The Best Stories of 2009

As we stand on the threshold of a new decade it's useful to glance back at the stories that defined 2009. New innovators, unsung visionaries, evolving technologies and a new respect for food were all part of the year that was. Downtown development was front and center as Ann Arbor struggled to balance the desires of the next generation against the preferences of the past. Concentrate takes you on a whirlwind tour of this year's stand out stories.

Happy Holidays from Concentrate

As we ring out the New Year, Concentrate offers a few audio stocking stuffers to you, our faithful readers ...before crawling under the covers for a two week rest. But fear not, we'll be back January 13th with more tales of creative innovation and new economy developments.

NIGHT & DAY: Theatrical Inspiration

Amidst the half dozen cultural events spotlighted in this week's FilterD, editor Jeff Meyers finds inspiration from a film about Orson Welles and connection to Ann Arbor's ongoing discussion of public art.

How Domino’s responded to prank video

Library lot project promises to redefine downtown development

Lost in all of the talk about what to put on top of the Library Lot underground parking garage is the impact it will have on future development in downtown Ann Arbor. In fact one of the area's major local developers calls it "one of the three most important project sites in the city."Peter Allen, of Lower Town fame, say these three sites will have the biggest impact on development in Ann Arbor over the next few decades. The other two sites are Fuller Street Station transit center by the University of Michigan Hospital and where the Amtrak station is currently located on Depot Street by the Broadway Bridge."These three sites will all impact Ann Arbor and each other in a fundamental way over the next 50 years," says Allen, president of Peter Allen & Associates. There are currently six proposals for the Library lot, which can be found here. Four of them call for dense mixed-use projects that incorporate things like a conference center, hotel, condos, apartments and retail space. The other two call for open space, such as a park or ice skating rink. All of them would go over the 677-space parking garage the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority recently started building.Allen says whatever is built there needs to serve as "Downtown's Diag," meaning it should service the needs of downtown and the nearby University of Michigan campus. To him that means a combination of hotel and conference center, which would set the tone for dense construction for the former YMCA site, Blake Transit Center and expected redevelopment of the adjacent Ann Arbor Public Library downtown branch. It would also provide the city with much needed tax revenue. When it's all built it could means hundreds of thousands of square feet of new commercial space, hundreds of new living units and a new state-of-the-art transit center that could serve as the nerve center for all of Washtenaw County."If anything is going to be built there it will be higher density," Allen says. "For a lively downtown you need a lot of people and to get a lot of people there you need density."Allen, who is also a professor at the University of Michigan, has a few dozen graduate students working on plans for all three sites. He thinks moving the city's train station to the Fuller Street Station (which also will incorporate buses, trains, trolleys, automobiles, bicycles and pedestrians) will make it much easier to move people inside the city and to and from it. A development of that nature would also free up the Amtrak station parcel overlooking the Huron River on the city's north side, which should allow for more development along Depot between Main Street and the Fuller Street Station, along the Huron River and overlooking Argo Pond. "How you move people around this city and between cities are fundamental issues," Allen says.Allen's students will present their findings and plans for the three sites on Dec. 14 at the Ross School of Business in the University of Michigan. For information, call Peter Allen & Associates at (734) 994-1122.Source: Peter Allen, president of Peter Allen & Associates and the city of Ann ArborWriter: Jon Zemke

Anatomy of a historic residence turned commercial building in downtown Ann Arbor

There is more to a building than just the face of it, and nowhere is that more true than in downtown Ann Arbor. The college town is known as one of Michigan's best downtown's because of high density of historic storefronts. But those storefronts often hide a lot more history than the average student or yuppie notices on first browse. On closer inspection a roof of an old Victorian house can be seen peaking from behind the lot-line storefront or an old residential staircase near the front door of a business. They may seem out of place in the middle of downtown, but in most cases these features were there first. And these residential-turned-commercial buildings dot downtown and the University of Michigan's campus.That's the situation with 209 S State St., the storefront next to Buffalo Wild Wings near the State Theater, which is in line to undergo yet another renovation. What looks like a typical 2-story masonry storefront started out as a small Queen Anne house in the late 19th Century with a bay window, wood shingle roof and small addition. By 1902 it had become a two-unit boarding house called the Chubb House (after its owner George Chubb) and started taking on more and more additions. An eatery also opened in it about this time. Its current façade was added sometime between 1925 and 1930. By then it was known as the Ritz Dine and Dance and was considered a cabaret. "That was a pretty common thing to do that for a while in the 1930s," says Susan Wineberg, a member of the Ann Arbor Historical District Commission and author of "Lost Ann Arbor", a book about architecturally significant buildings in the college town that have been razed.By 1936 it became Chubb's restaurant before becoming the Michigan Wolverine Student Cooperative for eating in 1937 as a response to the Depression, which eventually died out because of World War II. After that a mix of retail tenants occupied the ground floor, including the Secretary of State, Ann Arbor Cooperative Credit Union, book shops, women's clothing stores and a lighting store. Residential apartments remained in the upper floors. All of the building stock on that block of South State Street went through a similar transformation, if it was lucky. The whole block was residential buildings at the turn of the 20th Century, serving as housing to the nearby U-M campus. Former U-M Medical School Dean Victor Lan's house was cleared away to make room for the State Theater. A staircase to the original house can be found near the front door of what is today Mr. Greeks. That house's original plaster medallions are evident in the building."Sometimes they save the houses and moved them," Wineberg says. "Sometimes they built in front of them. Sometimes they were destroyed."Luckily for the little house that used to be 209 S State, it's too expensive to remove. It's flanked by nearby storefronts and a large student apartment building. Removing the back half of the house would be equivalent of plucking it out from the sky. "The back gable of the house is still there," says Aaron Vermeulen, principal of Ann Arbor-based O-X Studios, which is redesigning the building. "A lot of the house is still there and visible. That structure over time has just been layered like an onion."Vermeulen's firm is only planning to peal back a layer or two to add a mezzanine to the front space, converting both floors to commercial. That space is currently being offered at $35 per square foot. Worthy enough money to turn the space into something no Ann Arborite has seen before but not enough to peel back all of the layers of history in that onion.Source: Susan Wineberg, a member of the Ann Arbor Historical District Commission, Aaron Vermeulen, principal of O-X Studios and Jill Thatcher, city planner for Ann ArborWriter: Jon Zemke

