Defunct Tom Monaghan housing project

[JBMcB]

Does anyone know the exact location of Monaghan's defunct, supposedly Frank Lloyd Wright style housing development? I think it was supposed to be somewhere around Ann Arbor, but I couldn't find any more information about it.

[FlyingJ]

sounds like it was very near the Domino Farms... http://www.mlive.com/businessreview/...hropy_a_c.html

[DetroitPlanner]

I seem to recall that it was going to go in N of M-14 along Earhart maybe along Warren Avenue. The Dominican nuns have a compound there, maybe one day you can drive out there and check out if it looks Wrightian. Gunnar Birketts did most of the Wright styled buildings for Tommy.

I always found it ironic that Tom is a big catholic and architecture fan but under his watch a classic old catholic church was ripped down behind the White Castle so he could park cars there when he owned the Tigers. Tommy Tommy, thats not very catholic nor or is it something an architecture fan would do!

[mallory]

Wow is that MLive article a joke. I live about 40 minutes from Ave Maria. It might have 1,100 homes [[more like maybe 400), but no way is anything near 11,000 homes. Actually, I was out there yesterday and it's all but a ghost town [[and, no, I'm not calling it a Holy Ghost town). It's very impressive, but really weird. No beach, no golf, nothing but scrub land that he plopped his dream town and university down on [[and got very cheap). It really is in the middle of nowhere. You see a few cars coming to take pictures of the church [[where he installed some salvaged pieces from the torn down Detroit church) and leave. You'll see a few students walking about, but when the summer comes and the students are on summer break, then it really turns into ghostville. They do have some shops and it would be nice if it had more residents, but it's almost like a movie set.

The nearest real town is Immokalee, which is mostly populated by Mexican, Haitian and American Indian migrant workers. Not my idea of a date night location, though there is a small but decent Indian casino nearby. If you want to really get out and do something, you have to drive at least 30-40 minutes to get to Naples or Ft. Myers. If it weren't for their new university president, there's a good chance that the university might have had to close shop.

Certainly not Xanadu by any stretch.

[EastsideAl]

I always found it ironic that Tom is a big catholic and architecture fan but under his watch a classic old catholic church was ripped down behind the White Castle so he could park cars there when he owned the Tigers. Tommy Tommy, thats not very catholic nor or is it something an architecture fan would do!

I've always found it ironic that the nearly evangelical uber-Catholic Monaghan so thoroughly hero-worships Frank Lloyd Wright, who was Unitarian if he was anything, but was also quite public about his general distaste for organized religion.

As for St. Boniface though, since the parish there was already closed, I'll bet that the Archdiocese made it known to ol' Tom that they'd be quite happy, and he'd be doing the mother church a service, if he took that old building off of their hands.

[JBMcB]

I've always found it ironic that the nearly evangelical uber-Catholic Monaghan so thoroughly hero-worships Frank Lloyd Wright, who was Unitarian if he was anything, but was also quite public about his general distaste for organized religion.

You can like the art without liking the artist. I think Henry Ford did some wonderful things, however the man himself was a world-class a-hole.

Anywhoo - I believe I found it - Mother Teresa drive off of Joy Road [[of course.)

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=domino...27s+farms&z=17

There are only a few boring modern-style mansions in that sub - then there's this:
http://binged.it/I78bUJ

I'll have to run down there and check it out. The Peonys will be blooming in the Nichol's Arboretum soon, it'll be a nice detour.

[DetroitPlanner]

Kind of disappointing that the only FLlW style home does not try to fit into natural surroundings, there is a glacial ridge in the general area so that there are areas that are not as flat as the one selected for this house. In addition the rest of the subdivision is little more than flag lots, uninspiring McMansions and loopy cul-de-sacs.