Requiem for Detroit's Fugliest Building

[Lowell]

Everyone has his or her ugliest building nominee and this one was mine. The DPS building on the SE corner of Baltimore and Third had all the charm of a Soviet era apartment block. It’s fortressed first floor walled it off from pedestrian contact and its boring upper floors were not worthy of a yawn.

Behold the offspring of the Albert Kahn Detroit factory style via the Gospel according to Bauhaus that retangularized the world's urban face in the 20th Century.


One of the issues of modernist-no-longer-modern architecture is that it served as a convenient cover for going cheap on the aesthetics of buildings -- no carved stone gargoyles or archways. Just assemble a stoic box of repeating rectangles with the least amount of details with the cheapest materials and, presto, you had an in-style flashy new building.

Yes, I understand the aesthetics of minimalism, that totality conveys a beauty of its own, but it didn't in this case.

Today they litter the landscape and, with their fad long gone, they are monuments to blandness. If I were making a film about despair and alienation, the DPS building would surely provide the backdrop.

Birth of the Modern. Kahn's Packard Plant in Detroit -- unwitting father of my late ugliest buidling choice? The old man hobbles on into his 102nd year.

[Lorax]

I think the fugliest building in Detroit is that health building, which I think was once a WSU property and is on the service drive of the 375 at Lafayette St?

For years driving by I thought how could anyone have built that and stood back and said: "God that's a great looking building!"

Is it even being used now?

This one and the various housing project high-rises are probably right up there.

[Fury13]

The city's fugliest building is the Ren Cen, natch.

[Gistok]

... no I would have to say the remodeled Brutalist styled Boulevard Building on the NE corner of Woodward and Grand Boulevard. The original was a white terra cotta beauty however...

[gravitymachine]

can we have a requiem for the word "fugly" please?

[Retroit]

Well said Lowell. I completely agree with your architectural commentary.

[Neilr]

I'm confused. Are you discussing the ±7 story building on the south WEST corner of Third and Baltimore? The one that's being demolished now.

[motorfamilymotorcity]

Let's fast forward 5 years......

Cobo Hall will be right up there in fugliness. Now there's a word. Fugliness.

It won't ever have been fixed - due to the infamous bickering of 2009. Memories of Auto and Boat shows will be fading

The roof will have fallen in and it will be occupied by 459 homeless people.

[motorfamilymotorcity]

/in seriousness, not that I want that to happen for a second....

[313WX]

The Patrick V. McNamara Building.

[detourdetroit]

I appreciate the opportunity this thread allows. And while I certainly understand the perspective that our fearless leader posits with his photos of a building that no doubt lacked a certain architectural pedigree....

I respectfully but wholeheartedly disagree with the overall assessment.

The destruction of the industrial age building on the corner of Baltimore and Third was just another stupid decision in Detroit. It is a terminal loss for both the long term viability of New Center and the greater urban good of the city.

Here was a structurally sound, seriousman poured concrete and steel multistory street wall building indicative of the city's great commercial and industrial past, its siting, mass and bulk contributing to the character and flavor of New Center...

The structural integrity of the building and placement on the block would have made it a great candidate for an adaptive [[residential?) reuse...in time. And with the NBC building on the west side of the block, the two buildings could have worked well together, sharing parking as part of an overall strategy.

It is true that the 50s or 60s facade and window treatments made it look like the socialist structures of our Iron Curtain comrades, and that is unfortunate. In truth, a competent and an urban minded architect/development team could have refashioned the apertures and facade quite easily to make the building much more attractive. The bones of this dead building weren't very different from those of nearby Tech I for example, which I doubt anyone here would similarly ridicule. Really, it's incredible what an architect can do!

Additionally, the bricked over groundfloor would have made a very interesting restaurant, bar, club, etc. and could have been very pedestrian oriented without too much trouble. It's interesting to note that the local development organization, the New Center Council took this more holistic view of the building and how it was really a neighborhood asset [[and are upset by its loss).

IMHO, the wasteful destruction of another structurally sound URBAN building on a site that will no time again soon see quality multistory construction only continues to make us a little less of a city. Like we need one more vacant lot...

