Is this building abandoned? [[Temple of Odd Fellows building Monroe & Randolph)

[j to the jeremy]

The only part of the first floor facade that is still likely part of the original building... and you're questioning if architects/building owners have given it any thought?

I think it's very likely that they made a quick mock up based on some national design directive for "urban" BWW's, and didn't really think about preservation yet. I bet the final product will look quite different than in that rendering.

[Gistok]

I think it's very likely that they made a quick mock up based on some national design directive for "urban" BWW's, and didn't really think about preservation yet. I bet the final product will look quite different than in that rendering.

By the look of their rendering, it looks like they would just cover over the fancy arch entry. That wouldn't be so bad, since future uses could uncover what's underneath. There's a lot of buildings [[like over by the 2 coney's) that have simple corregated metal covering what is still underneath.

That's the kind of remodeling job that one doesn't mind, since it can be "undone". But it's butcher jobs like the Boulevard Building [[NE corner Woodward E. Grand Blvd.) where they ripped out much of Albert Kahn's fine terra cotta work that galls me. That brutalist building is God awful.

In the 1950s they did something similar to old ornate movie palaces.... they put huge sections of drapery over the plasterwork as a cheap way to cover up the work "so you won't have to look at all that old stuff anymore". Unfortunately they didn't take that "cheap route" with the old Fisher Theatre in 1960-61... they ripped out all the old plasterwork to shrink down the ttheatre to 2/3 of its' size...