Cass Tech updates

**DetroitZack** · December-01-10, 05:39 PM

Here is a thread to keep up on any work going on at Cass Tech. Today I saw some brick salvaging.

**mcsdetroitfriend** · December-01-10, 05:43 PM

DEMOLITION • RECYCLING • REMEDIATION

according to their website, looks like Homrich Inc will be doing the demo

**canuck** · December-01-10, 07:41 PM

Too bad the parking lot they turn it into cant use the bricks as pavers!

**marcwigle** · December-01-10, 09:31 PM

Could they not have used that entrance or others in the new building? What a shame if that gets demolished with the rest of the building...

**Planner3357** · December-02-10, 09:53 AM

Originally Posted by marcwigle

Could they not have used that entrance or others in the new building? What a shame if that gets demolished with the rest of the building...

No doubt, that entrance is totally cool.

**Parkguy** · December-02-10, 10:23 AM

The entrance is supposed to be saved and used as a monument by the new school.

**tkelly1986** · December-02-10, 10:49 AM

This irritates me more than anything. Yes, I understand it has sat vacant for a few years and is in declining shape, but why the urgency to tear this beauty down? Why are we spending so much on demolition of these schools? This building is not the biggest threat to safety; there are thousands of homes throughout Detroit that are worse.

What’s the motivation? It always seems Detroit is quick to tear these gems down with no plan. Why not mothball it better and hope for something in the future [[loft development if the market turns around).

**iheartthed** · December-02-10, 10:52 AM

Originally Posted by tkelly1986

This irritates me more than anything. Yes, I understand it has sat vacant for a few years and is in declining shape, but why the urgency to tear this beauty down? Why are we spending so much on demolition of these schools? This building is not the biggest threat to safety; there are thousands of homes throughout Detroit that are worse.

What’s the motivation? It always seems Detroit is quick to tear these gems down with no plan. Why not mothball it better and hope for something in the future [[loft development if the market turns around).

Free federal money. Hungry demolition contractors who coincidentally happen to be large political donors.

**esp1986** · December-02-10, 11:12 AM

Robert Bobb came out a couple months ago and said that Cass Tech along with a few other buildings would come down for safety reasons. Abandoned buildings are a huge liability, and considering the district is just about bankrupt, they can't afford the liability. If there was a chance that the building could be reused, they may have tried to better seal it up, but they are a school district, not real estate 'speculators' like every other property owner downtown, and since the probability of reuse of such a huge building is currently almost nil, they decided to tear it down.

Given all of the land being bought up in the area, I wouldn't be shocked to hear they already have a deal in place to sell the land once it is cleared.

This irritates me more than anything. Yes, I understand it has sat vacant for a few years and is in declining shape, but why the urgency to tear this beauty down? Why are we spending so much on demolition of these schools? This building is not the biggest threat to safety; there are thousands of homes throughout Detroit that are worse.

What’s the motivation? It always seems Detroit is quick to tear these gems down with no plan. Why not mothball it better and hope for something in the future [[loft development if the market turns around).

The difference between Cass Tech coming down and houses coming down is that the district doesn't own the houses, at least as far as we know.

The reason they don't mothball it, is that they are not real estate 'speculators,' they are a school district, they aren't going to hold onto it to hope that it can be redeveloped as something else. It is ashame that they didn't just renovate and expand it a few years back, but what's done is done.

As I said, someone who is buying up land in the area has probably offered them quite a bit for the empty land, so it is a way to rid themselves of a massive liability and mediate their costs, as it makes no business sense for them to sit on it.

Free federal money. Hungry demolition contractors who coincidentally happen to be large political donors.

The money paying for this demolition isn't federal money, it is coming from the recently approved $500M bond issue, as well as a little bit that was left from the $1B bond issue from the last decade.

**CassTechGrad** · December-02-10, 11:50 AM

This is a scan from my 1966 Cast Tech yearbook showing the ruins of the old Commerce High school which was demolished in 1965-66 to make the I75 Fisher Freeway connector. The two schools were connected by a bridge over Vernor highway. I’m afraid my old high school is doomed to the same fate. It was an honor and a privilege to go there, one of the best decisions I ever made in my life.

**iheartthed** · December-02-10, 11:57 AM

Originally Posted by esp1986

The money paying for this demolition isn't federal money, it is coming from the recently approved $500M bond issue, as well as a little bit that was left from the $1B bond issue from the last decade.

Oh okay. Different source. Same idea.

ETA: The funding source also begs the question of whether the funds are being used as intended by the voters.

**esp1986** · December-02-10, 01:27 PM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Oh okay. Different source. Same idea.

ETA: The funding source also begs the question of whether the funds are being used as intended by the voters.

I can't say for sure, but most of the demos were coming from the original $1B bond issue, at least that was the goal. I am in no way defending them here, but part of building anew is taking care of the old when they leave, and I believe that's what they are doing here, a bit overdue. They are building a bunch of new buildings, and part of that is selling, tearing down, etc. of the old properties, and I think the idea behind the bond was with infrastructure shuffling in mind. Again, not defending anyone here, but I think this is the ultimate goal, and everything being done facility wise is strengthening the district, and that's as far as I'll go.

**English** · December-02-10, 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by CassTechGrad

This is a scan from my 1966 Cast Tech yearbook showing the ruins of the old Commerce High school which was demolished in 1965-66 to make the I75 Fisher Freeway connector. The two schools were connected by a bridge over Vernor highway. I’m afraid my old high school is doomed to the same fate. It was an honor and a privilege to go there, one of the best decisions I ever made in my life.

