DPS Schools To Demolished ASAP...

[Kathleen]

Thanks, cman701 and EastsideAl. Thanks for shedding some light on the Angell School building. I didn't catch the Petoskey address, only had come up with the Holmur address.

I'm sure I'll be checking out more school buildings from the "Closing" throughout the summer to document the buildings while still occupied and in decent shape and take photos of some of the architectural and historical details.

[Hermod]

Of course, there's also the plain fact that DPS must have better ways to use their meager resources

Umm, the per pupil expenditure for Detroit city schools is significantly higher than a lot of other places in the USA. Of course money doesn't go very far when it has to support a kleptocracy.

[mccarch]

aoife, thanks for the photos: that was a real service.

Kathleen - great minds think alike! I made the same route that you did, only last Thursday [[overcast). A number of the school names and addresses are older than the present structures; it seems that only Newberry, Sherrard, Ferry and Breitmeyer are older structures.

Woodward School is actually in Hawkins Ferry; it's by Meathe Kessler. I guess, theoretically, it's a shame to see Hawkin's modernist icons be demolished; but after driving by the school, I'll use my tears elsewhere.

Sherrard may well have been juicy at one time, but its later concrete-bunker addition completely obscures the original facade.

Breitmeyer is where I'll use my tears. This is so much a Wirt Rowland [[at his sojourn at Malcomson & Higginbotham) creation, that I can only genuflect at its beauty. But if you told this to anyone at DPS, he or she would be all the more determined to see it levelled.

How have we arrived at this point?

[Blarf]

I wonder how many houses they could demolish with almost $3 million?

[Khartoum]

Thanks for shedding light on the Angell. I remember looking at the list of to be demolished schools, and wondering what the heck kind of school is 7300 sq. ft. and has maybe 5 rooms [[as you can see in Street View).

[KENSINGTONY]

I'm sure many houses could be demolished for $3 million.But that money is in the school system's funds,not the city's funds.If that money was diverted to the city there would be a MUCH louder wail than the one about these old schools being torn down.

[DetroitTeacher]

One of the Cooley teachers is taking pictures of the building [[in and out) and is going to make a pict-ography. I think we are going to have disks for sale [[not sure when or for how much). I am assuming it would be primarily for alumni but I am sure he would sell them [[at cost) to anyone who would care to have a copy. This particular teacher takes amazing photos and is capturing Cooley like no one has ever seen it. Each photo tells a story. I'll post more on it when I have more info. Hopefully, Cooley won't close...but if it does, at least we'll have a rememberance.

[kathy2trips]

We'll be kicking ourselves 50 years from now for doing this, God willing. There's proper ways to mothball a building indefinitely, but there doesn't seem to be the desire for that.

Once again, Detroit is pioneering something new. This time it's well...."counter-growth" What cities in history have had to do something like this? Yeah, cities were destroyed by war in one felled swoop. But, I can't think of any examples of this slow, tortuous "Incredible Shrinking City" Syndrome in the past. Just wondering because it's always preferable to learn from other cities' mistakes. No doubt, they're learning from ours.

[DetroitTeacher]

Just received this in an email from DPS. It's not the entire email since the whole thing doesn't apply to this thread:

When abatement is complete at those sites, contractors will continue work at additional schools slated for demolition. The district will begin demolition on 10 vacant schools from April through June 2010, ridding neighborhoods of blight and creating more than 100 jobs.
“Vacant schools across Detroit have been blights on the community and safety hazards for far too long,” said Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb said. “Thanks to the taxpayers of Detroit for supporting Proposal S, we can now move forward with substantially changing the landscape of the city and remove these long-standing eyesores.”

Buildings slated for demolition
School Address
Gross S.F.
Ferry, Dexter F. Elementary School
2920 East Palmer

51,200

Owen, John A. Elementary School [[OLD)
3033 15th Street

55,277

Newberry, John Elementary School
4045 29th Street

50,438

Woodward, Augusta B. Elementary School
2900 Wreford

38,256

Sherrard, Henry Gary Elementary/Middle
8300 Cameron

99,081

Brietmeyer Elementary School [[OLD FLICS)
8210 Cameron

42,336

Detroit City High School [[OLD)
3500 McGraw

42,972

Sanders, Claire Mabel Elementary School
8700 Byron

56,299

Scripps, James Edmond Elementary
2100 Hurlbut

44,538

Angell, James Burrill Primary
8858 Petosky

7,300