Olympia Stadium - Grand River & McGraw

[Whitehouse]

Maybe not the right explanation by I think it's maximizing floor area.

[Gistok]

According to the wiki
even this building [[Earls Court) is in danger of being demolished!

Thanks for the info Whitehouse!

London's historic Earls Court [[seating for 19,000) has been home to many many rock bands and entertainers, as well as being a convention center. I did some more investigations on that demo threat, and any demo would have to wait until after the London 2012 Olympics, since Earls Court will hold the Olympic volleyball tournaments. Large scale projects are usually planned to death in London... so I wouldn't say it's a goner just yet!

56packman... you are right that Olympia was simply a utilitarian building with little in the way of any ornamentation [[save for the exterior). Ironically C. Howard Crane designed Olympia around the same time he designed his exotic movie palaces for the United Artists and Fox studios in 1926-27. He had just gotten out of his earlier classic phase of movie palace design. So I imagine that Crane would have loved to add some inside character to the "Barn", but was likely told to keep it simple.

I had only ever been to Olympia once when the Red Wings were playing. The upper level seats were certainly dizzyingly steep to ascend to. And I remember the roar of the crowd.

Olympia was not built for modern rock band sound systems in mind, which likely made for bad acoustics... which is uncharacteristic for a Crane venue. His 19,000 seat Earls Court is well liked by rock bands... but of course that could have been also attributable to the large seating count [[$$$).

[Hamtragedy]

Packman, I was listening to the Wings vs. Dallas game the other night and I heard the organ. I didn't think anything of it until Dallas scored late in the first, and the crowd noise was that of disappointment. That's when I realized the game was being played at JLA, and I heard the organ several more times that night. I haven't heard that organ in years. Maybe the Wings are finally catching on that the same old crowd formula they've repeated over and over with the for fifteen years is finally growing stale.

[Gistok]

....why was it built with the kink in the one wall? kind of a drunken carpenter day it looks like...

Ltdave, few streets that cross Grand River Ave. are perpendicular to it. So the arena was aligned to the right side street, and the facade/lobby was aligned with Grand River. The difference is only seen on the left side wall.

C. Howard Crane was already adept at building on difficult sites. Many of his theatre designs have the entrance and lobby out of plumb with the auditorium. The Capitol and United Artists Theatres were among them.

The lobby of Olympia was therefore out of alignment to the arena itself. But Crane's mastery of design made most patrons unaware of this feature. Only the bend in that left wall of the outside gave away his trickery!

[reddog289]

You know after reading through this tread I am surprised that My Dad didn,t pick up any of the $5.00 seats too. My folks are Wings fans, Many of the stories told here my folks can relate to. My Mom has never been to a Wings game at the Joe. Maybe I should get her a Christmas gift of Hockey.
Aside from Tiger Stadium, The Olympia is my favorite relic from Detroits past.As A kid growing up during the 70's and 80's I would still hear about the Great Wings teams of the past. The Production Line, Gadsby, Redmond, Delveccio, and my favorite Goalie growing up Terry Sawchuck who died when I was a year old.
I consider myself lucky to have grown up when I did even though I never saw the Wings play at the Barn. To me the only home of the Wings that I have known is the Joe, So I myself can't rate the two. But for a place that I have No memories of ever watching anything, I find it amazing that I love that Red Barn at Grand River and McGraw as much as I do.

[56packman]

Gistok--I went to the Earl's Court arena in 1997 to see the royal Tournement--a show by the branches of the British military, the Scottish guard band [[the most impressive marching band I have ever seen, so absolutely precise in their movements, and wonderfully in tune), drills where teams would dissassemble a cannon, carry the parts to the other end of the field and reassemble the cannon, the first team to fire the cannon wins. At the beginning of the event the band came out, played a number, then the announcer intoned "all rise for her majesty the queen". This tall-boxy Rolls Royce carrying the royal warrent [[seal) came out, the color of a Brown Oxford shoe. A woman in K-Mart blue came out and waved, and it was the queen, by golly.
the event was half military tattoo and half WWE kind of wrestling, there was a contest where two women fought each other on top of what looked like big foam=padded Martini glasses holding huge Q-tips. I doubt her majesty stayed for that part, we left when that began.
The building exterior reminded me of Olympia in some regards, the playing field area inside was the size of one of our football fields.

[p69rrh51]

The 1927 opened Olympia Arena was designed by Detroit Architect C. Howard Crane... who was one of America's most prolific movie palace architects.

Crane designed about 50 theatres in the Detroit area, including the Fox, State [[Fillmore), Detroit Opera House [[Capitol), Orchestra Hall, United Artists, Majestic, DIA Theatre, and many others.

Crane also designed the currently being demolished Lafayette Building, and Columbus Ohio's 45 story Leveque-Lincoln Tower, his tallest commission, and considered one of America's finest Art Deco towers.

Crane had spent a lot of time visiting the sights of Europe, and his vast repetroire of classic styles in his buildings shows it. Even Olympia's brick exterior had the characteristics of a Romanesque basilica.

By 1930 his commissions had dried up, and Crane moved to London England, where he designed cinema's throughout the UK, although in a much tamer style than his exotic late 1920's movie palaces in the USA. His greatest work in the UK was London's Earl's Court Convention Center [[1937-38), built over railroad track air space.

Crane died in London in 1952, and is buried there. His grandson C. Howard Crane III is currently living in metro Detroit.

He also designed the main club house for Oakland Hills Country Club, The Lawrence Fisher Mansion 383 Lenox, 450 Keelson for the Dossin Family [[the home is for sale if you want to see pics they are available on most of the internet web sites), on the eastside, the Thomas Currie home 1709 Burns, the Ralph Phelps home 1731 Seminole [[Jack White owned the home when he was with Renee Zellweger) and 3001 Seminole in Indian Village. Plus the John Kunsky home at 1630 Wellesley in Palmer Woods. A few of Cranes commissions were for Kunsky's Chain.

