New development on Cass south of Warren?

[Gsgeorge]

Side note, it will be disappointing to see that little building go. It's easy to miss as you're passing by, but it looks cool as hell. Hands down, one of my favorite buildings in midtown.

What!?! What is going on!?? People are crying about losing the ugly modernist building on Woodward, and now we have others saying their FAVORITE BUILDING IN MIDTOWN, HANDS DOWN is this nondescript "reading room" ugly-as-hell little abandoned craphole... I know my favorite building is the giant, white, windowless, concrete blighted box across from Curl Up & Dye.... That's a real gem.

Whatever happened to our appreciation for REAL architecture? These are precisely the buildings that NEED to be knocked down in Midtown .... Wayne State is playing it smart. There are intelligent people and the UCCA behind them. I really doubt historic structures will continue to see the wrecking ball. On the contrary, Wayne State understands that all the crappy prefab modernist architecture from the 70s-90s in Midtown would better serve the neighborhood by being replaced with something more in line with our better buildings.

My REAL favorite buildings in Midtown: Old Main, Stuberstone, Masonic Temple, Garfield Building, Maccabees Building, DPL, Rackham Hall, all of Ferry Street.... I could go on. Since when are crappy one-story windowless 1970s concrete buildings our 'favorite buildings in Midtown, hands down'? Our standards have really dropped far.

[Pcm]

What!?! What is going on!?? People are crying about losing the ugly modernist building on Woodward, and now we have others saying their FAVORITE BUILDING IN MIDTOWN, HANDS DOWN is this nondescript "reading room" ugly-as-hell little abandoned craphole... I know my favorite building is the giant, white, windowless, concrete blighted box across from Curl Up & Dye.... That's a real gem.

Whatever happened to our appreciation for REAL architecture? These are precisely the buildings that NEED to be knocked down in Midtown .... Wayne State is playing it smart. There are intelligent people and the UCCA behind them. I really doubt historic structures will continue to see the wrecking ball. On the contrary, Wayne State understands that all the crappy prefab modernist architecture from the 70s-90s in Midtown would better serve the neighborhood by being replaced with something more in line with our better buildings.

My REAL favorite buildings in Midtown: Old Main, Stuberstone, Masonic Temple, Garfield Building, Maccabees Building, DPL, Rackham Hall, all of Ferry Street.... I could go on. Since when are crappy one-story windowless 1970s concrete buildings our 'favorite buildings in Midtown, hands down'? Our standards have really dropped far.

Perhaps we're referring to two different buildings.

While I can certainly appreciate the architecture of the easy to identify buildings, I appreciate even more the details of Detroit that you must stumble upon.

I have no architectural education or training. Which means, I'm free to find beauty in structures that not everyone else will.

It's too bad that Old Main and the Garfield building will be surrounded by crappy prefab architecture from the 2010's. The old CSRR happens to appear to NOT be from the 70's, but much older. It is short, stocky, and sturdy. I like the way that looks. Sue me.

[Detroitnerd]

That reading room was never a very appealing building. But I think maybe where the leeriness comes from is not that it will be replaced by something uglier [[in my opinion, impossible!) but what will the scale of what replaces it be? Seems WSU development is shooting either for large-scale, vertical generica [[the Albuquerque-looking building next to the Whitney, for example; love the scale, hate the Southwestern tones) or "green space." Say what you will about that block between Hancock and Warren, but it's kind of a warren of all sorts of sizes. Which reminds me of what a city probably should look like. That is what will likely be lost, as WSU embarks on building ... what? ... a massive hotel? a parking garage? Pretty soon, you won't be able to see the neighborhood for the institutional architecture ... or that's the sense I get of people's fears.

[casscorridor]

I read the sign on the windows of the buildings in question. The notice says the proposal calls for a four-story building with 81 "multi-family residential units" and 3 commercial storefronts. The meeting is 11:00 AM, Wednesday July 14th at the Coleman A. Young Building. I'm guessing there will be renderings there.

Sad to see the small historic building go, maybe they could somehow incorporate into the new structure. Regardless, 81 new units of housing and 3 new storefronts will make a big impact and is a huge improvement to that corner.