Posted October 26, 200816 yr A "second downtown" driven by GM that never took off but is ever fascinating... From wikipedia: In the late 1910s and early 1920s, the automobile industry in Detroit grew rapidly. The economic surge made land in downtown Detroit difficult to obtain. The lack of suitable parcels frustrated William C. Durant in his search for the optimum location for his planned General Motors headquarters. Durant looked to the north, and settled on a location just west of Woodward Avenue on Grand Boulevard. A the time, the area was a residential district of private homes and small apartment buildings. Durant hired Albert Kahn to design his building, and ground was broken in 1919. The building was originally to be called the "Durant Building," but Durant left the company before the building was completed, so when it opened in 1922, the building was called the "General Motors Building." As General Motors continued to grow, the company required more space. In the later 1920s, they built a second building, the General Motors Resarch Laboratory (also known as the Argonaut Building), also designed by Kahn, directly south of their headquarters. THe building was built in two phases, and was completed in 1930. Around the same time, the Fisher Brothers of Fisher Body followed General Motors to the area. They broke ground on their eponymous Fisher Building in 1927, located across Grand Boulevard from the General Motors Building. The Fisher Brothers also hired Kahn, and spared no expense to construct their headquarters building. The followed this up with the construction of New Center Building (now the Albert Kahn Building), completed in 1932. Fisher Building, the Guardian Building's competition Former GM Headquarters, the largest office building in the world when constructed Nearby residential isn't too bad either
October 26, 200816 yr Very nice! Where is the "nearby residential" neighborhood located? They are all located in the blocks to the North of Grand within the neighborhood.
October 26, 200816 yr Ya did a good job! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
October 26, 200816 yr I am always amazed with Detroit. Could walk around all day staring the architectural eye candy. It's so eerily abandoned, yet beautiful.
October 27, 200816 yr Nice tour--but where' the pictures of Henry Ford Hospital? You couldn't have missed that!
October 27, 200816 yr Nice photos! Last time I was around there was a Lupe Fiasco concert held in front of the Fisher Building. BTW, the old GM headquarters is occupied by the state of Michigan. The red building behind it is currently being renovated and will be home to the College of Creative Studies, it took some time to get previous tenants out. New Center is doing pretty well these days, I just wish the rest of Detroit could be more like it. I've always enjoyed how public the Fisher Building is. You can walk all over and take photos all day if you like and they don't mind at all. During Cityfest, the place is jammed with people.
October 28, 200816 yr Impressive. Not nearly as scary as the part of Detroit I had to drive through on my way to windsor! lol j/k
October 29, 200816 yr Impressive. Not nearly as scary as the part of Detroit I had to drive through on my way to windsor! lol j/k The new bridge to Canada being planned is in a really bad area. Imagine coming in from the other side. Welcome to America!
October 29, 200816 yr Impressive. Not nearly as scary as the part of Detroit I had to drive through on my way to windsor! lol j/k The new bridge to Canada being planned is in a really bad area. Imagine coming in from the other side. Welcome to America! Well at least its probably no secret to canadians that Detroit is bad. The Canadian cab driver locked the doors as soon as we came out of the tunnel and refused to drop me off anywhere other than right next to the entrance of the hotel. I thought I could save a few bucks by walking a little bit!
October 29, 200816 yr Impressive. Not nearly as scary as the part of Detroit I had to drive through on my way to windsor! lol j/k The new bridge to Canada being planned is in a really bad area. Imagine coming in from the other side. Welcome to America! You are right about that! I was on my way to Windsor back over the summer and I got detoured off the freeway near that area. It looked like Berlin after WWII. Very Sad!!!! Although to be fair, Windsor could use a facelift too. I was not impressed!
October 29, 200816 yr Good to see this side of Detroit!. And you must´ve been in the western part of Windsor. There´s a stately neighborhood if you head east of Downtown on Wyandotte past the Arab neighborhood. I also recommend the Via Italia. The Downtown was lively with patios-a-pleny in the summer
October 29, 200816 yr Good to see this side of Detroit!. And you must´ve been in the western part of Windsor. There´s a stately neighborhood if you head east of Downtown on Wyandotte past the Arab neighborhood. I also recommend the Via Italia. The Downtown was lively with patios-a-pleny in the summer We stayed mostly in downtown and then I went to see an advisor at U of W. I dunno, it remind me of a mini-Hamilton, slightly ghetto, industrial, but minus the steel mills. The weather was crappy to, which didn't help!
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