Detroit Photo of the Day

[Allan]

Friday, February 4, 2005

The rapidly deteriorating Lenox portion of the Madison Lexox Hotel

[SNWEB]

Great color on the Library pic.

Never noticed the stipping of the detail at the bottom of the Lenox pics. *sigh*

[Allan]

Saturday, February 5, 2005

I wandered into Broderick Tower about 2:00 this morning and took this photo of the lobby. The elevators are on the right. The reception desk is on the left, and the building directory still hangs on the wall.

[Allan]

Sunday, February 6, 2005

Ford Field on a foggy Saturday night. If Detroit adds more hotel rooms by June 1st, the stadium will host the Super Bowl next year.

[dnast]

That shot of Ford Field is awesome! That is a great looking stadium.

...and do you mean the Super Bowl is not guaranteed to be in Detroit?? What new hotel space will come by June 1?

[Allan]

The Super Bowl is not guaranteed to be in Detroit. The city made a lot of promises when they were awarded the game, and they have not fulfilled them. The NFL has told the city that they must add more hotel rooms by June 1, 2005, or they will move the Super Bowl to another city. Detroit simply does not have the hotel room capacity that they need to host the event. There are no new hotels scheduled to come online between now and June. There is still time, but the clock is ticking.

[Allan]

Monday, February 7, 2005

Kern's Clock shortly after 1:00 Saturday morning.

[Brother Ray]

There are no new hotels scheduled to come online between now and June.  There is still time, but the clock is ticking.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They can always dock two cruise ships in the frozen Detroit River and use them for hotel rooms like Jacksonville did this weekend. I find it utterly amazing how this city can not make progress related to new hotels anymore. All promises and no action/results. Sad.....

BTW - How's the new police headquarters coming along? **sigh**

- BR

[detroitfan]

The city is not going to lose the SuperBowl. The NFL wouldn't have agreed to hold it in the city unless there was enough hotel in meto area in the first place. The NFL requires 17,500 rooms within a 60 mile area we have more than 35,000 within Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties alone.

[Allan]

I had heard that the NFL threatened to move the Super Bowl from a source in the news media. I'm not sure what sort of truth there is to that, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if they moved it. So many broken promises...welcome to Detroit!

[detroitfan]

That rumor proves how stupid the media is in this town. It took me less than five minutes to find out that we already had enough hotel rooms. Not to mention, we've know for well over a year that the casino hotels and the book-cadillac wouldn't be ready. If the NFL was going to move the game they would've moved it already.

It is sad though that city didn't get more hotel rooms, but the city for once isn't at fault. The casinos are still tied up court. The tightwad banks don't help the situation if weren't for them we'd have a hotel in David Whitney Building. The IRS is holding up the Book-Caddy on a tax credit, it just seems like this city can't catch a break.

Edited February 7, 2005 by detroitfan

[Allan]

There is still no denying that there is a shortage of close in hotel rooms for the event. The core tri-county area has approximately 34,500 hotel rooms, and they are expecting 120,000 people in town for the event. The Super Bowl committee is prepared to send people to hotels in Toldeo and Ann Arbor to get rooms. However, downtown cannot support another hotel. There just isn't the market to fill up the rooms, and it's silly to add hotels just for this event. On any given night, approximately 56% of the hotel rooms downtown are full. That is 59% below the national average. Hotels like that number to be about 65% before they think about adding new hotels to an area. I would be surprised if the permanent casinos and hotels ever got off the ground. If they did, I just can't see them adding three new hotels to downtown, especially if the Book Cadillac ever gets done. The Whitney was supposed to become a Hard Rock hotel, but they couldn't get the financing. I know people who have been inside the Whitney, and the building is trashed above the 4th floor. The exterior is in good shape, since the owners have made an effort to keep the exterior maintained, but the upper floors are bad. It's certainly salvageable, but at a price. The lower four floors were restored in the 1980s, and there were shops on the ground floor until recently.

[Allan]

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

The Penobscot Building from Campus Martius Park

[Allan]

Wednesday, February 9, 2005

The newly renovated Kales Building from Grand Circus Park.

[Allan]

Thursday, February 10, 2005

I have really been coasting on the photo of the day lately. I haven't really taken photos of anything other than Broderick Tower in two weeks, with the exception of a few photos I took around Campus Martius about 1:00 AM last Saturday (except that I got distracted and ended up exploring Broderick Tower until 3:00 AM). Now that I have walked through every room on every floor of that building, it is time for a comprehensive tour. But first, here is a sneak preview: The view looking north from last night.

[Allan]

Friday, February 11, 2005

A late night at the corner of Griswold & Michigan, the home to American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island.

[dnast]

Those night shots came out great! Did you use a tripod?

[Allan]

Thanks, dnast!

I use a tripod on all of my night shots. I find it absolutely essential for night photography. If I wanted to use the auto mode without the flash I could survive without one, but for $25 it was definately worth it. It was especially helpful inside the Broderick, where I had to do exposures of up to 15 seconds at times, or when I wanted to take the same exact photo using different settings.

[Allan]

Saturday February 12, 2005

The Compuware Building at night. I got kicked out of Campus Martius Park after I took this shot. Apparently the park closes at 11:00 PM. Even more surprising was that there was actually a guard around at 1:00 AM to enforce the hours. After I had been kicked out, I looked back and saw a tiny little fold out sign that said "Park Closed." That is supposed to keep people out? Haha.

[Allan]

Sunday, February 13, 2005

The Lofts at Merchants Row are nearing completion. Some tenants have already moved in, and the ground floor retail spaces are under construction.

[Allan]

Monday, February 14, 2005

The Belle Isle Conservatory on a sunny winter day.

[Allan]

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

By summer, the Statler Hotel should be gone, leaving a massive scar in the urban landscape of the city.

[Allan]

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Yet another grey Michigan day, this time in the Harmonie Park area.

[Allan]

Thursday, February 17, 2005

The GM Winter Garden from the Riverwalk. After I had taken about 50 photos of the complex from various angles, a security guard came out of the Ren Cen, ran across Atwater and onto the Riverwalk to tell me that I couldn't take any more photos. Unfortunately for him, he caught me right when I was finishing.

[Allan]

Friday, February 18, 2005

Over the weekend, the Scovel Memorial Presbyterian Church on Grand River burned. Constructed in 1898, Henry and Clara Bryant Ford once attended the church. The church closed in 1977. Now all that is left is a few brick walls and some weak steel roof supports that could fall at any moment.