REO Town has seen a lot of construction over the last six months and there’s plenty more on the way.  Below is an email from Gary Shannon of Christman Construction, the company overseeing the building of the new LBWL plant in REO Town.  You’ll see plenty more of these updates over the next few months as progress on the LBWL picks up and streetscape remodeling gets underway in the spring.  Good things are coming to REO Town!

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Gary Shannon, Senior Project Superintendent for The Christman Company. I am the guy on site coordinating and supervising the building of the new LBWL ReoTown plant. One of the members of the ReoTown Association provided me with your e-mail addresses. I would like to keep everyone abreast of what is going on here at the site. I encourage questions and will work to timely provide answers. It is the Construction Team’s intent to be good neighbors in this historic neighborhood. It is our pleasure to be participating in the area’s revival.

As everyone is aware, this is a large complicated industrial construction project. We have been working diligently since Fall of last year preparing the site and installing drilled pile foundations to carry the weight of the building and all of the equipment. The last few months we have been excavating, placing formwork, and installing the reinforcing steel in preparation for placing the massive concrete foundations.

The preparation work is just about done and it is time to begin placing the foundations. The concrete pours are scheduled to commence on 2/15 with one major pour every Wednesday for four weeks. Due to the nature of the work and the volume of concrete to place, these pours will need to start early and end late. Two of the pours are large enough that they will require working around the clock for about 24 hours. We are going through the City to procure extended work hour permits. The major amount of the work will be placing the concrete with a pump truck into the forms. The placing of the concrete will take from 8 to 16 hours depending on the size of the pour. Finishing the surface will take about another 8 hours after placement. By starting at 5:00 a.m., the bulk of the concrete can be placed during regular work hours. After the concrete is placed, the surface finishing is done by hand and with small troweling machines. We have been performing noise monitoring on and around the site for over a week and accumulated a significant amount of data. We do not expect our activities being performed before 7:00 a.m. and after 8:00 p.m. to surpass the noise levels already being experienced. The truck routing has been discussed and no concrete trucks are allowed on residential sections of any side street north of South St.

The streets will be swept by a sweeper truck immediately after placement is complete and concrete truck traffic is through.

If there are any questions or concerns that anyone may have I am available to answer them.

Another major activity coming up is the erection of the steel framework for the office building and for the plant. Steel is slated for delivery the last week of February for the office and the third week of March for the plant. As many have already noted, the crane is onsite for the steel erection. This crane is a 999 Manitowoc with 300 feet of boom. It has 160 feet of main boom and 140 feet of luffing boom ( that’s the angled section at the upper end). The luffing boom allows us to reach a greater distance with a greater lifting capacity. The structural steel is being fabricated right here in Lansing by Douglas Steel, who will also erect it.

As builders and as members of this community ourselves we understand that progress does not always come with out a few bumps along the way. We want to minimize our impact on the community and make the construction of this facility something for the entire City to be proud of. Thank you for taking the time to read this first newsletter. If you choose to not receive further updates, just let me know and I will take you off the sending list.

Again, I encourage questions about any of the information presented here or questions you may have about any other aspect of our work. I will send out an e-mail update periodically as work activities change or as requested.

The purpose of the Art Attack! Festival, which took place on Saturday, September 24, from noon to 8:00 p.m., was to promote REO Town while raising money for local art and artists. Artists were given four hours to create their works on-site and in full view of the public. Jurors scored the works which were then auctioned off, with a portion of the proceeds going to benefit Art Alley, a non-traditional, nonprofit art gallery located at 1133 South Washington.

Art and Communication

There were fewer artists participating in the festival than expected, but those talked with were friendly, likable and articulate. James Groves, a mixed media artist who helped organize the event and also works at the Tattoo Shop at 2615 East Michigan Avenue, said the colorful mannequin he painted was a self-portrait even though it was female. “It’s showing that the things which are within are not always exactly as represented on the outside,” he explains. The mannequin represented a number of other projects he’s worked on, with different techniques, “all pulled together into one cohesive thing.”

