"2 More Thinkers to The D” - AtDetroit is at Detroit

[Lowell]

Last autumn we quietly moved our little internet solutions company AtDetroit, LLC, which publishes DetroitYES.com, to the Michigan Building in Downtown Detroit. Our decision was a mix of factors, but at its core was the growing vibrancy and attraction of downtown Detroit as a center of innovation and internet activities.

The thought of working on the very site where Henry Ford created his first automobile and drove it out onto the streets of Detroit and parking our cars every day in the iconic and ironic Michigan-Theater-turned-parking-structure was inspiration enough. Being in the mix of an energetic scene set amid grand and inspiring architecture was the reward.

Credit and thanks for our choosing this location goes first to Michigan Building owner and friend Anthony Pieroni and his very able manager Wendy Grenke. His long stewardship and patience has kept the building viable and well-managed through an extremely friendly and attentive staff led by Wendy and Mr. Pieroni’s son Matt. For anyone looking to locate downtown, I highly recommend this site.

While many past and present deserve credit for this upsurge in downtown Detroit, I have to give a nod to Dan Gilbert whose immense energy and actions have fueled a gathering momentum of information-based businesses, many quiet, tiny and unnoticed like us, being drawn downtown.

So I think it appropriate that we virtually graffiti-up his building banner as a way of saying, ‘We [Nicolas and Lowell Boileau] are here are too’.

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Now that we are well settled in and enjoying an excellent view of the Tiger’s scoreboard from our perch overlooking Grand Circus Park, I am curious to know who else works in, has a business, or lives downtown and perhaps in sharing your thoughts as to why. Hopefully we will have an opportunity to meet up some time.

[Jimaz]

Great!

And it's crucial to maintain communications between those who have moved downtown and others who might.

Hurray for word-of-mouth advertising!

[Gistok]

Lowell... congratulations... when you moved there I didn't have a chance to stop by. But I may stop in soon.

Not only are you on the site where Henry Ford built his first engine and quadricycle... but also the site where Detroit's underrated architect C. Howard Crane designed many of his best buildings when he moved in when the building opened in 1926. He designed his United Artists and Fox masterpieces from the top 2 floors that housed his offices there. It's ironic that he opted to move into a building that was built by one of his movie palace competitors... Cornelius W. and George L. Rapp... known to movie palace buffs as Rapp & Rapp. The Michigan Building was Rapp & Rapps finest commission in Michigan, and the former Michigan Theatre was their largest theatre in their preferred "Royal France" style. Sadly the theatre was gutted by a previous owner, and the former theatre space [[there's more remaining of the theatre than most people realize) today gets visitors from all around the world.

Wendy Grenke is a wonderful manager whom I too have the pleasure to know. She's a great person to talk to, and I've learned a lot about walking the proverbial tight rope in dealing with city government from her.

And Matt Pieroni is a nice guy, who makes for a great building Superintendent. Lots of people who like to tailgate for game days [[the Michigan has a loyal following in that regard)... know Matt, who runs the show on game evenings and weekends. And what better location for tailgating... inclement weather? No problem.. your indoors...

Michigan Building owner Anthony Pieroni is a great guy... but would be cross with me for saying so... but he's very well liked by all the building tenants and employees. He's always willing to help tenants out who are in a bind... and very few of his building tenants even have leases. His easy going style, and attention to detail, is one of the reasons that his building has one of the highest occupancy rates in downtown.

I've known Tony now going on 13 years, and first met over an article I wrote about his former theatre space being within one of the Casino footprints. He told me I was nuts to think that there's enough money in metro Detroit to ever bring back the Michigan Theatre. Now after 13 years, and a better understanding of the high costs of theatre renovations/restorations... I guess I was nuts after all...

Ironically the former Michigan Theatre space is more of an attraction today than was the original theatre, had it remained intact. The previous owners disemboweled it in 1977... and although they destroyed what was once much of the theatre, had they not done so, the building site today would be just another downtown parking lot.

