Mr. H wrote:
…my heart is clearly in the camp that wants to retain the special qualities that come from living in historic areas of the city. I feel that the ever-growing ‘need’ to build more, and build higher should not take place at the expense of these special neighborhoods. What would be lost with this hotel project would be greater than anything gained. After all, historic neighborhoods add definition, character, and depth to the entire city.
Exactly how Edgewater redux would destroy the historic character of the Mansion Hill neighborhood is beyond me. That was done a while ago. Right next door to the Edgewater is the National Guardian Life headquarters:
(Photo by Kyle McDaniel.)
Sitting atop Mansion Hill, it is, architecturally speaking, the equivalent of a whale turd in the middle of the dance floor at a cotillion. If anything, I think a remodeled Edgewater would help beautify and add character to the area and distract people from that hideous glass and steel stain on the neighborhood.
And don't forget that there's also Verex Plaza at Butler and Gilman.
(Photo from the Fiore Co.)
Talk about turds. This building should be in American Family's business park, not taking up pukka lakefront property. But, hey, those lawyers at Foley & Lardner gotta have their views, right?
In this WSJ article local real estate developer Fred Mohs, whose home is on Wisconsin Ave, says:
"We are not a small group of neighbors fearing change," he said. "We know a lot about this subject. We have lived it. This (historic district) is our character. We're not going to have it ruined."
I don't know exactly which house is his but it sure as hell isn't far from the National Guardian building so it flummoxes me as to how he can live across or down the street from something incredibly ugly and completely out of character for the neighborhood and then turn around and say the Edgewater redevelopment would destroy everything like Godzilla on a rampage through Tokyo. The National Guardian building is 6 stories tall while the apartment building at the end of Pinckney is 5 stories and Verex Plaza is 5 or 6 stories. How about Haase Towers? It looks to have 7 stories and doesn't look particularly historic to me. Will an 8 story hotel really be that out of step with the neighborhood? While I don't find the design of the new tower to be spectacular, it's still pretty good and a million times better than the sardine can on the opposite side of the isthmus.
For more on the aesthetic debate, read "If at first the Edgewater Hotel doesn't succeed..." by Kristin Czubkowski.
Let Mayor Dave have his building legacy. I'm more worried about rumors that the Masonic Temple down the street may be for sale in the near(-ish) future. I'd hate to see it torn down to make way for a Walgreens.
3 comments:
Fred lives right across from the NGL building, 516 Wisconsin, I think. He's just being a turd because Faulkner wouldn't sell to him to redevelop the Edgewater. If he can't do it, then no one can, but if it was his big idea, it would be in perfect fitting for the neighborhood. Too bad he doesn't have the vision and that people dislike him so much they won't sell to him.
NGL and the other buildings you mention were all built before the historic district was instituted in the 1970s. The Mansion Hill historic district was created specifically to prevent these turds, in effect turning off the turd faucet. If the Edgewater is granted an exception to the rules that everyone else has played by, the turd spigot will be turned on again. The historic district zoning will be reduced to be only a suggestion, not a law. So what if the new Edgewater is more visually appealing than NGL? The next handful of lakefront towers that will follow it may not be as nice. Not to mention the pressure that will be brought against all the other historic districts in the city.
Anon #1 - I'll have to take your word on this as I don't know much about Mohs.
Anon #2 - That's my point. It's too late. The turds are already there and any talk of preserving the historic character of the neighborhood borders on being a joke because it is littered with turds. That talk was needed back when the NGL building & Verex Plaza were built, when those ugly apartment buildings were erected. But what is done is done. Like it or not, Mansion Hill is a mix of lovely old homes and turds and will continue to be so.
I'd like to think that an exception could be made here considering the extraordinary circumstances, i.e. - people are willing to invest in the middle of a nasty recession. However, I take your point.
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