http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...text|FRONTPAGE
I wonder if Gilbert's wife will remake this building as she did the Chase Building [[formerly NBD building) - into a cartoon.
Printable View
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...text|FRONTPAGE
I wonder if Gilbert's wife will remake this building as she did the Chase Building [[formerly NBD building) - into a cartoon.
Question: What do you call the Dime Building when it's renamed Chrysler House?Quote:
Originally Posted by SWMAP
Answer: The Dime Building.
Two floors, 70 employees & a building name change. That still doesn't represent a major presence in Detroit!? Now, if you leased the entire building, moved the corporate big wigs down there, that would be a start? This is like a politician who lives in the suburbs, but has a Detroit address, still doesn't make them a Detroiter!
I wonder if they paid naming rights? Gotta love the 6th pic in the News article. A photographer captures a Jeep passing by the building. I'm happy for the development, and I understand the symbolism and all, but I'm just trying to picture this much press for a similar deal in a major city. I look forward to the day when this gets one line in the "news briefs" section.
Yeah, no shit. With all the press you'd think we're hosting the next Olympics. I'm quite happy about it and it is good news all around but going on and on about it just makes us look kind of silly. Which I guess we are.Quote:
Originally Posted by 401don
I disagree with folks that want to minimize this. This is huge. Chrysler is moving executives into the heart of Downtown Detroit.
Yes, it's only 70. However, perhaps this is just a start. Chrysler is growing now, and I could very easily see this turning into more.
As for the rename, I agree with DetroitNerd.
Does this mean Chrysler can now stop on a Dime?:cool:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Detroitnerd
LOL Exactly... though I used to call it One Kennedy Square back when it had that name!
Most interesting part of the story was Gilbert joining up with the United Way and the $3 million towards buying a transit station along the M-1 corridor.
I think we should wait and see just "which" 70 people are referred to here before calling this out as silly. After all remember how everyone was fussing over a "mere" 200 people that moved from the Comerica Tower to Dallas...Quote:
Originally Posted by poobert
... seems kind of like a sears tower/willis tower kind of thing with the renaming.. but hopefully there will be many more tenants in the months to come.. I wonder what kind of businesses/services would be a good fit..
Detroitnerd make a good point. Memory says at one point an attempt was made to rename The Penobscot Building as The City National Bank Building in the late 60's or early 70's. Guess how long that lasted.
As an aside, as I remember it, the Dime Building has also been the Commonwealth Building [[as in Bank Of The) and Griswold Place, reverting back to the Dime name about 10 years ago. But call it what you will, I don't think it's a big thing.
Until Chrysler officially says "We will be moving our headquarters into the Dime Building in downtown Detroit", all the hype over the move gets tired.
When are you moving your HQ to Detroit eh?Quote:
Originally Posted by 313WX
Clinton Township, 2028: This stretch of once-suburban Detroit draws photographers from all over the world. Tumbleweeds roll past derelict subdivisions. From a few of the buildings, squatters peer out, looking out for trouble. Streets cracked by the freeze-thaw cycle are patched with dung and sand. One last house looks decent, and its sprinkler system chirps to life. Here lives the last official homeowner of this exurban encampment, a man only identified as 313WX.
And he's remarkably upbeat.
"People used to talk about how great Detroit was, that people wanted city life and didn't want to live and work out here. I mean, why? It's great out here!"
He recalls that, in the 2000s and 2010s, when businesses and residents started abandoning these far-flung developments for the time-tested city and inner ring suburbs, he sat back and, as he puts it, "laughed my ass off."
He asks, "What does it mean that Chrysler, General Motors and Ford have all officially moved downtown? Or that the parts suppliers and new knowledge-based companies are moving down there. It' a hellhole. Until they get the schools fixed, nobody will want to live down there."
In a year when Detroit's population has surpassed 1 million for the first time since 1999, and with the floor fallen out of the exurban real estate market, it's a tough sell.
"Look at this place," the final taxpaying resident says. "This is freedom! I can ride my four-wheeler all over this place. And no crime! And pretty good schools, if you don't mind driving about 25 miles a day. I sure don't."
Etc., etc., ad absurdum...
Bad news is this town certainly gets it's share of over hype, so I can happily live with what is perhaps an overreaction to the news of Chrysler moving 70 employees and establishing an office for the CEO.
The name change of the Dime Building is not that big a deal. As someone pointed out before, they just went back to the "Dime" name about a decade ago.
The really good news coming from that press conference is that the Jefferson North plants vehicles are selling so well that they will work through the summer shutdown and will later add a third shift.