[lpg]

Wife and I got free tickets from one of her co-workers to attend a wrestling match featuring Dick the Bruiser. We were about 7 rows back on the aisle when the little old lady clocked the Bruiser with her purse. We also saw the Globetrotters there. As a kid my sister and I saw the Ice Capades. Still remember losing the top part of my fudge bar over the railing. Sorry about that.

[Gistok]

He also designed the main club house for Oakland Hills Country Club, The Lawrence Fisher Mansion 383 Lenox, 450 Keelson for the Dossin Family [[the home is for sale if you want to see pics they are available on most of the internet web sites), on the eastside, the Thomas Currie home 1709 Burns, the Ralph Phelps home 1731 Seminole [[Jack White owned the home when he was with Renee Zellweger) and 3001 Seminole in Indian Village. Plus the John Kunsky home at 1630 Wellesley in Palmer Woods. A few of Cranes commissions were for Kunsky's Chain.

Thanks p69rrh51! I was aware that he designed the Lawrence Fisher [[Hari Krishna) Mansion on Lenox [[one of the 4 auto baron homes in metro Detroit promoted by the Detroit Convention & Visitors Guide). And I knew that he designed some of the houses in Indian Village and the Kunsky residence in Palmer Woods, but I was unaware of the Oakland Hills Clubhouse... wow!!

If you haven't yet had a chance p69rrh51, take a look at the United Artists Theatre thread farther down the Discuss Detroit thread list. Lots of pics and info on his movie palace designs as well as the John Kunsky connection.

I think that it's rather a pity that Crane is no where near as famous as Albert Kahn. He he was clearly as gifted as Kahn in many ways. It's just that Kahn's main claim to fame was industrial commissions, and Crane's was entertainment commissions. IMHO they were equally gifted architects on residential and commercial commissions. It's just that once their Deco and Moderne commissions were conceived, Cranes commissions were mostly in the UK, while Kahn's were mostly in metro Detroit [[and elsewhere).

[Ltdave]

this site was posted here in the past, its where i got it from but its kind of interesting...

http://www.newolympia.blogspot.com/

its a great idea that i would support...

[Whitehouse]

Thanks for the info Whitehouse!

London's historic Earls Court [[seating for 19,000) has been home to many many rock bands and entertainers, as well as being a convention center. I did some more investigations on that demo threat, and any demo would have to wait until after the London 2012 Olympics, since Earls Court will hold the Olympic volleyball tournaments. Large scale projects are usually planned to death in London... so I wouldn't say it's a goner just yet!

56packman... you are right that Olympia was simply a utilitarian building with little in the way of any ornamentation [[save for the exterior). Ironically C. Howard Crane designed Olympia around the same time he designed his exotic movie palaces for the United Artists and Fox studios in 1926-27. He had just gotten out of his earlier classic phase of movie palace design. So I imagine that Crane would have loved to add some inside character to the "Barn", but was likely told to keep it simple.

I had only ever been to Olympia once when the Red Wings were playing. The upper level seats were certainly dizzyingly steep to ascend to. And I remember the roar of the crowd.

Olympia was not built for modern rock band sound systems in mind, which likely made for bad acoustics... which is uncharacteristic for a Crane venue. His 19,000 seat Earls Court is well liked by rock bands... but of course that could have been also attributable to the large seating count [[$$$).

would be such a waste of history. Look at that front!!


How I wish, how I wish I was here....


Google maps streetview.

[Whitehouse]

Yahoo Groups.

[Susan Messer]

This is slightly embarrassing [[because my friends and I were so naive), but we had tickets to see the Beatles at the Olympia, and we were so in love with them that a few days before their performance, we put together a huge box full of presents and notes and collages and sculptures and other [[what we thought were) very clever items. We drove down to the Olympia to see whether we could find someone who would give it to them, thinking that once the Beatles received our gift, they would realize how special we were and invite us backstage [[we thought they might even announce this invitation from the stage). I don't think we really believed any of this, but you know . . . and as someone said earlier, we wouldn't even have been able to hear them if they had extended the invite.

Anyway, unbelievably enough, some kind gentleman who was working at the Olympia opened the door to us and led us into a room where we could leave our box. When we walked into that room, it was just a little bit devastating because it was jammed with so many other similar offerings. We did go to the concert, and as reported, they were like little specks on the stage and impossible to hear over the screaming. Sobering. I can't imagine what it was like for them.

[p69rrh51]

Thanks p69rrh51! I was aware that he designed the Lawrence Fisher [[Hari Krishna) Mansion on Lenox [[one of the 4 auto baron homes in metro Detroit promoted by the Detroit Convention & Visitors Guide). And I knew that he designed some of the houses in Indian Village and the Kunsky residence in Palmer Woods, but I was unaware of the Oakland Hills Clubhouse... wow!!

If you haven't yet had a chance p69rrh51, take a look at the United Artists Theatre thread farther down the Discuss Detroit thread list. Lots of pics and info on his movie palace designs as well as the John Kunsky connection.

I think that it's rather a pity that Crane is no where near as famous as Albert Kahn. He he was clearly as gifted as Kahn in many ways. It's just that Kahn's main claim to fame was industrial commissions, and Crane's was entertainment commissions. IMHO they were equally gifted architects on residential and commercial commissions. It's just that once their Deco and Moderne commissions were conceived, Cranes commissions were mostly in the UK, while Kahn's were mostly in metro Detroit [[and elsewhere).

What's really sad is that the family members here in town either do not care or
have no clue to how much he helped to shape the architecture here in the Detroit area.