Detroit 2017

[davidknmo]

I haven't posted on here in awhile, I have visited many places over the last year and want to share my photos. Hopefully they upload alright. Here are some photos from Detroit I took on a recent Road Trip to Toronto, Canada(I will be uploading those soon). We only spent about 24 hours in Detroit, but it was a great experience, the city was very lively and downtown was vibrant and full of energy.



































Windsor Canada:

[softee]

Excellent pics of the Motor City and its smaller Canadian sibling.

[PHL10]

It's obviously still work in progress but Detroit clearly hasn't yet established the downtown residential base/threshold to change the very desolate and empty feel of it's thoroughfares during non-work hours.

[Coldrsx]

Maybe the best Detroit thread I have ever seen, wow.

[excel]

Great pictures. That pedestrian bridge between those two buildings is really cool. What really is the purpose of it? Does a big company have offices in both buildings?

[animatedmartian]

Originally Posted by excel

Great pictures. That pedestrian bridge between those two buildings is really cool. What really is the purpose of it? Does a big company have offices in both buildings?

Sort of. I'm assuming you're talking about One Woodward Avenue, the white modernist building, and the Guardian Building, the orange art deco building.

One Woodward Avenue was originally built as the HQ for the Michigan Consolidated Gas Company (aka MichCon) in the 1960s. In the 1980s, MichCon was split up and part of the offices were moved into the Guardian Building while One Woodward Detroit was used for the parent company, American Natural Resources (or vice versa, not really sure). Either way, the pedestrian bridge was built then to connect the offices of both companies.

These days, MichCon has been absorbed into DTE and ANR was absorbed into some Houston-based company. Currently OWA is owned by Dan Gilbert and includes office space occupied by Quicken Loans and the eastern Michigan HQ for Fifth Third Bank as well as some other tenants. The Guardian Building is mostly used as office space for Wayne County.

The bridge has no real functional use anymore, but it's too much of a hassle to get rid of it and no one's really complained about it so it's just there now. Might be useful in the even of an evacuation of either building though.

[deja vu]

Great photos of a great city. You covered some good ground in 24 hours.

[davidknmo]

Originally Posted by softee

Excellent pics of the Motor City and its smaller Canadian sibling.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by PHL10

It's obviously still work in progress but Detroit clearly hasn't yet established the downtown residential base/threshold to change the very desolate and empty feel of it's thoroughfares during non-work hours.

There were pockets of downtown that were pretty poppin but there was some sort of dance festival happening so that may have brought more people downtown than normal.

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Maybe the best Detroit thread I have ever seen, wow.

Much appreciated! It was/is a gorgeous city

Originally Posted by excel

Great pictures. That pedestrian bridge between those two buildings is really cool. What really is the purpose of it? Does a big company have offices in both buildings?

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

Sort of. I'm assuming you're talking about One Woodward Avenue, the white modernist building, and the Guardian Building, the orange art deco building.

One Woodward Avenue was originally built as the HQ for the Michigan Consolidated Gas Company (aka MichCon) in the 1960s. In the 1980s, MichCon was split up and part of the offices were moved into the Guardian Building while One Woodward Detroit was used for the parent company, American Natural Resources (or vice versa, not really sure). Either way, the pedestrian bridge was built then to connect the offices of both companies.

These days, MichCon has been absorbed into DTE and ANR was absorbed into some Houston-based company. Currently OWA is owned by Dan Gilbert and includes office space occupied by Quicken Loans and the eastern Michigan HQ for Fifth Third Bank as well as some other tenants. The Guardian Building is mostly used as office space for Wayne County.

The bridge has no real functional use anymore, but it's too much of a hassle to get rid of it and no one's really complained about it so it's just there now. Might be useful in the even of an evacuation of either building though.

Originally Posted by deja vu

Great photos of a great city. You covered some good ground in 24 hours.

Thank you!

[animatedmartian]

Originally Posted by davidknmo

There were pockets of downtown that were pretty poppin but there was some sort of dance festival happening so that may have brought more people downtown than normal.

You might be referring to the Movement Festival which means this was probably a Saturday or Sunday when you came through.

Most everything is closed by 6 (if open at all) on Sunday so it shouldn't be too surprising to see a lack of people on the street by then.

If it was a Monday, there would have been a lot more traffic and activity even in after work hours.

Edit: Also just remembered that was a holiday weekend. Most people head out of town anyway so either way it's a low time for traffic all over.

[Docta_Love]

^ The sidewalk on Woodward is also blocked on both sides right there do to construction may have something to do with the lack of pedestrian traffic in that pic. Just below the barricade around campus martius there seemed to be a decent number of people out and about.

[subterranean]

Originally Posted by davidknmo

It's an aberration, but strangely very Detroit. Personally, I'd rather the thing be taken down, but really only because the Guardian Building is one of the most beautiful buildings in the country.

Originally Posted by davidknmo

The water tank, on the other hand. I hope that stays forever. Also, in the foreground, I saw quite a bit of activity going on at the Metropolitan Building a few weeks ago. Can't wait to see that one cleaned up, as well as the Wurlitzer.

[volguus zildrohar]

I like it a lot.

[VTinPhilly]

What a magnificent collection of 1920s skyscrapers--Penobscot, Guardian, David Stott, Cadillac Tower, Book Tower. National treasures that will always make Detroit special IMO.

[Docta_Love]

Originally Posted by subterranean;

It's an aberration, but strangely very Detroit. Personally, I'd rather the thing be taken down, but really only because the Guardian Building is one of the most beautiful buildings in the country.

Haha yeah indeed very Detroit, i'm not even sure if the skywalk is even used anymore i think its use was because MichCon had offices in both buildings. That's also beside the point not only is the Guardian Building one of the most beautiful buildings in the country but its the first skyscraper designed by Detroit's own Minoru Yamasaki who incorporated elements of One Woodward Avenue into his design for the Twin Towers.

[mousquet]

I would like that skybridge much better if it was (1) totally true to the Japanese modern building, which is not the case, or (2) if it was cladded in sleek transparent glass only.

Pretty sure they can do either option by now. For now, it looks like an out-of-place adjunction.

The invasive Japanese modern design (i.e. (1)) would be the best symbolically, since Japan has been so influential since the 1970s. They should reproduce the very same materials. The fact that the former NYC WTC was a rip-off doesn't even matter. The symbol goes beyond that.