Quote Originally Posted by Gistok View Post
No... that thread is only 3 months old... Original Poster Eastside Al who has a Join Date of 2009 is ancient.
...And getting ancienter and ancienter by the minute, it seems these days. But, yes, I started that thread in September of 2017 in reaction to my experiences at the most recent Detroit Jazz Festival.

As for Isamu Noguchi, that he was one of the major artists [[and landscape architects, furniture designers, theatrical designers, etc.) of the 20th century is really beyond question. But what that means, or should mean, for the future of our treatment of our largest example of his work, and what we may choose to do with it to both respect it and keep it functional for our needs, is a much wider question. One that should be open to public debate, and not part of some dictatorial 'we know what's good for you' [[based on what's trendy right now in our profession) planning process.

But, beyond the future planning questions, and the financial questions it may entail, we have a big plaza that's crumbling into uselessness at this moment. As I said in that other thread, what is immediately, and desperately, needed right now is some serious maintenance action. We really need to stabilize and keep usable what is there now, address things that have been falling apart or left non-functional for years, and do it asap.

One action that I think would move affirmatively in that direction is to remove the Plaza from parks administration and maintenance, and get it into a situation more like Campus Martius or Riverwalk. So that Hart Plaza can be treated separately as a vital asset, and maybe moved more towards a public/private situation, or some form of non-profit foundation funding.

O2H is absolutely correct that it is a place that has been ignored and left to slide for far too long, and given the Plaza's central location and potential, we really can't continue to just ignore it, but have to act to at least arrest the decay now.