“All art is a form of communication, the same as sound and written word,” he went on. “Tattoos are also a form of communication – I get to learn something about the people who come in and the way they think is revealed in these connections.”

This was clearly not an art exhibition for stuffy classicists.

There was live music, too, by P.H.I.L.T.H.Y., LYRIC’ LEE, Ben Keeler and the 500 Club, The Sunset Club, Way to Fall, and Gary Cimmerer and the Full Velvet Band. Paul Holland, who organized the vendors – which included people selling fiber art, jewelry and yarn – said the event was intended to “support local artists and draw people to REO Town, which is on the cusp of revitalization.”

Art Impacting REO Town

“We’re trying to market REO Town as a place where people don’t just go to buy art, but to create it,” he explains. “The only reason the Art Attack! idea succeeded is because of collaborations and partnerships.” Holland, a West Michigan transplant whose mother was one of the exhibiting artists, estimated that 500 people had already visited Art Attack! by 4:00 p.m. – “a good number considering it’s a first-time event taking place a little late in the season.”

Ryan Wert, another organizer who serves as treasurer of the REO Town Commercial Association and owns Elm Street Recording in Reo Town, adds, “We want to focus attention on how creative young professionals and artists are moving into the area. It doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic but there’s a lot of growth happening here.”

Wert, who organized Art Attack!’s music component and helped transport and assemble a large stage for the bands, was also pleased with the turnout, “given the weather, which wasn’t bad but looked like it might be.”

Expressive Local Talent

Another participating artist, June Bang, a high school student from Okemos, thought the event was “really unique and fun. It’s really cool that all these local artists talk to each other and support each other.”

“The music was fun and it was interesting to see the different artwork, including the children’s art from Reach Studio Art Center,” says Anita Singh, a Holt resident who visited Art Attack! with her mother-in-law and four kids. “I had never seen anybody paint on a mannequin before.”

The last artist interviewed, Sam deBourbon, was busy spray-painting vivid colors and bold shapes onto a canvas. He wasn’t competing in the showdown – he arrived too late because he was painting a garage door for a friend – but he felt compelled to create nonetheless. A graffiti artist with a quick wit and a ready smile, deBourbon was willing to part with his art for a pittance. (deBourbon was one of the driving forces – along with Ingham County Treasurer Eric Schertzing, another Art Attack sponsor, and Joe Manzella from Lansing Economic Area Partnership – behind the effort in the summer of 2010 to beautify the seedy Deluxe Inn at the corner of Main Street and South Washington with graffiti prior to its demolition.)

Hot Diggity Dog

Mark McGee, proprietor of Mark’s Hot Diggity Dog Stand, says he was there to support REO Town. McGee, who operates hot dog carts in Eaton Rapids and Charlotte, said he sold enough hot dogs at Art Attack! to make his participation worthwhile. “This is awesome. I love the people who are out here.”

There was a lot of good energy and interesting art at Discount Dave’s old site on Saturday. Not only is REO Town the birthplace of the automobile in the United States, it’s now the home of a cool and unique art festival in the Great Lake State.

Patrick Diehl is a freelance writer for Capital Gains.

Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.

Capital Gains

The REO Town Commercial Association (RTCA) is sponsoring the first annual Art Attack! Festival. This community art and artisan festival will feature the finest paintings, printmaking, photographs, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, textiles, jewelry, woodwork, metalwork, glass, and the like that local artists and artisans have to offer. This is not your run of the mill, everyday craft show but a celebration of imagination and creative ingenuity. Everybody, from your 8‐year old niece to your great aunt Edna, from your surly teenage son to your ex‐husband will find something that inspires them or at least amuses. So come on down to REO Town, explore our community, and spend the afternoon with a few friendly, if eccentric, artists.

Art Attack!, however, is much more than an art festival. The Showdown in REO Town will take place from 2pm until 8pm on the opposite side of the lot. The Showdown is an artist competition in which participating artists are able to show off their prowess and process to the masses. Artists will have four hours to create their works, on‐site and in full view of the public. Jurors will score the works and, after the competition, select works will be auctioned with a portion of the proceeds going to benefit Art Alley.

