The Height of Silliness
A resident of the Old West Side speaking during the public commentary portion of tonight’s city council meeting argued against tall buildings downtown near her neighborhood on the basis that “a 10-story building would feel like a 12- to 15-story building.” Is this a new windchill-like rating for buildings? “The AccuBuilding RealHeight ™ tallness index is at 13 stories, with possible increases to 16 stories as you get closer up.”
Then build an 8 story building and call it a day
posted by Big John on December 6th, 2005 at 2:47 amWell, she made this argument because the Old West Side is lower than downtown. So we should build 10-story buildings in the Old West Side and claim that they’re actually five stories.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on December 6th, 2005 at 11:40 amWe should build five story buildings with 16-foot ceilings in all the apartments. Then we’d have yuppie palaces to go with our SUVs.
posted by Michael McC. on December 6th, 2005 at 12:06 pmAccuBuilding RealHeight ™ — ha what a hoot! Whew, that was a close one. Note to self: Never read aaio when needing to go to the bathroom…
posted by Ferona on December 7th, 2005 at 12:52 pmThat’s a funny one!
posted by Anonymous on December 7th, 2005 at 5:24 pmBuild three-story buildings and call it a day.
posted by DaveCahill on December 7th, 2005 at 5:51 pm10-stories that look like 12- or 15-stories? What? Are these boy measurements where they think 4-inches are really 8?
posted by BlogLurker on December 8th, 2005 at 8:03 pmHeh. “No, you really have to see it approaching from the Old West Side…wait here while I walk toward Liberty.”
posted by ann arbor is overrated on December 8th, 2005 at 8:10 pmWell, this sort of fuzzy thinking is typical of ann arborites but perhaps she is forced into her fuzzy logic because she’s dealing with a pack of idiots who don’t see the idea as self-evidently stupid…?
As someone who grew up on First Street (612 and then 606) near madison, I would say …
… what the f**k are they thinking?!!!!?
Why do we need to be building 10- or 13-story buildings down in that part of town anyway? That’s why we have Ellsworth Road and other such dismal places…
Daniel
posted by daniel on December 9th, 2005 at 9:21 amDaniel, thank you for your very well thought out constructive critique clearly based on extensive knowledge of and a careful weighing of both sides of the issue at hand. But please, if you don’t have anything nice to say about Ellsworth Road don’t say it at all. Roads have feelings too.
posted by FAA on December 9th, 2005 at 10:48 amI imagine you want your 10-13 story buildings on Ellsworth surrounded by a park, don’t you Daniel? How very Corbu! Towers rising out of the greenbelt!
posted by Murph on December 9th, 2005 at 10:48 amTHIS is the sort of thing you get when you let people live in tall buildings!!! Sick! Sick! Sick! You’re all sick! First it’s incest and then comes bestiality–bestiality always occurs ABOVE the 3rd floor!
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051209/NEWS04/512090452
posted by Parking Structure Dude! on December 9th, 2005 at 10:50 amYou know, my dissertation director always claims his father worked with Corbu in Milan … perhaps it’s his malefic influence…
But it’s not really very Corbu of me - I just want to hinder Ann Arbor from acquiring it’s own Tour de Montparnasse… so perhaps you could just consider me the anti-”Beaudoin, Cassan, De Marien, Saubot”…?
After all, I’ve come to believe in the euro-principle of saving the inner cities for the upper- and upper-middle-classes …
…oh, wait, they’ve already done that in Ann Arbor in the past 20 years - and without costly subsidies either!
Does this mean there’ll be rioting in Chelsea in 20 years?
posted by Daniel on December 9th, 2005 at 4:56 pm“I just want to hinder Ann Arbor from acquiring it’s own Tour de Montparnasse.”
Woah, more fun with units–so 10 stories in Ann Arbor are the equivalent of 59 floors in Paris, I guess (http://www.tour-montparnasse.com/jsp/presentation/chiffres.jsp).
posted by Bruce Fields on December 9th, 2005 at 5:33 pmOnly if the northernly winds are strong, and you’re looking at it from south of Madison St.
posted by FAA on December 9th, 2005 at 5:47 pmHmmm, Bruce … Tour de Montparnasse in the sense of “an ugly tall building that no one really needs”…?
But hey, I’m just talking out of my hole here. I’ve not been in Ann Arbor since visiting in July of ‘04 … where is it supposed to go, exactly? Corner of Madison and Main near the dairy, or what?
posted by Daniel on December 9th, 2005 at 10:16 pmThat’d be bad for Madison House, I suppose… in any case, they are talking about these sort of building heights up in the Huron & Ashley area.
posted by Brandon on December 9th, 2005 at 10:55 pmBad for Madison House? Hell no! You’d suddenly be able to provide balcony seating!
posted by Murph on December 10th, 2005 at 4:03 pmI figure they’d need to take down our house to fit a very tall building on the corner, though– the rug-store lot isn’t very wide there!
posted by Brandon on December 10th, 2005 at 4:54 pmTour de Montparnasse? Why not? We already have the Ritz:
http://www.campusinn.com/
posted by Sam on December 12th, 2005 at 8:22 pm“Aww, pay someone off and build it any old size you want.”
- Tom “Domino” Moneyhands
posted by Arborite on December 27th, 2005 at 5:15 pmYou mean the same Tom who couldn’t pay off anyone to get his 250 foot tall Jesus cross built?
posted by FAA on December 27th, 2005 at 6:21 pmOn the plus side, that whole cross debate went down my freshman year, and cafeteria discussions about it made painfully clear who was completely insane and who wasn’t. I appreciated the time that saved. Thanks, Tom!
posted by Jen on December 27th, 2005 at 6:38 pm… or the leaning tower of pizza — remember that one?
posted by peter honeyman on December 27th, 2005 at 6:40 pm