  Dialh4hipster Member Username: Dialh4hipster Post Number: 2231 Registered: 11-2004 |
Hey, thought you guys might be interested to know that the aluminum facade over the liquor store and the Detroit Display Company (or whatever it's called) on Broadway, next the the Harvard Square building, is being taken down as I type this. Underneath is a little rough but not too bad. It's a big improvement. | ||
Supergay Member Username: Supergay Post Number: 119 Registered: 05-2006 |
Pics? | ||
Dialh4hipster Member Username: Dialh4hipster Post Number: 2232 Registered: 11-2004 |
Sheesh, slow down cowboy.  | ||
Pennst8 Member Username: Pennst8 Post Number: 12 Registered: 08-2006 |
Nice...... I can't wait to come home and check out the new development. It seems like every time I get up there, something is drastically different. | ||
Gsgeorge Member Username: Gsgeorge Post Number: 438 Registered: 08-2006 |
i wanna know who put that nasty schitt up in the first place | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 2121 Registered: 10-2006 |
Detroit Display and Design is the name of the company in the upper floors of that building, but I'm not sure that that guy, Paul, owns the building as well. Any word on what it is being replaced with, hopefully not just 'fancier' metal panels. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 10965 Registered: 10-2003 |
It will look nice but there is a ghetto furniture store that really trashes the area.  | ||
Eric Member Username: Eric Post Number: 1033 Registered: 11-2004 |
Nice to see another gem uncovered. How could anyone think it was a good idea to cover it with siding? Charlottepaul, I'd think with them removing the siding that a facade restoration would be taking place. (Message edited by eric on December 11, 2007) | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 2124 Registered: 10-2006 |
"Charlottepaul, I'd think with them removing the siding that a facade restoration would be taking place." Yeah; I would like to think so. Hopefully they are using some sort of glass that isn't too easy to see through. Have you ever been inside of that place? There is stuff EVERYWHERE! | ||
Dabirch Member Username: Dabirch Post Number: 2491 Registered: 06-2004 |
quote: You truly are a star DialH... Thanks. | ||
Wpitonya Member Username: Wpitonya Post Number: 51 Registered: 08-2005 |
What is the cross street here? Does anyone have any progress pics? | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 5874 Registered: 08-2004 |
When asking the question of why did someone put that ugly facade over an older more ornate one, one has to realize that in the 1930's-60's... building owner mentality was... "look at all the expense we went thru so that you won't have to look at all that old stuff anymore!" The better remodeling was just slapping some corregated metal or fiberglass panels over the older work... a restorers dream! Ditto for old movie palaces where interiors had the ornate details hidden by large amounts of curtains... another restorers dream! But unfortunately, a lot of the old stuff was dismantled on a lot of buildings in the mid 20th century... just look at the hideous brutalist Boulevard Building at Woodward & Grand Blvd. Albert Kahn's floor to ceiling windows, and the fancy white terra cotta trim between them was literally "brutalized" by long bands of continuous windows separated by unornamented bands of cement. Ugly!! So buildings like this one on Broadway, and even that corner building at Fort & Michigan (at the tip of the triangular block where the Lafayette Building is), offer hope of a generally undamaged ornate exterior beneath the bland modern metal or fiberglass sheeting. Even buildings such as the Lafayette Building, which had modern additions of rock facing added to the base of the building in the mid 20th century, still have the ornate details underneath, since the rock facing was simply attached to the older ornamental facade. | ||
D_mcc Member Username: D_mcc Post Number: 2 Registered: 12-2007 |
Does anyone have any images of the Lafayette Building before they started putting the stone veneer on it? | ||
Rax Member Username: Rax Post Number: 51 Registered: 11-2007 |
The aluminum siding was added to that building in the mid 90's. Not the 1960's. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 5876 Registered: 08-2004 |
If that is the building that housed "Display Creations"... then it is where a friend of mine used to work back in the 1970's. And if that is indeed the building... it had siding on it back in the 1970's. | ||
Skulker Member Username: Skulker Post Number: 3851 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: Or getting of the holier than thou soap box ,one would know that starting in the late 1950's and early 1960's, many 1920's and 1930's vintage buildings had significant issues with facade pieces falling off. (Water gets in behind the stone and facade work, and without proper weep holes and drainage the pig iron anchors oxidize and swell to two to five times their orginal diameter at a force of several hundred pounds per inch, popping facade elements off) They were a danger and City code enforcement dictated "fix it or cover it". Many building owners in the 1960 could not afford to repair and chose the less expensive way....cover. Recall that by 1959, the downtown Hudsons was validating for free parking because so much business had been lost to suburbs. By 1961, there was an income tax because so many jobs had been lost to the suburbs already. Decline was already starting and hurting landlords' pocket books. Rather than being callous, visionless fools with no sense of aesthetics or history, many were forced to cover up facades through simple economics. Especially when there were no tax credits available then for restoration work. Kinda like some people today choose not to repair or restore facades on historic buildings for "business reasons". | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 5878 Registered: 08-2004 |