In addition to all of the art and action above, the Art Attack! will feature live entertainment by local musicians throughout the event free of charge!

Interested in participating in the Festival or Showdown? Click here for the Festival vendor application or email Paul at artattack@reotown.org. To join in the Art Battle, contact James Groves at (616) 275-3799.

“We’re completely bursting at the seams,” says Reach Outreach Coordinator Jeana-Dee Rogers. “When people wan to donate things we often have to say we just don’t have any place to put anything. Most of our programs are full way before the start date.”

That’s why the local arts non-profit has kicked off their “Expanding our Reach” campaign to raise funds for a new location. While two different potential locations are under review, Reach plans least triple their current 1,000 square foot space. Though the exact location is undecided, the center does not have any plans to leave the neighborhood.

“We absolutely are staying in REO Town,” say Rogers. “We have so many students and neighbors here we just couldn’t keep our programming and mission going without them close by.”

The “Expanding our Reach” campaign has a goal of $350,000. The Capital Region Community Foundation recently contributed $75,000 to the fund through an Impact Grant. Reach hopes to complete their campaign and be in their new location by the end of 2012.

The new center will allow Reach to expand their programming, specifically into the digital arts.

“We want to keep our students interested in the arts of traditional craftspeople, but also get them integrated with computers and technology,” Rogers says. “We want to make sure we’re equipping them to do the kinds of things they’ll need growing up in 2012.”

Source: Capital Gains

Studio [intrigue] Architects is an 8-year-old business that has been described as a “developer’s architect.”

“We focus our client base on developers and private owners that pay their bills,” said VanderKlok, a Kalamazoo native who was recently named the American Institute of Architects-Michigan’s 2011 Young Architect of the Year.

The business, which is co-owned by Kenneth L. Jones II, was lauded by the AIA for work that includes “urban revitalization, adaptive reuse, historic preservation, restaurants, nightclubs, retail, multi-family, dental practices and medical buildings.”

Studio [intrigue] has been involved with projects in 14 states and has done design work on projects in Greece, Albania and China.

“Different from much of our competition, the architects at Studio [intrigue] are just as capable of designing you a sexy building as they are designing a steel beam,” VanderKlok said. “We are a seriously well-rounded and capable group. Many firms go left or right at the fork in the road to being ‘designers’ or ‘technical.’ We plow through the center as if the brakes just didn’t work.”

Working with Jones, VanderKlok supervises the daily functions of the practice, including marketing, client consultations, construction visits, budgeting, proposal writing and answering any questions arising from staff members.

“I am, however, a night owl when it comes to design,” he said, “I am most creative from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m.”

He said he believes he has natural talents with art — color, proportion and the like — but credits much of his success to the unique opportunity he had to learn while he worked as a youngster.

“I was able to work under Ernie Downing of Downing Electric (& Instrument in Kalamazoo) from sixth grade to his passing during my fourth year in college. To date, I still believe that he was the most intelligent person that I have ever met.”

VanderKlok, now 32, said Downing taught him about plumbing, heating, roofing, concrete, carpentry and masonry as well as electrical work.

The son of Robert and Sharon VanderKlok, of Kalamazoo, is a graduate of Loy Norrix High School and has two degrees from Lawrence Technological University in Southfield. He is an adjunct professor at the university’s College of Architecture and Design and is a frequent design critic for Michigan State University’s College of Interior Design.

He worked for three firms before he and Jones stated Studio [intrigue] in March of 2003 and is the winner of the 2007 Greater Lansing Emerging Entrepreneur Award and the 2008 Mid-Michigan AIA Young Architect of the Year Award.

VanderKlok and his wife, Jennifer Guevara, met in driver’s education at Loy Norrix High School. They have two daughters, Teagan, 7; and Kinsley, 5. He is a volunteer on AIA Michigan’s government-affairs committee, focusing on the investigation of complaints about unlicensed practices.

Book on his night stand:

“I won’t lie to you. I’m not one of those people with the latest ‘rule-the-business-world and decapitate-your-competition’ books. I am an insanely visual person. I prefer magazines — art, architecture … I fan through them back to front. … I read the captions.” He said he rereads the same ones for months, if not years.

