We need new solutions and new ways of looking at space and design, says architect and professor Craig Wilkins, director of U-M's Detroit Community Design Center. His lens: hip hop.
When the Iron Chef invites you for a cocktail, it's wise to say yes. We find out what celebrity chef and now Detroit restaurateur Michael Symon likes in his cocktail glass at his new Book Cadillac restaurant, Roast.
Demolition isn't the only answer for Detroit's historical, and sometimes vacant, assets.Excerpt:The most frustrating thing for urbanists is that there is so little rhyme or reason to how the city disposes of these buildings. With no plan for replacement, the creeping creation of vacant lots in the name of “much needed” parking or blight removal is insidious. Since 1998, the city has spent at least $50 million to demolish well over two million square feet of Detroit heritage. To the surprise of many, Detroit’s interim mayor Kenneth Cockrel put “on hold” the imminent demolition of the Lafayette Building after receiving numerous calls and letters. He committed to “reconsider” the building and work with the preservation community to see if redevelopment or a strategy of mothballing is feasible. Meanwhile, Detroit’s embattled city council voted earlier this month (with the mayor’s blessing) to use economic stimulus money to demolish Michigan Central and stick the gratuitously negligent billionaire owner, Matty Moroun, with the bill.Read the entire article here.
Model D Radio's Chris Mccarus reports for the BBC on the Heidelberg Project.Listen here.
Detroit's Michigan Central Station may get new life through billionaire's proposal.Excerpt:Moroun's Detroit International Bridge Co. issued a statement Friday saying it would submit its proposal to the General Services Administration next week for GSA to "acquire and develop" the site.Amid some confusion over whether that would involve an actual sale, a spokesman for Moroun said later Friday that the bridge company would lease the station but retain ownership.Moroun's offer came in response to a recent government solicitation of bids to lease almost 50,000 square feet of space in the Detroit area to house Department of Homeland Security offices for Customs and Border Protection personnel.Read the entire article here.
Cass Tech alum Gerald Wilson, 90, has been selected to write the piece "Detroit" for the Detroit International Jazz Festival in September.Excerpt:The Detroit International Jazz Festival has commissioned indefatigable 90-year-old composer and bandleader Gerald Wilson, who trained at Detroit's Cass Tech in the '30s, to write a big band piece entitled "Detroit" in honor of the festival's 30th anniversary. The premiere will take place at the Labor Day weekend event, Sept. 4-7 in downtown Detroit.The commission was among the latest details announced today, including the complete slate of national headliners.Wilson, who wrote for Jimmie Lunceford, Count Basie and Duke Ellington early in his career, has led his own Los Angeles-based big band for 45 years and is a leading voice in post-World War II big band jazz. He'll lead a band of Michigan musicians at the festival.Read the entire article here.
Detroit's curbside recycling pilot program to kick off in July.Excerpt:“We partnered with a number of these groups to have them at the table and be part of the planning process,” says Al Jordan, director of Detroit’s Department of Public Works, which will oversee the curbside recycling program.What they’ve conceived is a one-year pilot program which will operate in two Detroit neighborhoods, one on the west side and one on the east side, serving 15,000 homes in each. Eastside residents will receive an 18-gallon receptacle, collected manually every week. Westside residents will have a 96-gallon container which will be emptied by city trucks every other week.All recycled materials will be dumped at a transfer facility and then taken to Great Lakes Recycling in Roseville. Jordan says it’s too early and the program is too small to start looking at recycling as a source of revenue. But the long-term plan includes the receipt of a fair market price for our discarded paper, glass, metal and other materials.Read the entire article here.
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