Allan

Yes, going to the Exposure.Detroit show is highly recommended...mostly because I am showing some work there.

Yeah, you're telling me. I drive Michigan several times each day. The area between the Lodge and 12th is not friendly at all to my car. The Michigan/Trumbull intersection is expecially bad, as well as the left-most lane in each direction.

Tapezord, many of the lights in Detroit are being removed because the streets do not handle nearly as many cars as they used to. That's why you see flashing lights, or even lights that have been turned off completely in many neighborhoods. That said, the main roads here are also too wide. There's no need for Woodward, Gratiot, or Michigan to be as wide as they are. However, their width would come in handy if Detroit ever implemented a light rail system. Michigan will be narrowed to 2 lanes of travel in each direction, with diagonal parking on the side...I believe that is set to happen next year. Corktown settled on stamped concrete to mimic the character of the bricks...because as nice as the bricks are, they really suck to drive on.

That's not bad at all. I did actually see DPL working in my neighborhood today. I can't complain about them either. My streetlights are on every night.

BTW, many of the lights they are replacing date from the late 1940s and early 1950s. The LED replacements use much less energy; hence, the change.

Have they replaced the light at Witherell and Woodward yet? That thing has been out since right after the Super Bowl! You gotta love the speed at which things happen in this city. Oh well, at least DPL has been able to keep my streetlights on....

One of my pet peeves about Detroit is how they are replacing the traffic lights that are hanging on metal arms with traffic lights that are hanging on wires strung across the road. It looks so tacky...I understand it is a money issue, but still....

Jason, I don't think you've been paying attention. Those boards were put up late last year.

The underpasses are pretty bad. Some are worse than others...but none of them are well maintained. They are filled with trash, and sometimes there are bums living under them.

Historically there were mansions all around Grand Circus Park, but only the area north of Vernor was known as Brush Park. It was one of the areas of land subdivided by the Brush family in the 1870s. Henry T. Brush was the architect on several of the mansions that were constructed, including the Ransom Gillis Home (205 Alfred/63 Alfred).

Nope

The Plaza Hotel was outdated very early on. It was doomed with the opening of hotels like the Statler, Book-Cadillac, and Fort Shelby. It was a very classy place in its day, though. Photo from WSU Virtual Motor City

Wolverine, the parking lot next to the Madison-Lenox was the Plaza Hotel. It was an 8(?) story structure that was demoed very early on....it was gone by 1930.

Rb, I was not around Broadway at 5:30...I was in an abandoned building. I regret not exploring further, but I was alone and was quite uneasy about this particular building for multiple reasons. All in all, it was probably a good thing that I didn't go beyond the first floor, because I would've gotten locked inside, which would've meant risking a breaking and exiting charge. Wolverine, I see how it is...you're in Detroit randomly and you don't bother to call. You missed a very cool photo opportunity.

You probably were one of the people who walked past me today. I was the idiot who kept stopping every 10 feet to take a photo of something. There were tons of people downtown today. I spent most of the day around the Campus Martius area, which was pretty much full of people, even through the hottest part of the day. I did venture up to Grand Circus with the intent to explore an abandoned building, but the throngs of suburbanites wandering around made a quick, unnoticed entry impossible. Oh well, I'll get the chance to sometime in the not too distant future. I took off and headed to Slows about 7:30 or so...I'm still not sure where the party I was supposed to be going with went to. Maybe they got lost.....

211 W. Fort looks good, Jason! I haven't checked in on Simtropolis since before the Fall semester started. I just don't have the time anymore. It's probably been almost a year since I've played Sim City, I'm sorry to say. One of these days when I'm not crawling around in abandoned buildings, out looking for a job, taking photos, working on the LTU solar decathlon house, working on the student lounge project, working on my portfolio, or doing some sort of work around the house I will have to load it up again. I really think I got busier when the semester ended. I might be able to get a hold of some plans of the Vinton Building post-renovation so that you can finish that project up. I run into the guy who facilitated the whole deal from time to time when I'm out and about.

Yeah...it does really suck. I have 4 or 5 leads on jobs now, so the search is on. Some are more promising than others. I really want to work in the city because driving out to the suburbs every day would suck, and I'm not planning on moving back to the burbs anytime soon...after putting up with them for 20 years I've had enough. LOL.

I'm just fortunate to have a very forgiving landlord. I figure if worse comes to worse, I can be a professional panhandler.

Well, had I not found out today that I don't have a job anymore, I could afford to go out and take some. But seeing as how I have a whole $174 to my name at this point, my priority is finding a new job. Ahh, the life of a broke college student....

My friends and I always joke that they had to cut down an entire rainforest to save that building. Haha.

The building has months, not years of life in it. If it is not stabilized soon, it will collapse. The situation is urgent. In fact, it's much worse today than it was just a few months ago.

You've gotta love how that one column is holding up the entire front half of the building. The beam resting on top of that column is broken, and there's only about an inch of wood that is holding the entire front half of the building up. Once that goes, the front facade will fall in.

Object Orange was previously known as Detroit Demolition Disneyland. The houses here are in Highland Park, in a neighborhood so desolate that the streets have been blocked off with concrete barricades, and every single house is abandoned and in an extreme state of decay.

Ugh, sorry, I'm going on no sleep here...time for architecture finals! I haven't slept in two days, and I'm not planning on sleeping for another two. I'm to the point that I'm pretty much incoherent.

GRDad, 3 of the buildings are vacant: the 12-story building second from left (Park Avenue Building), the 6-story red brick building with arched windows (Fine Arts Building), and the little two story building second from right. The Fine Arts Building will be either torn down or renovated in the next year. It is owned by the Ilitch family, and is in very bad shape. The Park Avenue Building has a caretaker, and will eventually be renovated into lofts, but that is likely several years down the road. I'm not sure what the plans for the little 2-story building are.