/

[animatedmartian]

Little Ceasers HQ is "topped out". Also kind of looks like you can see a bit of the triangle glass facade under the wrapping.


http://www.districtdetroit.com/live-web-cam/

[animatedmartian]

• Video Link

[animatedmartian]

April 23, 2017.

[deja vu]

I like the contrasting look of the facades.

[animatedmartian]

There's a lot of different facades on the south side. I feel like it's kind of easy to screw up when trying to recreate a variety of classic looking brick facades. But LCA seem to pull this off pretty well, at least so far.

April 28, 2017.















http://www.districtdetroit.com/live-web-cam/