 
Staticstate
Member
Username: Staticstate
Post Number: 30
Registered: 07-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 2:47 pm: |    |
it was mentioned in the bookies thread that this building is being scrapped and vandalized. has anyone been down that way lately and noticed any of this crap happening? I'd think it would be better for the owners to properly secure this building now than let it end up like another Broderick. |
Gravitymachine
Member
Username: Gravitymachine
Post Number: 1752
Registered: 05-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 2:59 pm: | |
quote:end up like another Broderick
, MCS, roosevelt school warehouse, david whitney, metropolitan united artists, lafayette, cass tech, ... |
Detroitnerd
Member
Username: Detroitnerd
Post Number: 3649
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 3:01 pm: | |
And then, the coup de grace, city officials talking about it being an "embarrassment," and spending millions of taxpayer dollars to destroy it. Yeah, it makes many of us want to retch. |
Detroitrise
Member
Username: Detroitrise
Post Number: 3826
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 3:04 pm: | |
quote:end up like another Broderick
Actually, I think it'll end up like another Hudsons.
(Message edited by DetroitRise on March 12, 2009) |
Hunchentoot
Member
Username: Hunchentoot
Post Number: 128
Registered: 03-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 3:13 pm: | |
We can't let this go. If the landlord is going to be an absentee, and trespassers are going to destroy it, perhaps other trespassers can secure it.
The company that owns it has an office in Windsor and is based in the Vancouver area, but it's hard to find contact information.
I'm not familiar with another building in the world like Book Tower.
Mothballing, rather than demolition, of signature buildings should be a major campaign issue. |
Gotdetroit
Member
Username: Gotdetroit
Post Number: 204
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 3:13 pm: | |
What's one more slumlord owner in a city of so many? Why should the Book be any different?
Fine (and enforce blight laws) those who already have urban slum buildings (Broderick, AAA, UA, Michigan Central, etc.) and folks will be more apt to secure their buildings.
Gravity: I disagree with the inclusion of the Whitney. That building has a security guard, and is in much better shape than any of the other buildings. I also leave out the Lafayette and Cass Tech because (as I understand it) they are City owned. That doesn't excuse the City for not properly mothballing/securing those properties, but seems rather foolish to fine themselves. Maybe the City could use the fine money to secure City owned buildings.
Something has to be done. Someone has to stand up to these morons. |
Registeredguest
Member
Username: Registeredguest
Post Number: 157
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 3:16 pm: | |
How about this - if you're all so concerned, why don't you create a citizens patrol which patrols the vacant building during random hours to look for signs of trespass, vandalism and foul play. It is pretty effective in certain neighborhoods, resulting in multiple arrests.
Of course, there's always more room for armchair preservationists in the city. |
Detroitnerd
Member
Username: Detroitnerd
Post Number: 3651
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 3:18 pm: | |
And even easier for armchair critics of online discussions. ;) |
Hunchentoot
Member
Username: Hunchentoot
Post Number: 129
Registered: 03-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 3:19 pm: | |
Far better than mothballing is getting ground-floor tenants in there and keeping services up for them while mothballing the rest. Tenants = security. They protect the both the building and the street. Almost all of the windows are still intact in the upper floors. Install lights and heat just for the ground, heavily seal the rest, and fix the leaks. The assessor can help by valuing it for the space used.
Put a tavern in the ground level... name it something relating to the building. Maybe the one that's over by the Moose Lodge would want to move there since they're out in the middle of gravel lots... |
Raptor56
Member
Username: Raptor56
Post Number: 805
Registered: 05-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 3:24 pm: | |
That would involve paying an electric bill. We all know that electric bills and Book buildings don't like each other... |
Gotdetroit
Member
Username: Gotdetroit
Post Number: 205
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 3:26 pm: | |
"How about this - if you're all so concerned, why don't you create a citizens patrol which patrols the vacant building during random hours to look for signs of trespass, vandalism and foul play. It is pretty effective in certain neighborhoods, resulting in multiple arrests.
Of course, there's always more room for armchair preservationists in the city."
Hmmm. Not sure why I should have to police a building I don't own? Not sure why I should have to risk my health when there are laws on the books to hit these apathetic assholes where it hurts - their pocketbook.
As far as the "armchair preservationist" comment...that is disingenuous of you, to say the least. I'm a taxpaying citizen, who actually lives here, and demands the City take action against these people. I hardly think I'm being in any way unreasonable.
Multiple arrests? Seriously?? It’s hard enough to get the police to respond to a 911 call when someone in my building was attacked. Unless 2.5 hours later is considered a response. Do you really think they’ll show up if I call about someone trespassing in a building?
Why not fine these idiots, and let THEM worry about policing THEIR building??
