Council halts Bing's plan to raze Detroit's Ford Auditorium

[begingri]

BY STEVE NEAVLING
DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Plans to demolish the once-venerable Ford Auditorium in downtown Detroit hit a snag today.

Council members said they won’t approve Mayor Dave Bing’s plan to raze the vacant downtown waterfront venue on Hart Plaza until there are solid plans to replace the 55-year-old building, once home to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and a destination for pop music concerts, famous speeches and theatrical productions.

“We need to have some discussion about what’s going to be done at that site,” Councilman Ken Cockrel Jr. said during a regular council meeting this afternoon. “I don’t like rushing this. It doesn’t smell good.”

Council members said too many buildings were demolished in the past without specific plans to replace them. Those include Tiger Stadium, Hudson’s department store and the Lafayette Building.


Continued at: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...=2011110308031

[noggin]

Why not put the Robo Cop statue on the site? It goes well with the fist on Jefferson.

[Mr. Houdini]

Jeeze. It's not being used. Knock it down.

[401don]

So this is the building clownsil suddenly decides to take an historic preservation stand with? If you simply throw down some sod and a couple of trees you have added greenspace to Hart Plaza and enhanced the view of the riverfront until you decide what else to do. What a bunch of boneheads.

[esp1986]

So this is the building clownsil suddenly decides to take an historic preservation stand with? If you simply throw down some sod and a couple of trees you have added greenspace to Hart Plaza and enhanced the view of the riverfront until you decide what else to do. What a bunch of boneheads.

With all of the events that are held at Hart Plaza, you would think this would be the perfect example of a building you would want to raze and not have visitors looking at. The building is 55 years old. It has outlived it's usefulness by about 53 years. It is in no way architecturally significant, and is utterly useless as a theatre or performing arts center. Adjacent to Hart Plaza, this may be the one downtown building where greenspace would fit right in to the locale.

[mikeg19]

So this is the building clownsil suddenly decides to take an historic preservation stand with? If you simply throw down some sod and a couple of trees you have added greenspace to Hart Plaza and enhanced the view of the riverfront until you decide what else to do. What a bunch of boneheads.

Literally the exact same thing I was thinking....

Tiger Stadium? knock it down, we need that space for development.

Lafayette building? Knock it down. It's an eyesore and dangerous.

Ford Auditorium? HEAVENS NO! WE NEED A PLAN BEFORE WE EVER WOULD DEMOLISH A BUILDING OF SUCH SIGNIFICANCE!!!!


City council is a friggin joke........

[stromberg2]

What the fuck is wrong with these people? What 401Don said. Ridiculous!

Stromberg2

[canuck]

So this is the building clownsil suddenly decides to take an historic preservation stand with? If you simply throw down some sod and a couple of trees you have added greenspace to Hart Plaza and enhanced the view of the riverfront until you decide what else to do. What a bunch of boneheads.

I'm sorry 401don but I havent been able to better your post. Of all the buildings that were demolished in the past, they had to stop at that one. Sheesh...

[Richard]

I do not think it is about the building at all,it is about looking at what has happened in the past to the very structures that are mentioned here and stopping it from happening in the future.

Forget the building and look at the message.

[Gistok]

I do not think it is about the building at all,it is about looking at what has happened in the past to the very structures that are mentioned here and stopping it from happening in the future.

Forget the building and look at the message.

I gotta agree... and also... is the building really such an eyesore from Jefferson or Hart Plaza? Or do you have to get close up to see that it is unused?

Do regular people who drive down Jefferson say.... "look honey... look at that rotting ruin?"

I doubt that the city will have money anytime soon to turn that parcel into a large amphitheatre as originally planned.

And it sits on top of a parking garage... I doubt dumping sod and trees on top of a parking structure is a smart move...

[Khartoum]

I had no idea it was abandoned until someone told me.

[RickBeall]

Everyone on this site read my mind. I can't believe they stopped tearing down buildings at the only one that should be torn down.

Let's stop and think about this. ... I never thought before ... it may take a minute.

[Gistok]

Everyone on this site read my mind. I can't believe they stopped tearing down buildings at the only one that should be torn down.

Let's stop and think about this. ... I never thought before ... it may take a minute.

Rick... as much as I think that the demo money should be spent elsewhere in this instance... yours was a great post!! LOL....

[Hypestyles]

who says ford auditorium has to be replaced with anything? I say let it be more public park space, it can take 'forever' to try and get somebody to turn this into a new ampitheater or whatever, and i'm not convinced that's beneficial anyway..

[BagAJellyDonuts]

Why not move clowncil"s offices into Ford Auditorium and then knock it down?

