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An Afternoon Walk Through Downtown Detroit


Allan

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A Walk Through Downtown, Part I of IV

These were all taken on Thursday. I had quite a day. The photos are not actually in the order I took them. The first few are actually the last ones I took. Enjoy!

From left to right, the First National Bank Building, Comerica Tower, & the Bank One Building

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Water Board Building

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Outside the Dime Building

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Guardian Building

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1001 Woodward and the Compuware Building

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David Stott Building

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Around the corner is Fort Street. The Penobscot building is on the left. To the right of the Penobscot Building is the Old Penobscot Building.

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Clock on the Penobscot Building

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Penobscot Building

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Looking South down Griswold Street

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Quite possibly the worst photo of the Windsor skyline ever taken.

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This was the first really nice day this year, so there were many boats out on the river.

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The Renaissance Center from the Riverfront

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One Woodward & the Guradian Building

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The Coleman A. Young Municipal Center. This is quite possibly the most hideous building downtown, although the politics and corruption that occur inside are much worse.

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Old Mariners Church

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Looking down Jefferson toward the Renaissance Center entrance

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Looking the other way down Jefferson Avenue

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Comerica Tower from Larned Street. The parking garage at the right is where Two Detroit Center, Comerica's twin, was supposed to rise. But since this is Detroit, they decided to build a parking garage instead.

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The base of Comerica Tower. The main entrance is around the corner on Woodward Avenue.

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Comerica Tower from the intersection of Woodward and Larned

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The Guardian Building

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Looking north up Woodward Avenue

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Welcome to Comerica Tower!

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The structure connecting Comerica Tower & its parking garage.

Between the Guardian Building and the Bank One Building, we catch a glimpse of the Ford Building.

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Looking down Congress Street

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Cadillac Tower dominates Cadillac Square

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Scaffolding covers the tower of the Wayne County Building

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The Wayne County Building

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The Millender Center (left) and the Renaissance Center

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Cadillac Square Apartments

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The Lawyers Building, which is slated to become lofts

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Michigan Avenue

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Detroit's angled avenues downtown mean there's quite a few irregularly shaped buildings like this one.

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The Lawyers Building

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Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

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What is the Detroiters view on The Renaissance Center? Do they like it? Did it work in bringing more people downtown?

It looks terribly out of place and not particularly urban, more like an office park, that just happens to be downtown. I know next to nothing about detroit though, so I'm ready to be enlightned.

I like the Ford building. Nice shots.

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What is the Detroiters view on The Renaissance Center? Do they like it? Did it work in bringing more people downtown?

It looks terribly out of place and not particularly urban, more like an office park, that just happens to be downtown. I know next to nothing about detroit though, so I'm ready to be enlightned.

I like the Ford building. Nice shots.

Well, the Ren Cen is more often than not viewed as a necessary evil. GM has moved thousands of employees into the building, and has worked to improve its connection with the rest of downtown. Until recently, the Ren Cen had berms around the complex, totally separating it from downtown. GM had the berms removed. Basically, what GM has done is made an architectural disaster at least bearable. It is attracting more stores and restaurants to downtown, which is a good thing, but at the same time, these stores should be in the vacant storefronts along the streets, not inside the Ren Cen complex. If the stores and restaurants in the Ren Cen were along throughfares like Woodward and Washington, people would be amazed. It would be like Chicago, but on a much smaller scale. The city would be alive again. Granted, retail is slowly coming to these corridors, but it's a double edged sword. The residents don't want to move in until the stores are downtown, and the stores don't want to move in until there are residents downtown. So the revitalization is occuring, albeit slower than everyone would like. Momentum is starting to build as far as downtown projects go. I can't wait to see Detroit in a few years!

Back to the Ren Cen...it is built away from the main skyline, but it's something that I kind of like. It allows the city to have an old, 1920s skyline, and a modern day skyline. It's unique to Detroit. I cannot think of any cities anywhere else in the world that have this type of arrangement.

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