Finney High School demolition

[Gistok]

So what's your point. That means that the newest parts of the building are 40 years old, and are attached to parts that are 50 or more years old. If you want to make DPS better, you need better, modern schools with teachers that care and parents that care. I'm 31. The newest part of Finney was built before my parents were even married in 1977.

People in the city can't be pleased. They want things to be nicer, yet heaven forbid that a high school gets replaced with a new school [[Cass?!?!?!?!) and Finney. I don't understand the logic.

Ummm.... are you somehow trying to relate the age of a school to how well it does acedemically??

Then I don't understand your logic.... Just look at 1928 built Grosse Pointe South High School.

20% of Finney was built in the 1920s as a grade school.... 40% was built in the 1960s when the high school was conceived. Then another 40% was added onto in the 1970s [[including the auditorium and gymnasium). What is the purpose of tearing down a 35 year old auditorium and gym?? A damn big waste of scarce DPS money if you ask me. But then the DPS was never known for being financially responsible.... is my point starting to make sense to you now???

They could have torn down the older 60% of the school and just rebuilt that part, rather than demo'ed the entire thing. ALL of Denby is older than Finney... why is that school still standing?

Just because a newer school is built... is totally separate from making teachers and parents more caring. When a new school is built... it doesn't have a cause and effect to make any part of the parents/students or teachers any better.

[Detroitnerd]

Take away this old wine! Bring me that new, fresh wine!

[jerrytimes]

Why does a modern school lead to caring teachers & parents? Are the parents/teachers at the new Cass Tech more caring because they teach and drop their kids off at a glass building instead of a stone one? Is $46.3 million best spent tearing down a working school just to rebuild it?

It attracts people into the area. A new modern high school would attract more people into an area that a 40+ year old high school. It would also attract more teachers. Sounds simple to me.

[Gistok]

It attracts people into the area. A new modern high school would attract more people into an area that a 40+ year old high school. It would also attract more teachers. Sounds simple to me.

Ummm all the houses surrounding that school are between 50-70 years old... if people care so much about "newness" then they certainly won't be looking in that area to raise their kids.

And also... as has been mentioned Grosse Pointe South High School is 80 years old... doesn't seem to have any affect on either people choosing to live that area NOR the quality/quantity of the teachers.

For the simpletons that you're describing... they moved out to 23 Mile Road where they have new schools, new houses, new roads, new strip malls... I highly doubt if any of them want to move to the area around a new Finney.

[oladub]

Whitehouse, Thank you for the photos. I enjoyed being able to Google into those very orderly neighborhoods and look around. I am a bit surprised to learn that Holland would similarly throw away buildings. In the rural area where I live, there have been many school consolidations. In our school district there were three combined grade school and high school facilities. One closed down all together and now has hippies living in it. All three districts began using one new high school. Eventually, the other two grade schools were shut. One is now used for a fireworks warehouse after the village board refused a manufacturer use it and the other was half torn down and the remainder used for a village city hall. A new grade school was attached to the high school. There was a big cost savings in busing with everyone attending one school. Maybe land is so valuable where you are that buildings can't sit around half used or vacant.

[Gistok]

Oladub,

You are correct that land is very valuable in almost all of Europe... and for a good reason.... there are VERY strick land usage laws. You cannot just build anywhere you please... even if you own fields or forest land.

Almost everywhere you go in Europe, you will leave one village, town or city, and then encounter empty land... be it forests, fields or swamp. Even in the most densly populated parts of Europe, such as Germany's Ruhr Valley... where 11 million people live in over 100 cities, towns and villages, you will likely see empty or forested areas that deliniate the end of one town or city and the beginnings of the next. This also explains why European cities invariably almost always have almost all people living in apartment blocks.

Even cemetaries have strict limits on how long someone may remain with their own tombstone. In Germany it's usually 30 years, and unless you pay [[$$$) your dearly departed [[always in wooden caskets) will be dug up and the surviving bones tossed back into the hole with the next departee, and your loved ones tombstone removed.

Even farming villages will have all the residents living in homes clustered tightly within the town limits, and the farmers own the fields surrounding the towns.