(Message edited by gotdetroit on March 12, 2009) |
Bearinabox
Member
Username: Bearinabox
Post Number: 1305
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 3:29 pm: | |
quote:Do you really think they’ll show up if I call about someone trespassing in a building? Shoot the fuckers, and then call in a shooting.  |
Rjlj
Member
Username: Rjlj
Post Number: 830
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 3:32 pm: | |
It is a little difficult to get the electricity turned on when the basement is completely flooded. |
Staticstate
Member
Username: Staticstate
Post Number: 31
Registered: 07-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 3:58 pm: | |
Hunchentoot the Sterick building in Memphis reminds me a little bit of the Book. About the same height, sort of shaped the same and I think it's unoccupied too. It's painted some awful colour and is a bit more of an eyesore in my opinion. |
Busterwmu
Member
Username: Busterwmu
Post Number: 538
Registered: 09-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 4:02 pm: | |
You know that part of the movie Titanic where the water is running through the hallways? That's what the basement looks like :-(
It's the saddest thing, but unless someone steps up soon and just secures the thing, it'll go the way of several others we know... |
Rjlj
Member
Username: Rjlj
Post Number: 832
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 4:10 pm: | |
Rumor has it that a guy named Michael Hidalgo has been hired by AKNO(current owner) to take care of the building(Same guy hired when Pagan owned the building). He is pretty much unresponsive to any requests so if anyone knows this guy or can get in touch with him, please make complaints to him. |
Cman710
Member
Username: Cman710
Post Number: 599
Registered: 07-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 6:43 pm: | |
The Sterick building in Memphis is similar in shape, I would say. That building is also an example of a building that seems more secured than most of Detroit's vacant buildings. |
Eastsideal
Member
Username: Eastsideal
Post Number: 403
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 8:03 pm: | |
This is really the big central problem - not so much the vacant buildings themselves, as much as the complete and utter failure to secure them, monitor them, and stop vandals/strippers from destroying them. |
Mauser765
Member
Username: Mauser765
Post Number: 3053
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 8:09 pm: | |
Someone has to stand up to these morans. |
Thecarl
Member
Username: Thecarl
Post Number: 927
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 8:34 pm: | |
you can do what you will to secure a home against a hurricane - but when the storm comes, it does what it wants. the howling winds rip material off in sheets, and the water works itself in through the tiniest of crevices. the same sort of thing happens with the buildings in detroit; we don't have hurricanes, but there is a tremendous will for destruction. |
Irvine_laird
Member
Username: Irvine_laird
Post Number: 92
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 9:03 pm: | |
I hoped that Quicken would build on Grand Circus Park at the Statler Hotel site. The Book Cadillac on one end of Washington and Quicken on the other would be like anchor stores in a mall. The storefronts on Washington would fill in with shops and restaurants to serve the hotel guests and Quicken employees. I recall rumors that Dan Gilbert wanted to bring some other companies downtown with him.
If this happens it could be a long while in the shadow of current events. In the absence of a multi-billion dollar trust to preserve historic marvels like the Book Tower, I wonder what a group of innovative, inspired, well-organized citizens could do. Think of it like the neighborhood association in Boston-Edison. Those neighbors constantly look after empty homes and do everything from mow the grass to board the windows to keep the paint fresh. Could this be done on a much greater scale? What is Preservation Wayne up to these days? |
1kielsondrive
Member
Username: 1kielsondrive
Post Number: 998
Registered: 08-2008
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 12:59 am: | |
It's another 'Demolition By Neglect' project for Bob McKeown. |
Rjlj
Member
Username: Rjlj
Post Number: 833
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 9:38 am: | |
Actually, it is demolition by urban explorers. They are the ones who broke the seal and once that happens, the flood gates are open. Now sit back enjoy the show. |
Wpitonya
Member
Username: Wpitonya
Post Number: 89
Registered: 08-2005
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 10:15 am: | |
If the Book Tower is demolished, I believe it will be the second tallest building ever demolished by a company. The first is the Singer building in NYC. Note: I said "by a company" not "by airplanes." |
Detroitnerd
Member
Username: Detroitnerd
Post Number: 3654
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 10:36 am: | |
Technically, the WTC was a destruction, not a demolition. |
Wpitonya
Member
Username: Wpitonya
Post Number: 90
Registered: 08-2005
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 10:49 am: | |
That would obviously not be a title we want. The Singer Building was demolished due to "progress," not for a surface parking lot due to a dying city. Please note that I do not think it was progress, as I have a degree in Historic Preservation. |
Detroitrise
Member
Username: Detroitrise
Post Number: 3827
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 11:11 am: | |
quote:I hoped that Quicken would build on Grand Circus Park at the Statler Hotel site. The Book Cadillac on one end of Washington and Quicken on the other would be like anchor stores in a mall. The storefronts on Washington would fill in with shops and restaurants to serve the hotel guests and Quicken employees. I recall rumors that Dan Gilbert wanted to bring some other companies downtown with him.
