Somerset Collection owner buys former Kmart headquarters

[dtowncitylover]

When I worked for the City of Detroit, Bureau of Expressway Design in 1961, the freeways had hardly extended beyond the city. They were looked at by the city as essential elements in reducing traffic congestion within the city. The close-in suburbs of Warren, Royal Oak, Ferndale, and Southfield were already growing without the expressways. Subdivisions were being created all the way out to Rochester. The grid network of section line roads in Oakland and Macomb were amenable to commuter traffic even without expressways.

Remember that downtown was not a major destination for most workers. Detroit was unique in that the commuter destinations were scattered around. Most commuters were going to Rouge, to Yipsilanti, to Highland Park, and other industrial destinations. Downtown was mostly banks, retail, and professional offices. If we had built light rail up the expressway rights of way in 1961, it would have made little difference to what Detroit became.

So can we blame you for the extensive freeway network of Detroit that destroyed real, viable neighborhoods? What did you do for them?

[Hermod]

So can we blame you for the extensive freeway network of Detroit that destroyed real, viable neighborhoods? What did you do for them?

I was a recently graduated Civil Engineer. My Detroit civil service classification was Junior Civil Engineer. The only folks below me in the office were the Junior Draftsmen, the secretaries, and the stock room guy.

I spent my time with the city [[June-Nov 61) drawing detailed cross sectionsw every one hundred feet [[plus intervals if they were significant) from the beginning of the Ford-Chrysler Interchange to the end of the interchange north, south, east, and west to include all of those bridges [[it is a pinwheel interchange and not a cloverleaf). This included the widening of the Dequindre Yard bridge on the Ford.

As a part of my read-in, and when I could steal a few moments, I read most of the planning documents and forecasts for the Chrysler, Fisher, and Southfield Expressways. They also had post-mortems on the Ford, Lodge, and Davidson routes. At the time, Lodge was complete to 9-mile, Ford went out to about 7-mile, and Chrysler just went up to Mack Ave.

I worked in the old Water Board Building, a triangualr building near the City-County building. Cavanaugh was mayor. They had just installed AC in our building and were having trouble getting it "balanced" so we sweltered a lot.

I left on my 2-yr tour of active duty as an ROTC graduate. I stayed in the army as I never wanted to work on a drawing board again. I did like most of the people I worked with.

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