Cass, Mackenzie, Finney among schools slated for demolition starting this fall

[EastsideAl]

I know little about football except that an oval ball is thrown/ or worked between two goals things - one to another despite opposition of the apposing team....

That being said the Cass Tech field looked too small to me. I went to Murray-Wright which had a very ample field and seemed wider between those goal things. Significantly so. It is dangerous for players play on such a tiny field? Could the players injure themselves more? Why/ how size compliance ignored?

The main thing that's wrong with the Cass football field, as I understand it, is that the fences are too close to the end zones. That is dangerous, and doesn't meet the safety standards of the Michigan high school athletic association, because any kid that catches a pass in the back of the end zone or is running full speed in the end zone is in danger of smashing hard into the fence. In addition, there are those who claim that the field itself is undersized [[all football fields are supposed to be exactly the same regulation size). The real problem is that a football field should never have been built on such a cramped site.

[English]

The biggest shame of the Cass situation is that they had already built a new building replacing Cass, which has been functioning as Cass Tech since 2005. But I'd bet that most people out side of Detroit, and a lot inside, don't know that, since all they can see from the freeway is the Cass they always knew sitting there abandoned, stripped, and blown-out.

So now the image that Cass has is not of the city's academic gem, of students from modest and poor backgrounds trying to make the best of themselves, but that of yet another large piece of vacant, abandoned and destroyed local history set out there for all to see. And the students who attended the new Cass have had to walk around that building for the past several years, and go to school next to a giant abandoned hulk, dangerously open to trespass, and occupied by goodness know who. All of this was avoidable.

A thousand times, Amen. Five years and four months ago, students, teachers, and coaches walked the hallways. Now the structure looks like it's been abandoned for 20 years! A "traveshamockery" if there ever was one.

For the record, some of the teachers at the time predicted this would happen. I was young and naive and thought they were being pessimistic. It turns out they were right and I was wrong.

[Zacha341]

Thanks for the info ESA. I thought the fence looked sorta close to the goals. What a mess!! I hear the building has many problems... despite being built at a zillion dollars per square foot to pay off everyone sucking at the 'cow teat' of public finance set forth to build the building. Nuts! Well when they finally tear down the old building perhaps there will be a dollar or two left over to expand the field appropriately.

The main thing that's wrong with the Cass football field, as I understand it, is that the fences are too close to the end zones. That is dangerous, and doesn't meet the safety standards of the Michigan high school athletic association, because any kid that catches a pass in the back of the end zone or is running full speed in the end zone is in danger of smashing hard into the fence. In addition, there are those who claim that the field itself is undersized [[all football fields are supposed to be exactly the same regulation size). The real problem is that a football field should never have been built on such a cramped site.

[Detroitnerd]

Thanks for the info ESA. I thought the fence looked sorta close to the goals. What a mess!! I hear the building has many problems... despite being built at a zillion dollars per square foot to pay off everyone sucking at the 'cow teat' of public finance set forth to build the building. Nuts!

Didn't you hear, Zacha? The NEW building is GREEN, and therefore justifies demolishing one building that is completed and building an entirely new structure with special LEED certification. The new building is wonderful, and the old one is outdated, obsolete and a danger to society.

Or at least that's the story I heard ...

[detroiturbex]

Good news, instead of demolishing Northwestern as they had previously discussed, they've decided to renovate instead.

[scribe114]

A real shame about Mackenzie, which was truly a beautiful school building. I'll also miss that rather bizarre shiny sky blue facade of Mumford as I come up Wyoming.

Mackenzie, Cooley, Denby, Pershing, and Mumford were all built by the same Architecture Firm if I am correct as well as the 1939 and 1954 outer wing additions of Redford. Thet were all built by Smith, Hinchman, and Grylis Architects which is now "The Smith Group"

With the exception of Mumford, all of these High Schools were constructed between 1928 and 1930. Mumford's site was purchased in 1938 and construction was delayed until 1949 since construction materials were used to support the war effort.

You will see similarities in the architecture of High Schools constructed on the outer rings of the city after 1950 through the early 60's [[Cody 1950, Ford 1957, Osborn 1962) will find out the name of the architects.

Northern, Eastern, Western, Northeastern, Northwestern, Southeastern and Southwestern were all constructed between 1895 and 1917 using similar design on small lots very similar in appearance to the majority of Chicago High Schools.

The opening of Central in 1926 started the trend of constructing High Schools on 20 plus acres of land with self-contained athletic facilities. Chicago probably utilized some of the school building trends in Detroit as the inspiration for Lane Technical High School on the West Side of Chicago.........could be.

[Zacha341]

LOL! The main 'GREEN' here is the green that lined some pockets! The main 'danger' is the hulk that remains of the original Cass Tech school: a potential danger to fire fighters putting out fires on upper floors should they happen, or to squatters in said burning building, and the kids who have to traverse yet another abandoned partially open ruin.

Didn't you hear, Zacha? The NEW building is GREEN, and therefore justifies demolishing one building that is completed and building an entirely new structure with special LEED certification. The new building is wonderful, and the old one is outdated, obsolete and a danger to society.

