by Sarah Cox

With Detroit teetering on the edge of insolvency, one can't help but think about those tax-generating engines that prevented all this from happening a decade ago, Detroit's casinos. They've been a part of life here for nearly two decades now, if you count the planning and the mishaps [[Rivertown, anyone?), but the permanent casinos and hotels are now an indelible part of Detroit's architectural landscape. Now casinos are showplaces intended to inspire excessive spending, not to elevate the built environment, but let's examine the merits of Detroit's three casinos anyway.

Greektown Casino, designed by Rossetti Associates, is unique in the way it is integrated into an existing commercial district. To its credit, it has kept the streetscape more or less intact and has integrated existing buildings [[hi Trapper's Alley!). The massive newly-constructed brick-clad casino and parking deck dominate the eastern part of the neighborhood, avoiding degradation of the pedestrian experience in Greektown proper. But in a classic example of contextual architecture gone wrong, these new buildings provide exactly zero architectural interest.

Continued at: http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2.../casinos-1.php