  Masterblaster Member Username: Masterblaster Post Number: 14 Registered: 03-2005 Posted From: 155.79.138.253 |
It looks as if there were no skyscrapers built in downtown Detroit between 1930 and 1960. What do you think is the reason for this? | ||
Wilus1mj Member Username: Wilus1mj Post Number: 112 Registered: 05-2005 Posted From: 216.111.89.3 |
Great Depression. World War II | ||
Hysteria Member Username: Hysteria Post Number: 1277 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 216.223.168.132 |
Maybe not a true skyscraper (14 stories), Chase Tower (NBD) was built in 1959. | ||
Milwaukee Member Username: Milwaukee Post Number: 72 Registered: 08-2006 Posted From: 66.195.132.2 |
21. First National Building 104 m 1930 31. Coleman Young Muninicpal buidling 97 m 1954 46. Henry Ford Hospital 76 m 1955 52. Pavilion Apartments 67 m 1958 58. Chase Tower 62 m 1959 61. Town Apartments 59 m 1940 66. Theodore Levin United States Courthouse 56 m 1934 75. Albert Kahn Building 51 m 1931 78. Michigan Bell Telephone Company 49 m 1948 79. Maintenance Shop 47 m 1951 85. Michigan Mutual building 45 m 1951 86. River House Co-Op Apartments 44 m 1955 96. UAW-Ford National [Hart Plaza] 41 m 1948 97. Richman Building 41 m 1931 99. 607 Shelby Street 40 m 1937 100. Neudeck Building 40 m 1939 119. The Kean 16 stories 1931 133. Woodbridge Senior [Jeffries Homes] 15 1953 134. Woodbridge Senior [Jeffries Homes] 15 1953 135. Woodbridge Senior [Jeffries Homes] 15 1953 136. Brewster-Douglas 15 1950 137. Brewster-Douglas 15 1950 138. Brewster-Douglas 15 1950 139. Brewster-Douglas 15 1950 140. Brewster-Douglas 15 1950 | ||
Bvos Member Username: Bvos Post Number: 1945 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 134.215.223.211 |
Looks like quite a few skyscrapers to me... | ||
Burnsie Member Username: Burnsie Post Number: 608 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 35.12.21.96 |
I think the First National one was an addition; the first part was built in the early '20s. | ||
Milwaukee Member Username: Milwaukee Post Number: 73 Registered: 08-2006 Posted From: 66.195.132.2 |
The building was started in the mid 1920's then construction stopped for a while until completion in 1930. The original section of the building, fronting Woodward Avenue and Cadillac Square, is built on the former site of the Russell House, a 6 story hotel. The main roof deck of this building is listed at 310' on Fire Insurance Maps which may have been to the top of the decorative parapet that used to surround the roof. It has since been removed. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 1372 Registered: 10-2004 Posted From: 69.242.223.42 |
Technically, those smaller structures listed above are termed "highrises," not skyscrapers. A much older definition for a skyscraper, at a minimum of 300 feet, would be a structure around, say, 22 or 23 floors high, whereas a modern skyscraper starts around 500 feet tall. | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 1199 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.222.11.226 |
Very little new construction -- from houses to skyscrapers -- occurred between about 1930 to 1939. Many buildings planned or begun at the tail end of the '20s were finished off in '30-'31, after the stock market crash of October 1929... but financing was already in place for those projects. Financing was NOT available during the Great Depression, for the most part (some individuals who managed to retain some wealth were able to build homes in the '30s, but that was rare). There was slightly more building going on as the economy began to recover in the early '40s and then a building boom came after WW II, beginning about '46-'47. | ||
Masterblaster Member Username: Masterblaster Post Number: 16 Registered: 03-2005 Posted From: 155.79.138.253 |
When I was thinking of skyscrapers, I mean the buildings that are the height of the Cadillac Tower or Book Tower. Those mentioned in that above list are half the height of the aforementioned skyscrapers. I guess the Great Depression and WWII had a major nationwide effect, because in Chicago, only one office skyscraper was built between 1934 and 1955 | ||
Bussey Member Username: Bussey Post Number: 214 Registered: 12-2003 Posted From: 206.208.94.60 |
ya think? | ||
Hysteria Member Username: Hysteria Post Number: 1283 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 216.223.168.132 |
That is surprising. (Message edited by HYSTERIA on September 07, 2006) | ||
Milwaukee Member Username: Milwaukee Post Number: 77 Registered: 08-2006 Posted From: 66.195.132.2 |
No money in the economy and wide spread unemployment kind of puts a crimp in corporations pockets. Fewer skyscrapers built. World War II all the resources were needed for the war. There wasn't alot of spare steel and concrete. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 2093 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 68.42.75.78 |
Detroit is no worse off because of this shortage of mid-century architecture. We have some decent modernism and post-modernism, and most importantly, the greatness that is pre-depression skyscrapers--in an abundance that few cities can rival. | ||
Jasoncw Member Username: Jasoncw Post Number: 219 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 164.76.189.121 |
Imo, Detroit has a pretty good variety of buildings, and represents a lot of styles. Most of the buildings are good examples of those styles, but are also nice buildings in themselves. We also have our share of buildings done by famous architects. We don't have any 1700's buildings like the east coast does though, which is too bad. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 1375 Registered: 10-2004 Posted From: 69.242.223.42 |
"I guess the Great Depression and WWII had a major nationwide effect, because in Chicago, only one office skyscraper was built between 1934 and 1955." Chicago once had a law forbidding structures taller than forty stories. Hence, no skycrapers were allowed by law, not the economy. | ||
Hysteria Member Username: Hysteria Post Number: 1286 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 205.188.116.137 |
I believe the one skyscraper built during that period was the LaSalle Bank Building, constructed during the height of the depression by the estate of Marshall Field. Four 23-story wings topped by a 45-story tower. I tend to agree with Mackinaw's post about Detroit's pre-depression skyscrapers ... much, much more attractive than mid-century architecture. | ||
Andyguard73 Member Username: Andyguard73 Post Number: 112 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 141.209.33.164 |
I know these were already posted here, but its relevant so I thought that I'd mention that the Book Tower and the Fisher Building complex were both supposed to be 900'+ sky scrapers built in the 30s that were killed by the depression. Click the link and scroll down to the bottom of the page for renderings of what the two towers would have looked like had the economy not tanked. http://forum.skyscraperpage.co m/showthread.php?t=112478 | ||
Hysteria Member Username: Hysteria Post Number: 1288 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 205.188.116.137 |
Amazing isn't it? | ||
Milwaukee Member Username: Milwaukee Post Number: 80 Registered: 08-2006 Posted From: 69.95.238.192 |
If you look at the buildings built between 1930 and 1960, the quality isn't that good and they don't have the same great style as those of the 20's. The tallest building built between 1932 and 1957 was the Republic Center Tower in Dallas, Texas. I don't think Detroit would have a much nicer skyline if they had been building during that time. Detroit's skyline would be filled with boring and ugly poured concrete buildings. |
