Many moons ago, I had the opportunity to explore the Lafayette Building in downtown Detroit, Michigan with two friends. It was a blustery, cold Sunday morning and there was not a soul out. No pedestrians and very few cars.

 

 

 

The Lafayette Building was located at 144 West Lafayette Boulevard and was built in 1923-1924 as a speculative, high-end office building. The 13-story tower was both broad and tall, commanding views of Lafayette Boulevard, Michigan Avenue and Shelby Street, and was “V-shaped” that allowed natural light to filter into the building from several different angles. The interior was lavish, fitted with bronze fixtures and black-walnut wall panels. There were two marble drinking fountains on each flor and seven elevators that moved at 800 feet per minute.

 

 

The Lafayette also boasted an arcade with 31 retail storefronts and offices that held tenants such as the Michigan state Tax Tribunal, the Michigan Supreme Court and several railroad companies.

 

 

 

Only minor exterior changes were applied to the Lafayette’s exterior. A slate facade on the first level was added in the 1960s.

 

The Lafayette Building was closed in 1997 after years of decline. By then, the Lafayette had become deteriorated and an eyesore. Little maintenance work had been conducted since the tenants were given eviction notices in 1991, but a few managed to stay on. There were plans to redevelop the Lafayette into a residential condominium complex, and later as a Class-A office building, but the work was found to be cost prohibitive.

 

Demolition work began in the fall of 2009 and was completed in the following year.

 

 

In retrospect, I wish I had spent more time at the Lafayette. I only saw the interior once and that was brief – it was more photogenic than I imagined despite years of abuse and alterations.

 

Further Reading

a. Lafayette Building: http://www.abandonedonline.net/commercial/lafayette-building/

I was in that building also.  It was NOT in bad shape.  Complimented the renovated Book Cadillac very nicely from an architectural standpoint.  I parked right beside it when I went back for the Detroit Auto Show this year.  The vacant lot which occupies the spot now is a disaster.  Detroit is such a mess.

I remember it well.

Had this building been standing today, I have no doubt (legitimate) renovation plans would have been in the works.  The talk back then was all condo, condo, condo, condo.  Look, people don't want to throw down a bunch of money and a mortgage in Detroit yet.  However, the rental market is hot right now and I think just because it could have been rental there would have been eligibility for a ton of public subsidies.

 

The building was solid.  The joke during its demolition was the difficulty in taking it down, despite that it was deemed dangerous.  They had to cut through alot of that steel and pull it down because it would take forever otherwise.

 

You can see Sherman's "Corner with a view" photo being obliterated in this youtube video

 

 

I don't believe "pull down" demos are legal in many major cities....but apparently Detroit.

Another pathetic loss in D-town. It's becoming damn near unrecognizable in some areas.

@gottaplan, others: It really was in good shape. Aside from it being closed just ten years, with a tree growing in the roof, it was cleaned out on the inside. The first floor had debris from just trash and items from the above floors piled around, but structurally - it was sound. Talk about a waste of a lot.

Money tends to render "potential" and "historic" all but useless.  It's terribly sad this one fell through the cracks, though it lived on a lot of borrowed time.  Wonder how the Quikee Coffee Shop was.

The Ferchill Group of Cleveland redeveloped the Book Cadillac Hotel and applied significant pressure to the Detroit Economic Growth Corp (quasi-govt agency that handles mostly demo's and some renovations) to get that building removed.  Their argument was that if they didn't someone in line to renovate it, it needed to come down because it was a blight on the neighborhood and unappealing to the hotel visitors.  The DEGC caved.  There was talk for a little while in 2007/2008 about Quicken loans moving thousands of jobs downtown Detroit and the Lafayette would've been ideal for market rate apartments but that relocation never fully occurred.