Up in Smoke

While I was attending apartment "open houses" in Gary another apartment building in Detroit I had visited previously went up in flames. We visited Temple Apartments last summer. Seems that will be the last time. From what I have heard, the remains will be razed later this week. Anyho, here are a few additional photos for your enjoyment.



Temple has a great exterior and a fairly cool gallery around the top floor. It also had tenents. The building was squatted, a likely cause of the fire. Can't blame the Stooper Bowl for this one. Funny, just the other week we were pondering how long that building would remain standing. Note to self: stop having such discussions.



Stooper Bowl events are now in full swing back at the D. From what I hear they have most of downtown closed to traffic. For once I'm glad I'm at Muncie and not Detroit. I just wish that the fans could see the REAL city. Forget Kwame's cleaned up downtown full of temporary storefronts and gravel lots where historic hotels once stood. They should get a full tour of the neighborhoods, the good and the bad. I could just see the tearful celebs afterwards on T.V. "I thought The Crow was just a movie!!!"



In other news, looks like demolition is slowly getting underway at City Methodist. A sinister dumpster now sits in front of the auditorium building. Sigh, so goes one of my favorite buildings.



Managed to kinda clean up the crappy apartment so it looks better then the Mahencha. I couldn't believe how much Lego I found. Mayhaps I should try this cleaning thing more often?



Finally, Susan said that my Lanier draft didn't look too horrible at a glance. Kinda a relief, although I was looking forward to that peaceful rest...

Apartment Hunting

For this week's dose of UE I headed up to lovely Gary to check out some apartments. I pulled into town Friday afternoon and headed to the Mahencha Apartments. This would be something new. I've known of the building for years. However, its remote location in a fairly nice neighborhood, for Gary, had kept me away until now.



The Mahencha is a 1920s vintage 31 unit building. I'm quite fond of its exterior architecture, showing some Spanish and Italian influences. Inside it is less interesting. The apartments are fairly trashed and there isn't much to see. Nor is it entirely stable. Most apartment buildings at least have some type of lobby or lounge, not so the Mahencha. Besides apartments the building has some tenent storage units and a fairly cool courtyard.



One apartment on the first floor looks like it had been a bacholorpad. Its bathroom has, um, interesting wallpaper. The top floor was gutted in a previous failed renovation. The roof had been repaired and workers had started on installing new partition walls. However, that was long ago.



After Mahencha I headed to Chicago and my sister's. The next day was the usual Lego store run. I was good, didn't buy much. That evening we went downtown to meet our parents for dinner at the Berghoff. After over 100 years this landmark is shutting down, go figure.



Well, the food was good. Was it "wait four hours in the cold rain" good? Probibly not, but at least I can say I ate there one last time. Something to tell whipper snappers someday. While strolling down beautiful State Street I noticed work is being undertaken to restore the cornice to Carson Pirie Scott. Nice to see that Adler and Sullivan's best surviving building looks decent again.



On the way home Sunday I returned to Gary for some more apartment hunting. The eight-story Ambassador Apartments was built in 1927. Closed since 1985 it is one of Gary's larger abandoned structures.



I had first visited this building a couple of years ago. Being the moron I am, I didn't take a tripod on that trip. I told myself then that I would come back soon. Well, better late then never.



The Ambassador is much larger then the Mahencha. The lobby is an impressive columned hall with a Spanish beamed ceiling. Tenents also enjoyed a wood-paneled lounge, vast storage hall, and basement laundry.



Ascending a grand stairway I made my way through dozens of trashed apartments. The Ambassador is in terrible shape. In recent years scrappers have hacked out decorative terra cotta from the facade. In one room their pry bars lay next to a group of ornament waiting for removal. Many rooms have no exterior walls and are exposed to the elements. As a result the building poses a serious hazard to pedestrians due to falling brick. Good job guys.



Throughout the rest of the building walls are crumbling and furniture molding. The roof is a fairly neat garden for the top penthouse. In the summer the building looks like it has a forest on top. Another interesting feature are the wooden toilet seats that were placed over the fixtures. If I was ever tempted to haul something out of a building, today was that day. I was good. I guess those were another decorator's idea of making a bathroom look nice, ha ha.



Needless to say I saw a lot of really trashed apartments this weekend. The worst one was the one I came home to. Ugh, do I work on thesis or clean up my little hole-in-the-wall tomorrow?

