Detroit State Savings Bank Owner Wants to Demolish Historic Structure, Build Parking

[Gistok]

Anyone with half a brain and who has been inside the beautiful classic marble interior of this building would be appalled with this idea.

This was designed by famous NYC architect Stanford White [[see famous scandal of 1906) of McKim Mead & White [[who designed NYC Pennsylvania Station and famous buildings around the country) and is downtown Detroit's only commission by that firm. The inside is a spectacular 2 story arched columned marble interior with a glassed in mezzanine along the 2nd story perimeter of the inside... the outside is a classic beauty.

It was built so strongly that a 20 story hotel tower was at one time planned to be built on TOP of it. And one of the reasons was... because the lobby is even more sumptuous than the inside of the Book-Cadillac.

When they brought the 2 solid marble 56,000 pound columns flanking the entrance in by barge in 1900, the weight of the columns collapsed a sewer line underneath it as horsedrawn teams were bringing them to the site.

Here is a Wiki article on the building...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savoyard_Centre

If I had to rate beautiful downtown lobby spaces... this building's would be #3... after the Guardian and David Whitney Buildings...

[scottn55]

Not enough parking in Detroit?? Am I missing something?

[mikefmich]

Not enough parking in Detroit?? Am I missing something?

Seriously......what that owner said in the article is idiotic.

[Gannon]

It was built so strongly that a 20 story hotel tower was at one time planned to be built on TOP of it. And one of the reasons was... because the lobby is even more sumptuous than the inside of the Book-Cadillac.

Sounds like that is our solution. He has a structure strong enough for twenty more stories. Make many of 'em high-density parking, maybe a few a high-end hotel [[to use that spectacular lobby to full effect).


Plus, they've got a killer vault system in that building.

[jsmyers]

Anyone with half a brain and who has been inside the beautiful classic marble interior of this building would be appalled with this idea.

...

It was built so strongly that a 20 story hotel tower was at one time planned to be built on TOP of it. And one of the reasons was... because the lobby is even more sumptuous than the inside of the Book-Cadillac.

...

If I had to rate beautiful downtown lobby spaces... this building's would be #3... after the Guardian and David Whitney Buildings...

Seems to me that this on its own is enough to save the building. The ability to put 200,000 or more extra square feet on top of it makes it more valuable as is than it would be in if the building could not be expanded.

There are certainly other options. It will be interesting to learn how the DEGC is involved with any of this. Hopefully they are working to help the Penobscot owners find a way to improve their parking situation that doesn't involve tearing down a great building with a lot of potential and just as much history [[not to mention beauty).

If Detroit really needs more parking [[not just more information about parking or more street life to making walking more acceptable), then it seems that the lot behind the Detroit Club and the Free Press Building [[Fort@Washington) would be a great place to build a really sizable garage. It is only one block further.

If I owned the Penobscot buildings [[there are three, and I think they are all owned by the same group), I'd be looking to active that great lobby, even if it mean tearing some openings through it to connect it to the neighboring Penobscot Building [[1905) and Penobscot Annex [[1913). Tenants of the tower would then be able to walk inside to within a block of that parking [[or a number of other spaces).

At the same time, I'd imagine that some of the floors might be more appropriate to convert into residential. The parking demand [[spaces per assignable square feet) would be lower, and the residential is probably a little better right now.

I'd love to see some interior shots to get an idea of what it might look like used.

[bailey]

Seems to me that this on its own is enough to save the building. The ability to put 200,000 or more extra square feet on top of it makes it more valuable as is than it would be in if the building could not be expanded.

There are certainly other options. It will be interesting to learn how the DEGC is involved with any of this. Hopefully they are working to help the Penobscot owners find a way to improve their parking situation that doesn't involve tearing down a great building with a lot of potential and just as much history [[not to mention beauty).

If Detroit really needs more parking [[not just more information about parking or more street life to making walking more acceptable), then it seems that the lot behind the Detroit Club and the Free Press Building [[Fort@Washington) would be a great place to build a really sizable garage. It is only one block further.

If I owned the Penobscot buildings [[there are three, and I think they are all owned by the same group), I'd be looking to active that great lobby, even if it mean tearing some openings through it to connect it to the neighboring Penobscot Building [[1905) and Penobscot Annex [[1913). Tenants of the tower would then be able to walk inside to within a block of that parking [[or a number of other spaces).

At the same time, I'd imagine that some of the floors might be more appropriate to convert into residential. The parking demand [[spaces per assignable square feet) would be lower, and the residential is probably a little better right now.

I'd love to see some interior shots to get an idea of what it might look like used.

The "value" is imaginary. There is no demand for any more office/hotel/residential or retail space. That is demonstrated by crushing vacancy rates and abandonment rate of buildings in the CBD.

[jsmyers]

The "value" is imaginary. There is no demand for any more office/hotel/residential or retail space. That is demonstrated by crushing vacancy rates and abandonment rate of buildings in the CBD.

I didn't mean value as in private economic value in the short term, but rather, in long term historical value. It is harder to justify the demolition of a historical building when it has the ability to be used for something productive in the future. As opposed to the the American Beauty Building for example.

I believe you are quite wrong about residential vacancy, hence the second part of my post.

http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2...-in-demand.php

[WaCoTS]

If I had to rate beautiful downtown lobby spaces... this building's would be #3... after the Guardian and David Whitney Buildings...

i would have to have the Old Wayne County Blg in that top 3 list somewhere [[and you would have to exclude theatres from the list, otherwise it would be all theaters).

having not seen the interior of this bank, i dont know how to rank it, but if it's anything at all like old Pennsy Station in NYC, then it is easily amongst the top 3 as well.


solution to this problem:
mass transit and underground parking. no further discussion required.

as already mentioned, the blank scar tissue where Hudson's used to be--it's time to actually use that for something. it is an underground garage already, with obvious provisions for building upward. why not make it the world's tallest parking garage, and the tallest building in Detroit? why not make it a dadaistic statement about our fetish with the automobile and a monument to Detroit's insanity? a 100-story parking garage casting a long shadow over the RenCen--now THAT would be something...almost North Korean... LOL then with those huuuuge sides, you could plaster MetroPCS and MGM Grand billboards all down the sides of it. 'MERICA!!

[canuck]

i would have to have the Old Wayne County Blg in that top 3 list somewhere [[and you would have to exclude theatres from the list, otherwise it would be all theaters).

having not seen the interior of this bank, i dont know how to rank it, but if it's anything at all like old Pennsy Station in NYC, then it is easily amongst the top 3 as well.


solution to this problem:
mass transit and underground parking. no further discussion required.

as already mentioned, the blank scar tissue where Hudson's used to be--it's time to actually use that for something. it is an underground garage already, with obvious provisions for building upward. why not make it the world's tallest parking garage, and the tallest building in Detroit? why not make it a dadaistic statement about our fetish with the automobile and a monument to Detroit's insanity? a 100-story parking garage casting a long shadow over the RenCen--now THAT would be something...almost North Korean... LOL then with those huuuuge sides, you could plaster MetroPCS and MGM Grand billboards all down the sides of it. 'MERICA!!

In a sense, the MCS is a monument to that insanity in the mass transit depletion category. You are right about the dadaist statement because that in real terms is a missing piece of the Detroit puzzle. Detroit seems to negate its past in many ways, choosing not to confront its demons in the racial, automotive, and sprawl departments. If a bit of humor, not a fist or a Robocop, but a monument to the folly you describe were to happen; who knows what direction the city would take. Might be a healing thing.