Best piece of life advice and who gave it:

“Ernie Downing, my boss at Downing Electric in Kalamazoo. He said, ‘Shouldn’t you use a ladder instead of a chair?’ It applies to a lot of different things.”

His biggest professional success:

“Starting a company and being able to answer this question 81/2 years later. America is a country of entrepreneurship and competition, but nobody ever tells you how to start a company; what to expect and how to maneuver the challenges. There should be mandatory college and high school courses that focus strictly on ‘how-to.’ I’m not talking about the theory behind it, but the hard-core workings of business. I do my part, as I believe all business leaders should. I speak at career-day events and have an open-door policy for those who want to job-shadow.” He also mentioned the Young Architect of the Year Award as a “tie.” “I wanted that recognition since leaving graduate school and worked hard to earn it,” he said.

Something about his company that would surprise people:

“Sometimes we hide words or images in our renderings/animations. It keeps things interesting.”

Biggest challenge his company faces:

“The unlicensed practice of architecture. Period. For some reason this is tolerated by many and, very sadly, enabled by my some of my fellow professionals. Even some building officials are aware that plan-stamping is going on and don’t raise issue with it.” He said architects, compared to other professionals, are second only to doctors for the amount of education, training and testing they are required to have in order to earn the privilege to protect the public.

If he could have lunch with any famous person:

“Pete Weber. I was in fourth grade at Edison School. We had an assignment to write a letter to a famous person. Gary Coleman was all the rage back then. Two-thirds of my class sent him letters, and they all received responses back from him. I am still waiting for mine from Pete. I know … I know … Pete who? That is the same inquiry I received 28 years ago. Google him.” (Weber is a professional bowler.)

Source: MLive

by Chris Galford

After nearly seven years of construction, Lansing’s Vietnamese community finally has a religious and cultural center to call its own.

It’s been a long road, but after its christening celebration on Sunday, the temple at 3015 S. Washington Ave. south of REO Town stands as a true-to-form, traditional Vietnamese Buddhist temple. The character is in the angles, shapes and furnishings of the place — including a traditional bell, rack and drum all imported from Vietnam. According to the Vietnamese American Buddhist Association of Lansing, it’s the only such temple in Michigan.

And the temple was built almost entirely by the community’s own hands. Hoan Doan, president of VABAL, said everyone pitched in throughout the various stages of construction. Only the air-conditioning and heating system was built by outside labor, he said.

The story of VABAL members dates as far back as 1975, after the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. It was then that Vietnamese refugees began resettling throughout various parts of Michigan, and Doan was among them.

Many headed to Lansing specifically in the 1990s, following the release of former government officials and soldiers from communist “re-education camps,” Doan said.

“Many were imprisoned for seven to 12 years before they came here,” he said.

Together with their families, many of these refugees saw Michigan as an opportunity for new life — but it lacked a formal Buddhist foundation.

In response, the community formed VABAL as an ecclesiastic nonprofit organization in 1995.

“VABAL’s mission is to preserve and promote Buddhism,” Doan said. “Buddhism was in our tradition for thousands of years. In Vietnam, 85 percent would identify themselves as Buddhist. It’s very engrained in our culture.”

Yet even after organizing, VABAL members were still without a place of worship.

“We kept moving house to house until 1998,” Doan said. “Then five of us co-signed to buy a house on Bishop Road.”

The property included three-and-a-half acres and a home they intended to use as a prayer hall, but unfortunately, zoning and spacing issues kept them from reworking it into a usable temple. Though they labored and petitioned for years, VABAL finally sold the property in 2004. Within a matter of days, Doan said, they had bought up a small Baptist church on Washington Avenue with hopes of converting it.

It hardly suffices to say the old Baptist church has come a long way. When VABAL purchased the church, Doan described a building with window frames riddled with rot, a ceiling that was only eight feet high in places and floors of solid concrete. So they took the concrete out, replaced the windows and raised the ceiling. Nothing remains of the old building, he added, save its bare frame.

While some funds came through charities, most were individual donations by the active 15-family community that make up the congregation.

