An Afternoon Walk Through Downtown Detroit

[Allan]

A walk through Downtown, Part IV of IV

Looking toward the Penobscot

Griswold Street

Clifford Street towards Woodward Avenue

Griswold Street (and the back of Merchant's Row)

Looking up Washington Boulevard towards Grand Circus Park. Washington is receiving a makeover to get rid of the pedestrain mall put in place during the 1970s.

Park Place Apartments

The Statler Hotel

Looking south down Washington Boulevard

Book Tower

SBC Michigan Headquarters

The Austin Powers Goldmember Limousine was parked on Times Square.

The United Artists Building, another run down, Ilitch-owned property

The Kales Building renovation continues

Looking north up Park Avenue

The Broderick Tower & David Whitney Building on Grand Circus Park

Looking south down Park Avenue towards the Statler Hotel

Detail of a building on Park Avenue

The Ioden Building on Park Avenue

The Detroit Building, yet another run-down, Ilitch owned building. Ilitch has always planned to demolish the building, but apparently he is not in any big hurry.

Washington Boulevard

Looking towards the Free Press Building

Looking towards the Stott Tower

The Griswold Building

The Rear of the Book Cadillac Hotel. The cleanup work on the building has resumed, but the building's fate is uncertain.

The Washinton Boulevard Apartments

Capitol Park

Looking down Michigan Avenue

Comerica & other downtown buildings

1001 Woodward

The David Stott Building

Looking south from the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Griswold Street

First National Bank Building

I hope you all enjoyed the tour!

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

[bobliocatt]

Great four part thread! BTW, how many downtown buildings does Ilitch own?

[Allan]

Great four part thread!  BTW, how many downtown buildings does Ilitch own?

Thanks. Making this tour was the highlight of my spring break. I just had to get out of the house on such a nice day.

To answer your question, Ilitch owns the United Artists Building, the Detroit Building, and the Madison Lenox Hotel. I do not know of any other buildings he owns; maybe the other Detroit forumers know. He does not own many buildings because he has torn them down to make way for parking lots. For example, the old Tuller Hotel (next to the United Artists Building on Bagley Street) became a gravel parking lot in the mid 1990s. Ilitch owns quite a bit of land in the Foxtown area, where it is rumored that a new stadium for the Red Wings will be built when the Wings' contract to play at Joe Louis Arena runs out in 2008. However, I have heard of no concrete plans regarding this. Honestly, I don't think Ilitch has a clue what he is going to do with all these buildings & land he owns. They just sit there rotting away, and will probably continue to do so until a developer shows up with the outrageous amount of money he wants for the buildings, or until they have deteriorated to the point that they are a safety hazard and must be demolished. Thus far, he seems proccupied with satisfying the "parking demand downtown." This is probably the worst excuse I've ever heard for demolishing a building in the city, as everyone knows there is plenty of parking in the downtown area. I have never had any problem finding a parking place. The problem is that many (or more accurately, most) Detroiters expect the suburban convenience of parking right outside their destination. People these days are just too lazy to walk a few blocks, despite the fact that a bit of exercise wouldn't hurt them. Besides, the People Mover is always available, and it does cost only $.50 to ride.

[Chow]

Heh, the "Ioden" building is really the Iodent Building, of Iodent toothpaste fame. The "T" is missing.

[Allan]

Haha, you're right. I looked on the high resolution photos of the building, and I can see the outline of the "T". I just need to pay for attention when making tours. I didn't even know that the Iodent brand had any connection to Detroit, actually.

Are there any plans for the building? And who owns it? Not Ilitch, I hope. Park Avenue needs some major help. It appears that the entire area is abandoned. The only reason there was any people on Park Avenue when I was there was because of the Tiger's game going on nearby. I did notice a few places where sealed up entries to a couple of the buildings had been smashed in, and I heard people inside one of the buildings...that was enough to keep me away!

[Allan]

Ok, I found info on the building in a Detroit News article from 01/29/04

Sean Harrington, who owns the Park Avenue Building and the Iodent Building, plans to make improvements as part of a $500,000 restoration of the Iodent

[boo]

Allan - you see more of downtown than i do- and i live + work here!

I would recommend doing some of the preservation wayne walking tours that happen in the summer: http://www.preservationwayne.org/tours.htm. They are a great opportunity to meet people and see the city and to go places where you otherwise do not have access, such as the top of the penobscot.

d.

[Allan]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind for the summer. I've always wanted to do a preservation Wayne tour, but they are never at convenient times. They will be much easier for me to make once I move down to Southfield though.

It's funny that you say I see more of downtown than you, because even I haven't seen the whole thing!

[wolverine]

Nice pics Allan.

As you can see, I finally joined!

Go Barry Sanders Project!

[Allan]

Welcome to the forum!

BTW, for those of you who don't know, the Barry Sanders Project is a project that many Detroit area Simtropolis members are doing to try & recreate Detroit using Sim City 4. We've got a long way to go though...we've still got to get the buildings made with the building architect tool. It's too bad that I don't know how to use the BAT

[DruidCity]

Plenty of grit, but some really nice architecture, if fixed up...

The Kales Building reminds me of the City Federal building in downtown Birmingham.

[Allan]

It does resemble the City Federal Building. The Kales Building was actually the headquarters of the Kresge Corporation, which was the forerunner to K-Mart.

And we're trying to fix up our buildings, but things are happening very slowly. I've been contacting developers to see what the status on many of the projects in downtown Detroit is, so hopefully I'll have some kind of an update in the next week or so. Detroit needs to go loft crazy to draw people back into the city center.

[dnast]

I'm a little late, but great tour! I think I only saw part 1 when you first posted these. You really covered a lot of downtown.

[Allan]

Thanks. I moved pretty quickly throughout the city, but I still have missed some areas of downtown. I will make a tour of those areas when I go downtown for the Penobscot observation deck on July 20. I hope to cover midtown the same day. Of course, it all depends on if I can drag myself out of bed so I can be down there by about 8 AM.

[JCOSU86]

I was wondering if any of you native Detroiters could help me out. I am trying to solve a puzzle on this internet site (http://www.deepsixchallenge.com). It has a map of Detroit (I figured out this much) with a star and the clue is "Final Performance" (last name). Here is the map:

Can anyone tell me what is on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Griswold Street? A theater? A sports venue? Thanks.

[hudkina]

Pretty much nothing.

You have an empty lot at the northwest corner, the 1001 Woodward building at the northeast corner, the Coney Islands at the Southwest corner, and a new office building under construction at the southeast corner.

[rbdetsport]

I was wondering if any of you native Detroiters could help me out. I am trying to solve a puzzle on this internet site (http://www.deepsixchallenge.com). It has a map of Detroit (I figured out this much) with a star and the clue is "Final Performance" (last name). Here is the map:

Can anyone tell me what is on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Griswold Street? A theater? A sports venue? Thanks.

That is the Lafayette Building (Abandoned). Or it could be one of the coney islands. Either American Coney Island or Lafayette Coney Island.

[rbdetsport]

Looking at those pictures from a year and a half ago shows me how far Detroit has come. GO DETROIT!!!!!

[wolverine]

Oh crap, I just drove through that intersection about an hour and a half ago.

There's a Coney Island as mentioned.

A giant ad with 50 Cent.

Sound like neither of those will help.

Yeah, Detroit has come far since some of those photos except some of those buildings are now leveled to the ground.

[JCOSU86]

I found the answer. The intersection of those two streets is the site of the old Detroit Opera House. Harry Houdini gave his last performance there. Houdini was the answer. I appreciate your help anyway.