Comments on: The Story of Demolition City: Detroit, Michigan

By: Alexandria Stankovich

Alexandria Stankovich — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 02:39:36 +0000

Dear Gerald,
Thank you for sharing your insights. It’s true, Detroit has lost many architectural gems because they have not been prioritized. Many people do not realize that preservation and adaptive reuse of existing structure is more sustainable and more economical than building new. I fear for the future of the Depot and the old Wayne County Building, but Preservation Wayne has been working on a survey of Detroit historical sites. You can read more on that topic in my early post from Feb 2, 2012 “Assessing the Damage” http://www.globalsiteplans.com/environmental-design/architecture-environmental-design/assessing-the-damage-preserving-detroit-michigans-historical-places/

Unfortunately, we recently lost our historic preservation tax credit in the state of Michigan, but it has been replaced with a similar tax incentive program. We cannot live in the past, Detroit was never a perfect, but the quality of construction and attention to architectural detail cannot be ignored and should be saved.

Thank you for reading,
Alexandria
The GRID Blogger

By: Gerald Dicen

Gerald Dicen — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:24:32 +0000

*worse rather than better

By: Gerald Dicen

Gerald Dicen — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:04:21 +0000

This is sad, that aesthetics and historical architectural designs have to end in some places in Detroit. What is even better is the fact that the demolition has to be made for the sake of the people who were the major factor of the damage. The clear reason why the government (or whoever is responsible for the preservation of the architectural gems) did not see this coming is because there was not enough value given to them. Had it been otherwise, we could have stopped time from directing us to appreciate what we once had. Finally, in the present era, we could have witnessed exquisite historical structures stand together with the technological advancements in the urban.