  Sg9018 Member Username: Sg9018 Post Number: 245 Registered: 10-2006 |
In today's free press, A preservation group aims to breathe life into the building. The group will like to see the building converted into lofts. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs .dll/article?AID=/20080921/NEW S01/809210391 What you guys think should be done to the old Cass Tech building. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 7297 Registered: 08-2004 |
Some here would like to see the Albert Kahn designed building torn down for a mere football field. And only because of some inept folks who built a football field on a nearby plot that turned out to be too small!! Go figure!! Nothing like destroying the remaining density of Midtown, just to get another shot at turning another midtown block into a grassy field. | ||
Bragaboutme Member Username: Bragaboutme Post Number: 521 Registered: 02-2008 |
It needs to be torn down plain and simple. The play field could be expanded. That land needs to be put to proper use. Midtown is gaining respect because they are building in places that need building and rehabing building that need to be done over, not holding on to distant memories. Many cities have torn down or done rehab on many buildings, and Detroit has also. The difference is these cities don't let their buildings be held in limbo for so long that the whole area goes down in the process. The reason midtown and downtown looked the way it did for so long was because people didn't want to move forward. They wanted to keep these old buildings for no practical reason or purpose. Detroit is changing and people need to accept it and keep it moving forward, not the opposite. Get on board with meaningful progress. | ||
Busterwmu Member Username: Busterwmu Post Number: 533 Registered: 09-2004 |
I hope that at least this grassroots group can convince the DPS to better secure the building for the time being. Although vandals and other have been inside, it'll be lot easier to bring the building back if it's in better shape than the Book Cadillac or MC. I hope they can work something out to get the building saved, it is an important Albert Kahn designed structure and certainly has potential. Midtown IS gaining respect because of some of their new building and they should be looking at new builds for the surrounding area, not for this site once the building is gone. Cheers to the Cass Tech alumni who are actively engaged on this project. Good for them. | ||
Eric Member Username: Eric Post Number: 1185 Registered: 11-2004 |
Let me get this straight, you want to tear down a building for a vacant lot when it's been rehabs that have helped revive Midtown. When there's been no attempt to develop the building. | ||
Crawford Member Username: Crawford Post Number: 372 Registered: 10-2006 |
Tear it down. The kids need the space for athletics. It's an abandoned building that is being ravaged by scrappers, and the city and state have no money to subsidize its indefinite maintenance. | ||
Hunchentoot Member Username: Hunchentoot Post Number: 108 Registered: 03-2005 |
If they want to expand the football field they can close the service road to the East and rebuild it on the same plot, extending East and South. Or how about they use the Tiger Stadium field? The lot on which Old Cass Tech sits is smaller than the current football lot if it's built facing the same direction, and if it faces East-West, all of Second or all of Grand River would need to be closed to fit it in. I know, how about we *not* demolish any more buildings that will never, ever. ever be built again? On second thought, we could put tennis courts on the site of the Masonic Temple. There's NO OTHER PLACE for them!! Why are you STANDING in the WAY of PROGRESS?! Outta my way!! Smash! SMASH!•• | ||
Jtf1972 Member Username: Jtf1972 Post Number: 21 Registered: 08-2008 |
I'm all for turning it to lofts. Downtown NEEDS more population, and old Cass Tech has an instant selling feature for graduates. What could be cooler than having an apartment in a school you are a proud alumnus of! | ||
Rjlj Member Username: Rjlj Post Number: 673 Registered: 11-2003 |
School's are for learning, not sports | ||
Mayor_sekou Member Username: Mayor_sekou Post Number: 2615 Registered: 09-2006 |
"What could be cooler than having an apartment in a school you are a proud alumnus of!" Really? That's cool? I mean I am a proud alum of Michigan State but there is no way in hell I would want to live in Akers Hall again even if they made it into a condo. Besides Cass Tech is in the area it is, which I am not sure is going to convince many to drop 100k + to live there, maybe in some years, but not now. Sadly,(for some not me) this is one that might be better off no longer existing. | ||
