October 3, 200915 yr I'll be interested in reading it. Mothballing is no easy task, but for the cost of demolition, I think these buildings could have been successfully secured and maintained for years to come.
October 21, 200915 yr Here is Preservation Wayne's list of 10 places they want saved. 1. United Artist Building 2. Wurlitzer Building 3. Book Tower & Book Building 4. Wayne County Building 5. Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue 6. Baker's Keyboard Lounge 7. Michigan State Fairgrounds 8. Packard Plant 9. Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church 10. Historic Fort Wayne
October 22, 200915 yr 1. Pre-renovation working being done, new roof installed, new security system 2. Lights are always on but yeah....I haven't seen much activity....then again I haven't been to Detroit in 3 months 3. Likely will be renovated soon 4. Likely will become abandoned (currently it's a recently restored active building) But the county is moving to the Guardian anyways... 5. It's interesting at most I guess. Not beautiful, just very identifiable. 6. Cultural history yes. The building is ugly though, but it still should be saved 7. No get rid of it Seriously they want to save it? 8. Now that's hilarious. Why don't they just build a brand new Packard plant somewhere else desirable? 9. Very much agreed. Such a beautiful building. 10. Ditto to that, but at leas try to keep it open unlike last time, and the last time, and the time before that, and the time before that. No I don't want to schedule an appointment to tour it. I just want to pay some admission and walk in whenever I want.
October 22, 200915 yr I too was surprised MCS wasn't on there. Hell, put it in place of the Book Tower. I love that building but I don't think it will be vacant for too much longer.
October 22, 200915 yr ^ No Michigan Central Station? but they want Packard? Michigan Central Station isn't going anywhere. No matter what. Even if the City Council votes to demolish it, it would be more of a symbolic act to say "Well at least we tried." It's far from being a Lafayette Building type of situation
November 19, 200915 yr ^Most definately, I'm not sure if you've seen the building in person but the block will look so weird when it is gone. All that will be left is the 2 coney islands and that 3-story building.
November 24, 200915 yr Was back in detroit on business and got some photos of the Lafayette. I can't imagine this block without it.
November 29, 200915 yr This obviously isn't located downtown but since there is already some discussion on the Michigan Central Station I thought I would post these here. There was a few articles in today's Detroit Free Press about how Nashville and Kansas City both had abandoned train stations and how they revived them. http://www.freep.com/article/20091129/NEWS01/911290415/1322/How-2-cities-revived-train-stations
November 30, 200915 yr If I were to state my grandiose budgetless plan for MCS it would be this. Demolish the aging Cobo and move the new center above the tracks behind MCS. Extend LRT out to MCS and have a high speed rail station there. MCS would be the new front entrance to the convention center, at the same time functioning as a transit center. It provides easy access to visitors who would use the center, and all the open space allows easy expansion for the convention center, thus being competitive with city's like Chicago that have over time built up more and more convention space. Let's face it, COBO is out of room and the place is a dump. It sits on valuable riverfront land with no chance of expansion. I think it's a good opportunity to solve several of Detroit's problems. The problem is my plan would cost a fortune and no one has the money to this......except maybe the owner....
December 8, 200915 yr Cass Tech, along with 13 other schools are supposed to be demolished next month :( Cass Tech is downtown which is why I posted in this thread. But when I go to photograph the other schools I will put it in my thread for Detroit demolition. http://www.detnews.com/article/20091208/SCHOOLS/912080344/1409/METRO/Historic-Cass-Tech-faces-demolition-crew
January 17, 201015 yr Do they have things in Michigan like the Ohio Historic Tax Credits? These things lessen the financial burden of renovating old buildings. It doesn't stop demolitions, as we can well attest to here in Cleveland. Then again, there are 3+ major cities vying for these credits in Ohio, so not every building in every city is going to win one. And I don't think that's the object anyway. If the state of Michigan had something like this though...Detroit would be the main recipient, of course.
January 17, 201015 yr The Lafayette building has had some violent collapses lately. The way they are demolishing that building is bordering insanity. I'd keep some distance for anyone shooting photos. I agree with C-Dawg. Detroit needs business. No way these buildings will have a future without someone to fill them.
January 17, 201015 yr ^Much easier said than done. U-6 unemployment in Detroit is kissing 50%. It's could take decades to undo the damage of this depression. Few people want to see Detroit succeed more than I do, but I'm realistic. Things are going to get worse before they get better. I'm surprised they're not rioting. In Europe they riot when our age group's unemployment rate passes 30%. Maybe Americans are just too lazy to riot these days. If 50% isn't a critical mass/tipping point, I don't know what the hell is.
January 17, 201015 yr What would they riot against? Most Detroit residents seem quite complacent living in an urban nightmare. That's how it got this bad.
January 19, 201015 yr What would they riot against? Most Detroit residents seem quite complacent living in an urban nightmare. That's how it got this bad. That's sad!
January 19, 201015 yr It makes no sense to view the decline of Detroit through a moral lens. The city is not in bad shape because the residents are complacent. It's in bad shape for thousands of mitigating economic, social, and geographical circumstances.
January 19, 201015 yr It makes no sense to view the decline of Detroit through a moral lens. The city is not in bad shape because the residents are complacent. It's in bad shape for thousands of mitigating economic, social, and geographical circumstances. Depends on your view. I see a broken moral system as the cause of most societal ills. The economic circumstances are especially bad because they had a long way to fall over a long, torturous decline. The area's quality of life is further diminished by the drug trade and violent crime. It's anomie but that's not specific to Detroit now is it?
January 19, 201015 yr It makes no sense to view the decline of Detroit through a moral lens. The city is not in bad shape because the residents are complacent. It's in bad shape for thousands of mitigating economic, social, and geographical circumstances. Depends on your view. I see a broken moral system as the cause of most societal ills. The economic circumstances are especially bad because they had a long way to fall over a long, torturous decline. The area's quality of life is further diminished by the drug trade and violent crime. It's anomie but that's not specific to Detroit now is it? Yeah. Detroit is just a larger scale of what happens in most other cities.
March 12, 201015 yr The Lafayette is completely gone, it so weird walking down Michigan Ave. and not seeing it there.
Create an account or sign in to comment