Or at least that's the story I heard ...

[DetroitZack]

I'm not too suprised about Cass Tech being on this list, I thought it was going to be demolished around the time the other schools were being levels [[Ferry, Sherrard, Breitmeyer, etc.). What happened to Cass Tech and Wilbur Wright both is a tragedy. Like many before me have said too, I always thought Cass Tech would make some great lofts. Also a bummer about Mackenzie, what a beauty.

[kathy2trips]

Mackenzie, Cooley, Denby, Pershing, and Mumford were all built by the same Architecture Firm ...

Good analysis. Thank you.

[DetroitPlanner]

I'm not too suprised about Cass Tech being on this list, I thought it was going to be demolished around the time the other schools were being levels [[Ferry, Sherrard, Breitmeyer, etc.). What happened to Cass Tech and Wilbur Wright both is a tragedy. Like many before me have said too, I always thought Cass Tech would make some great lofts. Also a bummer about Mackenzie, what a beauty.

Unfortunately there was no market for lofts by the time they got around to developing it. It would also be a tough sell as it is sort of isolated, without much you can walk to but Mitch's bar or the casino. Parking might be an issue as well, which is ironic when you consider all the darned parking across the freeway for the stadii.

[takascar]

Mackenzie, Cooley, Denby, Pershing, and Mumford were all built by the same Architecture Firm if I am correct as well as the 1939 and 1954 outer wing additions of Redford. Thet were all built by Smith, Hinchman, and Grylis Architects which is now "The Smith Group"

With the exception of Mumford, all of these High Schools were constructed between 1928 and 1930. Mumford's site was purchased in 1938 and construction was delayed until 1949 since construction materials were used to support the war effort.

You will see similarities in the architecture of High Schools constructed on the outer rings of the city after 1950 through the early 60's [[Cody 1950, Ford 1957, Osborn 1962) will find out the name of the architects.

Northern, Eastern, Western, Northeastern, Northwestern, Southeastern and Southwestern were all constructed between 1895 and 1917 using similar design on small lots very similar in appearance to the majority of Chicago High Schools.

The opening of Central in 1926 started the trend of constructing High Schools on 20 plus acres of land with self-contained athletic facilities. Chicago probably utilized some of the school building trends in Detroit as the inspiration for Lane Technical High School on the West Side of Chicago.........could be.

Anyone have any idea who designed Clark and the old Stelwaggon [[sp?). Now thats nice architecture. There is quite an active alumni group for Clark on Facebook...

[DetroitPlanner]

Cody reminds me of State Hall at WSU.

[RYANGUARD]

What happened to the doors on Packard? are they just in a warehouse somewhere?

If I am not mistaken the doors to the Packard plant were bought for and moved to the Packard Museum in Warren Ohio.

[gazhekwe]

Cody / State Hall, good catch, it sure does.

I think we saw the doors to the Packard Offices at the old Proving Ground last fall. They are inside the building and being held for the renovations of that section of the building.

[stromberg2]

Regarding the doors, ask Pacman41 on the Packard proving grounds thread.

Stromberg2

[Jared9903]

http://www.freep.com/article/2010101...ch-to-be-razed

"update" on Cass. November 1st is the start of the end.

[CLAUDE G]

That is common for structures that contain a significant amount os steel/metal. They did not work for free - they worked for the assets [[metal) that could be recovered from the site. I have worked with large companies who dispose of their manufacturing facilities based upon cheap/zero cost due to the recovered metal.

'Those idiots' had nothing to do with TS being torn down. They performed their job as stated in the contract. I would say the 'idiots are people that still whine about a structure that could not be saved being torn down. Sorry, TS did not have a viable plan. Why don't the 'idiots' get up in arms when every other city demolishes their old stadiums?

Tiger Stadium did have a viable plan. When everyone else was bidding $5 million dollars to tear down the stadium, the "Idiots" at Farrow decided to speed along the process and do it for Free.

Why you ask? Simple, the plan we had in place was going to work. Senator Levin got us a 3.8 Million dollar federal earmark to renovate the place.

If Farrow wouldn't have agreed to do the job for free, or like you say worked for their assets by selling off the scrap steel, then it would have taken the city longer to come up with the money to pay for the demolition, which would have given more time to get funding from the federal goverment to renovate the place.

But because the idiots at Farrow felt that selling historic Tiger Stadium scrap metal, was more important than historic preservation they where allowed to proceed with the demoltiion before we where able to get the funding.

If Farrow somehow profited from the demoltion of Tiger Stadium by selling scrap metal with no additional compansation from the cuty, why don't they go around and demo the rest of the city for Free.

[buildingsofdetroit]

http://detroitk12.org/news/article/2241/

News release says demo began at Finney today. Anyone drive by to see whether it did?

[MrWCF]

If I'm not mistaken.....
Cooley was designed by Donaldson and Meier.
Mumford was designed by McGrath and Dohmen.