Lanier

I finished my draft section for the Lanier HSR today. Whoop whoop! I can't say this was a fun project. I got dumped into an HSR having never done one before. Basically I was pulling random stuff together, hoping against hope that some of it was what was required. Oh well, its done now.



I figure sometime next week I will be summoned to a meeting with Susan and Dr. Glass. I'll sit quietly as they tell me that my draft was the most insane thing they had ever read. At no point did I ever address anything related with Lanier or the house. No sentence could be considered a rational or logical thought. At that point two men in white coats will walk in and take me away. They will take me to a nice place where I will no longer have to worry about my lame life. It might be nice.

Paint Scam

Yesterday was one of those long days when you don't actually achieve much. We are wrapping up the draft of the Lanier HSR and getting ready to move on to the Culbertson HSR. We made the long trip down to New Albany for the start-up meeting and tour of the house.



As we pulled up to the Culbertson house the three of us were amazed by its exterior. No, not its elaborate Second Empire design, rather its color. How strange that this home is the exact same colors as the Lanier home, seen below. Especially since the two buildings were built nearly three decades apart in completely different styles.



Turns out the expert that determined that the Lanier home should be painted a salmon-pink, despite the evidence indicating the home was originally unpainted, is the very same expert who determined that the Culbertson home should be that color. Hmmm. I wonder how many other State Historic Sites are this color? Sounds like this guy had stock in this paint company. Its not even good paint. Both houses were painted only a few years ago. At both homes the original salmon color is horribly faded to a dull pink.



Inside the Culbertson is far more elaborate then Lanier, which was fairly ornate itself. The walls and ceilings are handpainted. No, that is not wallpaper! Hope I don't get assigned the architectural description of this one! I did like the kid cage on the third floor. Every house should have one.



For lunch we stopped at the local greasy lunch counter. We sat quietly in the corner, soaking in the small town gossip. Interesting day.

Tunnel Rats

As mentioned in the previous post, the best cure for post-Statler demolition depression are martinis and some exciting UE. Started out with the martini. Resulted in a bizzare dream that I took my car to a body shop that was a front for a mass-suicide cult for kids. The best part was when some parents grabbed their kid and drove off. Cult lawyers jumped into Humvees and tore off in swift pursuit. At that point I woke up, time for an early run to Detroit for the UE!



The beautiful overcast skys that followed me all the way up turned into horrible sun by the time I reached Dearborn. #@%^!!! All the buildings I wish to return to I want to do on overcast days for interior photography. Oh well, thats my luck. First sunny day in weeks...



As I pulled into town I noticed that demo work had now begun on the second half of the Motown complex, the Donovan Building. Cohort and I headed over for some pics of the buckling floors. This was not the way to cure depression!



We wandered the hoods for several hours scouting out new possibilities and checking in on old friends. Holy pumpkins! McMillan is still standing!!! I figured the punk teens would have torched it months ago.



We finally made our way to MCS. We were in the neighborhood so what the hey? Once in the dark baggage areas we found ourselves in the midst of indoor rain. For the rest of the day we would have to deal with large puddles and heavy downpours. It hasn't snowed in a while, where the @#%^ did all this water come from???



Not much to report. Took a few pics. Passing the time I told Cohort my idea for a movie about a group of kids that ignore my website's disclaimer and find themselves in the midst of a UE from hell. Stalked by a shadowy figure in a bunny costume, one by one they disappear. Cohort told me I was insane. No sense of humor, geez.



I've been to MCS dozens of times over the years. However, I almost never go down to the basement of the main station. Down we went. Found a cafeteria and mechanical rooms. At this point we decided on something to spice the trip up. Local UE lore has long told of a tunnel that connects MCS to the former post office across the street. I had a theory of what it might be, so off we went.



At one corner of the basement a ruined conveyor belt runs off into the darkness. It heads off in the post office's general direction so it only made sense. We began the foolish expedition down the cramped tunnel, walking on the old belt at points and on rusted rollers at others. It seemed like the slow journey would not end. Suddenly we emerged into a vast flooded columned hall, the post office's basement! We were able to climb a chute to reach the upper floors. If we had slipped it would have been a fun end at least.