Remind you, that was all before the "depression" hit. Right now our worry is keeping conventions here and helping our only major employers to survive (GM & Chrysler). |
Detroitnerd
Member
Username: Detroitnerd
Post Number: 3655
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 11:14 am: | |
I think buildings like the Singer or the Book show the learning curve of early 20th century architects. Maybe the Book Tower (built 1916-1926) isn't the most beautiful, soaring structure in the world, but I love how they designed an Italian Renaissance skyscraper (!!!), topped it with a roof and faced it with stone. Even 10 years after they broke ground on it, that sort of building would be considered fusty. But now it shows a little bit of history: The awkward adolescence of the skyscraper. I used to get that feeling looking at the Woolworth Building (1913) in NYC: They weren't really sure what to do with all that height, so they made it look like a cathedral. Or the Singer (1908): It looks ancient and modern at the same time.
Of course, now, in New York, any beaux-arts building that survived the bulldozing 1960s is a treasure. Would that we had the same outlook here. |
1kielsondrive
Member
Username: 1kielsondrive
Post Number: 1023
Registered: 08-2008
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 2:11 pm: | |
Rjlj, your's is a very good point. I can relate dozens of stories of exactly that happening. I've had my own opportunities to 'explore' buildings and 'liberate' materials from them. I tried it once or twice and it didn't sit well with me. I look back upon the things I could've obtained by doing that and sometimes I'm sad, but in the long run I wasn't a part of the problem. |
1kielsondrive
Member
Username: 1kielsondrive
Post Number: 1024
Registered: 08-2008
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 2:13 pm: | |
BTW, who here knows what my references to 'Demolition By Neglect' and Bob McKeown were about? You may be giving away your age if you respond. |
Eastsideal
Member
Username: Eastsideal
Post Number: 409
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 2:25 pm: | |
quote:BTW, who here knows what my references to 'Demolition By Neglect' and Bob McKeown were about?
I remember it all too well. It seemed then that calling attention to it might bring those in power to do something to stop it. How incredibly sad that 25 years later we're still doing it. And better than ever it seems... |
1kielsondrive
Member
Username: 1kielsondrive
Post Number: 1027
Registered: 08-2008
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 2:27 pm: | |
Thanks Eastside. We still might have to explain it to the younger folks here. We'll see..... |
Russix
Member
Username: Russix
Post Number: 201
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 2:29 pm: | |
Okay, so maybe an anonymous urban explorer can visit Book and video tape its condition. Then send this information along with a statement to the local tv and newspapers to see if the story picks up any interest. I would send information to the TV station about the current owner and the history of how this building has been allowed to rot by the current owners for a few years and how the city should be posting huge fines on the owners for neglect. |
Rhymeswithrawk
Member
Username: Rhymeswithrawk
Post Number: 1802
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 3:03 pm: | |
Anyone know if the clock is still in the lobby? I had heard there was a guard in there, but there's also a video on trespasser.tv or whatever it's called showing jackasses going right through the Blvd. entrance and the guard is off talking to someone at the other end. The front door wasn't even locked. |
Fareastsider
Member
Username: Fareastsider
Post Number: 1008
Registered: 08-2006
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 3:11 pm: | |
So the basements are flooded already huh? |
Staticstate
Member
Username: Staticstate
Post Number: 32
Registered: 07-2008
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 6:20 pm: | |
it seems that for whatever reasons owners want these buildings to get vandalized, so that they can say that renovation costs are too great and demolition is the way to go. I guess their thought is that someday a 'blank sheet of canvas' aka parking lot is easier to construct something on, and if they can get public dollars to pay for taking it down, even better. I think any proposal by a 'neighbourhood watch' type group that would volunteer to watch over these buildings would be rejected rather quickly. |
Barebain
Member
Username: Barebain
Post Number: 35
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 7:28 pm: | |
Pay people to board them up! Detroiters want jobs for their stimulus money? Set up a team of Architects, Contractors, and Laborers. Evaluate the empty buildings... all of them. Strip them of obsolete and broken equipment (thereby removing incentives for scrappers to invade), board up the windows (thereby removing incentives for the taggers/artists from invading), and lock the places down.
Yes, I'm now on a triple-thread soapbox with this issue, but I think it can actually work to stabilize our city a little bit more.
Or maybe I'm just frustrated, reactionary, and just plain wrong.
Cheers |
Gistok
Member
Username: Gistok
Post Number: 6218
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 7:43 pm: | |
For some reason basements have a tendency to flood when the power goes out in downtown buildings.
Even the former Michigan Theatre (now housing a parking structure) portion of the Michigan Building (separate basements and substructures) has electricity running to keep the former theatre's sub-basements dry via sump pumps. |
Fareastsider
Member
Username: Fareastsider
Post Number: 1009
Registered: 08-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, March 14, 2009 - 2:02 am: | |
Has to do with the poor drainage of the area. Imagine how much water would pool around the region with out our extensive drainage system. All of the marshes that were filled. The initial surveys of Warren Twp noted that is was "Worthless and to be forever inhabited by nature and beasts." |
Busterwmu
Member
Username: Busterwmu
Post Number: 547
Registered: 09-2004
| | Posted on Monday, March 16, 2009 - 4:20 pm: | |
I heard that a pump was installed in the basement this weekend to dry things out. Don't have any proof, however... |