BTW, if the lost redevelopment potential, urbanity, materiality and density of the building don't do it for you, the austere facade did contain little diamond patterns between the windows that was something of a detail... and the sum of these factors put it heads and shoulders ahead of the myriad drivet drivels marring our landscape which are much better candidates for the title of Detroit's Fugliest [[s a wonderful award BTW).

With Respect...detour

[Blarf]

I say Comerica Park. Those giant tiger statues and giant baseball bats looks ridicules. Did a bunch of elementary children think of that idea?

[Toolbox]

I think the fugliest building in Detroit is that health building, which I think was once a WSU property and is on the service drive of the 375 at Lafayette St?

That derelict building is owned by the same person everyone is lining up to blow for opening the crappy new downtown version of the Russell Bazzar, Dennis K.

[Detroitej72]

Honorable mention...

I'd also throw in all the new liquor stores that spring up throughout the city that are basicaly four cinder block walls, usually painted with hidious bright colors, topped off with folded bars on the doors.

Makes me long for the days of the old curb side building with living quarters upstairs.

[Gistok]

I say Comerica Park. Those giant tiger statues and giant baseball bats looks ridicules. Did a bunch of elementary children think of that idea?

Sorry to disagree with you Blarf... but every time I bring a tour bus of Europeans thru downtown, they want their pictures taken in front of Comerica Park and its' tigers at the entrance... whereas none of them want their picture taken in front of the buildings of Lafayette Park, which they all seem to universally hate, since it reminds them of the bland 1950's architecture sprouting up all over post WWII Europe...

... and when I bring up the fact it was designed by Mies... they say "Mies Schmies!"...

[dtowncitylover]

I think it's called the Highland Park Adult Educational Center on the corner of the Davison and Hamilton...not Detroit, excuse me but I wish it would go away.

[Bearinabox]

I think it's called the Highland Park Adult Educational Center on the corner of the Davison and Hamilton...not Detroit, excuse me but I wish it would go away.

While we're on the subject of Buildings In Highland Park That Need To Go Away [[Christ knows how we got here, but...) I would put the partially-collapsed apartment building on Cortland and Hamilton squarely in that category. It's more than a little ridiculous that we're talking about something like MCS as "dangerous" or an "eyesore" when there are buildings like that around.

[jtf1972]

The City-County Building. The building itself, not counting the slab behind the Spirit o' Detroit blocking the view of what must be the worst looking city hall of any major city in the world.

[royce]

The Book Building tower has got to be the gaudiest extention of any building I've ever seen. Also, it just recently dawned on me that the Book tower looks a lot like a Centaur, which is a creature I have never been comfortable looking at.

BTW, the building that Lowell talks about should have been saved and converted into a residential unit. Like someone said earlier, it would have complemented the NBC Building, which one day will be converted into residential units.

[Huggybear]

Detour, just out of curiosity, how would you react to the idea of taking a rusted Sears-brand 10-speed out of the trash and then spending hundreds of dollars and hours sandblasting it, filling it, repriming it, repainting it, re-decaling it and re-component-ing it?

[gravitymachine]

Sorry to disagree with you Blarf... but every time I bring a tour bus of Europeans thru downtown, they want their pictures taken in front of Comerica Park and its' tigers at the entrance... whereas none of them want their picture taken in front of the buildings of Lafayette Park, which they all seem to universally hate, since it reminds them of the bland 1950's architecture sprouting up all over post WWII Europe...

... and when I bring up the fact it was designed by Mies... they say "Mies Schmies!"...

since when do opinions of "the europeans" trump our own?

[pretzellogic]

The City-County Building. The building itself, not counting the slab behind the Spirit o' Detroit blocking the view of what must be the worst looking city hall of any major city in the world.

May I respectfully disagree? Boston has had this category locked up since the 70s.

[cman710]

I have to agree with pretzelogic regarding city hall. The City Hall building is by no means a beauty, but I think it is a decent design for the era. Boston's ugly concrete city hall is far worse. See below:

[Jason]

Basically, the public prefers faux historic architecture and McMansions. Architects like modern architecture. Hobbyists who know more about architecture like modern architecture more.

Though I'm not saying that modern architecture is automatically good architecture.

[detourdetroit]

...and for the purposes of this forum, I would argue that we expand our sense of awareness to value quality "urban" architecture, of various styles, including structurally sound, multistory poured concrete buildings built to the street...

huggy, i'd never stop a man from fixing a bike...