Category: Architecture
Posted by Michael Hodges (The Detroit News) on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 8:15 PMCity of lights: Detroit at night
As has been noted, ArchBlogger has finally mastered -- manfully, he would like to say -- the art of the tripod and the shutter-release delay. This has enabled him to tackle a longtime ambition: nighttime photogaphy.
A.B. was out running around downtown several Sundays ago, on an evening that turned slightly balmy. The results follow below. A few of the pictures, if blown up very large, might not be crystal-sharp. A.B. did not note until late in the evening that the wind -- which was really gusting -- slapped A.B.'s camera strap all over the place. So even though the camera was duly affixed to tripod, he thinks the strap managed to jostle things all the same. He apologizes.
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The main branch of the Detroit Public Library, right across from the DIA in the city's grand example of City Beautiful planning. The library, by the way, is the only Detroit work by New York City architect Cass Gilbert, who also designed NY's Woolworth Tower and the U.S. Supreme Court building.
The mosaic tile work at the top of the arches is Pewabic, A.B. is told from one who ought to know.
A light on Washington Boulevard: the Westin Book-Cadillac glows like a gemstone at night, bringing at least some life to the moribund, if beautiful, thoroughfare. At this point, A.B. would like once again like to tip his hat to Cleveland's Ferchill Group, who took on the challenge of renovating a ruin of a building that had been vacant for decades in a city few others would bet on. Happily, they're said to be discussing other developments on the boulevard.
Who knew if the shutter exposure was slow enough that you'd catch the red, green AND yellow lights?
Detroit's nifty new central bus depot, at Cass and Michigan Avenues. Designed by New York City's Parsons Brinckerhoff firm, which handles a lot of urban infrastructure projects.
A.B. still thinks the MGM Grand Casino Hotel looks a lot like a toaster (thanks to his distinguished colleague Ray Stanczak for this insight), and he'd still like to know why they couldn't have done something better with the boxy mechanicals on the roof. Still, at night, it packs a little punch. By Hamilton Anderson Associates and SmithGroup, both of Detroit, and California-based Archavision.
The Penobscot at night -- lit up by a dramatically simple scheme that takes advantage of the Art Deco tower's setbacks and geometry. Wayne State's Jerry Herron, who now heads the Honors College but for years was the chair of American Studies, says flatly that the Penobscot lighting is the best example of real urbanism in Detroit. By Gary Woodall at Ann Arbor's Gary Steffi Lighting Design -- a tiny firm that seems to have done just about every big lighting project in Michigan from the Penobscot to the Michigan Capitol inside and out.
And finally we close with a mediocre shot that raises the question, "So -- London, Paris or Detroit?" The Wayne County Courthouse building -- now empty, or almost, as the county transfers its staff to the Guardian Building, which it recently bought. By Detroit architect John Scott, who also designed several of the houses on Ferry Street east of Woodward, including the central house at the uber-gorgeous Inn on Ferry Street, 84 East Ferry.
Category: Architecture
Posted by Michael Hodges (The Detroit News) on Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 12:07 PMA salute to DTE Energy
...for the cool reflecting pool in front of their downtown Detroit headquarters, perked up by three contemporary fountains -- and all nicely illuminated at night.
The waterworks in front of their Bagley office tower -- right across Third Street from the new MGM Casino and Hotel -- were part of a significant facelift the utility undertook over the past five or so years, which also included a soaring, all-glass addition that now encapsulates the lobby.
It's all very admirable -- and all a bit thrown to the winds, given the complete absence of foot traffic on Bagley. (Granted, there is some on Third, but those people are making a beeline for the casino.) In an ideal world, these sorts of design amenities should be in high pedestrian-traffic areas, so people can actually enjoy them at a slower pace than whipping by in the car. But what's a utility to do? Its building stands well apart from downtown.
Handling the project were Neumann/Smith Architects in Southfield, who seem to be behind half the cool new buildings around town. Cases in point? The new Ann Arbor YMCA and the Ernst & Young building on Campus Martius (the green-glass one), to name two. Grissim Metz Andriese Associates landscape design worked with N/S on the installation.
An elegant sight at night -- the fountains and reflecting pool in front of the upgraded DTE Energy tower in Detroit. [All photos by ArchBlogger.]
To the designers' credit, the fountains are designed to be comprehensible as you approach from a distance and whiz by at 40 mph. Each fountain "spigot" emerges from a freestanding square steel arch that reaches up maybe 15 feet or so. There are three fountains and arches in close succession, marching along DTE's entryway toward the new lobby facade, and the views -- particularly at night -- can be quite enchanting.
