Is Dan Gilbert Too Tacky?

**urbanhat** · March-23-12, 07:21 PM

Ok, I have no doubt that Dan Gilbert's investments are a good thing for the city. But I have to agree with the critics:

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/des...-detroit/1546/

http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2012/03/downtown-detroits-new-decor-is-an-atrocious-attention-whore.php

Has Dan Gilbert not put any of his investment into a good designer? Or, given all the great design talent in and interested in Detroit, how did we end up with this mess?

[[Sorry if this was posted before--I looked quickly and didn't see it.)

**canuck** · March-23-12, 07:49 PM

I think what they have done is fine. I wasnt expecting that from him, following the letdown of a project design proposal on the Hudson site, but this seems to be well done and well in tune with the younger set of employees he has hired. I think that it is good to show that a corporate setting like Quicken which traditionallly is conservative can turn around and suddenly be jazzy and fearless like the new Detroit needs to be.

I am pleasantly surprised. Let it be tacky to some people, but let it clear the air first and foremost.

**Jason** · March-23-12, 08:54 PM

It's the kind of design you get when you buy a building and it needs new interiors and your wife is an interior designer...

15 years ago it would have been current [[but still tacky). Today it's just outdated and tacky.

And not only will people have the misfortune of working in those spaces, but they reflect poorly on Detroit as a whole. This is what's getting showcased as the cutting edge Detroit of the future. But it [[the design at least) is so clearly not.

If anyone wants to actually see what is going on in the world of design, just browse through a few pages of archdaily.com. I'm not going to say ALL of the buildings there are actually good--that's a different discussion--but it's very up to date.

For something more indepth but less accessible, the University of Michigan has been uploading their guest lectures: vimeo.com/taubmancollege

**antongast** · March-23-12, 09:14 PM

Yes. Yes, he is.

**gnome** · March-23-12, 10:13 PM

Nothing looks older faster than that which is modern today.

**Zacha341** · March-23-12, 10:32 PM

^^^^ Precisely. Well stated!

**Trumpeteer** · March-23-12, 11:02 PM

Originally Posted by Jason

And not only will people have the misfortune of working in those spaces, but they reflect poorly on Detroit as a whole.

REFLECT POORLY??? What the fuck is worse, a design that doesn't meet your criteria or an EMPTY buidling??? And the "misfortune" of working in this hideous building??? Go back to art school and don't venture out into reality.

**gumby** · March-23-12, 11:40 PM

Who gives a fuck what its interior design is like. I'll take tacky over empty any day.

**Zacha341** · March-24-12, 05:46 AM

Well that's a point! Hah!

Originally Posted by gumby

Who gives a fuck what its interior design is like. I'll take tacky over empty any day.

**Gannon** · March-24-12, 06:36 AM

I dunno...perhaps we should look at this through Broken Windows theory.

There is great chance this tackiness may be infectious to the outside environment of the city, if there is no intervention beforehand.

Gilbert is amassing too much power to be ignored, and if he has THIS bad of taste with the spaces he has direct control over...there is little anyone will be able to do to curb his brand of neo-ugliness.

What I see in the few images I've perused in the past few days is a visual cacophony of colorful shapely noise and clutter. Nowhere near a professional environment which should be more continuous unto branding the company. I see nothing original, beyond the trendy "what-hasn't-yet-been-done-before" rushed through the noggingly clueless yes-execudroids into purchasing and accounting before anyone can ask perhaps why.

Why hasn't anyone else assembled a collection of furniture which doesn't match in a room with walls and ceilings which look like they were copied from a Marvel comic fight scene, in a WORK environment?!

Can you just imagine how the place SOUNDS?! Too loud, too confusing...too much noise to conduct business with a clear head.

Then again, maybe the scamortgage industry needs unclear heads to operate.

Yeah, before he gets too much of a hand in downtown politics...as if it isn't already too late...we need to make an intervention to contain his brand of neo-ugliness before he decides to colorize our current icons.

In the old days, I could 'commission' images of a hyped-up modernized Spirit with Quicken tattoos and fleshtones, or the Noguchi monolith Phylon turned into stacked colored blocks from one of our forum Photoshop experts...to illustrate my point. I don't even want to know what they'd do to the Joe Louis fist, although it cannot be much worse than what my drunken fraternity brothers always got around to planning but never executing. I always voted for purple, since it holds no racial undertones.

No cheers on bad taste! If even I can tell it, it's gotta be really bad.

Sincerely,
John

**Scottathew** · March-24-12, 07:22 AM

I hate it when businessmen go into dilapidated and forgotten urban cores and then start buying buildings, moving thousands and thousands of jobs into them, and then have the sheer audacity to renovate them in a way inconsistent with my taste!

Seriously people, you guys are too funny. Let's take a look at how Illitch renovates his properties...

**urbanhat** · March-24-12, 07:33 AM

Originally Posted by gumby

Who gives a fuck what its interior design is like. I'll take tacky over empty any day.

Sure, I agree 100%, empty is worse! But just because we don't want empty doesn't mean we should throw out all standards!! And it's not an all-or-nothing choice. Wouldn't it be cheaper to edit out the lime-green-orange-fake-wood-and-silkscreen carpet and the plush rainbow-striped file cabinets, thus leaving more money to invest in additional buildings?

