Detroit Photo of the Day

[dtown]

Well i sorta knew that, i guess what i meant to say, it why are they above as opposed to below? It seems like when thye put the tracks in, probobly early 1900s, they wouldve put them under, because of the more dense type of development that was taking place, not to mention the ammount of noise it must make. I guess it looks sorta jerry rigged to me. Ive seen tracks like this before, in flint. The tracks are up, but the road has dip a little to get under it, and it still only has like 13' of clearance.

Edited January 18, 2007 by dtown

[RustTown]

It's more expensive to take it below-grade. I never really thought of it because it from what I've seen, it seems as if its always been far more common to see them above-grade than below-grade.

Edited January 18, 2007 by Lmichigan

[wolverine]

Wow, it looks like someone dropped a bomb in that other photo

Edited January 18, 2007 by wolverine

[dtown]

Well, ive seen them before, in Flint actually, where they are just depressed, like a freeway. Then the road has a bridge over them, forming sortof a small gulley. IDK,just seems like it would be easier to dig out than to add dirt.

Anyway, back to the photos...

[hudkina]

An example of a below-grade route is the old Dequindre Cut just east of downtown/midtown.

[dtown]

Yeah, thanks for providing an example.

PS- arent they/didnt they going to turn that into a rail trail?

Edited January 19, 2007 by dtown

[hudkina]

I'm not sure if it has been completed, but I believe they started something...

[ltdave]

this must be a mechanical room for an elevator...

how cool is this!? you dont see too many pics of these rooms...

thanks

david

[RustTown]

Looks like it could be the Whitney Building elevator penthouse/machine room.

[Allan]

It is the lowest (and largest) of the elevator penthouses (the other two elevator mechanical rooms are up one more floor). It looks like this was taken before the scrappers disassembled the elevator motors last summer.

[dtown]

Scrappers! Oh well, i guess the motors were probly bad anyway. Are there any plans for the Whitney?

[wolverine]

Yeah on my first viist I actually recall the elevator equipment working. There were lights blinking and a low hum in that room. On my return visit, it was dead silent, and the control panels, once a lit up with life had wires hanging out of them. What a shame.

[Allan]

Heck, on my first visit, the elevator inspection tags inside the cabs were still valid!

[Michi]

Security has also been heightened. In addition to entrances being sealed, there are guards parked in cars on the sidewalk on Washington Blvd. Must be an expensive security method given zero profit of the building.

[Allan]

Unfortunately, the security is a little too late. I tried in vain all summer long to try to get the owners to seal the place up, but it didn't work too well. The building was pristine on my first visit. On a return trip the very next day, many things had already been smashed/stolen. With the matter of another week, the hole building turned into a hobo hotel. Between the hobos and the scrappers the place got pretty trashed (although some floors have been trashed for years - the Whitney needed a lot more than the coat of paint before it could reopen). I guess that's just what happens when you have an abandoned building with unlocked doors in downtown Detroit. There was once a time when you could actually take a stroll though the building...enter on Woodward and exit via the door on Park or a board on Washington. One would've thought that the building was still occupied by the amount of traffic it received!

[wolverine]

Maybe they should lock the woodward side then oops! That building is a sponge.

At least the UA has been resealed.

[Aaron]

I recently got a hold of Renaissance Man, a 1994 Danny DeVito flick written by U-M screenwriting professor Jim Berstein (also of Mighty Ducks 3 infamy.) DeVito's character is an advertising exec for a firm in Detroit before he's fired and gets a job teaching dim-bulb army recruits Shakespeare. Anyway, the first several scenes have some interesting early 90s shots of downtown, so I though I'd post them.

The west side of Woodward, much as it looks today. I would have loved to see the east side, though, since it has all been demolished for Comerica Park and the surface lots in front of it. Notice Hudson's on the far left.

The Corner.

Downtown west, with the recently-demolished People's Outfitting Building sporting a bright Newport cigarette ad.

A closeup of the ad.

The Coney Islands.

The northwest corner of Michigan and Griswold, featuring the Kinsel's drugstore building, demolished in 2001. Here it appears to be hosting a Taco Bell on the first floor. This block, along with the formerly-adjacent People's Outfitting Building, is going to be filled with a parking garage (with condos) for the Book-Cadillac.

Danny DeVito looking even shorter than he really is alongside a suspicious amount of foot traffic.

[RustTown]

Hamtown courtesy of Hamtramck Star ():

Joseph Campau

Vacant Greater Detroit Hospital

Polish Day Parade 2006

Labor Day Fesitval 2006

Bangladesh-American March 2006

[RustTown]

Book-Cadillac 1935 courtesy of Detroit News:

[Zissou]

Wow really cool shot.

[tapezord]

from this saturday... kind of fun to watch Demolition when you know something cool will replace it.

[Zissou]

Still sad we are losing some of our history though, regardless of how cool the development replacing it is going to be.

[dtown]

Nice shot! How long until the whole building is gone?

[tapezord]

probably a month or two. It is not a fast process by any means.

I will yield to the preservationists as I am one for the most part... for whatever reason though, this building never did anything for me... too simple I guess.

Edited January 30, 2007 by tapezord

[Michi]

I guess it's just the sentimental place in history and it's significance. That being Detroit just doesn't build midrise office structures like this "out of the blue" any more. I suppose it's the fact that it is a nondescript building that just lays low is what makes it so cool and appreciated.