What was this tall building?

[Khorasaurus]

This picture is looking south on Third from Willis in the 1970s:



Larger version here: http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...art=;resnum=10

What is that tall building in the background? It looks like maybe it was on 2nd near MLK? It looks huge...

[Ltdave]

looks like a chevy impala convertible [[white. i cant quite make out the taillights) but whats the car following it? a dodge/plymouth/chrysler?

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

looks like a chevy impala convertible [[white. i cant quite make out the taillights) but whats the car following it? a dodge/plymouth/chrysler?

I believe its a '68 Chrysler 300. I think the '68 was quite sharp. No idea about the building.

[1953]

I don't know what the building is but I can't wait to find out! Someone please post the answer!!

[jfk]

The building is DTE energy

[Chris Rohn]

Quite a zoom on that camera...

[middetres]

That has to be a doctored photo then. Yes, it's long enough and has as many sets of windows as the DTE Energy HQ, but it looks only 2 sets of windows wide, not the 4 windows wide that their HQ building is.

And aside from that, there is no way you can see that much of that building from where that picture was taken. It looks like it's at MLK, not all the way down at Beech Street where it is.

[EastsideAl]

Quite a zoom on that camera...

Indeed. That's some pretty extreme foreshortening distortion created by a serious zoom lens, combined with a disorientingly low perspective.

But, that's definitely the Detroit Edison [[DTE) building looming back there. It couldn't be anything else, and I remember seeing it clearly from that block back in the '70s. In fact, right about the time this photo must have been taken.

I wonder if this is a Tony Spina [[longtime Free Press photographer) shot? He loved to play around with lenses and perspectives in this way.

Anyway, thanks for posting the picture. Really nice to see the ol' Third St. 'strip' again, with Anderson's and the Willis Show Bar in the foreground, and the dreaded Sweetheart and, is that Jumbo's I see?, off in the distance. I lived just up the street then, and I had an LTD too, just like that third car in line [[hey, wait a minute...)

[EastsideAl]

Just for fun, Willis Show Bar, 1976:



Complete with authentic Ford Pinto!

[MikeM]

Ground was broken in 1971 and employees started moving in in the summer of 1973.

[ABetterDetroit]

My google search results show a new bar/restaurant.

http://detroit.eater.com/2016/2/17/1...-cass-corridor

[the rock]

Just for fun, Willis Show Bar, 1976:



Complete with authentic Ford Pinto!

Wow! A photo of the Willis Show Bar and of Anderson's Gardens in the same post.Two spots with stories to tell. Detroit police were summoned to the Gardens on a regular basis.

[canuck]

Strip-O-Rama was a great product for stripping paint off exotic woods, I believe.

But what about the Girls, Girls, Girls?

[Bobl]

Love this photo. I had just left the Cass Corridor at about the time it was taken. Agreed that the tall building looks like the DTE building, but something about the perspective does not match my memory. It just doesn't look right. About a block and a half down, on the left side of Third, was Fortune Records, the label that could have and should have been as big as Motown. They just could never nail down good distribution contracts.

[Bobl]

I missed MokeM's post: "Ground was broken in 1971 and employees started moving in in the summer of 1973."
That is the reason the photo just didn't look right, to me. I moved out in 1971.

[Zacha341]

I just drove by that intersection heading south [[to avoid Woodward), and NO WAY is that first photo right. The Edison building is further back in the distance in reality!

[Király]

I just drove by that intersection heading south [[to avoid Woodward), and NO WAY is that first photo right. The Edison building is further back in the distance in reality!

Making background objects appear closer to the foreground than they actually are is done by backing up the camera [[probably by a block or so in this case) and zooming in with a telephoto lens. Like this:



Or this:



More info here: http://ipsphoto.co/2013/10/back-up-and-zoom-in/

[Zacha341]

Ok, that explains it. Thank you so much for the detailed information! I've never used a telephoto lens and just sold one unused [[from a very old film camera) on eBay. Which is a grand place to find all kinds of lenses and the like.

[Király]

You can have a lot of fun with perspective.

Here is is in reverse: make a foreground element appear larger than it is.



Actual size:

[Zacha341]

Awesome. And no Photshop is involved [[some from the 'post' film generation will shudder to believe that). This sampling and others show to what you can get out imaging at the camera level aside from digital manipulation. I gather you are a photographer? Again thank for sharing this information!

[Jimaz]

Making background objects appear closer to the foreground than they actually are is done by backing up the camera [[probably by a block or so in this case) and zooming in with a telephoto lens....

One funny example of that effect was when, soon after the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, the Secret Service made all the photographers stand far, far away for extra security. Of course they then had to use telephoto lenses.

Whenever Nancy's head was in the background, it appeared grotesquely engorged relative to Ronald's. I couldn't find an example with Google — which isn't surprising considering how hideous it made her look.

[Király]

I gather you are a photographer?

Ha ha, not really, I'm just a low budget amateur who takes pictures for my own enjoyment, and appreciates the creative work of others. None of the pictures I posted are mine and I don't even own a telephoto lens!

Did you notice how the Toyota in the top horse picture appears smaller than the chair beside it?

[jcole]

They do this all the time with pictures of Denver, CO. If you ever see pics of the city it looks like it's sitting at the foot of the Rocky Mountains when in fact it's miles away.
Like this:

When it's really more like this:

[G-DDT]

I like when a thread about Detroit evolves into something like this. Thus, proving all things lead to Detroit.

[Király]

Best approximation of the original photo's perspective I could get using Google Street view imagery. This zoomed in image is taken from when the Google car was at Third and Forest, five full blocks back from Willis.