All I'm saying is that next time Dan Gilbert does an interior he should get a second opinion.

**tkelly1986** · March-24-12, 07:44 AM

Though the designs may be tacky, it’s nothing new for Detroit. Detroiters dress tackier than anyone else in America; led prominently by our “clergy” and city councilmen. The term city “clownsil” is appropriate for more than one reason.

**stasu1213** · March-24-12, 07:54 AM

Dan Gilbert is being innovative by designing the interior of the building in that fashion. The design could be easily change in the future if needed. It is nothing but paint and cubicles. The Kilpatrick administration had let Northern Group purchase three to four buildings in Detroit. Had anyone seen Northern Group's design for these buildings. Sometimes the way the office is designed set the mood of that work enviroment. I cant wait to see what Tony Goldman has in store for the buildings he had purchased

**Gistok** · March-24-12, 09:23 AM

Originally Posted by gnome

Nothing looks older faster than that which is modern today.

Gotta agree... take the "new" Fisher Theatre".... teak and brass.... Theatre Historical Society had this to say about our wonderful new [[in 1961) Fisher Theatre... "while it was made of quality materials, the new Fisher looks more date than does the old [[1928 Mayanesque style) Fisher, had it survived...

**Gistok** · March-24-12, 09:33 AM

Maybe "Daycare Deco" will catch on as a new interior design fashion statement....

After all when Philip Johnson first designed his "Chippendale Highboy" AT&T HQ in NYC back in the 1980s... mainstream architects were appalled... little did they know then that he practically invented "Post Modern" architecture.

While I don't personally care for Gilbert's color palette, it's nothing that a coat of paint can't reverse in the future. It's changes to the outsides of buildings that causes more grief to our architectural legacy, than some "veneer" on the inside.

**poobert** · March-24-12, 09:49 AM

Tacky, sure. However I work in a musty old cockroach-infested Detroit office...sure mid-century sounds fun on paper, but it really amounts to grey cubicles, grey cinderblock walls, and florescent lights. I would KILL to work in someplace like this. I think that about sums it up.

**Wheels** · March-24-12, 10:17 AM

I guess we would send these guys packing if they tried to bring there business here

.http://www.zapposinsights.com/culture-book

**antongast** · March-24-12, 10:31 AM

Originally Posted by Wheels

I guess we would send these guys packing if they tried to bring there business here

.http://www.zapposinsights.com/culture-book

Nobody is sending Dan Gilbert packing, we're just commenting on his taste. That's still allowed, right?

**jtf1972** · March-24-12, 11:09 AM

Illitch certainly knows how to open up interior space! His taste may be considered a bit bland, in simple dark grey with white piping, but when it comes to letting the air in his renovations of these classic buildings is unprecedented!

Originally Posted by 48091

I hate it when businessmen go into dilapidated and forgotten urban cores and then start buying buildings, moving thousands and thousands of jobs into them, and then have the sheer audacity to renovate them in a way inconsistent with my taste!

Seriously people, you guys are too funny. Let's take a look at how Illitch renovates his properties...

**Gannon** · March-24-12, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by poobert

Tacky, sure. However I work in a musty old cockroach-infested Detroit office...sure mid-century sounds fun on paper, but it really amounts to grey cubicles, grey cinderblock walls, and florescent lights. I would KILL to work in someplace like this. I think that about sums it up.

Perhaps some compromise is in order, then.

You can go take half of the garish stuff tacking up his space, the half he should've said maybe or no towards. I'm hoping he said no to some of the suggestions, it actually looks like he told them to use two or three material/finish boards all together.

After smoking a bunch of crack. I've heard all mashups are better that way.

Have I told y'all yet how much I despise the trend in modern design...architecture...fashion...and most vehicles?! It is not just Gilbert, caught up in novelty without philosophy. It's a sickness...proving a lack of knowledge and wisdom regarding the human perceptual 'machine', ergonomics, and integration with technology.

Cheers!
John

**BasementBeat** · March-24-12, 01:12 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Maybe "Daycare Deco" will catch on as a new interior design fashion statement....

That's hilarious.

**downtownguy** · March-24-12, 01:48 PM

Originally Posted by urbanhat

But just because we don't want empty doesn't mean we should throw out all standards!!

What standards? Your standards? He who puts up the cash and buys the building sets the standards.

**downtownguy** · March-24-12, 01:50 PM

Originally Posted by 48091

Seriously people, you guys are too funny. Let's take a look at how Illitch renovates his properties...

Sad, but true.

**gumby** · March-24-12, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by urbanhat

Sure, I agree 100%, empty is worse! But just because we don't want empty doesn't mean we should throw out all standards!! And it's not an all-or-nothing choice. Wouldn't it be cheaper to edit out the lime-green-orange-fake-wood-and-silkscreen carpet and the plush rainbow-striped file cabinets, thus leaving more money to invest in additional buildings?

All I'm saying is that next time Dan Gilbert does an interior he should get a second opinion.

And all I am saying is next time you put up millions of dollars then you can have the say.