Another building to be demolished for more parking

[bobliocatt]

Grand Trunk Building being demolished

10 story building will be torn down for a parking garage's expansion

[Allan]

This really pisses me off. Will Detroit EVER learn? The Detroitblog guy toured this building a few days ago.

http://detroitblog.blogspot.com/

Fortunately, the Olde Building on Campus Martius will be spared, and turned into residential lofts. Or at least that's what I've heard through the rumor mill.

I'm not quite as angry about this as I am about the Statler though. At least this one is going for a reason: an ugly expansion of an ugly parking garage. The Statler doesn't have any plans other than a parking lot.

[Allan]

These pics are from DougW at the Fab Ruins forum. They were taken yesterday, so it looks like there will still be something there for me to take pics of when I'm downtown tomorrow morning.

The view from C-Mart. The building is directly behind the Olde Building.

[Ivory Tower]

beautiful building, what a shame.

[Brickcity]

What a waste

[wolfdawg54]

That is a shame. I wish that Detroit would learn.

[Allan]

That is a shame. I wish that Detroit would learn.

We all do! Detroit will never learn with the current leaders running the city though, that's for sure. A lot of Detroit's "tear it all down" attitude has come along because of the Super Bowl. If you ask me, tearing so many buildings down to impress people for a football game is a bad idea.

Here's the Super Bowl teardown list:

Statler Hotel - Coming down this August after being vacant since 1974. The city has manipulated numbers to make the building look unattractive to developers, just so they'd have a reason to tear it down. How anybody an call it an "eyesore" is beyond me! Unfortunately, it will soon become a parking lot.

Madison-Lenox Hotel - Supposedly will be torn down before the Super Bowl, but the owner, Mike Ilitch (owner of Little Ceasar's pizza), did not prove to the Historic Commission that the structure was not salvagable. However, the city wants it torn down ASAP. I have a feeling this will be tied up in court a while.

Cass Tech High School - Historic School being demolished next year for a parking lot.

However, there is a bright spot in the future, and that is midtown Detroit. I'm hoping to get some photos of the area tomorrow.

[bobliocatt]

All of those beautiful buildings will be missed. R.I.P.

[wolfdawg54]

Can the citizens do anything to save their old buildings? If so, they should DO IT!

[Allan]

Can the citizens do anything to save their old buildings? If so, they should DO IT!

Detroiters are doing all they can do. Fortunately the city has no money. If the city had the money, the Statler, the Boderick, the Whitney, United Artists, National Theater, Book-Cadillac Hotel, the Free Press Building, and many others would be long gone by now.

[SNWEB]

This really pisses me off.

[SNWEB]

Also another bad thing about the grant trunk being demo'd

Designed by Albert Kahn, such a shame with the terra-cotta and work on the top of it

[Allan]

A pit and a gravel parking lot are still essentially the same thing, however. Both mean the loss of a historic structure, and another gigantic hole in Detroit's urban fabric.

The Grand Trunk Building is owned by the company the which restored the Dime Building across the street. Vacancy rates at the Dime Building are around 30%, and they hope that having a dedicated parking garage will help boost their occupancy rate. Apparently they looked into converting the GT into residences, but were unsucessful.

[baldy]

They did a great job of remodeling the dime building! It is in a highly visable local (Campus Martius) and is a great showcase of Detroit's historic buildings. It also doesn't hurt that it was designed by Daniel Burnham!

Is the building to the right the grand trunk? I don't think they should have any parking directly around the Campus. This is supposed to be a highlight of the downtown and they really need to show case Detroit. I think the Dime and Compuware make for a nice blend of old and new.

[Allan]

The building to the right is the GT. I agree about not having parking right around C-Mart. But leave it to Detroit to put all kinds of parking garages right in the heart of downtown. We already have more than enough parking....people are just too lazy to walk more than about 50 feet from their car to their office.

[Allan]

Demolition of the Grand Trunk Building Continues.....

Actually, this is from two weeks ago. I believe it's down to three floors now.

[Allan]

Another one bites the dust!

This time it's the Freud Building, just north of 1001 Woodward. The Freud, Hughes and Hatcher, and two other buildings are being prepped for demoltion right now. Oh, and did I mention that they are putting a parking garage in its place? Doesn't this city have enough parking already?

The good news is that at least this will have ground floor retail, and the garage is being engineered to support 8-10 stories of office or residential space above it in the future. Still, I don't like the idea of having a parking garage right there, but thers isn't a whole lot I can do about that.