Ford Auditorium/MOCAD

**judeconcdert** · August-29-10, 09:39 PM

Plans to tear down Ford Auditorium and revitalize Hart Plaza have gone nowhere. What are thoughts/opinions on turning the Auditorium into the new home of MOCAD or a contemporary art wing of the DIA?

**canuck** · August-30-10, 12:09 AM

Ford Motor Company should reinvest in this project and improve acoustics but with a view to exterior projections benefiting visitors of Hart Plaza as well as the good people of Windsor. The outdated architecture would be rehabbed posing as a vintage PC: Its giant billboard monitor could display Detroityes threads as well as sports highlights in the D. The occasional movie such as "Godzilla" would play in its entirety. I can imagine Godzilla smashing bits of Tokyo in Detroit's skyline's foreground.

**detroitbob** · August-30-10, 12:27 AM

Well, on another thread the acoustical properties of Ford Auditorium have been discussed ad nauseam...The Ford Mtr. Co. and the Dealers Association, along with Mrs. Edsel Ford plus the DSO contributions, dropped millions of dollars over 20 plus years into attempts to improve the acoustics...the best acoustician's in the country were involved and it was all for naught [[one even declined to bid on the job and suggested dynamite as a solution)...now you have a building that has been unused [[and dare I say abused) and in this climate, there simply is no sources of funding now or for the foreseeable future. I see no future for FA...I hope the pipe organ can be salvaged...but there is little else. It was a mediocre public auditorium designed during a low point in American theatre design.

**canuck** · August-30-10, 12:40 AM

Said organ pipes are in the foreground in the picture. Scrappers will get to them tonight and bring them to the salvage yard of your choice detroitbob.

**Gsgeorge** · August-30-10, 01:34 AM

I don't say this often, but... tear that schitt down!

**detroitbob** · August-30-10, 01:47 AM

I'm sure Canuck appreciates the delightful cityscape that is Montreal and he is fortunate..but Detroit and Montreal are two vastly different cities. .The riverfront Civic Center project in Detroit was envisioned as part of the City Beautiful movement back in the 1890's. Assembled piecemeal over some 30 years beginning in the early 1950's it is not the best that could have been achieved--in fact, until Cobo Hall is re-envisioned/rebuilt and some plans appear for the FA site it will remain unrealized potential. the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel isn't going anywhere in the immediate future, but I wonder what the lifespan of the tunnel is, as a pratical matter. If FA had any viable projected use a different scenario would have come to light. Downtown/midtown has more theatre/auditorium seats available than most cities without counting FA into the equation. Again, I see no future for FA.

**ja!mz** · August-30-10, 04:51 AM

Does anyone have pictures of the inside of the building? I've never seen what it looked like inside.

**canuck** · August-30-10, 08:46 PM

detroitbob, I commiserate about the fate of Detroit these past decades. There are an awful lot of differences but also similarities about Montreal and Detroit. You could say that with all the blight in Detroit, the missing streetlights and leftover tires and assorted debris, you cannot beat Montreal on potholes. But as FA goes, it looks like a Godzilla-scaled Freightliner truck grille he would have plopped as a bulwark against Ultraman. Montreal has had its share of nonsensical art venues before and after the fifties as you mentioned. I am all for the reuse of such buildings and sometimes a radical makeover is in order. We had a contemporary art museum move to a brand new building in the early nineties;a cheap post modernist prefab thing, it is now showing signs of aging; cracking concrete panels will look a lot worse given another 20 years.

I think the Ford Auditorium might be a good second venue for the DIA if they wanted to show more of their works. Opening up on the harbour and such would be a welcome addition in cold and warm weather for tourists and Detroiters alike.

DC48080 · August-30-10, 09:25 PM

Originally Posted by canuck

Opening up on the harbour and such would be a welcome addition in cold and warm weather for tourists and Detroiters alike.

Uh, there is no harbor anywhere near Ford Auditorium. What harbor are you talking about?

**detroitbob** · August-31-10, 06:56 AM

Sadly, the DIA may have to reduce hours again...they are already at bare bones staffing.