So you think close to 4 million people are going to live and work in Detroit? It's going to take more then 70 sales people moving into the Dime building to sell that story.
Name change doesn't mean a damn thing, although I can see why some people have the argument for it. Last time I checked, nobody called "Willis Tower" by its name. And I don't think there will be major renovations seeing as the Dime already went through renovations recently.
If I had an HQ, it would have always been in Detroit [[if not in Chicago).Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick
'Quote:
Originally Posted by Detroitnerd
HA!!! Sorry, you have me completely pegged wrong.
The thought of living in sprawlsburg causes me to throw up a little.
It's enough that I have no other alternative in this city ther than to deal with suburbia for basic shopping.
In any event, it would have been nice if our media was this passionate about how Comerica managed to relocate an entire HQ from where its been for over 150 years with only 200 people [[or executives).
Hey, 313WX. Sometimes I like to spin these little ideas off in satirical pieces like that. I don't pretend to know anybody here, just a little fun on my part. Anyway, I do think something is happening, things are changing. The region is shrinking, and some people are finding the center again. We'll see how that goes, huh? :)Quote:
Originally Posted by 313WX
What's the point of naming it the "Chrysler House" when it's really the Dime Building?
Detroit's rapidly losing relevance relative to how fast other regions are growing. I mean, we're about to let relatively low-growth cities such as Seattle and Minneapolis pass us up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Detroitnerd
While we're cheering about the move of a whopping 70 people into dime building, I'm betting about as many people just left the city in the past week and a small business employing that many people left the city for the suburbs or somewhere out of state as well.
So we can't sit around fiddling our thumbs too much longer The time we needed to find our center so to speak was 1980. That's why those who realize this have jumped the ship and given up [[including Comerica actually).
Well, this is a corporate move. Detroit's corporate heads aren't very forward-thinking, generally. By the time they "discover" downtown, it will have been because of all the small business people who are making it happen today.Quote:
Originally Posted by 313WX
Why is the Eaton Tower now called the Broderick Tower? Why was the NBD Building called the Chase Tower? Why was the Capitol/Paramount/Broadway Capitol/Grand Circus Theatre now called the Detroit Opera House? Why is the State/Palms-State/Palms Theatre now called the Fillmore? Why is the ANR Building now called One Woodward Ave?
Simple answer... new tenants or owners... or both...
I hate to ask a dumb question, but why should Chrysler move it's HQ to downtown, or anywhere in Detroit proper for that matter.
This is not a knock on Detroit, the company has always had a big footprint in town, but my dad worked at the Highland Park headquarters complex for 40 years. We have this tendency to forget that the only major auto company headquartered in Detroit is GM.
I think some people are trying to make too much out of the move. I don't know what the occupancy rate of the Dime Building is, but I think it's a good thing when any company rents 33,000 square feet of a major office building downtown, aparently with a long enough commitment to change the building's "name".
Douglasm... I don't think that CHRYSLER has plans on moving its' headquarters downtown... but potentially FIAT may. They pay very high taxes in Turino Italy, and may be playing the possibility of moving their corporate HQ to Detroit to get their Italian tax burden lowered. The Chrysler folks will be staying in Auburn Hills... but their parent may be moving to Detroit.
That would be pretty cool.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gistok
How quickly we forget......
http://www.thecarconnection.com/news...-three-bailout
You really think he would make a statement about the importance of Detroit to Chrysler, the state of Michigan, etc. by screwing over Turino? That would be some serious irony.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gistok
Newsflash: Researchers at Beaumont Hospital Cure All Forms of Cancer.
Some DYers reaction: Why can't we cure cancer in Detroit? Will the treatment only be available in the suburbs? If so, will the rest of the world now think of Detroit as a World Class City?
Honestly people, this Chrysler announcement is unmitigated good news. First step in a stampede downtown, slight bump for the neighborhood's Coney Islands, or somewhere in between, only time will tell. Regardless, it is terrific that more people will be working here, at least sometimes spending money here, and occupying a formerly dead building. How do you take a long trip? One step at a time. In reality, the path to a vibrant Detroit might very well be free of GIGANTIC ARENA+MALL+CHEESECAKE FACTORY+VATICAN RELOCATES TO DETROIT announcements, and be made up of unannounced individuals moving to the city, starting small businesses, fixing up a single storefront. Big things are great, but they aren't the be-all and end-all. Growth is growth. I savor every bit of it.
I just finished watching this anti-sprawl documentary: Sprawling from Grace: The Consequences of Suburbanization [[©2008, total duration 82 minutes). It covers most of the anti-sprawl arguments in one neat, well-produced video.Quote:
Originally Posted by Detroitnerd
Feel free to copy link to more relevant threads.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobile...b_1448492.html
This opinion cites chrysler looking for space for 1000. Maybe the bldg name change hinges on a larger future presence.