Detroitmaybe Member Username: Detroitmaybe Post Number: 190 Registered: 03-2008 |
As a CT alumnus...we have more than enough resources to do whatever we need to do to preserve our great school! As long as the proposed plan makes financial sense, we can and will make it happen!!(see new CT...just an example of what alumni support is capable of!) @ Rjlj School's are for learning, not sports Sports and other extracurricular activities that provide kids discipline, physical fitness, and increases morale, and provides and keeps them actively in engaged in positive activities after school are just as important as learning! | ||
Royce Member Username: Royce Post Number: 2810 Registered: 07-2004 |
The problem with the old Cass Tech building is that it will take an Herculean amount of money to convert it into something profitable. The Westin Book Cadillac will be a revenue generating business that can recoup the cost of the renovation in a much quicker time-table than any residential development at Cass Tech. A developer would need to pitch the building as an upscale loft or condo development to have any chance of recouping the cost of its renovation. Sorry, but artists are called "starving artists" for a reason. They don't make the kind of money needed to live in the kind of residential development that's needed to make a renovation of Cass Tech profitable. Unfortunately, I don't think any alumni group, even one as influential as Cass Tech's, can raise the kind of money needed for the renovations of this Albert Kahn building. If DPS sold the building to them, it would still stand vacant for years to come, becoming more and more dilapidated and difficult to renovate. If DPS keeps it, it will further drain much needed resources that are clearly needed elsewhere. In conclusion, I think old Cass Tech needs to be torn down. If not done soon, then we'll be talking about what to do with it 20 years later like we have been talking about the Michigan Central Depot. There are other Albert Kahn buildings that have been saved. I think you can save some but you will have to tear down others (like the Packard Building). For me, old Cass Tech just happens to fall in the latter group. | ||
E_hemingway Member Username: E_hemingway Post Number: 1818 Registered: 11-2004 |
Tearing down historic Cass Tech is a fool's errand, an incredible waste of tax-payer money. Put aside all of the preservation arguments (which are easily enough reasons to rehab it) for a minute and look at the bottom line. It will cost MILLIONS of tax-payer dollars to level this 7-story structure, easy. And that's just to tear it down. Add tens of millions of dollars more to build some sort of playing field on it. That's money the Detroit Public Schools just doesn't have with its looming $400 million deficit and threat of state takeover. Razing historic Cass Tech will not improve the school district's abysmal graduation rate. It won't help fight the astoundingly pathetic 50 percent literacy rate in the city. It won't keep more schools from being closed or teachers from being laid off. (In fact it will probably hasten both of those things) It won't buy one more text book. It won't even help teach one more child to read or do simple math. Spending millions of dollars of tax-payer money (which is too often wasted) to tear down the historic Cass Tech is inexcusable when the failures of DPS loom so large. The only options are to sell it to someone who will do something with it relatively soon or mothball it for a few more years. The Argonaut Building was vacant for how many decades before CCS took it over? CCS is now turning the Argonaut into a community jewel again. Same thing with the Book Cadillac and Fort Shelby hotels. Historic Cass Tech, a truly remarkable and historically significant building, should be allowed to go down the same path. I understand the desire to do something, and tearing down historic Cass Tech seems like the easiest path. But it's the wrong road. Nothing will replace it but another weed choked gravel lot. Detroit will have paid millions of dollars to throw away another important piece of its legacy, and for what? The brief high of feeling like you've done something positive that will be quickly replaced by decades of regret. The only plausible scenario in the near term is to seal it up and do a better job of finding a new use for it. | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 3477 Registered: 04-2006 |