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Category: Architecture
Posted by Michael Hodges (The Detroit News) on Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 11:41 AMArchBlogger to speak in Royal Oak
ArchBlogger will give a lecture and slide show entitled "On Detroit Urbanism" at the Royal Oak Public Library Monday, Oct. 26. The program will run from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the library's Friends Auditorium, and is free.
The library is located at 222 E. 11 Mile Road. Questions? Call (248) 246-3700.
Category: Architecture
Posted by Michael Hodges (The Detroit News) on Sun, Oct 18, 2009 at 12:55 PMAh, the Fisher Building
ArchBlogger has lately mastered the tripod and the time-release shutter mechanism on his digital SLR. It's been sort of a slow learning curve.
This new skill lured him into the Fisher Building this past Saturday, up to the third floor overlook that rings the lobby. One is familiar with how muscular and striking the building is, particularly from the outside, but you forget how much delicacy is built into the design as well.
The Fisher Building lobby in Detroit's New Center.
Category: Architecture
Posted by Michael Hodges (The Detroit News) on Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 10:26 PMArchBlogger does Chicago
When ArchBlogger moved from Brooklyn to Detroit some 18 years ago, he thought, "This is excellent! Mid-way between Chicago and Toronto. I'll be in one of them every month."
Sadly, apart from a few quick business trips, that mostly didn't turn out to be the case. So over Labor Day, A.B. decided to remedy that, and do a little architectural touristing in the Windy City.
The Trib, of course.
And my oh my. The architecture, of course, is seminal. But in a more general sense, what a cool, gorgeous, over-favored city this is! "Overfavored" sort of like the song -- "God shed His grace on thee." And man. Did He. Tell me the truth -- was this city always this handsome, hip and rich?
Well, perhaps.
One nice development this trip is that for the first time A.B., who lived in Manhattan and Brooklyn in the late 80s early 90s -- and adored the city -- was able to see Chicago for itself, and not framed through his NYC lens.
The new, silvery Trump Tower -- not as God-awful as you'd think -- glinting behind the Carbide & Carbon Building.
A few compare-and-contrast observations:
- Chicago's side streets seem to be wider. In any case, there's just more air and light than in New York, where even streets with low-rise buildings -- nice parts of the Upper West Side, say -- feel a bit cramped. A.B. has always said Chicago is New York with adequate parking, but now he'd add "and additional sunlight."
Parking on the lower floors at Marina City -- you know, the stacked pancake towers (and darned good-looking too) right on the river.
- The El is interesting. A.B.'s seen pictures of New York before they took all the elevated trains down, mostly in the 30s and 40s, he thinks. And it's pretty clear that they often blighted the avenues they roofed over. Fourth Avenue near downtown Brooklyn is a good example. The elevated's buried now, but the avenue still -- or at least in 1991 when A.B. moved away -- felt scuzzy and a bit abused. But in Chicago, the El seemed to add so much drama - and there are SO many exciting sightlines all around -- that A.B. didn't resent the visual ceiling it effectively creates, and the way it interrupts some views.
The El.
(In Detroit, one of many things ArchBlogger holds against the People Mover -- he prefers "People Mover-ette" for the way it trivializes mass transit -- is how it blocks glorious sightlines up Woodward and other streets. All for a system that travels an irrational, loopy circle -- not the efficient straight lines of the El -- full of little zigs and zags that oftentimes make it no faster than walking.
Anyhow, the El felt more like drama and entertainment than an interruption -- a most-pleasant discovery.
- People smile more in Chicago. And while A.B. thinks New Yorkers often get a bad rap on this subject, the Midwesterners more polite, as well. All the same, while the crush of buildings is magnificent, A.B. did not get quite the electric exhilaration that New York induces -- almost, as it were, because Chicago's too pleasant. If New York gives him a palpable "on stage" thrill, by contrast Chicago was warmer and less jangling -- not a bad trade.
- Water plays a vastly cooler role in Chicago than its snooty eastern rival. The watery expanse around New York has its points, but everything on the other side is relatively far away. Vastly more intimate and visually dramatic is the way the Chicago River winds through and defines downtown downtown, the way it throws up outstanding bridges hither and yon, and the way far-sighted city planners (impossible to imagine in today's climate of extreme hostility to government spending) thoughtfully equipped the riverbank with handsome waterside sidewalks on two or three different levels, the lowest right at the water with the waterbug taxis zipping by.
Urban planning of the most civilized sort -- and vastly nicer, at least in terms of riverfronts, than anything in New York (though to be fair, New York's use of its lower Hudson riverfront on the West Side has improved a great deal in the past 15 years).
