Downtown Detroit

Detroit News blogger shares view from 40 stories up

By Newsroom

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May 12, 2009

On top of the Guardian Building with the Detroit News and the photos are stunning.Except:One of ArchBlogger's longstanding desires was fulfilled on a sunny day a week ago when he finally scored access to the Guardian Building's 40th story roofdeck. Many thanks to the Sterling Group, which manages the building, for the chance, and the really great tour by facilities manager Rick Hohn. Just getting to the roof was deeply satisfying. You take the main elevator up to a very high floor. Then switch to a smaller, upper-stories-only elevator (it reminded A.B. a bit of the World Trade Center, which had the same idea), with the last several stories accessible only by stairway. Then you open the door, light floods in, and -- bam! -- all Detroit lays itself out at your feet. Alas, the roof isn't open to the public.Read the entire article here.

Model D TV: A Look Inside Roast

By Tom Hendrickson

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General

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May 12, 2009

Want more Roast? Check out the Detroit hot spot with Model D TV in this week's video clip.

Better schools a key to a better Detroit, Detroit News says

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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May 12, 2009

Better schools are key to helping to attract families to the city, the Detroit News says.Excerpt:Hotels, rail systems, stadiums, even public housing cannot refill Detroit's neighborhoods if families see no future for their children south of Eight Mile. Infrastructure crumbles in time. An educated child grows, prospers and bears another generation of educated citizens. That's why Congress and the Obama administration should create a federally-funded pilot program for private and charter schools in Detroit. Funding of perhaps $5,000 per student could go to any Detroit child attending a school within city limits. The federal involvement would overcome the state constitutional ban on government funding for K-12 private schools and the cap on charter schools. The location requirement would help build neighborhood schools and redevelop neighborhoods. Read the entire article here.

What to Pair with Pork: Roast Chef Michael Symon Dishes on Drinking, Dining and Detroit

By Joe Posch

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General

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May 12, 2009

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.

13 people share why they love Detroit to CNNMoney.com

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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May 12, 2009

Thirteen people tell CNN why they love Detroit.Excerpt from what Leor Barak had to say:Why I love Detroit: We have a lot of challenges here, but people are taking advantage of what we have. I think alternative land use is going to be a big part our future. People are using open spaces for urban farming, greenways and tree farms right in the middle of the city. It shows how we can use what we have and make something that's not only new, but also beautiful and useful. This city has a lot to give.Read the entire article here.

The Art Deco masterpiece Guardian Building turns 80

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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May 12, 2009

The architecturally stunning Guardian Building turns 80.Excerpt:The Guardian Building, downtown Detroit's art deco "Cathedral of Finance," is celebrating its 80th birthday this year. Forty stories of architectural delirium, the orange brick pile at Griswold and Congress streets opened in the heady days just before the 1929 stock market crash.Yet the optimism surrounding its inauguration was short-lived. Just 11 months later, the financial company that built it -- the Union Trust -- would go down in flames, after the stubbornness of one Henry Ford scuttled a government rescue package.Of Detroit's three great art deco skyscrapers from the late '20s, architect Wirt Rowland's Guardian is neither the tallest -- that falls to the Penobscot Building, also by Rowland -- nor as well-known as Albert Kahn's Fisher Building.The Guardian, however, trumps its more subdued cousins in sheer visual extravagance, from the exterior brick color -- matched to one of Rowland's drawing pencils -- to the visual riot of Pewabic and Rookwood tile both outside and in. Take the stairs up to the five-story upper lobby, passing through an "altar screen" topped by a Tiffany clock, and you can't help feeling that you've entered some glittering cathedral. Read the entire article here.

Tourist comes to Detroit, leaves with love

By Newsroom

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General

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May 12, 2009

NCAA's Final Four brought in a lot of out of towners and here's one that decided to write about it.Excerpt:I was seeing your city as a guest and not a resident; I can’t speak to the stupid political decisions or the inadequacies of automotive executives as compared to bank executives.But I do know this: The nation needs cities such as yours. It needs them to show us what we’ve been and what we can still be. I’ll be back, with my family in tow this time, and hopefully others who visited this past weekend will return to visit your stadiums and museums and casinos and restaurants. Maybe the picture will be clearer then, the contradictions erased through hard work and by implementing a shared vision. Until then, hang in there, Detroit. You have to, for all our sakes.Read the entire article here.

Passionate Detroiter Jim Boyle answers a few questions

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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May 12, 2009

Jim Boyle - you may remember him from his answer to Mitch Albom's "And yet..." piece - answer a few questions about his city.Excerpt:The youngest of four sons of born-and-bred Detroiters, Boyle says his passion and commitment to the city is hard to avoid. “The people are out of their minds and pull you in.”Not that it’s easy championing a city with problems that are routinely trumpeted in the national media. “I have my days, but I can really see how far its come since I moved here and how great it can be if we pull it all together.”Eight months ago, Boyle, 39, accepted a vice president of integrated marketing position at Lovio George Inc., where he helps clients like United Solar Ovonic, the world’s largest producers of flexible solar panels, and Midtown Detroit, communicate their value through marketing programs.Lately, Boyle’s been working with the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy to open the Dequindre Cut on May 14; The Parade Co. on the Target Fireworks on June 24; launching new creative positioning for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra brochures and blog; and promoting a new cocktail hour for Michael Symon’s Roast starting May 11.Read the entire article here.

Film incentives offer Detroit an economic boom during auto crisis, TIME magazine writes

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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May 5, 2009

The film industry is poised to pick up some of the slack of the faltering auto industry.Excerpt:It's a picture-perfect New York City moment, and it's only after the director yells "Cut!" that you'd notice that the façade over Gallagher's right shoulder is in fact the 100-year-old Ford Building in downtown Detroit. This scene, along with every other from the legal drama Betty Anne Waters, starring Hilary Swank, is being filmed in Michigan, the new Hollywood of the Midwest. Other states, including New Mexico and Louisiana, have long wooed producers with tax incentives. And for a few years, it seemed as if every "New York" movie was filmed in either Vancouver or Toronto. But the Canadian exchange rate doesn't favor Hollywood anymore, and Michigan's tax rebate of up to 42% for productions that hire locally is the most generous in the country. Nearly 70 movies — including Clint Eastwood's 2008 hit Gran Torino — have been shot or been scheduled to be filmed here since the state passed its tax breaks last April. In 2007 film crews spent about $4 million in Michigan. Last year that figure was more than $100 million, and it could quadruple in 2009. (See pictures of Michigan's film industry.)Read the entire article here.

Next American City looks at ways to take Detroit’s historical assets in a new direction

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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May 5, 2009

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.