The worst thing they could do is tear that building down. If that building were in New York, it would be turned into a condo and the units would start at $1M. I say that they should properly mothball the building until a viable proposal is presented. If the Book Cadillac is sold out (as someone stated on another thread) then it would be long until that area is considered prime real estate... | ||
Mayor_sekou Member Username: Mayor_sekou Post Number: 2617 Registered: 09-2006 |
" If that building were in New York, it would be turned into a condo and the units would start at $1M." But its not, its in Detroit. So it will sit there for another decade or two. This big empty dangerous dilapidated building right next to a high school full of kids in an already sketchy neighborhood. Nice, huh? Progress means moving on from the past. While the idea of saving the old Cass, like Tiger Stadium, is novel, its not realistic or worthwhile in today's Detroit. | ||
Sean_of_detroit Member Username: Sean_of_detroit Post Number: 1814 Registered: 03-2008 |
Why doesn't the pool, gymnasium, and cafeteria "work" again? | ||
Bjones16 Member Username: Bjones16 Post Number: 2 Registered: 09-2008 |
OMG...I graduated from CT in 03 and I would love to see it go! I just moved downtown because i go to law school downtown and I hate to see it! No one would want to Live DIRECTLY next to a hs. At least I wouldn't! | ||
Sean_of_detroit Member Username: Sean_of_detroit Post Number: 1815 Registered: 03-2008 |
When Bentley was abandoned, they kept money coming in by having swim nights, gym rentals, birthday parties, and dance or gymnastics classes. That is what I was getting at with that. Why haven't DPS done anything like that with any of their former schools? Old Cass Tech, a community center? No, I'm sure that would make not a bit of sense. Bj, maybe the proximity to the casinos will fix that problem. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 7301 Registered: 08-2004 |
I'm with you 100% E_hemingway. Apparently the tear-it-down now crowd has forgotten the long time rotting leviathans that are now downtown's gems... the B-C, the Fort-Shelby, the Detroit Opera House, the Fox, the State, the Gem, the Century... Orchestra Hall, and the list goes on and on... It would be much cheaper to mothball Cass Tech PROPERLY, than to rip it down. Impatience is not a virtue when it comes to historic preservation. | ||
E_hemingway Member Username: E_hemingway Post Number: 1819 Registered: 11-2004 |
Historic Cass Tech is becoming dilapidated because of DPS' half-arsed ways of keeping people out of it. Sealing it up properly and having Cass Tech security include it in its protection plan is by far the most cost-effective way of dealing with the problem. Then you're only talking a few thousand dollars to protect it for a few years instead of a few million dollars to tear it down in an incredibly short-sighted move. Progress means respecting the past. Finding new uses for these historic structures is the only realistic way to go. Preserving the likes of historic Cass Tech creates economic opportunity galore, through construction jobs to rehab it, jobs to maintain it in the future and future tax base for a city in dire need of it. Every other major city in America, both successful and struggling, gets this concept and practices it except Detroit. Tearing historic Cass Tech down serves no purpose beyond a brief feel-good moment relished by fools. Only a few temporary jobs are created to tear it down. A dangerous, blighted vacant lot (and nothing else will ever go there in our lifetimes if historic Cass Tech comes down) doesn't create jobs or any meaningful future tax base. It just robs Detroit of opportunity, and that's the last thing the city needs. | ||
E_hemingway Member Username: E_hemingway Post Number: 1820 Registered: 11-2004 |
For a more comprehensive view of why historic preservation works check out Donovan Rypkema's work. He is a nationally renowned expert on why historic preservation works who spoke in Ann Arbor this summer. Very interesting reading. http://www.placeeconomics.com/ blog.html | ||
East_detroit Member Username: East_detroit Post Number: 2108 Registered: 11-2003 |
Tear that schitt down. | ||
Detroithabitater Member Username: Detroithabitater Post Number: 169 Registered: 10-2006 |
Preservation! | ||
Danindc Member Username: Danindc Post Number: 4858 Registered: 10-2003 |
Sure, tear it down. That strategy has served Detroit so well in the past. | ||
Saintme Member Username: Saintme Post Number: 237 Registered: 08-2006 |
When Ypsilanti built their new high school they converted the old one into apartments, and the building is gorgeous, and, like Cass Tech, very old. | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 3481 Registered: 04-2006 |