I had never been in the post office before, although it has sat open for years. In later years the building was used as storage for the school system. We found vast warehouse spaces filled with piles of textbooks. I recognized my tech book from high school. There must be $10,000s worth of unused textbooks in there. Sigh.



The trip was cut short by sunset. The post office warrents returns, all via tunnel of course, he he! After the slowest service EVER at Coney I headed to the burbs for a UE meet. Finally met some other local UEers who've I've only had contact online previously. Good times.



Had to pass on a trip to Packard so I could start for Muncie before midnight. Blah, long tiring drive. Thankfully the good folks of Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, U2, The Go-Gos, etc made it more enjoyable.

Things get damaged, things get broken...

This week I've been writing the architectural descriptions for the first four Statler Hotels, including the recently demolished Detroit house. In this process I've been pouring over my hundreds of photos of the building. I also sat down and watched the over 2 hour video I shot in the building 6 years ago.



Its hard to describe to people who actually have lives, but I loved that building. The video, showing the Statler prior to the abatement and thus at its height of ruination, fully depressed me and brought tears to my eye. The whole time I had that Depeche Mode song Precious stuck in my head. "Things get damaged, things get broken".

The worse part is knowing that this video and the photos are the few things I have left of the Statler. No one will ever be able to gaze upon its beautiful facade again. I am then forced to look at the archival material, including photographs when the hotel was new. Damaged and broken indeed. When I am this depressed the only known cures are UE or martinis, hmmm.

How NOT to fight a cold

If you ever wondered if spending two days in cold, moldy ruins would help you get over a cold, the answer is flat out NO. I would pay the price for thinking otherwise.



I woke up Saturday feeling much better then the day before. Mayhaps I had this illness licked? I was soon on the road to Gary. There was Chicago area UE meetup. Turnout was impressive, including old faces and new. The day was more of a social meet then anything, which made the trips to dull buildings I've been to many times before ok.



In the course of the day we covered the train station, post office, Memorial Auditorium, Palace Theater, and City Methodist. I didn't take too many photos, but got a few decent ones. I had left my good flashlights in Muncie, so I was stuck with a near-useless one of my Dad's. As a result, in the Palace I walked into a hanging clump of steel and plaster, which then rained down on me. #@%^!!!



Ah, Gary! You have to love a town were a dozen or so white guys can walk around ruins with cameras in hand and not draw attention.



The next day I was due in Detroit to meet up with Andy and show some UEers from Iowa around. They had indicated an interest in checking in at the Fort Shelby Hotel, something I advised against due to the autoshow crowds. I agreed to get there early, pulling myself out of bed at 4 and pulling into Detroit just before 7. Problem was they overslept.



No matter, Andy and I headed over to Motown to photograph the demolition. Only a portion of Sander's facade remained up when we arrived. It was all down when we left for the day. Nice way to start the day :P



Midway through our Motown photography we took a break to check out another doomed structure, The Society of Arts and Crafts. I am amazed it is still up. Some demolitions, like Terre Haute House and Motown go at a rapid place, while others,that really SHOULD be demolished fast, drag on. On this walkthrough we stoopidly pulled ourselves up stairwells without stairs to reach the listing second "floor". We then headed to the neighboring ruin, an old ballroom. The ground floor is gutted, but we did have the pleasure of waking up a hobo. The second floor isn't that interesting, its no Grande. It does provide a nice view of Arts and Crafts though.



The sun was out now so we returned to Motown for more shots. Gradually, more photographers arrived, including two hotties who caused me to lose my train of thought while explaining to Andy the elements of Art Nouveau architecture.



This resulted in a conversation as we waited for the Iowa UEers to arrive at Packard. We have decent equipment, stoopidity, and plenty of ruins. Yet, we lack exploring gals. They do exist. I suggested putting up an application on Forgotten Detroit along the lines of:

Wanted: Adventurous women for extreme heritage tourism. Must be willing to get dirty, climb walls, and fit through small holes. Ability to put up with turbo-nerds who coo with glee at the sight of hotel plumbing shafts and use terms like "reinforced concrete" and "Kahnesque" in every other sentence a plus.



As mentioned in a earlier post, Packard is immense. Looking out from one end you see abandonments all the way to the horizon. In the center of it all, by the old offices, a lone guard keeps lonely vigil, quite ineffectively. Andy, not being wowed by industrial stuff, ended up leaving early, offering to pick me up when I was ready.



