An Afternoon Walk Through Downtown Detroit

[Allan]

A Walk through Downtown, Part III of IV

Looking toward Broadway Street from Madison Avenue

Why did anyone allow Ilitch to buy the Madison Lenox? I can only hope that it is saved...somehow.

Some buildings in Harmonie Park.

Want a loft? You can get one in this building...I wonder how much they cost....

Looking south from Broadway & Randolph

Crews are still digging a giant hole for the new downtown YMCA building.

Looking across the YMCA site to the Metropolitan Building

Homeless guy who wanted me to take his picture. He didn't even ask for money like they usually do.

Another bar coming soon! I'm tall, so I could peak over the window coverings. It looks like it's very close to completion on the inside.

Another Building I've forgotten the name of

More buildings on Broadway. Does anyone know what's going in the building on the left? I didn't see any signs, but they are building some new store or restaurant in there.

The back of the buildings on Broadway. Detroit could use some infill here.

The downtown library. This recently reopened after an extensive restoration.

There were two artists standing nearby painting this same exact scene.

The YMCA site from the other side. One surface lot built on, many more to go.

The Metropolitan Building. It was supposed to be converted into lofts. The interior was cleaned of all hazardous materials a year or two ago, but then the building was sealed up. No work has taken place since.

What is a tour of Detroit without a shot of the People Mover?

John R street was closed at Woodward because crews were replacing an aging pipe. Many pipes will be replaced and streets resurfaced for the Super Bowl. There's enough here to keep construction crews busy for quite a while.

The Lofts at Woodward are great. The location is perfect. Lofts like this would be only for the rich in any other city, but in Detroit they start around $800 per month.

Directly across the street is the Merchant's Row loft project. Over 100 lofts and ground floor retail will be created on two blocks of historic buildings along Woodward Avenue.

The project is moving along. The facades are being cleaned and repaired. On the inside, windows are being installed. I also saw some countertops out on the sidewalk, so some of the units must have already had their kitchens installed.

A view made possible by the Hudson's demolition. It appears that they will build a building to bridge the gap in the block very soon.

Another view made possible by the demolition of Hudson's. I hope they build something on the site soon. The city spent millions of dollars converting the four basements of Hudson's into an underground parking garage. You'd think they'd want to put a building on top of it soon.

Some Compuware employees taking a break while observing the transformations occuring on Woodward Avenue.

Kern's Clock has finally returned to its place on Woodward Avenue. The clock was originally on Kern's Department Store until the building was demolished in the 1960s. Today the Compuware Building occupies the site.

David Stott Building

Book Tower from Capitol Park.

Part One

Part Two

Part Four

[bobliocatt]

Detroit has so much architectural character, its unbelievable.

[Brickell]

That's what I was just thinking as well. Glad to see some of the buildings getting saved. I never realized the depth and variety of buildings there. Definitely a lot of potential.

[SNWEB]

gotta love that terra cotta, metro-building has a lot of on the top.

[Allan]

Yeah, the metropolitan is one of my favorites. It's in a great location too. I'll be looking to move to downtown or midtown in four years, so hopefully they will have finally gotten the lofts constructed by then. Apparently the DDA & the developer have not been able to reach favorable terms for the sale of the building yet, even though the city supposedly "sold" the building last year.