quote: Tearing that building down does not make that area any less sketchy. It just creates another empty lot, added to Detroit's already vast patchwork of empty lots, for crack heads to congregate. (ETA: If you want proof of this, look just several blocks east of the old Cass Tech to where the old Motown building once stood. What a magnificent gravel lot the constructed in place of that historic building!) As someone suggested above, it costs much more for them to tear the building down than to properly secure it from trespassers. If they then took the money that they would save on demolition work, and put it into hiring more police officers, Detroit might be a better place... (Message edited by iheartthed on September 22, 2008) | ||
Thejesus Member Username: Thejesus Post Number: 451 Registered: 06-2008 |
sorry, but I'm of the crowd that thinks the school having a football field they can actually play on is more valuable to the kids than having an abandoned building next door. | ||
Wirt Member Username: Wirt Post Number: 85 Registered: 12-2005 |
Tearing down the old Malcomson and Higginbotham building as well as the Kahn Associates cafeteria / pool/ gym addition would cost close to 10 million dollars. It would be difficult to convert the massive concrete structure.... (maybe for parking?) A football field will not fit on the site. The site is barely large enough for a softball field. Cass Tech desperately needs play fields and even a track nearby. Why should the district give away this land without land for play fields in return? Site parking is also a major problem | ||
Detourdetroit Member Username: Detourdetroit Post Number: 403 Registered: 10-2003 |
Who gains from scorched earth policy? While I can understand the desire to remove the "specter of blight" from the landscape, our collective loss as a community is that we also erase our city's landscape. We lose a touchstone to the context, story and environment that defines Detroit. When we talk about erasing a building of the quality, scope and meaning of Cass Tech--most especially without a plan to replace it with a higher better use--we fall into a well worn and increasingly dangerous pattern of unbuilding that has become a hallmark for our dear old Detroit. As has been posted many a time with more than a little irony, that strategy sure has served us well. DPS has a responsibility to keep the building safe and secure. Because historic Cass Tech has not recently been secured as it should does not indict the great potential the building to serve the community in the future. There are too many examples of buildings of this caliber being utilized in all sorts of economic climates to positive ends for us to go down the demo path again...we've got to evolve from this mindset. One of the few things we have going for us as a city is our history. It is a freakishly untapped resource, and every opportunity to leverage it for our future benefit should be explored. If you want to change the debate, contact DPS and tell them you are concerned about the security of historic Cass Tech and demand that it be properly mothballed for future redevelopment. | ||
Danindc Member Username: Danindc Post Number: 4861 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: Because there aren't any other open fields in Detroit. quote: quote: On what basis do you gentlemen make these claims? Do you have professional experience in this regard? Can you show us numbers that demonstrate your conclusions? Frankly, I imagine a renovation into lofts would be relatively straight-forward. Does anyone believe that DPS would not want a revenue-generating property on their hands? | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 3482 Registered: 04-2006 |
quote: I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that this building isn't preventing them from properly implementing the football field in that location. Didn't block off a street to extend the school's grounds? And if it is preventing them from properly building the football field here, there are plenty of alternatives. (Heck, there's a gigantic empty lot at Woodward and I-75 that isn't currently being used.) One thing the district could think about doing is building a central sports (Message edited by iheartthed on September 22, 2008) (Message edited by iheartthed on September 22, 2008) | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 3483 Registered: 04-2006 |