One of the highlights of the trip was visiting William Zbaren and Robert Sharoff, the architectural photographer and writer, respectively, who produced the great book on Detroit that Wayne State University Press published several years ago, "American City."
The other highlight was taking the Chicago Architecture Foundation boat tour one sunny morning, which was 90 minutes of omigod views and fascinating, articulate history. ArchBlogger can't recommend it enough.
The Tribune Tower seen from the riverside.
Dazzling use of balconies as the dominant design feature.
On the Chicago Architecture Foundation river tour -- a way-cool experience for any visitor. At 10:30 a.m. that morning, fog started rolling in off Lake Michigan to great dramatic effect. That's the Trump Tower disappearing into the mists.
More fabulous balconies.
The fog starts to lift.
The Wrigley Building.
A.B. regrets he doesn't remember the name of this building on the south branch of the river, but he's still totally blown away by its modernist, monochromatic (or duochromatic) severity -- and the marvelous way the silver windows contrast with the surrounding carbon. Quintessential Chicago design, somehow.
A bucolic idyll on the river's north branch.
Category: Architecture
Posted by Michael Hodges (The Detroit News) on Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 4:16 AMDowntown Detroit under dramatic clouds
Gusty, tempestuous clouds drew ArchBlogger, camera clutched in hand, towards the New Center and downtown on Saturday. He spent a good long time with the Fisher Building, and then camped in his car at Cass and Charlotte, where there's a particularly good vista on the towers along the river.
The fruits of that labor follow below -- at least for now, mostly without comment.
The Fisher Building. [All photos by ArchBlogger.]
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The old General Motors Building, now State of Michigan offices since GM's move to Renaissance Center years ago.
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The recently renovated Westin Book-Cadillac Hotel catches a sliver of pre-sunset light. The Book Building looms left, while the Penobscot Building pokes its head above the hotel.
Cass & Charlotte.
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Downtown seen from a few blocks farther down Cass.
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Downtown from John R just north of the stadiums. The orange towers are, from left, the Guardian Building and the David Stott Building.
Category: Architecture
Posted by Michael Hodges (The Detroit News) on Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 7:15 PMHome-design guru Sarah Susanka to visit Detroit
Sarah Susanka, the architect who wrote the marvelous "Not So Big House" series of books, will be signing her newest title starting at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, at the grand opening of the new Marvin Design Gallery in Bloomfield Hills at 2350 Franklin Rd.
The new book is "Not-So-Big Remodeling: Tailoring Your Home for the Way You Really Live." Click here for a quick trip to her website.
The Raleigh-based designer writes as clearly and amusingly on architecture and design as anyone. Boiled down to its essentials, Susanka argues that anyone contemplating building a new house ought to consider taking the money from extra square footage and putting it into personalized built-ins, like bookshelves and breakfast nooks.
It's those details, she argues, that form the strongest and most-enduring bond between people and their home.
ArchBlogger caught up with Susanka for a chat, shortly before her arrival in Detroit.
ArchBlogger: Define the philosophy behind the "not-so-big house."
Susanka: Basically, a not-so-big house is one that re-apportions dollars out of square footage that's rarely used, and puts those into quality and character. I noticed when people came to my office to remodel or build a house, they almost always they defined things in terms of square footage and room names. And the first rooms out of their mouths were the ones they never used - formal entry, formal living room, and formal dining room.
In an informal poll, 85 percent of my clients admitted they never used their living room. It's just an idea they thought they should have.
A.B: So what's wrong with newer houses?
Susanka: One of things that makes people buy an older house, rather than new, is that they love those built-ins - the little wall inset by the front door for vase of flowers, etc. Those little special features are what make us feel at home. Both because of the efficiencies of construction after World War II - and getting into this house-on-steroids idea - we've forgotten that those small things make a difference.
In photos, a McMansion can look okay. But when you walk in, you realize it was made for giants. Most of us feel dwarfed. I tell people the two-story gallery and Palladian window are perfect for state capitols, not a house.
A.B: What options do people have for building charm into, say, a boxy little 1950s ranch?
Susanka: There are examples in the book of ranch houses that have been improved tremendously. A tip: One of the problems with a lot of ranches is that the ceilings are unrelievedly 8-feet tall. In many cases, you can't go higher without incurring real cost. I suggest dropping part of the ceiling at the end of the living room -- architects call this a soffit - two to three feet out from the wall.
It creates a little place for a computer desk or a couple seats. But more importantly, it shapes the space, so you begin to read the contrast between the ceiling heights. That way, your eye sees the 8-foot ceiling as taller than it really is. Plus, then you can add recessed lights to bring purpose to that wall. You can also add a light cove along the edge of the soffit to bounce light off the higher ceilng.