That's a real shame. Shows that the "tear that schitt down" mentality has roots that go back long before the riots and the wholesale abandonment of the city.

**esp1986** · December-02-10, 02:35 PM

Originally Posted by English

That's a real shame. Shows that the "tear that schitt down" mentality has roots that go back long before the riots and the wholesale abandonment of the city.

As much as I am for preservation, that happens anywhere you go. Been to Chicago lately? Michigan Avenue Downtown has even fewer historic buildings everytime I go. More steel and glass structures every year. The times change, and old buildings come down and are replaced by newer ones, like it or not. This is not just a Detroit thing, pre or post riots, it happens everywhere, it is just more prevelant here because when we tear something down there is never a plan to replace it.

**iheartthed** · December-02-10, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by esp1986

As much as I am for preservation, that happens anywhere you go. Been to Chicago lately? Michigan Avenue Downtown has even fewer historic buildings everytime I go. More steel and glass structures every year. The times change, and old buildings come down and are replaced by newer ones, like it or not. This is not just a Detroit thing, pre or post riots, it happens everywhere, it is just more prevelant here because when we tear something down there is never a plan to replace it.

Chicago's saving grace was her size. Detroit's will be her history.

**esp1986** · December-02-10, 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Chicago's saving grace was her size. Detroit's will be her history.

I truly believe that the difference between the two, other than size was the lack of functioning mass transit. If Detroit had implemented functioning mass transit [[that went beyond the greater downtown area) early in the 1900s like most other big cities at the time, the effect of while flight would have been significantly less. If people leaving for the suburbs had a reliable way to get downtown [[other than driving), downtown may still be thriving today.

**beanietek** · December-02-10, 04:06 PM

i'm still getting over hudson's being torn down - this will kill me - that school was built solid and i enjoyed every minute there.

Blarf · December-02-10, 04:18 PM

Parts of Downtown, epically the area behind the Fox, look hilarious.

Nice tearing all these buildings down, but building nothing to replace them. Great city planning.

The Hudson's block looks STUPID. Nice girders they installed to replace the buildings. That looks so much better.

**esp1986** · December-02-10, 04:30 PM

Originally Posted by Blarf

Parts of Downtown, epically the area behind the Fox, look hilarious.

Nice tearing all these buildings down, but building nothing to replace them. Great city planning.

The Hudson's block looks STUPID. Nice girders they installed to replace the buildings. That looks so much better.

Compuware wouldn't be nextdoor had it not been torn down. Unfortunately.

**Detroitnerd** · December-02-10, 04:49 PM

Originally Posted by esp1986

I truly believe that the difference between the two, other than size was the lack of functioning mass transit. If Detroit had implemented functioning mass transit [[that went beyond the greater downtown area) early in the 1900s like most other big cities at the time, the effect of while flight would have been significantly less.

You don't think the extensive streetcar system the city purchased in the 1920s was functioning? By 1929 it had nearly 500 million passengers, more than 1,700 streetcars and more than 500 miles of track.

If anything it was the conscious and publicly opposed choice to trade that for a system of buses, which can't do what light rail or streetcars can.

**iheartthed** · December-02-10, 05:05 PM

Originally Posted by esp1986

I truly believe that the difference between the two, other than size was the lack of functioning mass transit. If Detroit had implemented functioning mass transit [[that went beyond the greater downtown area) early in the 1900s like most other big cities at the time, the effect of while flight would have been significantly less. If people leaving for the suburbs had a reliable way to get downtown [[other than driving), downtown may still be thriving today.

Well, Detroit did have functioning mass transit in the early 1900s. What Detroit did differently is completely get rid of their system in order to alleviate vehicular traffic. Other cities elevated [[Chicago), or subwayed [[New York, Boston) their systems to accomplish that goal.

This may not have stopped or significantly slowed white flight, but it probably would have kept the business districts a lot more centralized. It may have also made Detroit competitive for more of the immigrant populations that ultimately chose Chicago.

**esp1986** · December-02-10, 05:48 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

You don't think the extensive streetcar system the city purchased in the 1920s was functioning? By 1929 it had nearly 500 million passengers, more than 1,700 streetcars and more than 500 miles of track.

If anything it was the conscious and publicly opposed choice to trade that for a system of buses, which can't do what light rail or streetcars can.

Yes, I realize the extensive streetcar system that Detroit had, but it was hardly a far reaching system. It never came close to the city limits, and certainly never crossed them. When people left for the suburbs in the masses, other systems that reached the suburbs would have been able to bring them back in to work and shop, but no such system existed in Detroit, so everyone took their business[[es) with them. In Detroit, as ridership began to decline, among other things, a case wasn't made for putting it underground or elevating it, so the publicly opposed choice to tear it up was made.

When other cities experienced "suburbanization," they were able to cope because there were mass transit systems reaching the suburbs to bring them back into the city to work and play, and here everything followed suburbanites out, including our sports teams.

**RYANGUARD** · December-02-10, 08:45 PM

Since no one had come forward with ANY type of plan to do anything with the old bldg. and it sat and got vandalized and scavenged,it was time to have it torn down.It should have been torn down immediately after the new Cass Tech become operational.The original plan was to use the area for parking and a new athletic field.Instead they built the athletic field behind the new school and it is by sheer luck that nobody has been injured playing there.It is better than nothing,which is what they had for years,so that's what they got.I will miss my Alma Mater whenit is gone,but life goes on.Now if they would just tear down my old elementary school,which needs to go also,then both of the schools I attended in the City of Detroit would be gone.