quote: I do. Only because we're talking about the notoriously dysfunctional Detroit Public School system. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 8722 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: Next to the Department of Redundancy Department. Makers of the Hot Water Heater. | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 3484 Registered: 04-2006 |
^LOL. And here I was trying to make a point about redundancy... | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 5588 Registered: 10-2003 |
Old Cass Tech will sit there and rot just like Michigan Central. Who has the funds to renovate it? | ||
Busterwmu Member Username: Busterwmu Post Number: 535 Registered: 09-2004 |
Why not put whatever funds would be use to demolish into proper security and maintenance/beginning of restoration. Demolition ain't free, people. Why spend all those millions to make it a surface parking lot when you can spend them doing something productive and useful for our city. | ||
Zephyrmec Member Username: Zephyrmec Post Number: 80 Registered: 01-2008 |
Yeah, just tear it down, Kahn can design another one...... as soon as he comes back from the grave. Albert Kahn designed buildings are a dime a dozen and on every street corner..... aren't they? We will never build any buildings anything like the wonders of the 1870s to 1940. Too expensive and ornate. The bean counters call the shots now. I weep for the destruction of all our older cities, not just Detroit. | ||
E_hemingway Member Username: E_hemingway Post Number: 1822 Registered: 11-2004 |
You want a large, nearby, cleared parcel to build sports fields? How about where the old low-rise projects were recently cleared. That large parcel of land is only a few blocks away and ripe for being turned into playing fields. As far as what to do with historic Cass Tech, think mixed-use. Part of it could be easily turned into rental lofts. It's within easy walking distance of downtown, so it won't be too hard to rent those out. The Creative Corridor project is looking for incubator space in the Woodward corridor. A floor or two of historic Cass Tech could be an excellent candidate. Maybe one or two of the state's major universities wants to set up a Detroit presence. Taking up some space right next door to one of the state's top high schools is a smart move. Especially if that school is rich with minorities that these institutions covet. The point is there are lots of options. Just because the answer isn't smacking you in the face doesn't mean the building is out options. And the answer doesn't have to be one uniform use or take up the entire building right away, either. | ||
Navi Member Username: Navi Post Number: 5 Registered: 09-2005 |
The old Cass Tech isn't wide open where you would have numerous crackheads and vagrants throughout; and if you think demo'ing it will resolve that problem, then you're mistaken because I've seen drug deals go down in front of the former Hotel Ansomia(sp?) at Vernor & Cass - a mere city block away. If we're going to start basing our demo's on proximity to schools and the danger which these buildings bring to the schools, then I'd say Saint Rita should be looked at far earlier than the Old Cass Tech. I've seen numerous people go in & come out of there at all hours and St. Rita's more a of a crackhead-haven than the Old Cass Tech is. | ||
Royce Member Username: Royce Post Number: 2812 Registered: 07-2004 |
Danindc, I thought about the Book Cadillac and the intricate financing that took place to renovate this once thriving hotel. Given the fact that it was once Detroit's premier hotel and it is designed to be a hotel, I can see why the powers that be found a way to make the renovation happen. I can not see a similar financial package coming together to renovate Old Cass Tech. Maybe someone else can. | ||
Detroit313 Member Username: Detroit313 Post Number: 726 Registered: 02-2006 |
Tear it down! If DPS wanted to keep the historic building, then they should've renovated it! <313> | ||
J_to_the_jeremy Member Username: J_to_the_jeremy Post Number: 88 Registered: 03-2007 |
E_hemingway, keep in mind that U of M already has a large Detroit presence, and a Woodward address to boot. | ||
E_hemingway Member Username: E_hemingway Post Number: 1823 Registered: 11-2004 |
I know. I'm thinking beyond UofM, like State or one of the directional schools. I could even see one of the other smaller local schools stuck out in the burbs, like Oakland, benefiting from something like that. There are a lot of possibilities. Just because the building can't be the home of Cass Tech anymore and the housing market is in the toilet doesn't mean there aren't viable uses for the building. | ||
Russix Member Username: Russix Post Number: 137 Registered: 11-2006 |