We blundered through the plant for several hours. Along the way we ran into another group. Chatting with one of them, he asked if I had been anywhere else that was interesting in town. I didn't quite know how to answer that, eventually describing the Book-Cadillac from days of yore. At one point I got seperated from the group but managed to find them again.



As the afternoon wore on, the cold germs I thought were all but beaten began to regroup and counterattack. Feeling worse by the minute I decided to head out early. Oh well, Its now Monday and I feel worse then I did on Thursday, opps. I didn't get many photos of Packard, and my cohorts have little interest in going back. Looks like when the weather gets warmer I will have to have one of them drop me off in the morning and pick me up in the evening so I can finally give it the full Forgotten Detroit photo treatment.



As I made my way down the long, dark columned halls towards the exit I passed another group of UEers on the way in, a guy and two girls. We gave each other friendly nods and I thought "now THAT guy has the right idea."

Terre Haute House

The Terre Haute House no longer contributes to Terre Joke's skyline. However, you can get an idea of what it looked like inside as well as during demolition by visiting this site.

Blah, day three of this horrible cold and its only getting worse. When I woke up hacking this morning I knew there was no way I could stumble into the office to finish the Lanier project. Thank God I brought my notes home. Hope this doesn't spoil my weekend plans.

The "Pick" of Detroit

I took a long, meandering trip through Michigan to do a car swap. Naturally there were some sidetrips involved.



First up was a drive through Monroe. A classmate had driven through last year and found a large powerplant. Sure enough, there it was. Monroe is a neat town with some beautiful architecture. I was particularly taken with a flourmill near downtown. But time is money, I had business in Detroit.



The first stop was a visit to the old Motown buildings, the Sanders and Donovan Buildings. Stoopid demolitionists are at it again. With the Superbowl weeks away, the owners just now realize they want a parking lot instead of two handsome structures. Good luck getting them down in time fukkers. Probibly bypassing a few abatement regs in the process. As the facade is being torn apart the Tiffany mosaic glass detailing of the Sanders Building is being brought to light. A brief exposure prior to destruction. It is unfortunate that the Sanders is being lost, since it is Detroit's last sizable Art Nouveau building. Fukkers.



Last week I purchased a new backpack, one with a zipper that actually works. I figured it would make things easier. However, as I was checking in at the Fort Shelby Hotel, it got stuck, leaving me hanging several feet in the air, comically struggling for freedom. I eventually freed myself and set about collecting more photographs of the hotel.



This was one of those rare solo expeditions. My cohorts thought their time was better spent with friends and family, hah! I made my way through the dark basement's numberous lockerooms and engine rooms. The Fort Shelby's basement is a confusing maze. Another result of its two-staged construction.



I hadn't planned on a climb to the roof, but the lovely afternoon sun dictacted that I ascend. The Fort Shelby provides the best view of the Book-Cadillac. I still remember exclaiming "holy schitt! look at that view!" when I first saw it 7 years ago.



Next door stands the doomed People's Outfitting Building, a handsome department store. Although it is a great loft development opporunity, People's will be dropped for yet another parking deck. The neo-classical shadow of the Lafayette Building, for which the parking deck is being constructed, cast a sinister form on People's bright facade.



After soaking in the view I concentrated on the lower ten floors. These are some of the most damaged, particularly the 1917 wing. I finally found the switchboard, something that eluded me on my previous eight or so stays at the hotel.



Several hours later I checked out and made a rare trip out to the burbs to return club baseplates to an eastside member. He has built a spiffy dark red factory. Damn, I wish that color were more affordable.



The semester offically started today. Thanks to the lead and asbestos workshop last week I am already burned out. Oh well, now I know more about what materials to avoid in decaying ruins.



Classmates don't seem to like my desktop background image. What did they expect, some lame lego model or a moldy building? Nothing wrong with the Go Go's.

Aglow with Friendliness

Twas Christmas Eve and all through the hotel not a creature was stirring except for two foolhardy explorers, and ten thousand pigeons.



The Fort Shelby Hotel is my favorite of Detroit's abandoned buildings, now that the Statler is gone. The hotel was originally built in 1917 and expanded ten years later. For over fifty years it competed for its share of the tourist trade arriving at the nearby Fort St. Union Station and the marine terminals at the foot of Woodward. An Albert Pick Hotel in its later years it suffered one of the most humiliating downfalls of any Detroit landmark. Under the management of a group of stoned rich kids, it was transformed into a hip 70s disco hotel that lasted only a few months. You can read my far more detailed report and view historic photos here.