A.B: You've got a light, lovely accent. Where did you grow up?
Susanka: I grew up just outside London, in a little village called Knockholt. My family emigrated to Los Angeles in 1971 when I as 14 when my dad, who was kind of an inventor, got a job with the Mattel Toy Co. And my parents just loved LA. It's so funny. It's the antithesis of what they grew up with.
A.B: Who are your favorite architects?
Susanka: Frank Lloyd Wright. He coauthored a book in 1901 called "A House Beautiful," and it was all about how people don't use the parlor, so why build it? Additionally, I actually studied Japanese design - the same source Wright used.
I also love Louis Kahn. I think his work is sculptural and extraordinarily beautiful in how he uses space and light. I love Arthur Erickson,and I'm a big fan of (Spanish architect) Santiago Calatrava.
A.B: What are your favorite American cities?
Susanka: I very much like the smaller cities. I love Boulder. I like Asheville. In big cities, probably my favorite is Seattle. But I also love San Francisco and Boston - cities that have both terrain and history. Oh -- and Santa Barbara.
Category: Architecture
Posted by Michael Hodges (The Detroit News) on Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 3:22 PMNew Urbanism comes to Harbor Springs
ArchBlogger spied these admirable new cottages down a side street about a month ago while driving into Harbor Springs, Michigan's answer to New York's Hamptons.
The Bay Street Cottages, as they're called, turned out to be adorable, historic recreations of little lakeside houses that look like they were dropped out of the 1880s: clapboard-and-shingled charm up the wazoo, sweet front porches, gorgeous window details, appropriately steep gables, and two-part Dutch-style front doors.
In a particularly lovely touch, on some cottages they've even used the old-fashioned, interlocking shingles characteristic of houses 75 years ago.
[All photos by ArchBlogger]
The cottages cluster tightly around two small courtyards for a pedestrian-oriented, not to say slightly claustrophobic, ambience. The explicit aim, in good New Urbanist fashion, is to promote interaction with the neighbors.
Grand Rapids architect Robert Sears has, at least from the street (A.B. didn't get inside), done a lovely job recreating the feel of the last century. About the only criticism ArchBlogger could level is that these houses -- really freestanding condominiums -- are shoehorned into an incredibly small plot of land. If you don't mind having the neighbors within spitting distance, it's really a lovely little architectural cluster. If, however, your needs for privacy are greater than that, it's about as private as an apartment building.
What ArchBlogger regrets in general is that while he's come across other housing developments that invoke the New Urbanist principles first articulated by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk (and realized on a large scale in their development, Seaside, Fla.), he has yet to see these applied to Michigan town centers and retail strips.
The essence of New Urbanism has more to do with mixing retail and housing than just cute historicism. It's a bold effort to recapture the town-planning wisdom of the late 19th century, before the automobile elbowed every other consideration aside.
But A.B. has looked in vain for anything in Michigan that resembles New Albany, Ohio, Kentlands, Md., or Seaside, Fla. -- real efforts to integrate housing and commerce in a pedestrian-friendly environment.
Without the adjacent commerce, developments like Bay Street Cottages amount to little more than unusually pretty, old-fashioned subdivisions. This is no slam against Bay Street. It's a gorgeous, creative development. But ah, how A.B. would have loved it had they been able to work in a corner store or two with an apartment on top, based on good New Urbanist principles. (He well understands that, from available real estate to modern zoning restrictions, that was never in the cards.)
The cottages sell between $375,000 and about $600,000, the latter for three bedrooms with two baths. Association dues are about $4,000 a year. If this sounds like your ticket to paradise, contact Graham Real Estate in Harbor Springs.
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Category: Architecture
Posted by Michael Hodges (The Detroit News) on Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 6:05 PMCatch the Lafayette Building's windows -- fast
The Lafayette Building, a v-shaped structure across from the marvelously restored Book-Cadillac (Westin) Hotel, is doomed. The Detroit City Council, in its infinite wisdom, has decided it has to come down -- and that yet another dusty, empty lot with a fence around it is somehow preferable to a standing building.
The Lafayette Building, on Lafayette Boulevard at Shelby just west of Woodward Avenue.
Well, there's no accounting for taste, and the dismissive contempt many in the Detroit power structure have for the city's magnificent trove of empty buildings is legendary.
The Lafayette Building in itself is completely forgettable. What's brilliant, however, are the cartoon images that have been spraypainted on the insides of its dozens of windows -- a pop-art treat every time you walk down Lafayette Boulevard.