Since 2004, that community has also gained a nun to perform Buddhist rituals, and to teach Dharma. Four times a year, they also invite high-ranking monks from abroad to preside over holy ceremonies.

But for its members, the new temple is more than that — it’s a community center and a classroom. Children of the congregation also are welcome to attend classes in the back of the temple each week, to learn Vietnamese and to participate in group activities.

It is not the home many left behind in Vietnam, but outside the temple on Washington Avenue, a small garden stands in monument to the birth of the Buddha. It, like the surrounding community, is still growing, still nourishing — but it has taken root, and new life lies ahead.

City Pulse

by Andy Balaskovitz

Monday, June 20 — Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero is in Washington today to make the city’s case for about $2 million in federal grant money that would revamp Washington Avenue in REO Town and repurpose the former General Motors Co. manufacturing site on Verlinden Avenue.

A press release issued this morning by Bernero’s office said he is holding “key meetings with Obama Administration officials concerning several Lansing development projects.”

The city held public meetings in March to discuss the Washington Avenue project, which will include sidewalk improvements and road resurfacing. If the city lands a $500,000 grant through the Federal Highway Administration, Lansing Public Service Director Chad Gamble said that would create a “new piggy bank” for a “bigger and better type of project.”

Project estimates are at $1.8 million and the $500,000 would be added to that, Gamble said. The city budget for FY 2012, which begins July 1, includes $600,000 for the project, Gamble said. The rest will be paid for by state and federal grants.

The potential federal grant requires the city to put up $100,000, but Gamble said other grants can be used to pay for that. “It requires little to no additional out-of-pocket money from the city,” he said.

At the March meetings, ideas were floated that likely would have not fit into the original $1.8 million budget.

“Additional funding would pay for some of the things that we have already proposed, but it would give the REO Town area really the project we all hope for,” Gamble said. “(The grant) is perfect for what we are trying to do in REO Town, which is create an opportunity for businesses to follow on the coattails of the (Lansing Board of Water & Light cogeneration) power plant and to support and grow this area like we’ve been trying to do for many years now.”

Gamble said the extra money would go toward “extra brick work” and “greening the corridor.” He said the city was notified of the opportunity on May 25 and that the application deadline was within 22 days of that. The city turned in its application June 3 and projects will be chosen in the fall, Gamble said.

“We always hoped for the ability to make improvements from building to face to building face. With the funding limitations, we could only basically tear up remnants of old sidewalks there,” he said. “Now, this is opening up another dimension to really turn this into a truly transformative type of project.”

Gamble said construction is scheduled to begin next spring.

Bernero is also making the case to Obama administration officials that the city needs “under a couple million dollars” in federal grants to help repurpose the site of the old Verlinden manufacturing plant, said Bob Trezise, president and CEO of the Lansing Economic Development Corp.

The city “intends” to apply for a grant through the federal Economic Development Administration for “public infrastructure improvements” at the 77-acre site, Trezise said.

“Our vision is for an eco-tech park, otherwise known as a green manufacturing zone,” Trezise said.

The city does not own the property. About three months ago, stagnant GM manufacturing properties were transferred to a trust fund called RACER Trust — Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response — Trezise said.

“RACER Trust holds the environmental cleanup monies. Obviously we have been interacting with them on a mutual vision. This EDA grant and other grant opportunities could help,” Trezise said.

Trezise said as part of that vision, the property needs roads, sidewalks and other public amenities.

Trezise said “two international manufacturers” have visited the site “in the past couple months” to explore expanding there but would not discuss specifics.

“We need to get on with redeveloping the park, whether we have prospects or not,” he said.

City Pulse

by Chris Galford

Throughout the day on Monday, Lansing’s graffiti artists gathered in a REO Town parking lot to work their magic on canvases of wood, stone and steel.

There was nothing cloak and dagger in the arrangement, though. These artists — far from the “taggers” that many cities have attempted to crack down upon — were invited as part of the latest in a joint effort by the REACH Studio Art Center and the REO Town Commercial Association to breathe new cultural life into the city.