Tear down the new one! That cheap structure is going to look worse then the old one(in its current state) in 10 years! Or does it stand as a proud reminder of how kwamster funneled the city's slush fund (200+ million) into his friends pockets! | ||
Eastsidedame Member Username: Eastsidedame Post Number: 578 Registered: 12-2006 |
I wouldn't trust DPS to run a lemonade stand. BTW: Why do city ordinances require fences to be so low? And chainlink, no less. Six feet? I guarantee you that I can climb a 6 foot chainlink fence in less than 60 seconds, and I'm way over...uh...35. Climbing a chainlink fence is a rite of passage in Detroit, am I right on this one? No wonder chunks of buildings disappear! If you want to protect a property, nothing like cast iron with big spikes on top. Real tall, too. I'd like to see a building trades school at old Cass Tech. There's very few craftsmen today who can repair and reproduce some of the techiques used on the classic buildings we have. The Unions should get together and just do it. That would really help the lousy "slush-fund" rep unions have these days. Not everyone is cut out for college, you know. | ||
Mauser765 Member Username: Mauser765 Post Number: 3341 Registered: 01-2004 |
ive seen CTs team, a new field wont help them. | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 1996 Registered: 08-2007 |
Mrs. Gnome here. Why couldn't the building have been modernized to today's standards instead of vacated in the first place? and the property the new school was built upon used for regulation pool and football field? If developers can transform vacant buildings into modern lofts why couldn't this be done for a school building? Did they have to keep the old building working while the 'improved' version was being constructed? Why were they allowed to go forward without an approved plan for the old school? Same reason the football field is out of standard? and the pool? and the old building being trashed at an astonishing speed? | ||
Viziondetroit Member Username: Viziondetroit Post Number: 2030 Registered: 11-2003 |
"I'm all for turning it to lofts. Downtown NEEDS more population, and old Cass Tech has an instant selling feature for graduates." ^^^ I don't know many people that want to live right next door to a high school and a freeway without any kind of basic retail and hobos and crackheads within a stones throw away. Downtown needs more lofts? The ones we have aren't @ 100% capacity and retrofitting a school as such would a very costly project. I understand the allure of keeping it.. but for what use? Residential does NOT make sense. Office space? And like it was mentioned, it's being torn apart very quickly. Think about it... would YOU live there with your family? | ||
Downtown_lady Member Username: Downtown_lady Post Number: 407 Registered: 08-2008 |
There were three fires in the old Cass Tech building last night. http://freep.com/article/20081 104/NEWS01/81104045 | ||
Peterhuntprincess Member Username: Peterhuntprincess Post Number: 35 Registered: 03-2008 |
I drove by my old school Sunday and was in awe. It looks much worse than it did just a couple months ago. The abandoned looking apartment buildings south of the school never were empty. I suppose the now abandoned looking school will never be empty either, as long as there is a way in. Yes, the Old Cass Tech. is a large structure, but I couldn't imagine living that close to a high school either. When I was looking for a home of my own realtors had to struggle to get me to look at homes across the street from a school. I do, however, agree that something needs to be done soon. Hopefully a charter school will take on the mission of revamping the building, or maybe it will become a Cornerstone School. I've heard that they are "Changing Detroit, one child at a time"! It may also function as a shopping outlet, similar to Gibralter Trade Center or the new Russell Bazaar. Its just a bunch of concrete floors right? Add the bonus of 4 gyms, 2 cafeterias, and 3 pools... There is lots of potential there. As it stands today, the site of Cass Tech. causes me pain. CT2000! | ||
Busterwmu Member Username: Busterwmu Post Number: 567 Registered: 09-2004 |