The grasshopper, A.B. is told, is the trademark of the mystery artist behind these graffiti'd windows.
A reader wrote ArchBlogger once to say that the windows were done by a downtown artist who goes by the name K.J. A.B.'s in the process of checking that out.
The work on the Lafayette Building is reminiscent of the great artwork on the windows of the United Artists Building on Bagley, just west of Grand Circus Park. Those with good memories will recall that the building owners, the Iliches, had all that graffiti scrubbed off just before the 2006 Super Bowl in Detroit.
We Michiganders are such delicate flowers these days -- always so afraid outsiders will laugh at us. The United Artist windows represented some of the coolest, rebel art in the city. A.B. can't help but think, had they left them up, Super Bowl visitors would have told their friends back home about this way-cool, whacked-out building they couldn't stop looking at, and what it suggested about this city's spirit.
But that's just A.B.'s opinion.
Graffiti art waxes political -- a leftover from the George W. Bush era.
Anyhow, there's already a fence around the Lafayette Building, and it looks like it's not long for this world. A.B. assumes the city came under some pressure from the Westin folks across the street from it -- and you can hardly blame them.
But when those windows are all knocked out, something valuable will be lost -- an encouraging reminder that an inventive, puckish artistic spirit is alive and well in Detroit, and unafraid to show its glorious, unconventional colors.
Category: Architecture
Posted by Michael Hodges (The Detroit News) on Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 4:41 PMMissed opportunity at Greektown Casino Hotel
What first struck ArchBlogger when the Greektown Casino Hotel was nearing completion a year or so ago were the varied shades of dark blue with which the designers clad the exterior.
It all felt a bit daring and Miami -- Detroit really isn't accustomed to a lot of strong color in its skyscraper glass -- but was also so pretty to look at, that A.B. rather got his hopes up.
But a bit like the Motor City Casino Hotel, which looked kind of interesting before they topped it with that damned party hat (albeit a hat that creates a marvelous space for their top-floor restaurant, Iridescence), the final product fell short of expectations.
The Greektown Casino Hotel is the dark-blue tower, stage left, as seen from the top of the Guardian Building.
In the Greektown case, designed by Southfield's Rossetti firm, the designers seemed to take a cool concept -- a glassy tapestry of contrasting blues -- and then inexplicably decided to crap that up with horizontal punch-outs of ordinary clear glass that, from a distance, look a lot like the scaffolding system window washers use.
Those punched-out window terraces -- or whatever they are -- mostly undercut the mesmerizing effect of the multi-colored blue glass facade, the architectural equivalent of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
A.B. hasn't yet been inside the hotel, so he can't say what purpose those punch-outs serve, but he wouldn't be surprised if from within the building they offer cool visuals, and perhaps a giddy sense of stepping out beyond the building facade.
Still, he's noticed a trend with Rossetti projects -- the tendency of the interior to trump the exterior.
As evidence, ArchBlogger offers the firm's Ford Field, which took a cool industrial-warehouse approach to a vast structure (check out the rear face, which breaks into five or six "separate" buildings in a most satisfying way), but then crowned it with a fishbowl-curve picture window that stretches across most of the front facade. From within, that huge window provides eye-popping views. From without, it looks stupid and inappropriate, tacked onto a building whose aesthetic is in every other respect rectilinear and industrial.
Or take Rossetti's Compuware Building, not one of A.B.'s downtown favorites. On the inside, the soaring lobby is a pretty cool, with its thin, trickling fountains cascading from high overhead.
But viewed from Campus Martius Park, the building front looks like a fancy color TV, with boxy little "speakers" poking out here and there.
Does A.B. dislike everything Rossetti does? No. Their Auburn Hills YMCA is a fun geometric exercise. And some of their West Coast work is very cool.
For some reason, however, Detroit seems to bring out their look-at-me designs heavy on gimmickry and light on elegance.
With a casino hotel, of course, gimmickry is inevitable. Motor City's hotel looked promising when it was just a simple silver building apparently suspended between two enormous concrete shoulders. But then they clad the latter in brick and added the foolish lampshade.
MGM Grand's hotel, which one colleague refers to as "the toaster," still feels a bit unfinished and abrupt. And what's with that big box on the roof?
The MGM Grand Hotel -- which, to be fair, does look good in dramatic light, the way-too-visible box on its roof at left notwithstanding.
And finally, Greektown suffers from an over-jazzed and incomprehensible facade. A pity, since the basic elements -- particularly before the garish sign went up on the roof -- were so promising, an elegant dash of color on the east side of Woodward that seemed to whisper, "C'mon over. This is cool."
Would that the architect had had more faith in color alone to lure and delight the eye.