2009 projects focus on innovation instead of size (stories below)

The size of the project in 2009 wasn't as important as how innovative it is. This year's best stories weren't about big developments, but how local stakeholders figured out ways to keep projects going and improve their strengths. Anatomy of a historic residence turned commercial building in downtown Ann ArborSpur Studios goes all Russell Industrial Center on YpsilantiThe feasibility of renovating Ypsilanti's Thompson BlockZipcars speed into downtown Ann Arbor Library lot project promises to redefine downtown development

The feasibility of renovating Ypsilanti’s Thompson Block

The Thompson Block is too far gone from last week's fire to be saved. That's the conventional wisdom for a building with only its shell left after a fire in Michigan. "Fire is so dramatic and seems so final," says Ted Ligibel, a professor who teaches about historic preservation at Eastern Michigan University and runs its award winning historic preservation program.But is the road less traveled to saving what's left passable or even financially feasible? Stewart Beal thinks so. The developer working to turn the long-time blight into Ypsilanti's latest redevelopment win isn't giving up yet."We're planning to save it," Beal says.You can forgive the young man in his 20s for being so headstrong. His youthful exuberance might blind him from just how big the staggering job ahead of him is, and it just might be what carries the day in the end. Some construction experts think that might be just what the Thompson Block needs.Ligibel points to EMU's Scherzer Hall as an example. The stately century old building in the middle of the university's campus burned in 1989. Fire consumed its roof, interior and even caused the collapse of some of its walls to collapse, much like just what happened with the Thompson Block. "And yet it was rebuilt and restored," Ligibel says. "It can be done. It all comes down to money and structural stability."And a developer with enough foresight to see it through. A similar situation is playing out in the Forrest Arms apartment building next to Wayne State University in Detroit. There a local developer is rebuilding a 100-year-old apartment building after fire remover the roof and heavily damaged the rest of the structure last year. If Detroit can do it, then why not in Ypsilanti?"It's not beyond the realm of possibility that a building that has sustained that much damage can be restored," says Larry Darling, a Saline resident and national director of masonry restoration and preservation for the International Masonry Institute.He points out that the extreme temperatures from the fire could easily weaken the clay-bricks and mortar joints in the circa 1860s Thompson Block. However, the remaining walls could still be kept up and be used for aesthetic purposes rather than structural with a practically new building going up on the side."If you can maintain the historic fabric of the building, it's a successful restoration," Darling says. "It could be regarded as a great success." Source: Stewart Beal, developer of the Thompson Block; Ted Ligibel, historic preservation professor at Eastern Michigan University and Larry Darling, national director of masonry restoration and preservation for the International Masonry InstituteWriter: Jon Zemke

Spur Studios goes all Russell Industrial Center on Ypsilanti

More creative studio space is coming to Ypsilanti in the form of Spur Studios. The project is transforming vacant office space attached to an old manufacturing facility near Eastern Michigan University, 800 Lowell St., into studio spaces for artists and small businesses. Think Russell Industrial Center in Detroit but on a smaller scale.James Marks, founder and creative director of Ypsilanti-based VGKids, is spearheading the project. Spur Studios will turn 10,000 square feet of vacant office space into 30 studios. Those studios can be used by everyone from artists to musicians. The idea is to turn the long-vacant space into a cultural asset that attracts talent and innovative ideas."The demand has been really strong," Marks says. "We think it will be a model we can replicate."This idea is flourishing in Detroit at the Russell Industrial Center. The Boydell Development Group is turning a sprawling circa-1920s rustbelt factory into studio spaces for hundreds of artists and businesses. There are two rules at the Russell Industrial Center, respect the building and it occupants. Everything else is in bounds as long as its legal. That philosophy and dirt cheap prices have made the Russell Industrial Center a runaway success and arguably the state's best small business incubator. Spur Studios is taking the same idea and running with it. Marks points out that Spur Studios occupants "can be loud without disrupting the neighborhood, and artists can get a little paint on the floor without losing the security deposit on an apartment."A 1-year lease gets a tenant 24-hour access to a studio that is about 12 feet by 15 feet. About 75 percent of the studios have natural light.Anyone interested in renting space can come by the Corner Brewery at 2 p.m. Sunday. A tour of the facility will follow the presentation. For information, contact Marks at marks@vgkids.com or (734) 732-6084.Source: James Marks, founder of Spur StudiosWriter: Jon Zemke