  Psip Member Username: Psip Post Number: 1242 Registered: 04-2005 |
A note I recieved from a friend. Hello Friends, Just a quick note to let you know I will be in Detroit this Monday to participate in the 50th anniversary of Lafayette Park events. I will be showing my film -- a rough cut -- at 7 pm at The Forum, 1010 Antietam, corner Rivard, at 7 pm. It would be great to see you. Attached is a poster for the film, now called "UR Mich 1-1" and a list of the day-long events for October 16th. Please forward this to anyone you think remembers me in Detroit, and might be interested! My best to you all, Janine Debanné Associate Professor Carleton University, School of Architecture  I hope some DetroitYes people can come, I provided some historic footage of the ground breaking. PSIP | ||
Psip Member Username: Psip Post Number: 1243 Registered: 04-2005 |
LP50 Diversity by Design 1956 – 2006 LAFAYETTE PARK IS 50 YEARS OLD! JOIN IN ON THE EVENTS ON OCTOBER 16TH Lafayette Park Community celebrates fifty years on Monday, October 16, at 11:00 a.m., including a re-enactment of the 1956 groundbreaking, a film about the Lafayette Towers, and more ... The Lafayette Park community, distinguished by buildings designed by one of the 20th century's premier architects, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its beginnings. The groundbreaking of Lafayette Park's first building, The Pavilion, on October 16, 1956 will be re-enacted on the same site. The ceremony will begin a day-long celebration that will take place in the community. Current residents and past residents will gather to commemorate the success of a development that has been remarkable since its inception as Michigan's first urban renewal project (UR Mich. 1-1). For fifty years now, Lafayette Park has been home to a diversity of people, of all ages and walks of life. We hope you can join the celebrations. EVENT PROGRAM: 11:00 a.m. Reception and Tours of The Pavilion at One Lafayette Plaisance (corner of Rivard and Antietam), with parking across the street in the Detroit Entrepreneurship Institute lot 11:30 a.m. Welcome and Greetings by public officials, including Honorable Kwame Kilpatrick, Mayor, City of Detroit, and representatives of organizations significant to the development of Lafayette Park 12:00 Noon Re-enactment of Groundbreaking 1:00 p.m. Walking tours of the Lafayette Park community including interiors of townhouses, condominiums, and apartments, and a walk to the Dequindre Cut greenway (Cost $10). (Meet at the Paris Cafe in the Lafayette Park Center, 1533 East Lafayette.) 4:00 pm. LP 50 Community Dialogue and Design Symposium will explore the concept of Lafayette Park's design legacy, at the Detroit Entrepreneurship Institute, 1010 Antietam, corner of Rivard, with adjacent parking. 7:00 p.m. Film Festival in the Forum auditorium (Detroit Entrepreneurship Institute, 1010 Antietam, corner of Rivard): U. R. Mich. 1-1: a documentary film on the Lafayette Towers, Modern Architecture and urban development -- by former East Towers resident Janine Debanné, and Nadia Ross. Regular or Super: Views on Mies van der Rohe: a comprehensive overview of the designs of one of the 20th century's most influential architects, Joseph Hillel and Patrick Demers. (Adults $10, Students and Seniors $5) | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 4412 Registered: 11-2003 |
Mazel tov to Lafayette Plaisannce. The project has endured and now Mid-century modernism is so happening it is being listed on National Registers of History Places. Time marches on. jjaba, Westsider. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 6909 Registered: 12-2003 |
This is going to be cool. My Vivio's friend Dave is in on this, we'll be there for the screening...he's also got a disc of Eames (of the molded wood furniture fame) shorts that are pretty amazing. If anyone doesn't know this relatively new organization's location, they are JUST south of Gratiot on Antietam, right after the I-75 service drive T's into it. The front of their parking lot is currently under some extensive DTE excavating work, they were at it throughout the ballgame today, so these guys are dedicated, but drive on past them into the parking lot. This building is right next to that 8 or so story building that I'm pretty sure used to be the Lafayette Clinic, just north of it...and used to house some bigtime medical board. Forgive me for not caring what it USED to be but for some of you it'll help locate where the screening will be held. | ||
Neilr Member Username: Neilr Post Number: 359 Registered: 06-2005 |
