  Detroitman Member Username: Detroitman Post Number: 927 Registered: 06-2004 Posted From: 216.78.34.97 |
TechTown seeks nearly $500M for redevelopment By Sherri Begin March 10, 2006 5:31 PM TechTown plans to seek close to $500 million in public and private support to completely redevelop its 12-block area in Detroit by 2020. The nonprofit plans Monday morning to host a meeting to solicit business and community input on a new master development plan for the technology park. TechTown is collaborating on the project with the University of Michigan school of Architecture and Urban Planning, 75 architecture students from Cass Technical High School and the University City Science Center in Philadelphia, the oldest research and technology park in the country, said Howard Bell, executive director of TechTown. In its four city blocks, the University City Science Center has 1 million square feet of space for lease, Bell said. “That would be equivalent to 10 of our Tech One buildings.” In addition its current labs and offices for technology startups, the renovated TechTown area could include residential units, movie theaters, restaurants, dry cleaners, pharmacies and other commercial space, he said. “If you live in an urban neighborhood in New York, you expect to see all of those things when you come out of your office building.” “Those things all get done in urban neighborhoods within walking distance of each other,” usually during the workweek, Bell said. The UM School of Architecture and Urban Planning in January began a 10-month project to benchmark technology parks in Boston, Philadelphia and New York, looking for best practices on building urban and research technology parks, Bell said. TechTown plans to release final plans for the project in October. The planning meeting will run from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Monday at NextEnergy. For more information, call (313) 879-5250. http://www.crainsdetroit.com/c gi-bin/news.pl?newsId=8146 | ||
Bvos Member Username: Bvos Post Number: 1235 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 68.255.241.205 |
So if TechTown is part of Wayne State University, why didn't they work with WSU planning students? Why go all the way to Ann Arbor when right across the highway there are dozens of highly capable students? As a planning student, this pisses me off that they didn't come to Wayne to work on this project. | ||
Jfried Member Username: Jfried Post Number: 744 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 69.47.87.96 |
Maybe they did try to engage WSU... During my little time spent at Wayne, I would say that the ineffective communication, and cooperation between departments is what stands out in my memory.... | ||
Skulker Member Username: Skulker Post Number: 3651 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 68.42.168.34 |
Techtown never approached WSU, even though it was a group of MUP students at Wayne that put the vision and report together that formed the basis for what is now Techtown. The GUP dept at Wayne has more information and knowledge about the site than any other entity. | ||
Romanized Member Username: Romanized Post Number: 200 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 71.4.97.70 |
Now that they are talking retail and residential, why have novices doing the work. This needs to be done by experienced developers if its going to be done right. | ||
Bvos Member Username: Bvos Post Number: 1239 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 68.255.241.205 |
I agree that experienced developers/planners need to be involved, but just because it's a student led project doesn't mean it's crap. WSU has a good history of student projects for outside clients becoming reality. While students may not have the time or buy in to see the project to reality, they can do a lot of the work that you'd have to pay a private planning firm big bucks to do anyways. Because they are students, they're more up to date on the newest trends, newest ways to show economic demand, etc. I've found that many WSU student projects come to the same conclusions that the $20,000 private studies do. If anything, I'd be concerned that the U of M student projects would create a lot of fanciful stuff that TechTown did not ask for and that has no chance of becoming reality. I don't mean this as a slam on U of M students, but that has been my experience with their student projects. The professors see them as theoretical excercises and encourage the students to see them in that way as well. At Wayne, all my profs have consistently asked about the feasibility of the project as well as forced the group to consider all view points and theories pertaining to the project, not just the ones that happen to be sexy this month through out the critiquing process. I can't say that I've ever see that with a U of M student project. |