Chrysler should have moved to the old Dodge Brother building on Beaubien and Lafayette. Just think, nudie bar in the lobby... wow
That would be something else if Chrysler did move that many employees downtown. There are plenty of buildings that could accomodate 1,000+ employees.Quote:
Originally Posted by hybridy
I'll still be calling it the Dime Building. Good news on the move though!
Only in Detroit -- and really, only on DetroitYes -- will the first dozen comments about good news be bitchfests. Yes, because Detroit doesn't have enough bad news, right?
Reactions like this are a major component of why Detroit has such a hard time having and keeping nice things. Have fun disparaging and maligning the region further into its hole.
Well downtown Detroit now has a Ford Building, a GM Building, and now the Chrysler House. :)
Good point.Quote:
Originally Posted by Detroitnerd
Gilberttown is really growing. Here comes Delta City!
Next employment flight from the suburbs to Downtown Detroit will the Chrysler WHQ team from Auburn Hills. The Old Auburn Hills Chrylser Building will be tall eyesore, squatter's inn and drug emporium in no time.
I agree: it's a great move, but the name is so tacky. To me it seems like Sergio Marchionne thought of that name on the spot. The Dime Building in my opinion is a classy name, which is befitting for such a classy building. The presence of a Dime Bank in the building is irrelevant to me and I think the building's name should remain the Dime Building.Quote:
Originally Posted by wolverine
I think that perhaps they went with a classic name, such as NYC famous LEVER HOUSE. Names are just labels... should the Guardian Building go back to the Union Trust Building... or the Broderick back to the Eaton Tower? The Dime Building went thru much of its' life as the Kennedy Square Building... so I put very little sentiment into labels.Quote:
Originally Posted by detroitpride313
You'll win the lottery twice and marry Kate Upton before Chrysler moving its corporate headquarters from Auburn Hills to Detroit. It ain't gonna happen.
Considering that Chrysler leases that corporate HQ in Auburn Hills, it's not that far fetched of an idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeg19
I agree. But there is also the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building in NYC and Sears Tower and John Hancock Building in Chicago. So sometimes buildings have iconic names that no one would dare change... could even argue this for Fisher Building, Penobscot Building and Renaissance Center. Dime Building was never on that level, and overshadowed by the other skyscrapers in the area. Personally, I find myself confusing it with the Ford Building.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gistok
Whoa... just realized Sears Tower is now Willis Tower. I guess I take back everything I said.Quote:
Originally Posted by casscorridor
They have 500 acres and over 5,000,000 sq feet. What are you smoking?Quote:
Originally Posted by townonenorth
Yes, they do. And they don't own any of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wheels
And you are going to replace that in Detroit how?Quote:
Originally Posted by townonenorth
Quote:
Originally Posted by casscorridor
It's interesting that this discussion is taking place just as our Santa Fe Building, where I work here in Chicago, is potentially about to be renamed the Motorola Building [[which to me seems hardly suiting for a 1904 terra cotta Beaux Arts high rise by Daniel Burnham).
So you weren't privy to the whole Sears Tower thing [[whatever, it's still the Sears Tower) but what do all these building names have in common? They don't contain "house". I'll get flamed all to hell with this again but c'mon, Chrysler House? Lame. I live in a house and it doesn't look anything like the Dime Building :)Quote:
Originally Posted by casscorridor
Funny how a "house" became the pattern for all the modern skyscrapers of the world...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lever_House
It's a European thing. I can think of several in London such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_Mex_HouseQuote:
Originally Posted by poobert
Good point Leland_Palmer... the LEVER HOUSE is owned by Unilever Corp. a British/Dutch multinational corporation [[just like Shell).
"House is also used in theatre and opera house jargon. They have "house lights"... and parts of their interior are known as "house left" and "house right".... and in theatre jargon... being an instant hit on stage is known as "bringing down the house".
So the term house has a much broader connotation that merely being a domicile...
Is there a Doctor in the house?
Or "House" can mean a family lineage or estate, including ancestors and descendants: the great houses of France; the House of Hapsburg; House Harkonnen from Dune.
"Chrysler House" just sounds stupid.
Person 1: Where do you work?
Person 2: Chrysler House.
Person 1: Where?
Person 2: You know. The Dime Building.
Person 1: Oh. Yeah. So you work for Chrysler?
Person 2: No. They only have two floors. I'm with the firm of Dewey, Cheatham & Howe on the 5th floor.