The Detroit Entrepreneurship Institute, 1010 Antietam, corner of Rivard, used to be the Wayne County Medical Society's headquarters. It's a two story tan brick building with lots of windows. It's next to a much taller building, as Gannon noted, which used to be Wayne State's Pharmacy School. If the parking lot fills up, there is plenty of on street parking on both sides of Rivard and Antietam. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 6911 Registered: 12-2003 |
Wasn't it the clinic before the Pharmacy school, though? Thanks, Neilr, for the clarity on the building's original owners, they built a helluva facility...that boardroom is just screaming to be refilled with books! Gorgeous woodwork and 50s/60s era architecture. How far away did the Medical Society move?! | ||
Neilr Member Username: Neilr Post Number: 361 Registered: 06-2005 |
The former Lafayette Clinic is on the south end of the block bounded by the Chrysler Service Drive, Lafayette and Rivard. It's now a charter school, The Woodward Academy. | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 353 Registered: 12-2005 |
My father worked on the Pavilion Apartment building construction project. He started there shortly after the 1956 groundbreaking as a journeyman plumber. By the time the building was finished (early 1959?) he had worked his way up to the foreman's position. He says that the lower seven floors were finished first and occupied by renters while the contractors worked on completing floors 8 through 21. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 4418 Registered: 11-2003 |
Mikeg, thanks. Excellent first-person post. We like reality posts like yours. It is nice to know real people who built Detroit. jjaba, Westsider. | ||
Detroitstar Member Username: Detroitstar Post Number: 238 Registered: 01-2006 |
What was the sequence of buildings in Lafayette Park? From the high rises to the smaller neighborhood buildings, everything looks like it came from the same 50's mold. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 2953 Registered: 08-2004 |
I hate to piss on anyones parade but... As a German born, I have to say that Mies Van Der Rohe's architectural reputation has certainly preceeded him. In 2001 and 2005 I took a busload of German visitors on a tour of the downtown Detroit area. They loved the insides of the Fox and Guardian Buildings, loved riding on the People Mover, and enjoyed the city. However, when I drove thru Lafayette Park, they were not impressed by the Miesian views of their compatriot German architect. One German visitor said "he built this crap all over Germany". (Not my viewpoint, but theirs)  | ||
Dialh4hipster Member Username: Dialh4hipster Post Number: 1810 Registered: 11-2004 |
I don't actually think you hated pissing on the parade, Gistok. | ||
Eastsidedog Member Username: Eastsidedog Post Number: 756 Registered: 03-2006 |
Some people definitely dislike the International Style (see the Ford Auditorium threads) but to each their own. The truth is, the reason LP is still popular and vibrant to this day is because of the quality of the architechture (well and it's great location). | ||
Eastsidedog Member Username: Eastsidedog Post Number: 758 Registered: 03-2006 |
You have to see the insides of the units to really appreciate them. The views from the apartment buidings are unbelievable. And the ambiance inside the townhouses are gorgeous, the lush landscaping is an essential part of the experience for sure. | ||
Detroitstar Member Username: Detroitstar Post Number: 248 Registered: 01-2006 |
The greatest part about living in LP is the dense-but not dense feel of the neighborhood. There are tons of townhouses and apartments but yet it is quiet. People are always walking in the park or riding their bike. The majority of the time it feels much smaller than it actually is. | ||
Neilr Member Username: Neilr Post Number: 368 Registered: 06-2005 |
Alfred Caldwell, a Chicago landscape architect, worked in conjunction with Mies van der Rohe on the plantings. There are basically three levels to his plan. An upper-story of locust trees allows for a dappled light to filter through. A mid-story of flowering crabapples, plums, lilacs (some 16 varieties), etc. provides springtime color and attract birds. Then there is a lower-story of hawthorn bushes that screen the fronts of the townhouses from the sidewalks and parking lots. When the trees are in leaf, the view from the townhouses is quite sheltered. However, in winter, the neighboring highrises loom into view. | ||
Eastsidedog Member Username: Eastsidedog Post Number: 763 Registered: 03-2006 |
Nice description Neilr. | ||
Imperfectly Member Username: Imperfectly Post Number: 141 Registered: 06-2004 |
Whenever I walk up Rivard I try to peek into the townhouses! The building I live in Leland Lofts was built in 1917 I believe. What did the surroudning area look like at that time?? |