The former Michigan Theatre probably had a foreboding of the future when it opened on August 23, 1926. That day was the most newsworthy day in Cinema history... the day that Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina D'Antonguolla died... the world knew him as Rudolph Valentino... He died at 31 of Peritonitis [[septic) brought on by Appendicitis and Gastric Ulcers, there was mass hysteria at news of his death, where 100,000 attended his funeral, and he was actively mourned by 40 million people worldwide.

If a new Hockey arena is built nearby, and if a development ever happens on the Tuller/UA block [[with a renovated UA) and some developments happen on the Statler block, then the Michigan Building will finally have neighbors that generate some foot traffic in that rather quiet section of downtown.

Until then... the Michigan Building will pretty much continue to be practically the only center of commerce of that section of the city's core... and Lowell... hopefully from your office windows, you'll be able to see that area of downtown come back to life... one block at a time...

[Lowell]

That's some great history Gistok. I was unaware of C. Howard Crane's presence. Crane above Ford below, good juju there.

The views I have indeed show the transformations of downtown Detroit. Compared with the 1997 "Fabulous Ruins of Detroit" through which I met Mr. Pieroni, the changes are remarkable and overall for the betterment of Detroit.

The Tiger's baseball and Lion's stadiums have risen across a refurbished Grand Circus Park. The Statler Hotel is gone but the Broderick Tower is in its final stages of a gleaming restoration. The Whitney Building before it awaits transformation to a boutique Hotel.

The Greektown Hotel peeks its head above the skyline beside the still ruined top of the Metropolitan Building.

The Cadillac Hotel has been beautifully restored but the Book Tower is vacated and facing an uncertain future. The elegant Rosa Parks transit center has dignified bus transportation and linked it to the People Mover. And everybody's favorite ruin, the GAR building is undergoing restoration.

The Ilitch-owned vacant and fenced-off United Artist Building into which I stare daily remains a mystery. Workmen appear in the building irregularly and occasionally. The roof of the theater is in excellent condition.

Two steps forward, one back but the direction is clear.

[Detroitej72]

Gistok, you never cease to amaze me with your knowledge of theaters, thanks for the info.

Lowell, great move!

[Jimaz]

There's a Google Business View of a salon in that building that shows some good mirror reflections of the photographer.

[stromberg2]

Are there any bars/restaurants in the Michigan? I thought there was. Congrats Lowell and Traxus!

Stromberg2

[Lowell]

Are there any bars/restaurants in the Michigan? I thought there was. Congrats Lowell and Traxus!

Stromberg2

There is the Bagley Cafe which is a breakfast and lunch restaurant and the recently opened Bagley Bar in the former Skipper's Bar space. The bar is an events-based bar, open for Tiger and Lions games.

[Gistok]

One of the most amazing spaces of any theatre in the world is inside the Great Window at the Michigan Building....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/decojim...n/photostream/

Architect's Rapp & Rapp often used a great arched window to denote a theatre entrance. All their major theatre's from the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, to the gutted Broadway Paramount on Times Sq. in NYC had a great window above the entrance. So did such theatres as Shea's Buffalo in New York, the King's theatre in Brooklyn and many other of their designed Paramount Theatre's across the country. In some of these theatre's the arched window opened up to the Grand Lobby, and in other theatre's [[such as the Michigan, the entranceway window was some distance from the actual Grand Lobby itself, and was therefore a sham or fake window, made to look like the Grand Lobby space was right behind the window. This fakery was done at the Michigan using a large amount of mirrors. In other cities, such as Shea's Buffalo Theatre, simply curtains were used to hide the deception.

Of all of these fake windows, the Michigan's was the largest and most opulently set up. There were dozens of mirrors that gave the impression of a dazzling space inside. In the former Michigan Theatre, a very long slender chandelier was included to light up this space. Although that plain chandelier is long gone, the glorious space inside the window survives, and has been restored in recent years. This space was never intended to be viewed, except from the street.

But for anyone who has ever been inside the Great Window at the Michigan, it's an amazing space that sort of disorients you by its' size and dimensions... and yet dazzles you by the fact that there's no other architectural space of it's soaring size to compare it to anywhere!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/silkese...n/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/istokg/...7626093396465/