BTW, make certain they are all in there when the wrecking ball starts swinging.

[EastsideAl]

I smell some sort of power play going on here, otherwise this makes no sense. As Don and others have expressed so eloquently, after all of the other stuff that they were in a huge rush to tear down, to suddenly "stop and think" over a building that is not historic, not particularly beautiful, has few sentimental attachments, will never be used productively again, and would actually aesthetically improve the central city with its absence, really boggles the mind. I gotta believe there's something else going on here, even if it's just a political test of wills.

[davewindsor]

It is in no way architecturally significant, and is utterly useless as a theatre or performing arts center..

Fine,. find another use for it then. Sell it to one of the Universities for a buck as a lecture hall. By knocking down the building, they might do costly damage to the parking garage underneath. Downtown Windsor had something similar called the Cleary Centre. The City sold it to St. Claire College for a buck. Now, it's a satellite downtown campus for St. Claire College.

[mikeg19]

Fine,. find another use for it then. Sell it to one of the Universities for a buck as a lecture hall. By knocking down the building, they might do costly damage to the parking garage underneath. Downtown Windsor had something similar called the Cleary Centre. The City sold it to St. Claire College for a buck. Now, it's a satellite downtown campus for St. Claire College.

It's been abandoned for 21 years. If they haven't done anything with it on some of the most prime real estate in the city, I doubt they are going to at this point...

[Hypestyles]

i will write to the free press, and likely write to council.. I just hope this doesn't degenerate into another half-baked crusade to 'save the jewels', replete with a quickie rally filled with folk who up until now hadn't given the place a 1st, 2nd or 3rd thought..

[Richard]

I do not know,it seems obvious in the past that most residents did not really care about what was happening within the city and management pretty much did as they pleased.

Times are changing more are coming into the city and those will stand up and take a stand for what they believe in and they will replace those that wish to adhere to the old way of doing things,sooner or later one has to make a stand and decide if they are going to support those who wish to move Detroit into the future or keep it like it is or has been.

Some may view the council in a negative way and may have good reason to but personally I believe they are intelligent enough to be able to read the writing on the wall,its no free ride anymore ,make decisions for a better Detroit and its future and its taxpayers or they will be replaced.

This building like I said in context is irrelevant if they can take a stand here and prove that they can protect something that most here deem not worth a crap that will set a precedence for the future when it comes to saving something that is deemed truly un replaceable, a testing of the waters so to speak.

I try to be an optimist so I am kinda looking at this like it is a sign that the council is willing to move forward and do what it takes when it comes time to step up to the plate.

On the flip side what I see in most of the response here so far is citizenry that is not ready to step up to the plate and support them when that time actually comes .So it becomes business as usual.

Which is exactly why every building that no longer exists is a parking lot or a excellent pictorial of ruin porn.

But that is just me and my thoughts because if people do not get involved with their city,then yea you are right tear it all down its not going to matter anyways.

[davewindsor]

It's been abandoned for 21 years. If they haven't done anything with it on some of the most prime real estate in the city, I doubt they are going to at this point...

Perhaps, no one bothered calling up one of the universities to ask. WSU, MSU, UM or UD couid accredit it as a sateliite campus like say, a Henry Ford School of Business for office workers wanting to get an MBA in downtown within minutes walking distance from one of the highrise office towers. Put walls up and split the auditorium into half a dozen lecture halls. It could work. Great things like that happens all the time in other cities. The idea just needs to be presented to one of the university boards.

[East Detroit]

City Council has to make sure they've had the requisite number of campaign donations prior to any corporate progress on desirable sites. And face it, the Ford Auditorium site is much more desirable than Tiger Stadium, Lafayette, etc.

[Rocko]

Anyone know where the funding is coming from for the demolition? And I admire Cockrel for asking questions....you'll recall he DID issue a stay of execution for the Lafayette Demo to study some options....then he was knocked out of office in the special election and the demolition moved forward under Bing.

[detroitlives]

Adaptive reuse is the best answer for Ford Auditorium--not spending millions on tearing it down. Draw on the deep well of creativity in Southeastern Michigan and develop a plan for a 21st century use for the building--instead of simply bulldozing an amazing example of midcentury modernist architecture, built of marble and granite. Demo'ing old buildings is the surest way to obvlivion as a city. Grappling with the hard questions, and finding innovative solutions for the future, preserving what is great from our past, is really what we should be looking at.

Huzzah to the Council for its forward-thinking today.

[stasu1213]

I wonder if the friends of Ford Auditorium had paid some council member off. hmmmm. I don't agree with most of the things that Bing had proposed but this is getting ridiculous. First the police station and now this.