The artists themselves were organized by local street artist Sam deBourbon, who oversaw last year’s graffiti project at the now-demolished Deluxe Inn.

The event was held in conjunction with National Hip Hop Week and, more specifically, National Graffiti Day. The week is dedicated to music, but also to the memory of activist Malcolm X, who spent his early years in Lansing. To that end, artists and their audience were greeted with music provided by Simón Perazza, another of the event’s organizers, and director of constituent relations for ArtServe, a statewide nonprofit dedicated to putting together art events.

For the day, artists were allowed to paint a wall of Discount Dave’s store, near Art Alley, as well as wooden panels that would be affixed to 3-D metal structures.

Work on these sculptures began as far back as January, however, with bases crafted by local artist Tom Sheerin. Sheerin, who describes himself as a recycling artist, said the bases consist of materials taken and repurposed from wherever he could find them. The bases were also put on wheels— an appropriate sight for the area.

“We chose automotive wheels for the automotive history here,” Sheerin said. “This neighborhood used to be made up of families that worked at the local factory.”

Yet the key ingredients to the sculptures were pieces of the once-notorious Deluxe Inn.

Many panels removed from the inn’s doors and windows weren’t sold at auction, and rather than sit on the abundance, Reach Studio decided to put them to use. According to Reach Studio’s outreach coordinator, Jeana-Dee Rogers, this project presented the perfect opportunity. In all, 10 panels were pulled for artists to paint to their hearts’ content. Once finished, the panels were installed onto Sheerin’s structures on-site.

“It’s about embracing what’s in the backyard, the culture that’s already here,” Rogers said of the pieces. “We’re trying to give people an avenue to express themselves creatively and show that REO Town, Lansing, and everyone embrace what already exists.”

The finished products will be set along Washington Avenue. There, Lansing’s graffiti will find a semi-permanent home, until winter sees them housed elsewhere. Organizers hope this will be more than a onetime deal, though.

According to Rogers, while the details are still in the works, REACH Studio is looking to make this artistic convergence an annual affair, to keep the structures along Washington Avenue continually fresh.

City Pulse

For better or for worse — and most would say for the better — the once-notorious Deluxe Inn is history. Pieces of the former motel will on, however, in graffiti art that was created on the site. At 7 p.m. Monday, REO Town kicks off National Hip Hop Week with an event called “Deluxe Graffiti REO-vised,” in which graffiti artists will be creating new pieces that will be installed onto wood and recycled metal sculptures created by Lansing artist Tom Sheerin, who began working on his project in January.

“The materials used go hand in hand with REO Town,” said Sheerin in a press release. “It has a rich history in industry and by recycling and reusing materials it is acknowledging that history.”

“Deluxe Graffiti REO-vised” takes place at Art Alley, 1133 S. Washington Ave.

Starting next week, you can see Sheerin’s sculptures along the Washington Avenue commercial corridor. Plans for an annual event in which graffiti artists can refresh the look of REO Town with new sculptures and artworks are under consideration.

Learn more at www.lansinghiphop.org or by visiting the event’s Facebook page.

City Pulse

“They’re great dogs,” he says. “Some get bad stigmas, but it’s all about the owner. I want to create awareness about the level of responsibility that goes along with the bully breed.”

To do so, Lewis opened Trick Your Bully, a new specialty pet store in REO Town featuring equipment for larger dog breeds including specialty collars, show leads, large muzzle and more. Lewis invested approximately $8,500 in the new location, including high-quality, handmade dog handling accessories.

“I used to show pit bulls,” Lewis says. “For the larger breeds, there’s not a lot of equipment in most stores that is functional for them.”

Lewis chose his 850 square foot REO Town location for its accessibility and for the walkable nature of the neighborhood that inspires dog walkers, but also for the growing sense of community there.

“I think REO Town is beginning to be an artsy place,” he says. “I want to be a part of the community.”

Lewis has community engagement plans of his own, hoping his store can be host to dog rescues and like organizations.

Trick Your Bully opened in March. Dogs are welcome in the store.

“It’s their store,” Lews says. “I’ve even got a big mirror here for them, so they can check themselves out. They like that.”

Capital Gains