Structure at Lafayette and 6th

**leady106** · August-23-10, 08:27 AM

Does anyone know about the temporary structure they are building at Lafayette and 6th street. It appears to be for a movie, but which movie and for what purose? It is a fairly elaborate two story steel post structure with a wood roof being built on top of an existing parking lot.

**DetroitPlanner** · August-23-10, 10:21 AM

MDOT is building a large building there to house its Intelligent Transportation Center. Originally it was on the second floor of the Greyhound Station, however, both Greyhound and MDOT need more space. MDOT's ITS has expanded significantly over the last 15 years. The Center is an interesting place where MDOT collaborates with the police and local news agencies to address congestion or other issues that happen along the transportation network.

**Joseph C. Krause** · August-23-10, 10:42 AM

DetroitPlanner, it is not that building. The lot one block to the North has the scaffold construction described.

The new MDOT building is offensive. Stand at the corner of 6th and Fort and be rewarded by a towering brick wall with no windows or doors. The entire area South of the Corktown Historic District and going West of Cobo is such a dumping ground for halfassed buildings that developers and architects probably hope that people drive past without noticing.

**Gsgeorge** · August-23-10, 11:11 AM

I live right by here and have been watching them build this thing for about a week. It is most likely a structure for the Transformers film or another movie filming in the area.

**DetroitPlanner** · August-23-10, 12:01 PM

Originally Posted by Joseph C. Krause

DetroitPlanner, it is not that building. The lot one block to the North has the scaffold construction described.

The new MDOT building is offensive. Stand at the corner of 6th and Fort and be rewarded by a towering brick wall with no windows or doors. The entire area South of the Corktown Historic District and going West of Cobo is such a dumping ground for halfassed buildings that developers and architects probably hope that people drive past without noticing.

I agree. The govt is in a Catch 22. If MDOT did build a nice building, they would be seen as wasteful by most of the electorate as buildings for public servants are forced to be little more than utilitarian. The same thing is true for what passes as a school these days, and they wonder why kids are not inspired.

**mcsdetroitfriend** · August-23-10, 12:16 PM

picture of said structure?

**Malcove Magnesia** · August-24-10, 01:07 AM

Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

The govt is in a Catch 22. If MDOT did build a nice building, they would be seen as wasteful by most of the electorate as buildings for public servants are forced to be little more than utilitarian.

Judging by the incumbents who get voted into office time after time, it doesn't seem like the electorate gives a darn, either way.

**Joseph C. Krause** · August-24-10, 02:27 AM

It's especially shameful that building this crap continues after decades of doing so already and having to live with the environment created by it. The main post office is another turd, and it's doubly wasteful by being at the foot of Trumbull, squandering a focal point at the terminus of a street. Drive North on Second through Midtown to see how a focal point can be skillfully employed.

The WCCC campus is also baffling. I wasn't around to see the Fort Street train station demolished, but was it demolished to make way for the school or was the site chosen after the station was gone? If the former, then there's some terrible planning as well, as the former train station looks like it could easily be the primary building for a school campus even if it were to be on the receiving end of a crappy renovation [[see Old Main). What stands there today looks like an institution of learning moved to its current location from deep within the Borg Cube.

**Joseph C. Krause** · August-24-10, 02:38 AM

A smaller-scale analog to the Train Station / WCCC swap is on Vermont between Dalzelle and Marantette. In the 19th century, a lovely schoolhouse stood on Vermont, which vanished in the first half of the 20th century, and today Vistas Nuevas, a head-start school, makes its home in a warehouse surrounded by asphalt and barbed wire across the street from the lot where the school building once stood.

This is why changing our tax/incentive structure to encourage thorough mothballing of significant buildings could result in unforeseen positive uses in the future.

Why are some of us "preservationists"? I am not hellbent on saving every old building, because sometimes their usefulness has been outlived. The alarming part is that new buildings are extremely terrible. Tear down that building, but if it is to be replaced, replace it with something other than shit, please. That thing that just went up for MDOT is a place where people will have to spend a significant number of their waking hours, while others get to spend that time in the Guardian Building.