Urban sprawl as we know it is alien to Europeans. That's not to say that cities like London, Paris or Berlin don't take up large chunks of land... but when [[in the case of London) you have 12 million residents.... they're packed in pretty tightly... and even the outer reaches of the urban areas have apartments and "semi-detached" houses.

[Whitehouse]

Whitehouse, Thank you for the photos. I enjoyed being able to Google into those very orderly neighborhoods and look around. I am a bit surprised to learn that Holland would similarly throw away buildings. In the rural area where I live, there have been many school consolidations. In our school district there were three combined grade school and high school facilities. One closed down all together and now has hippies living in it. All three districts began using one new high school. Eventually, the other two grade schools were shut. One is now used for a fireworks warehouse after the village board refused a manufacturer use it and the other was half torn down and the remainder used for a village city hall. A new grade school was attached to the high school. There was a big cost savings in busing with everyone attending one school. Maybe land is so valuable where you are that buildings can't sit around half used or vacant.

Glad you like it. Here's my first grade school. It was build in 1888 and functioned as a school until 1980. We moved to a new building. Pan around and see what an incredible view we had. Not much has changed though. Just look over the van and you'll see a monument with a shovel. This commemorates the digging out of the Terp. on that side. In this photo corn is grown. In winter when if freezes this is the ice rink.
That church by the way has parts dating back to 1246 AD! It was completely restored a few years back. Now you know where I will come to rest when it's my time.

A 100 meters past the church was the kindergarden. It precedes the old school.

Some more information about the village where I grew up.

[jerrytimes]

Why does a modern school lead to caring teachers & parents? Are the parents/teachers at the new Cass Tech more caring because they teach and drop their kids off at a glass building instead of a stone one? Is $46.3 million best spent tearing down a working school just to rebuild it?

I take that you aren't considering anything that I say. My point is simply that if you have a new, modern school, that people might be attracted to that school district and that teachers may be attracted to going to DPS for work. One of Detroits problems is that people are fleeing the city, and the quality and condition of the schools and their teachers doesn't help.

It's funny because the city is spending money on something to help the community and people here still have to complain. It wasn't even an operational school anymore.

[oladub]

Whitehouse, I've been meaning to thank you for the tour of your hometown. I Googled my way to the edge of town and saw lovely single family homes often groomed with cared for hedges and flowers. It looks like a good place to raise a family. Right at the edge of town, the road narrows to one lane. What is the reason for that? I did notice one old church that was being used for a garage or warehouse so that is similar to what to do with old school buildings. I didn't know anything about terps before reading your articles. Maybe that's what they need in New Orleans.

[jerrytimes]

Ummm all the houses surrounding that school are between 50-70 years old... if people care so much about "newness" then they certainly won't be looking in that area to raise their kids.

And also... as has been mentioned Grosse Pointe South High School is 80 years old... doesn't seem to have any affect on either people choosing to live that area NOR the quality/quantity of the teachers.

For the simpletons that you're describing... they moved out to 23 Mile Road where they have new schools, new houses, new roads, new strip malls... I highly doubt if any of them want to move to the area around a new Finney.

I see that you are intentionally not getting my point. Finney High School was an outdated school that couldn't serve the community like it once did, hence it was closed. The difference with an old school like Finney and say, GP south is that GP kept their school modernized and current. They repaired and updated things with the times and the school serves its purpose. Finney was run down, looked like hell and was closed some years ago. I'm sure like most DPS schools, it also wasn't secured, and it was trashed. So what would you rather have there? A vacant school that serves no purpose and that would take more to renovate and re-open than a new school, an empty field, or a brand new modern school? What of those three would make you want to move to that area if you didn't already live there?

Some of you in Detroit don't make sense to me. There are vacated buildings every where, and when the city decides to do something with one of them, something that makes the area better and more attractive to most people, you bitch. Detroit is a shit hole [[in most areas) because these buildings and houses are just left vacant and dormant for decades. It's just like old Tiger Stadium. Everyone cried and whined because the majestic park was to be removed. It's time to move on and to try to build this city back up. Sure, not everything needs to be torn down, but a lot of these old structures do. Get over it, goodbye old Finney, hello new Finney. This is something that will benefit the students, period.

[Gistok]

Jerrytimes... all you do is talk in generalizations...

