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The Hotel Hayes

I was asked to get involved in this project in September 2007. It was a concept design to redevelop the Hotel Hayes in downtown Jackson for commercial space and luxury apartments and to jump start a revitalization of the west end of downtown Jackson, which was badly needed..

Since it's concept in mid-2007 it has struggled to get the needed tenants to really get the project going. Monahan Design LLC provided the development group with all of the concept drawings shown below. These were used for the proposal to the City of Jackson City Council and Planning Commission for the go ahead on the project and also for the other planning needs of the group thereafter.

The building was built originally in 1925 and is primarily brick and concrete construction. It was originally built as a hotel, featuring over 200 rooms and suites and a grand lobby and even grander ballroom. In preparing these drawings I spent quite a bit of time in this building, and since it was dimly lit in many places, it was rather spooky at times to be in there!

At nearly 122,000 S.F. it was a daunting task to prepare drawings for this. The original drawings from 1925 were just about unuseable because of all of the interior renovations that have been done to this building over the years.

The first 3 floors this building actually retained quite a bit of the original georgian style atchitectural accents on the walls and ceilings. There were 3 original grand staricases, 2 of which have been preserved somewhat like this one. The other main one has been seperated by a new stairwell that was installed to access the third floor from the main foyer.

For years Consumers Energy used this building for their offices before they built, and moved into their new one a few blocks away. There are still alot of remnants from when they were here. They modified several floors for use as offices.

 

 

 

One funny thing they did was, instead of removing the old tubs from the old hotel rooms, they just put a piece of plywood over them and made it a shelf , and the old bathroom itself became a closet whereas the old hotel room itself became the office space.

Also, on the third floor, where there used to be a balcony that overlooked a ballroom is a mural showing actors and actresses from an earlier time. I'm not sure who did this, or how this got here, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Even though it was carpeted over, on the second, and third floors there are large areas that still have the original terrazo flooring.

 

 

 

On the second floor, there is a painting that has been painted directly on the wall. It is a painting of what Downtown Jackson may have looked during the 30's. From what alot of people that have seen it have said, it's a pretty accurate representation. Although I think the 100 foot tall tree is a bit out of place. The painting was originally done by a local artist Leland Beaman, not sure what year though.

On the ground floor, in the front of the building is 6 large 2 sotry retail or office spaces with store front entrances. One of which currently is home to the Christian Science Reading Room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There also is a space that used to be a popular restaurant in downtown. The Drum Room. This is an older picture showing the windowed entrance to the restaurant and in the far distance at the end of the hall behind the counter, you can see where the painting by Leland is located.

 

 

 

 

But by far the spookiest part of the building was the tunnel that was in the basement. It links the area by the boiler room in the rear of the building and wraps around to the front of the buildings basement. All in all it was around 200 feet long, and surrounded a vast dirt floor crawl space. When the boiler made any noises..and it did..it would echo through this tunnel. Yes, I had to crawl in there to locate pipes and other relevent things.

The Hayes Hotel in downtown Jackson, MI has a long history, and is a landmark to the west end. Developers hope to reinvigorate this old building for mixed use. I had the opportunity to put together drawings for this project for the developers proposal to the city, which they won unanimously. It really is a great idea, though they could use an anchor tenant. If you happen to need about 20+ thousand square foot of office space in downtown Jackson I would give them a call.

In the past I know that there is some debate to tear down this building by some city officials, like the old consumers building next door, but I can say first hand that this building just has too much character, and structurally, it's in great condition. It would just be a waste to demolish it.

 

Then some people say that parking may be an issue, but then I invite them to look what is just scross the street from the North Entrance of the building. It's just a massive parking lot owned by the city, and negotiable as far as I know. There even has been talk of removing that garage on the right and placing a parking structure if it was deemed neccessary by the city.

I don't know all of the particulars, these guys do though, my involvement in this project is limited at best, but I do know it is a great idea that I hope one day comes to fruition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below are the drawings I put together for the development group. It took me nearly 5 months to do these with all of the changes requested by the group, and all of the proposed floor plans for everything from apartments by floor, to the same spaces being used for commercial use. At one point they asked if I would poke around and locate any exposed asbestos, or anything that remotely looked like asbestos. There is some in the building, but from what I could tell, most of it was already encapsulated and largely would not be disturbed if renovated into offices.

 

 

 

 

 

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