Highland Towers in Highland Park

 

Highland Towers is for the most part salvageable.  But I doubt anyone will fork over the money to fix it. 

Oh, how I wish I could save this building and all of the other architectural gems in the city.

Abatement and salvaging work will begin on Cass Tech in November and major demolition work will begin in June.

 

http://www.freep.com/article/20101019/NEWS01/101019046/1318/After-years-of-debate-old-Cass-Tech-to-be-razed

Wibur Wright School is currently being demolished.  I took these pictures of it in September.

 

Work has begun at Cass Tech, bricks were taken of the facade to be salvaged.  I've seen trucks in the back loading up computers and other equipment.  Now a large fence is being put around it.  :(  Pictures coming later.

3800 Professional Plaza Tower on Woodward and it's lower 2 story neighbor will be demolished and replaced with a six story building.

 

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=detroit,+mi&sll=41.875952,-87.643433&sspn=0.101615,0.193634&gl=us&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Detroit,+Wayne,+Michigan&ll=42.349209,-83.059104&spn=0.003152,0.006051&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=42.349209,-83.059104&panoid=nohwoa-WG3_oWcvE4N9nwQ&cbp=12,66.65,,0,-16.62

Been a while since I updated, many historic schools have been demolished.

 

Cass Tech is being worked on right now.

 

The Ford Audotorium downtown will be demolished soon.

Jefferson and Swain- 2 demolitions here, one is already done, it was a small one-story building.

 

Here is the other.

 

 

andddd from the roof of an abandoned building :)

 

Mark Twain Library is gone :(  I'm glad I chose to "urban explore" the building when I had the chance.

 

Detroit, MI by Zack Blackerby, on Flickr

 

Detroit, MI by Zack Blackerby, on Flickr

The Latin Quarter, a historic music venue in midtown was just demolished.  As you will see the facade was greatly altered.

 

lq by Zack Blackerby's Detroit, on Flickr

 

117 by Zack Blackerby's Detroit, on Flickr

 

116 by Zack Blackerby's Detroit, on Flickr

 

118 by Zack Blackerby's Detroit, on Flickr

 

119 by Zack Blackerby's Detroit, on Flickr

 

124 by Zack Blackerby's Detroit, on Flickr

 

 

......and she's gone

 

214 by Zack Blackerby's Detroit, on Flickr

^That was a great facade.

Saw this on Jalopnik this morning:

 

http://www.freep.com/article/20120823/NEWS01/120823048/Detroit-State-Savings-Bank-owner-wants-demolish-historic-structure-build-parking-garage?odyssey=nav|head

 

That looks like a pretty great building. 

It's unlikely to get demolished.  But an embarrassing and predictable situation in Detroit's development trends.  I've witnessed so many downtown buildings worthy of preservation fall to the wrecking ball....all for nothing.  I seriously thought it was at the point where it would stop (at least downtown.)

 

Haven't heard much of a voice from PreservationDetroit either.  I mean usually local preservation organizations would splatter their website with activism when this stuff happens.  Get the public energized about it, tell us why the building is important, show us photos, tell us where to send letters.  Instead I find no information about it.  Instead an online petition created by a concerned individual from Brooklyn, NY and a hell of alot out-of-state signatures.  Is there something wrong with this picture?

 

 

good article-

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/magazine/how-detroit-became-the-world-capital-of-staring-at-abandoned-old-buildings.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Storied Brewster-Douglass projects will come down with $6.5M in federal help

 

Mayor Dave Bing said this morning that the federal government has awarded the city $6.5 million to help tear down one of the city’s most visible abandoned eyesores, the Brewster-Douglass public housing projects near I-75 just outside downtown.

 

The storied housing projects, once home to famous Detroiters including Motown diva Diana Ross, could be demolished as early as next spring, Bing said at a news conference outside one of the shorter buildings at the complex. The towers have been vacant for more than two decades, making them a magnet for crime and fires.

 

“I know there’s a lot of history here,” Bing said. “Some people may even think that it shouldn’t come down, but as we look at changing the face of Detroit, it’s going to start with this. Transformation is on its way. There are a lot of good things that are starting to happen.”