At some point, someone needs to do a investigative report on how many historic, vacant (but viable) buildings were demolished and condemned to surface parking lots in Downtown #Detroit in the service of a shallow, one-time Super Bowl (2006) event…
@adamjcook the first like 10 floors of the new 21-story Huntington Bank headquarters is all parking garage. Nothing quite like moving to downtown Detroit for the urban experience only to build a vertical gated community where you don’t even have to set foot on a city street.
We will have to see how much parking garage/lot space is allocated for all of these "District Detroit" buildings that I guess are going up now in Midtown/Grand Circus.
The United Artists Theatre Building (the theatre part was demolished last year) is undergoing extensive renovations right now... and I am sure that it will be beautiful once completed... but it is going to look super wonky with an enormous surface lot surrounding it.
@inthedeltawaves They also tore apart the beautiful theatre part of the Michigan Theatre Building to build a multi-level parking garage in there...
Never going to get that back now.
Naturally, the infamous Detroit slumlord Dennis Kefallinos and his dipshit son are sitting on that historic property in the hopes of a future parking lot.
@adamjcook having lived out here in Portland for 8 years now, I find myself aching in my bones for the type of history Detroit has in spades.
The amount of 80s T-111 siding that sprouted up out here during this region’s big boom years is just sad. We have the right land use policies but not the historic fabric.
Michigan towns are just way too hard up for development of any kind and make too big of sacrifices. Lansing was the worst in this way. They’d tear anything down to appease developers.
@adamjcook On one hand, I hear you. On the other hand, every downtown building I ever worked in was about 50 years past its "tear down" date and still being used.
@stepheng It just seems that the scheme amongst a few wealthy slumlords that prey on Detroit was to sit on the buildings for decades, after initially promising renovations, and await some pieces of the facade to land on the sidewalk.
(And it is possible that some of the facade was "helped" onto the street.)
@adamjcook Fascinating, and I don't doubt it a bit.
Reminds me of the decades long drama to get NYC's Flatiron building to replace the terra cotta cherubs after they literally crumbled down the building and the owners were like... "eh? oh well"
Add comment