Ford underground parking

[detlump]

I recently used the Ford underground parking garage and wondered how old it was, and how it was constructed - it must have been quite a project putting in under Jefferson in the heart of downtown.

Clearly it was designed when cars were the norm and only farmers and construction workers drove pickups, let alone SUVs.

Anyone know the history about it? Thank you.

[DetroitPlanner]

It was put in at the time that the Ford Auditorium and City County [[CA Young Adminstration) Building were built. It is very similar to many underground garages in the City including the Kennedy Square, Grand Circus, and Art Museum garages. Is it still called the Kennedy Square garage?

[Gistok]

I have an Arcadia Book image of the building of the West Grand Circus Park garage location [[the Downtown Movie Palace book). They had to dig up the entire park [[east and west) and remove all trees, statuary and fountains in order to dig a 5 story hole for the garage location. Just the logistics, relocation, and shoring up the walls of the park must have been daunting and costly.

[Dexlin]

What much more is to be said of it besides that it was built along with the auditorium? I'm not sure what is being asked.

[gnome]

http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...tart=;resnum=9

http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...art=;resnum=36

Judging from the above links, it appears that Jefferson was widened from two lanes east and west to three lanes east and west plus a median. The top pic shows the corner where the current CAY building stands.

[MikeM]

From the photo in gnome's last link, it looks as if Ford Auditorium was nearly complete while the garage was being constructed. This would make it 1955-1956 vintage. The space seems to have been dug out from the surface, open-pit style instead of tunneled, and was done prior to Jefferson being widened:

http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...-UND-1]50969_1

[MikeM]

Grand Circus garage looks like it was built around the same time. I don't know car vintages but at the grand opening it looks like The Ten Commandments was playing at the Madison Theater, and you could ride the Aquarama to Cleveland for $7.75:

http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?id=S-VMC-X-34735-UND-3%5D34735_3

http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...ND-4%5D34735_4

[GPCharles]

As an aside, one Downtown Hoedown weekend someone was locked into the Ford Underground Garage. The vehicle was a huge 4WD pickup truck. The owner/driver tried unsuccesfully to bash his way out through the roll-down garage door. Quite a bit of damage to the door.

The garage always reeked of urine the Monday morning after the Hoedown.

[One Shot]

The pee smell gets me thinking about how nasty COBO's garage looks during the winter. Theres never any rain down there to "wash" it out. Do they ever powerwash these underground garages?

[mikeg19]

Maybe a bit off topic, but does anyone know about how far down the city's average depth to bedrock is? i remember seeing a picture a few years ago of Manhattan and wondering why there was such a lull in tall and supertall structures between the Empire State Building and the WTC site, and someone made mention that the bedrock between those two areas was much further down, making it more cost prohibitive to construct taller buildings there. Kinda got me wondering if Detroit is evenly spread out or not.

[DetroitPlanner]

As an aside, one Downtown Hoedown weekend someone was locked into the Ford Underground Garage. The vehicle was a huge 4WD pickup truck. The owner/driver tried unsuccesfully to bash his way out through the roll-down garage door. Quite a bit of damage to the door.

The garage always reeked of urine the Monday morning after the Hoedown.

I don't park in that garagee but my garage is by Hart Plaza as well. The two worst days to park by far are the days after the hoedown and the electronic music festival. People are gross pigs and will $#!t and P!$$ anywhere they can as long as they can get thier drink on. Think about that when you're opening doors or pushing elavator buttons!!

[DownriverGRap]

http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...tart=;resnum=9

http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...art=;resnum=36

Judging from the above links, it appears that Jefferson was widened from two lanes east and west to three lanes east and west plus a median. The top pic shows the corner where the current CAY building stands.

Nice shot of the Boblo boats too!

[detlump]

Thanks for all the comments and photos - that area has changed quite a bit over the years. It struck me that it would be so much more difficult to do this today.

[Dexlin]

Way old thread, I know, but I was curious from an aerial view, what would the general borders of the garage be relative to the old auditorium, and how were they connected? It's my understanding the garage is under Jefferson and the front 'yard' of the old building, but not underneath the actual auditorium, itself. Just trying to kind of place the footprint of it and how any underground connections worked with it.

BTW, since the auditorium is was brought down, you can kind of see the elevation differences and some of the different levels. As far as I can tell, there was the lobby level which was flush with Auditorium Drive/Jefferson, and then a bottom/basement level that was flush with Atwater; is this correct?





It's my understanding that on this 'basement' level was a "smoking" room or whatever directly beneath the lobby, but everything south of that was for service? Also, in the second photo above to the right you see a two-level underground structure which you still see today. I assume that's the back of the garage?

Just trying to figure out how everything was oriented and accessed.

[Eastside...]

I use my butt to open doors and my knee for elevator buttons

[Dexlin]

Cool.

[EastsideAl]

The garage used to connect directly via an escalator to the lower level lobby of the auditorium.