... or because they don't want agenda driven city hall breathing down their neck... Yes there are many reasonable reasons for not fixing up building facades. Lack of funds for maintenance. The cheaper method to fix the problem just happens to be the best one for historic preservation. But it does beg the question... what was the city and county's excuse was for letting some of their properties become so decrepit? Perhaps it wouldn't have cost the county so much in the long run, had the county properly maintained the Old County Building. And who knows, maybe if the city took better care of Old City Hall, it might still be standing today. I guess building maintenance is a rediscovered art form! | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 6883 Registered: 02-2004 |
I see that the construction workers are finishing up building those condos next to Bert's on Broadway. | ||
Dialh4hipster Member Username: Dialh4hipster Post Number: 2233 Registered: 11-2004 |
Progress pics? That picture was taken four minutes before I posted, how's that for progress. I guess I could walk out in the dark and the rain and take another for you, but I expect it's going to look somewhat similar. | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 2127 Registered: 10-2006 |
On a side tangent, what was the last 'business' in there? When I would go in there for work, it looked like it might have been a bar, club, or cheap clothing store. The only visible ornate item left on the interior was the elevator. Interestingly enough, it has entrances on two perpendicular sides (and the elevator does overheat if left on). | ||
Rjlj Member Username: Rjlj Post Number: 433 Registered: 11-2003 |
Anyone who asks for pictures of things like this or the Book-Cadillac or the riverwalk, etc. means they don't get downtown enough and should start to. I vote that no more posting of picture updates and you go downtown to see it yourself. Exceptions for those out of state, they can be sent pictures directly. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 4141 Registered: 10-2003 |
I nay the hell out of your suggestion, since this is a multimedia forum about Detroit, and that's part of the point. | ||
Bearinabox Member Username: Bearinabox Post Number: 442 Registered: 04-2006 |
I go downtown plenty, but why would I pay attention to this particular building? Just because I spend time downtown doesn't mean I know every nondescript building along Broadway. Next time I'm downtown, I'll go look at this building, because the picture in this thread has brought it to my attention. | ||
Wpitonya Member Username: Wpitonya Post Number: 52 Registered: 08-2005 |
I'm out of state...can you send me pics to wjpitonyak@gmail.com ? | ||
Rjlj Member Username: Rjlj Post Number: 434 Registered: 11-2003 |
Just trying to get people to go downtown. Sorry, bad idea. Continue to sit your fat lazy michigan azz in front of your suburban computer and continue to ask for daily picture updates of these developments rather then going downtown to see for yourself. | ||
Gsgeorge Member Username: Gsgeorge Post Number: 442 Registered: 08-2006 |
Rjlj, you're right, thank god you live across the Book Cadillac and on Broadway and on Woodward across from South Univ. Village and on Atwater across from the Riverwalk so we know to count on you for development updates!! | ||
Bobj Member Username: Bobj Post Number: 3277 Registered: 11-2003 |
I have never asked for picture updates, but really do appreciate when people post them. I travel with my job, so I am out of town most weeks and on the weekend we do not always go Downtown, except in the Summer. Also, when we do go Downtown, we don't drive all over looking for changes. So, I for one, appreciate the effort people put out to post pictures. | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 2128 Registered: 10-2006 |
I would imagine that people on this web site make it downtown more often than 90% of metro Detroiters. Heck, I was downtown twice when I was back that way for Thanksgiving--still probably more often than 80% of metro Detroiters. Seeing an image on DetroitYES! will not discourage anyone from going to see _____ for him or her self and a pic is worth two thousand words on a forum talking about history, architecture, and development. | ||
Danindc Member Username: Danindc Post Number: 3811 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: Actually, as I've posted on a previous thread, many of these shitty facades were installed to make the older buildings look more like the brand new, Modernist suburban strip malls in order to entice/retain shoppers. I believe I first saw this mentioned in Suburban Nation (Duany, Plater-Zyberk), although it's possible Jim Kunstler discussed this phenomenon in Geography of Nowhere as well. Lack of will to maintain one's property--especially when life and limb are at stake--is not a good excuse. | ||
Rjlj Member Username: Rjlj Post Number: 435 Registered: 11-2003 |
Trainspotters, you missed the point. Chill out. |
