9 Michigan sites nominated for NRHP

[DetroitZack]

Go to the website for the full listing but the 2 locations in Detroit are the Financial District and Michigan Bell and Western Electric Warehouse. The Financial District certainly deserves it in my opinion, with such beauties as the Guardian and Penobscot and many more.

http://www.examiner.com/x-22150-Detr...istoric-Places

[buildingsofdetroit]

Go to the website for the full listing but the 2 locations in Detroit are the Financial District and Michigan Bell and Western Electric Warehouse. The Financial District certainly deserves it in my opinion, with such beauties as the Guardian and Penobscot and many more.

http://www.examiner.com/x-22150-Detroit-Landmarks-Examiner~y2009m9d23-9-Michigan-sites-nominated-to-National-Register-of-Historic-Places

Too bad the DEGC wouldn't let preservationists include the Lafayette Building in the Financial District. It fought the Lafayette's inclusion - for what is now an obvious reason.

[Rocko]

Interesting point about the Lafayette, buildingsofdetroit. Financial District is certainly worthy of designation, as is a somewhat forgotten local landmark, the Michigan Bell/Westinghouse Electric warehouse easily visible from the northbound Lodge at the Davison. Hopefully these will both be so-designated.

[PQZ]

Too bad the DEGC wouldn't let preservationists include the Lafayette Building in the Financial District. It fought the Lafayette's inclusion - for what is now an obvious reason.

Too bad DEGC has no authority over whether a building is listed or not listed. They can only file opinions with the bodies that actually decide what buildings are nominated to local, state and federal historic registries.

The real tragedy here?

The Greater Downtown Partnership took an inventory of historic buildings nearly ten years ago and recommended various actions. Becuase the GDP needed to remain neutral and not box itself into corners it made the reports available to the general public so the likes of Preservation Wayne and Cityscape could take action.

NOBODY in the last TEN YEARS took on the effort of nominating buildings to help preserve them. The "preservation community" was too busy with very very important tasks like:

• Printing "Save the Book Cadillac" T-shirts when the building was already being saved
• Whispering darkly about a non-existent "hit-list"
• Making Lego replicas of the very buildings they now lament
• Supporting Higgins end-run to make a boat load of advertising cash and do nothing with the Broderick

What is that internet meme that describes these actions?

Oh yeah...

FAIL!

[Fnemecek]

Too bad DEGC has no authority over whether a building is listed or not listed. They can only file opinions with the bodies that actually decide what buildings are nominated to local, state and federal historic registries.

The DEGC has no direct authority in the matter. However, because Detroit is a Certified Local Government under the terms the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the Mayor and City Council do have authority in the matter and those individuals listen very closely to the DEGC; essentially giving them de facto authority in the matter. Exhibits A - D in this matter would be the Madison-Lenox and Statler Hilton Hotels as well as Tiger Stadium and the Lafayette Bldg.

NOBODY in the last TEN YEARS took on the effort of nominating buildings to help preserve them. The "preservation community" was too busy with very very important tasks like:

• Printing "Save the Book Cadillac" T-shirts when the building was already being saved

T-shirts? You're really going to complain about a few t-shirts?

Okay - fine. Whatever. Whine away, if it makes you feel happy. Just know that as recently as 2006, City Council staffers and others were telling the FoBC that the Book-Cadillac's future was far from safe and that continued public pressure was needed to insure that the deal didn't die.

Whispering darkly about a non-existent "hit-list"

This again? Okay, fine. We'll go over this one again.

The FoBC, in response to the way that various historic properties were being handled, submitted a 27 page nomination packet to the NTHP to have the historic buildings of Detroit included in their list of the "11 Most Endangered Historic Places". This included 1 sentence that referenced a "hit list".

1 sentence.

Out of a 27 page report.

It was based on information that was believed to be reliable, but that later proved to be at least partially false. The City of Detroit did have plans for a considerable amount of demolition but no formal list existed.

The full report, for the benefit of anyone who wants to read it, is @ http://fobc.igorfilms.com/Endangered.Detroit.pdf

Once it eventually became clear that we were wrong, the FoBC issued a statement correcting it. I should also point out that copies of this nomination packet went to at least 2 officials within the City of Detroit before it became public; neither of them caught that error either.

If you're going to keep complaining about 1 sentence out of a 27 page report then you better start complaining about Amru Meah of BS&E falsifying a report that the Madison-Lenox has been inspected in August 2004 and that it had been "recently found to be dilapidated with extensive structural damage to the point of near collapse". In truth, records obtained from the City through a FOIA request showed that there was no such inspection nor was the building anywhere near the point of collapse.

More @ http://fobc.igorfilms.com/Testimony.Madison-Lennox.html

While we're at it, would you care to explain what happened to all of those developers that Brian Holdwick said were going to do something with the Statler Hilton site as soon as the Statler was demolished?

Making Lego replicas of the very buildings they now lament

Which historic preservation group did that?

Supporting Higgins end-run to make a boat load of advertising cash and do nothing with the Broderick

Yeah, well, if the City of Detroit did a better job of maintaining the various historic buildings that it owns [[e.g., Statler Hilton, Tiger Stadium, Lafayette Bldg., GAR) then people wouldn't be as anxious to keep them out of the DEGC's hands.

[Fnemecek]

FYI - there will also several other buildings up for nomination to the register at the advisory board's January meeting.