Downtown Detroit Part 4

[Allan]

Intersection of Woodward Avenue & John R Street

Looking down Griswold toward the David Stott Building & the Penobscot Building

The United Artists Theater is known for its colorful window paintings

David Whitney Building from Grand Circus Park

Looking towards the Pick-Fort Shelby Hotel from Washington Boulevard

Book Tower, with all the communications equipment on the top. It might not be pretty, but it provides extra income so that the owner can make further improvements to the building.

United Artists Theater

Park Place Apartments

Book Cadillac Hotel. Let's hope the city can finalize the deal to get this renovated.

Washington Boulevard Apartments. The roadwork seen in the pic will return Washinton Boulevard back into a boulevard. In the 1970s, half of the street was turned into a pedestrian mall, which instead of helping to revitalize the area, ended up hurting the businesses, all of which eventually closed.

Penobscot Building

Congress Street

Marquette Building

Buhl Building

Shelby Street

600 Woodward Avenue, a.k.a. the Vinton Building

One Woodward Building

Guardian Building

Griswold Street

And now we're back to where we started: the Renaissance Center. I hope you enjoyed the tour!

[Neo]

Great photos Allan! So much potential in Detroit, I really hope things change for the city.

[Allan]

Yeah, I'm hoping things change. I'm going downtown tomorrow....I hope to see some improvements. Even minor improvements for Detroit are great ones. The city has declined far too long...it's about time to see things change for the better.

[bobliocatt]

Great pics of downtown Detroit. Any renovation plans for the United Artist Building?

[Allan]

None that I know of. Apparently Ilitch wants to let it rot away until there's nothing left so that he can tear it down for another parking lot. That certainly wouldn't surprise me. That's too bad too, because it's a nice building. I've seen interior shots. The hallways of the building are paneled in marble.

[boo]

it would be nice to see the vinton building (600 woodward) restored- it is on a busy corner and would be a great location and size for lofts.

what amazes me about seeing pictures of downtown detroit, and then walking through it, is the difference. in pictures it looks so urbane and dense but when you walk through it looks anything but.

great pictures. d.

[Allan]

The Vinton Building is being sold for redevelopment in June. It would be an awesome building for lofts. It has a great location...right in the very heart of downtown Detroit in the shadows of the CBD skyscrapers. I'd love to live there! I can just imagine it now...ground floor retail & lofts on the upper 15 floors. It will really happen too, just as long as Ilitch doesn't get his hands on the building! I'm going downtown tomorrow, so hopefully by this time tomorrow you'll have even more pics to look at.

The radial street grid certainly has a lot to do with how the city looks. Just imagine how suburban the city would look if we didn't have the diagonal streets! Detroit needs infill BAD (and while the city needs infill, it plans to take down the Statler).

BTW, welcome to the forum, boo!