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Statler Hotel Demolition Progress

Allan

By Allan
in Detroit

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wolverine Town

wolverine

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Nice before and after post. I was in the D yesterday, and it was sickening to look at it. I hope something sizable will come to that lot, not a parking deck

Speaking of parking decks, a new one is going up in Greektown. As if we didn't have enough!! I'm really starting to lose faith. I could care less if people make fun of Detroit for its parking structures and lots. If you really want to defend a city that is turning into the parking capital of the world, your living a lie. Granted, I love Detroit, but this can't go on.

Also, more demo's are due to come to areas around GCP. After the forum meet, Allan and I explored the fine arts building and were shocked that hardly any of the building had rooms that were level. The entire building was folding in toward the center. I can seriously say, the building is in imminent danger of collapse (and this isn't the ML kind). The Fine Arts Building is a threat to the neighboring two buildings (kales is one of them), and needs to be demolished. Only one steel pole is holding up most of the building. When that becomes entirely rusted through, at least 3/4 of the building will collapse. Believe me, if you are worried that every step you take in that building could cause a weight shift to send floors crashing down, you know that place needs to go. This wouldn't have happened if Ilitch would have taken care of it.

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Allan Metropolis

Allan

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I think this is a different garage, but I'm not sure. I think Wolverine took a photo of it, but I didn't bother. It is precast, and has a sort of fake brick look to it. There are so many parking garages going up downtown that it's hard to keep them all straight. Apparently, this is a sign that Detroit's economy is growing.

Wolverine,

At least when the Fine Arts Building collapses, it will collapse inward. That is one crazy building...the floors drop off into that hole which rises 3 stories from the ground floor. Nothing in that building is level. Even that one hallway didn't look straight. Most of the doors wouldn't open or close because the frames are so out of square. Then there is that wooden beam on the 7th floor that is broken, and literally sags a good three feet from its origin on the north wall to the break in the next room.

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RustTown City

RustTown

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Though, I'm sad to see it come down, the potential for that site in particular is just astounding. Unfortunately, that potential probably won't be realized for another 5-10 years. Anything that goes up on the site, I would hope, should be at least as tall as the Statler or taller. It has the potential to be quite the skyscraper, and could offer a lot at street level since it sits on a prominent corner with street sides. The base of any new development on hear could include a multi-level retail promenade. But, with that already conceptualized for the Woodward Block just a few blocks away, I don't think something of that scale will happen.

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Allan Metropolis

Allan

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The Statler site will be an excellent site for a future residential tower. Unfortunately, there is also a huge chance to make a big mistake. I don't like to be pessimistic, but something tells me that the city will screw it up, and we'll end up with some really crappy 3 story residential development with vinyl siding. Hopefully everyone will be patient on this one....

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wolverine Town

wolverine

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I was picturing a parking structure lol. While they are at it, they should seriously tear down that ugly 2 story building facing Washington. The garage door-like windows on the ground floor, and old country shutters on the second floor are an atrocity. That way the entire Statler block would be clear of buildings, and would allow a large building to occupy that space in the future.

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Allan Metropolis

Allan

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They are bringing in a special machine from Europe to take down the Washington side, so they are waiting on that. I don't know what kind of machine this is, but it'd better be pretty good if they are paying all kinds of money to bring it over here.

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wolverine Town

wolverine

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Does anybody agree with me that building seems alot stronger than we thought? I pictured sagging floors, and a seriously detached facade. But even with all the machinery knocking out walls and floors, it still seems to hold on pretty well. Heck, they are having an awful time removing the architectural details which is why it looks like the stuff at the base will have to be trashed. It also seems to have one hell of a thick steel frame. Was the Statler in as bad shape as we thought?

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hood Burg

hood

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I never followed the subject closely, but the Statler always appeared to be in decent condition from the outside, no signs of structural, or even any severe cosmetic problems that you wouldn't usually expect on a non-maintained building. But I never did look very close though.

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RustTown City

RustTown

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Wolverine, we all know how hell-bent the city was on bringing this down, probably more than any other of the few vacant dinoasaurs left. They'd say almost anything to get rid of this one. I still for the life of my can't figure out why.

They really could have chosen their battles better. I mean, if they would have decided instead to bring down the Lafayette, there wouldn't have been half the amount of fight they recieved for the Statler.

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dstatler Crossroads

dstatler

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I may sound stupid but do you have any relation with the hotel?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, I'm not related to the hotel itself :) , but I am distantly related to its founder, Ellsworth Statler. He's like a 10th cousin, a couple times removed. Most people ask me if I'm related to the Statler Brothers singing quartet. :D

I've always had an interest in the Statler Hotels though and it was really just recently through the help of my aunt who is really into genealogy that we discovered the link to Ellsworth (with the help of a decendant of Ellsworth).

David

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mn_body_detroit_hrt Whistle-Stop

mn_body_detroit_hrt

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Hey guys, just an FYI...the statler was cleaned of all toxic waste and judged structurally sound only a few years ago, the reason for bringing it down was essentially (according to the city) that no one would be able to afford to renovate it and there were no offers...It is my understanding that there were offers that were kinda "sideswiped"...that's heresay.. but the building was fine, the most dangerous places in there were the elevator shafts and maybe the rusty air conditioning shaft on the back...

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tombarnes City

tombarnes

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You are correct. The City of Detroit was simply itching to destroy this building and deliberately ignored viable offers on the table. There are so many other worthy candidates for demolition that I wonder about the real reasons for its demise. It would have hurt nothing to at least attempt to work out a deal with HRI. This wasn't even considered by Mr. Kilpatrick and his cabal.....

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hood Burg

hood

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And Detroit wonders why the city is trashed and people are disgusted with it. I'm sick of seing Detroit operate with poor management, this is just a very high-profile example of the sorry state of the city government.

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