Here's today's Detroit News article: http://www.detroitnews.com/app s/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200811 05/METRO01/811050360/1409/METR O Wednesday, November 5, 2008 Fires at old Cass Tech are puzzling There was no sign of forced entry; school district seeks residents' help. Jennifer Mrozowski / The Detroit News DETROIT -- Detroit Public Schools officials are seeking information on who set three small fires in the former Cass Technical High School building early Tuesday morning. The fires caused minimal damage, and the building, adjacent to the new Cass Tech High, is not in use, said Detroit Public Schools spokesman Steve Wasko. The Detroit Fire Department, which responded to the scene, departed about 5:40 a.m., Wasko said. The fires were in stairwells and a hallway, but there was no sign of forced entry, he said. The school, built in 1920, has been shuttered since 2005, when the new building opened. The Cass Tech Development and Preservation Society, a nonprofit organization, has been trying to preserve the building. "As always, we would ask the community to get involved," Wasko said. "We need help from residents and neighbors to report suspicious activities around our facilities day or night." The school district's Department of Public Safety patrols around open and shuttered buildings, but it can't be everywhere, he said. Many vacant DPS buildings have been targeted by thieves and vandals, which has been costly for the cash-strapped school system. Detroit Lions Academy was targeted by arsonists this summer but was refurbished by the start of school. "Ultimately, every dollar we need to spend protecting, repairing or resecuring old buildings is a dollar that could be spent at open facilities for the benefit of the children," Wasko said. Anyone with information about a crime that has occurred should call Crime Stoppers at (800) SPEAK-UP. To report a crime in progress or a fire, call 911, Wasko said. | ||
Rhymeswithrawk Member Username: Rhymeswithrawk Post Number: 1519 Registered: 11-2005 |
The old girl is really starting to show her abandonment. If it's not saved real soon, it's going to go the way of the Statler. | ||
Barnesfoto Member Username: Barnesfoto Post Number: 5538 Registered: 10-2003 |
I like to think that I became a preservationist in the halls of Detroit Public Schools, admiring the fireplace and Pewabic tile in Miss Milliken's room at Burt School. The Book Cadillac sat empty for twenty years, the Fort Shelby for thirty...and no, Detroit is not NYC or LA, where such a space would have quickly become loftominiums, but sometimes historic buildings do get rehabbed even in Detroit. Brick up the lower floor doors and mothball it for a while. If we are still having this conversation in 20 years, then I'll join the demolitionists. | ||
Focusonthed Member Username: Focusonthed Post Number: 2082 Registered: 02-2006 |
quote: I dunno...I'm not sure what the floor plan is like, but unless it's broken up inside, those are HUGE spaces, and people don't want to live in a place without windows. How do you divide it up? That said, if it's possible, it doesn't matter anyway. This would be, hands down, the largest residential rehab in Detroit, and it's not going to happen in this market. Not now. But it shouldn't be torn down either. | ||
Lefty2 Member Username: Lefty2 Post Number: 2816 Registered: 07-2007 |
As I eyeball it and as a Realtor, who by habit looks how things can be, I would like to see it turned into an entrepreneurial educational lab center focused on teaching Detroit kids benefits of starting businesses with business people teaching classes for volunteer credit. | ||
Danindc Member Username: Danindc Post Number: 5192 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: Why not go one step further and also incorporate a small business incubator, with classes for would-be (adult) entrepreneurs as well? Of course, funding for a program like this would seem to be the major obstacle. | ||
Detourdetroit Member Username: Detourdetroit Post Number: 419 Registered: 10-2003 |
all sorts of floorplans are located here www.casstechhistoric.org. download the existing conditions report (at least they were existing conditions a few years ago). the scrapping of DPS property is very concerning. WHAT IS GOING ON??? UGH!!! | ||
Sean_of_detroit Member Username: Sean_of_detroit Post Number: 2160 Registered: 03-2008 |
Lefty2, I really like that idea, and agree. It also holds a pool and gyms, correct? That could easily be used for community swim classes, or aerobics. As far as I know, Detroit also lacks in a professional gymnastics center too (or am I overlooking an existing place?). That building is also easily accessible to freeway entrances and exits, making it easily accessible to almost all areas of Detroit. A center like this would also be a plus for restaurants and fast food franchises, as there would be a lot more people on the main roads of Grand River, Cass, Third Street, MLK Blvd., and Woodward Avenue, commuting past many smaller vacant lots and buildings. |