**detroitbob** · August-31-10, 07:01 AM

a link to a variety of interior and exteriors of Ford Auditorium

http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...ail;bbdbid=778

**Gistok** · August-31-10, 12:24 PM

Originally Posted by detroitbob

a link to a variety of interior and exteriors of Ford Auditorium

http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...ail;bbdbid=778

Having only been to Ford Auditorium for a function once as a child, I forgot how bare and "minimalist" the interior is... with just a "shelf" balcony.

It looks like their attempt to improve the acoustics was concentrated on the "sounding board" above the stage. With the flat walls and ceiling... and a small balcony so far away from the stage... it's no wonder that improving the acoustics was doomed to failure! You need surfaces with some nooks and crannies in it to bounce the sound around the room.

Detroit's movie palace architect C. Howard Crane copied many interior architectural features of opulent European opera houses and concert halls to get the marvelous acoustics into many of his theatre's and halls. He was known to have said "if it was pleasing to the eye, it would be pleasing to the ear as well"...

Well there certainly isn't much of anything "pleasing to the eye" inside Ford Auditorium....

**Downtown Dave** · August-31-10, 12:34 PM

Its "plain-ness" would make it a pleasing interior for a contemporary/large-scale art museum - putting the focus on the art. [[Istanbul has a museum like that at one of its cruise ship docks.) Plus, we get a new attraction on our waterfront. All it takes is $$.

**canuck** · August-31-10, 08:16 PM

Originally Posted by DC48080

Uh, there is no harbor anywhere near Ford Auditorium. What harbor are you talking about?

You're right DC, I meant the riverfront, I am thinking in terms of my city, the old city fronts a harbor which is still active and for a long time was closed to tourists until like Detroit, the riverside was reclaimed and tourism now mixes with shipping activity.

DC48080 · August-31-10, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by canuck

You're right DC, I meant the riverfront, I am thinking in terms of my city, the old city fronts a harbor which is still active and for a long time was closed to tourists until like Detroit, the riverside was reclaimed and tourism now mixes with shipping activity.

If there was some kind of marina/harbor adjacent to Hart Plaza it would definitely bring in more people to the various events staged there. I would love to be able to motor down the river and tie up at Hart Plaza for a few hours and enjoy the jazz festival etc...

But let's come back to reality now, unfortunately there is no room for such a facility and, of course, no funding for such a project even if there was room.

**detroitbob** · August-31-10, 11:01 PM

The lower walls were wood, House of Denmark teak like color with, if my memory serves me, a turquoise blue paint on the other areas. When the various renovations progressed, stage sets/shells were changed, hanging sound board treatment flying out over the proscenium into the house, etc. The last redo added curving auditorium side walls in what was once described as "dried dragons blood red" and a dark ceiling color. Visually it actually wasn't that bad, but there was no significant sound improvement. It was a comfortable room to sit in, particularly in the balcony, wide aisles and always modern, up to date seating. The "motor lobby" with access from the underground garage was great during winter time. And after the first portions of Hart Plaza opened the place didn't feel as isolated from the street as it did before. But the sound, for symphonic purposes was the problem...still, I remember hearing some great performances by the DSO and seeing some legends on that stage...if only some of those performances had happened in Orchestra Hall.

**detroitlives** · March-12-11, 02:34 PM

A couple of points on the Ford Auditorium debate--

As noted in another post, the views blocked by Ford Auditorium are largely views of a parking garage, the tunnel entrance approach & booths and the duty free shop. I think it is hard to argue that unobrstructed views of these are better than a marble & granite facade, no matter how severe people find its plain-ness.

Hart Plaza sits largely unused for 4-5 months of the year, given that the auditorium is closed and the other performance spaces are outdoors spaces. It would seem to make sense to use the structure to bring folks to Hart Plaza during the cold weather months or for that matter, during rainy days during warm weather months. Despites its accoustic shortfalls for symphonic performances, the auditorium would work fine for Hart Plazas two biggest events--Movement [[Technofest) and the Hoedown, and could be used for any.

Lastly, on the issues of the building being "ugly"--beauty is subjective, and the fact that some people find the Ford ugly is neither good nor bad, it is their opinion and that can't be challenged. It is however good to remember that "ugliness" is a frequently occuring theme when architecture and/or design is a few decades old-- Art deco was widely considered dated and ugly for a time; beaux-arts before that; in fact, Old City Hall was widely panned as "ugly" in the debate over its demolition.