Eyesore of the week

Owner: Eagle Ocean Properties, LLC

Owner address: 26492 Blue Water Road, Helendale, Calif.

Assessed value: $21,300

Owner says: Could not be reached for comment

Architecture critic Amanda Harrell-Seyburn says: Great outdoor places, particularly outdoor rooms, are as invaluable to a community as great buildings. An outdoor room is an open-air place defined by edges, hedges and a tree canopy or garden walls — or it could be the outdoor space beneath the canopy of a filling station from an earlier era. Where cars once lingered for service, today is an opportunity to create a place for people to gather, whether it’s a restaurant like Artie’s Filling Station or a courtyard at Tallulah’s Folly in Lansing’s Old Town. At the southwest corner of West Round Lake Road and South Old U.S. 27 in Dewitt Township is an opportunity to join a growing practice — some of the best outdoor rooms in the Lansing area occur in the most unexpected places.

Is it a gas station? Is it a house? One thing is for sure: It looks terrible. The dark blue, weed-overtaken structure here might not be as rough as the collapsed barn across the street, but it has a decrepit style all its own. If it was a gas station, it was operated during a time when wood and brick pump canopies were the norm. There may have been two driveway entrances at one time, but you’d have to hack away at the bushes and flowers that have pushed up and broken the concrete before you could really tell. A quick peek inside reveals that a For Sale sign is being used as a barrier to board up a window.

“Eyesore of the Week” is our look at some of the seedier properties in Lansing. It rotates each week with Eye Candy of the Week. If you have a suggestion, please e-mail eye@lansingcitypulse.com or call Andy Balaskovitz at 999-5064.