1) Finney was only closed about a year or so ago...
2) The new High School will Be called Crockett High School... not "new FINNEY"...
3) In case you didn't comprehend... no one is lamenting the architectural significance of Finney... it was butt ugly from day one. It's just that rather than maintain their schools... DPS is taking the lets always tear down the old and build anew approach... even though their finances are in shambles... and their new schools have not appreciably improved the students graduation rate.

[EMG]

Regarding the above comment about Finney being "butt ugly from day one" - I remember at least one early feature that I did NOT consider "butt ugly."

I remember in the 60's - when I was just barely beyond toddlerhood - riding by Finney on Cadieux and seeing a different front view of the school than what we see today [[assuming it's still standing today; not sure of the state of the demolition as I post this). The front section with the Jared W Finney High School lettering on it wasn't always there; I think it was built sometime in the mid to late 70s if I remember correctly.

Before that, I remember a swooping metallic structure on what was then the front of the building facing Cadieux - and I think in the center was a clock, with two long shallow curves on either side of it. The effect looked a little like the Flying Nun's habit, and though I was really young at the time, I still remember finding it definitely an interesting sight. I assume that's still there, on the back of what I think is now an interior courtyard. Does anyone remember, or have a picture of, what Finney looked like before that new structure blocked out the old view?

[Gistok]

EMG... as a former Finney alumni... I know exactly what you are referring to. It was known as the Cafetorium... with an aerodynmaic curving roof. It doubled as the Cafeteria and Auditorium [[before they later built an auditorium). It was later hidden from view by the new 2nd story wing "on stilts" that was added in front of it in the mid 1970s.

Also to the south of this wing was a large 4 sided addition that had a large rectangular courtyard in the middle. Ironically that courtyard was never accessible to the students... only as a light well for the 2 stories of classrooms building around it. At a later date [[late 1970s?) that courtyard was filled in with a large "media center"... so the encircling classrooms no longer had windows to view the out of doors.

I've never been fond of the Finney architecture... even though it was my alma mater... but it was a newer school than all the others on the east side [[with the exception of MLK). And since the attached Cannon Rec Center has been closed since 2006... perhaps the new school [[only for 1/2 the population of the former) will include the Cannon Rec area in the new Crockett High School campus.

[Whitehouse]

Is this a complete demo or partial?

[Gistok]

Is this a complete demo or partial?

Complete...

[Whitehouse]

Forgot one other notable example in my city. The Noordelijk Hoogeschool Leeuwarden was also demolished recently. Here it is in better days.




Footage of the demo.


No, this was not done for a lack of students, or the state of the building. It was well maintained, just not modern enough anymore I think. The students have been moved to a brand new campus in the northern part of the city. This is a very dominant building on the ring of Leeuwarden.


No, that's not National Hockey League....

And how could I forget my own high school...


Reduced to rubble...


And another school that is currently being demolished.


Also has to go for a new building.

[Aluminum]

Here are two quick pictures from this week. Canon Rec Center is gone.

[English]

Drove by a week ago. Demo is progressing swiftly.

[Rocko]

Now we don't have to slow down for the "school zone" on Cadieux!! Time to take down the flashing signs telling me to SLOW DOWN!

[mauser]

Demo photos from last night:

http://www.detroitfunk.com/?p=5167

[EMG]

Demo photos from last night:

http://www.detroitfunk.com/?p=5167

In the picture with the blue vehicle and the "greenhouse" writing on the building, the curved architectural feature looks almost like it could be the remains of the one I was talking about in my earlier post in this thread. If so, it's smaller and shorter than I remember it!

[mauser]

Yes, that is the "flying nun" structure, I made sure to capture that before it was harvested.

[sumas]

Finney is my Alma Mater. Must say I agree it was just plain butt ugly. Still live in area and watching its demolision causes me no pangs of nostalgia for the physical structure.

[Khartoum]

Seeing as the Finney students are temporarily at the Andrew Jackson Intermediate School, I hope that the DPS doesn't simply leave that one to rot whenever the Finney kids return to their rebuilt school.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/71288712@N00/367472474/

Just sayin.

[East Detroit]

Glass half empty: Finney is being torn down

Glass half full: Finney is being replaced by a new high school