Following up on this morning's big Professional Plaza news, the Roxbury Group just sent us a press release to fill in some additional details on the building's rehab into the Plaza Apartments. As a bonus, they also sent over a rendering of a utopian Midtown (10 points for squeezing in M1 Rail!) in the distant future. Although Professional Plaza doesn't look any different in the rendering, Roxbury promises to "restore elements of its late, mid-century design."
The Plaza's 75 apartments will include 1, 2, and 3-bedroom units and 2,000 square feet of retail, which sounds like the entire ground floor. Outside, the building will get a new glass skin and a restoration of the non-glass facade surfaces. The Plaza will also re-imagine the grounds that surround the building.
Stray facts/thoughts:
· Construction is expected to begin in the spring and finish up in 2016. Fast!
· Roxbury Group also restored the David Whitney Building, which just opened last month. Apparently, they don't take many days off.
· We finally know Professional Plaza's original architect: Gerald Crane, a UM professor who also drew up the master plan for the Detroit Medical Center. Quinn Evans is the firm overseeing the rehab.
· Beyond "sometime in the 1960s," the year Professional Plaza was built remains a mystery.
· Roxbury refers to the nameless medical building rising next door as the "UPG building," which stands for University Physicians Group. That's how we'll be referring to it from here on out.
· No mention of the beloved neon Hammer Hammer Nail signage. Hopefully, the old promise to preserve it still holds true. Notice the building is free of signage in the rendering.
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