Ford Auditorium/MOCAD

[canuck]

detroitbob, I commiserate about the fate of Detroit these past decades. There are an awful lot of differences but also similarities about Montreal and Detroit. You could say that with all the blight in Detroit, the missing streetlights and leftover tires and assorted debris, you cannot beat Montreal on potholes. But as FA goes, it looks like a Godzilla-scaled Freightliner truck grille he would have plopped as a bulwark against Ultraman. Montreal has had its share of nonsensical art venues before and after the fifties as you mentioned. I am all for the reuse of such buildings and sometimes a radical makeover is in order. We had a contemporary art museum move to a brand new building in the early nineties;a cheap post modernist prefab thing, it is now showing signs of aging; cracking concrete panels will look a lot worse given another 20 years.

I think the Ford Auditorium might be a good second venue for the DIA if they wanted to show more of their works. Opening up on the harbour and such would be a welcome addition in cold and warm weather for tourists and Detroiters alike.

[DC48080]

Opening up on the harbour and such would be a welcome addition in cold and warm weather for tourists and Detroiters alike.

Uh, there is no harbor anywhere near Ford Auditorium. What harbor are you talking about?

[canuck]

Uh, there is no harbor anywhere near Ford Auditorium. What harbor are you talking about?

You're right DC, I meant the riverfront, I am thinking in terms of my city, the old city fronts a harbor which is still active and for a long time was closed to tourists until like Detroit, the riverside was reclaimed and tourism now mixes with shipping activity.

[DC48080]

You're right DC, I meant the riverfront, I am thinking in terms of my city, the old city fronts a harbor which is still active and for a long time was closed to tourists until like Detroit, the riverside was reclaimed and tourism now mixes with shipping activity.

If there was some kind of marina/harbor adjacent to Hart Plaza it would definitely bring in more people to the various events staged there. I would love to be able to motor down the river and tie up at Hart Plaza for a few hours and enjoy the jazz festival etc...

But let's come back to reality now, unfortunately there is no room for such a facility and, of course, no funding for such a project even if there was room.