The hotel is simply massive. At 900 rooms it is larger then both the Durant and King Edward combined. However, the Fort Shelby was never a first class commercial hotel on the lines of the Statler or the Book-Cadillac. It did not have the range of large suites, large dining rooms, and convention facilties of those hotels. Its ballroom and restaurants are extremely small and its private dining rooms added as an afterthought. As a result the lower floors are not uber exciting. The Durant has more impressive public spaces.



The guest room floors, however, are quite beautiful. The hotel is actually two buildings and it shows in both their appearance and layout. The lower floors are a maze of corridors and lightcourts. The upper tower provides stunning views of the city.



The upper floors are a wonderful example of early twentieth century hotel construction. The rooms and corridors retain their original moldings. Many of the rooms are equiped with servidors. These compartments in the door were used to deliver cleaned laundry to the guest without interferance. The Fort Shelby and Lee Plaza were the only Detroit hotels with this feature.



The only public rooms of note are the lobby and ballroom. The ballroom, as I mentioned, is dinky. It is a squarish room with a stage. The ceiling is its best feature with three barrel vaults. The lobby is massive, even though a concrete block wall from a restaurant that remained open after the hotel closed extends into the space.



Because I had to be home fairly early we started the day under the cover of darkness. Driving into a dark downtown brought back memories of 1999 when I made the the pre-dawn trip fairly often. At least it provided us the opportunity to enjoy the sunrise over the downtown skyline.



It was a fairly routine expedition. The Fort Shelby hasn't changed that much since my first visit seven years ago. The most noticable change is the tagging on the roof and lower floors. Why don't these people tag their own homes if their so bored?



An interesting feature is the emergancy supply room. The survival crackers and water are fairly routine. Amid the Fort Shelby's supplies are diarrhea medication that has broken down to its basic ingrediants.



The previous week one of my friends had soloed the hotel and lost his cell phone in the process. Lo and behold, we found it lying in an 8th floor corridor. Amazingly the battery still worked. He had missed ten calls, myself being the last one. Well, it was a good laugh anyway.



After several long hours we emerged for some welcome coneys. Always hard to check out of the Fort Shelby. At least I can leave this one with some hope that in a few years I can check in as a actual hotel guest. A few hours later I was at church. What a change of scenery.



On another topic this week kinda blows. I signed up for a lead and asbestos inspection course that meets for a solid week before the start of the semester. The advantage is getting a usful and marketable skill on top of getting three credit hours out of the way. The downside is arriving to class in the dark and getting home in the dark.



Oh well, thus far I've gained some confidence that I don't have lead poisoning. We start the asbestos unit tomorrow, hopefully I don't recognize any of those symptoms in my normal sickly condition.

Another Year

The holidays are my least favorite time of year. Christmas is dominated by my dad's cheeseball holiday movies. Typically I like lame movies for their comedic value. These however... Honestly these films must be Hollywood's last chance before an actor or director is banished to the land of pornos. If I see one more elf saving a small town or Santa bring two lonely souls together I will barf.

I much prefer to see a holiday film I can relate to as opposed to that fluffy cheery stuff. The best Christmas movie, hands down, is Batman Returns. Now that is a film I can relate to. An ugly baby being tossed into the sewers on Christmas eve, the woman prefering to blow herself up rather then going out with the guy... Yep.



A couple of interesting things happened over break. The evening before heading up to Michigan I got a call on my cellphone from two teenage girls regarding Forgotten Detroit. Somehow they tracked my cell number down and called me right in the middle of a snowball fight. After trying to convience me that they were not psychos they went on how my photos and descriptions of urban disinvestment had "inspired" them and asked for some help on a school project.



Later, on New Years Eve I set up a small Lego layout with a fellow member of Michlug. As we sat in the corner wondering what we did wrong in a past life to be spending New Years on the most girl-repellant activity known to man we couldn't help but notice all of the kids. Their eyes were aglow with amazement and joy at our plastic buildings and moving trains.

At the very least I seem to be inspiring people with pictures of moldy decay and heaps of expensive plastic.