Cass Tech Celebrates Class IA State Football Championship with Woodward Parade

Downtown employees were riveted on their lunch break today after Cass Tech High School began a parade in honor of its state championship winning football team.

The green and white marching band stood along Grand Circus Park, near the former site of Occupy Detroit, and played numerous songs as their team sat in buses nearby on the avenue. Cass Tech won the state championship by beating Detroit Catholic Central 49-13 at Ford Field on November 26, 2011.

Griswold Comes Along

It looks like Griswold is about to get some additional nightlife; rumor has it that the building at Griswold's northern terminus, at Clifford, is going to become a bar. Check out its current, rather sorry state:

Maybe they intend for it to be an open air establishment!

Chalmers Square Rising (Again)

On East Jefferson, near the Grosse Pointe border, Chalmers Square is getting a serious rehab. The building, boarded up for quite some time, had a beautiful facade, but some creaky bones. Its rehabbers gutted the inside, but left the facade standing. It made me quite nervous to drive by while they left it like that for some time. This morning, however, I am pleased to report that the building has all new bones and the facade is being improved, too. Its starting to recapture some of its former glory, as seen below.

Chalmers Square has a sister building two blocks down that looks similar, but is in the "pre-rehab" state. I hope that the successful renovation of Chalmers Square encourages developers to get that building in better shape, too.

Going, going, gone.

There is not much left of the musical hall down by the river...

Making Movies on Monroe, Remaking the Broderick Tower

A quick stroll through downtown today at lunchtime revealed a slew of activity. On Monroe, police had cordoned off part of the street for apparent filming on a movie, which also seemed to be happening on Randolph near the Old Wayne County Building. Here's a shot of the camera truck filming a view of the in-street parking garage and a yuppie pretending not to notice.

On Woodward, crews continued to plow ahead with the renovation of the David Broderick Tower. One especially voracious team was scrubbing the lower facade. Based on a ground's eye view analysis of the blocks above, they still have their work cut out for them, if they plan to clean up that facade as nice as the Book Cadillac's facade was cleaned up. Here's a shot, showing all the dust they were generating and explaining the need to block sidewalk access below.

Chase Tower Gets Some Dan Gilbert Love

Like each of the buildings recently acquired by Dan Gilbert, Chase Tower near Campus Martius in downtown Detroit has been getting some much needed love and investment. Visitors to the building of late have had to navigate scaffolding from workers above, cleaning and repairing the building's massive facade on all sides. There is even a rumor that Gilbert plans to push the lobby of this mid-century skyscraper closer to Woodward Avenue, making zero-setback retail a real possibility.

Today, I stopped in at the first floor Chase Bank branch and found another Gilbert change: the ceiling in the building's lengthy lobby had been painted green. Not sure how this will tie into future renovations, but it sure was a startling change from the entirely white setting that use to greet visitors. I am very excited for this building's future, now that it has an active investor as its owner.

Downtown Detroit's First Mobile Restaurant Doing a Brisk Business

El Guapo, Detroit's first fully legit downtown food truck, seems to be doing quite well for itself. This little restaurant/truck that could had them lined up along Randolph on Friday afternoon, waiting for some southwestern fare.

This is, I think, a good opportunity to editorialize - Randolph has lots of potential to be a lively street, with more scenes like this, but it is lined with parking structures and lots that really get in the way of that scene right now. If the city wants to get Campus Martius and Greektown and Bricktown and Broadway all connected with lively action, it will need to tackle Randolph.

Random Act of Culture at the Renaissance Center

Today around lunchtime an improvisational piano player known as Merton showed up at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit and began playing piano. He started singing about people coming down the escalator in front of the piano - people headed from their office work to the food court.

It was hilarious. As people came into his view and began uniting sound and picture, they would inevitably smirk. It made everyone's day. Kudos to the brain trust that made this happen.

Accidents Will Happen

I was walking by the site of the Ford Auditorium demolition today and noticed that the wrecking crane had taken a sharp spill and was on its side. Oops!

The City Comes Alive

Detroit has been picking up steam lately, as far as downtown development goes anyways. On Friday, the city's growing energy was wildly apparent, with a confluence of events showcasing the recurring vitality of the central business district.

In the early part of the day, crowds began to gather for the Van's Warped Tour at Comerica Park. The picture below shows a set-up area for the concert, which was stationed at Madison and Grand Circus Park. 

Later in the morning, the city began its planned demolition of the Ford Auditorium in Hart Plaza. While demolition is not redevelopment, per se, this demolition should add to the quality of life downtown. The auditorium was seldom used for much of the past two decades, due to its poor acoustics. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, which lived in the auditorium for a number of years, eventually went back to its home in Orchestra Hall on Woodward in Midtown, due to the poverty of value associated with the auditorium.

Also along the river on Friday was a clipper ship, which had traveled to Detroit from Baltimore a few days hence. The ship was part of an effort to raise money for flag restoration (or something to that effect), but it served mostly as an interesting way to spend time along the river.

The last and most exciting thing that was going on downtown on Friday was the practice fly-overs of an F15 fighter jet, which was preparing for its flyer over of the Gold Cup boat races this weekend. The jet buzzed downtown for more than half an hour, circling at super sonic speeds around the skyscrapers that make up the city's heights. People stopped and watched each time it passed, because the sight and sound was breathtaking.

Harmonie Park

They call it Buck Park these days, but the former Harmonie Park is alive again with music. The Arts League of Michigan, which now calls a neighboring building home, has seen to it that there is live music in the park on a regular basis. One of my favorite parts of their involvement is the Wednesday concert series they've helped orchestrate.

The series is actually put on by Springfed Arts, a Royal Oak-based singer/songwriter/poetry collective, but many attendees are from the neighboring Arts League. Anyways, this series happens at lunchtime on Wednesdays in the park and features area singers/songwriters belting out tunes. Some of the singers are funny and some are bad, but some are well worth the price of admission (free!).

The crowd that gathers to hear them is equally worth watching, what with its ragtag mix of office workers, arts aficionados, the homeless, and other stragglers. Its no Abbey Road, but its certainly an engaging and enriching experience that I recommend you check out next time you are downtown on a Wednesday.

Broderick Tower Renovation Continues

The long vacant David Broderick Tower (aka: Eaton Tower) continues its transformation from single use commercial to mixed use residential. Construction crews have positioned an impressively long yellow trash chute up the side of the nearly 40-story tower to assist with removal of all the debris that needs to be removed from the tower. You can see that chute and the tower in the picture below.

I'm a fan of public art, but a little voice inside of me keeps hoping that they remove those whales from the tower before opening to the public. The cognitive dissonance caused by the presence of salt water creatures in a fresh water place makes me squeamish.

Madison Theater Building Continues Renovations

Dan Gilbert, founder of Quicken Loans, a major mortgage company, recently acquired the former Madison Theater Building at Broadway and Grand Circus Park, as part of his ongoing real estate binge. The building, pictured below, has been under constant construction ever since.

Skidmore Design, a firm started in Detroit but since located in Royal Oak, will be moving into the building, which already houses StubHub, a ticket broker, and Angelina's Bistro, an Italian restaurant. Dan Gilbert-affiliated companies are sure to occupy the rest of the building soon.

It Gets Better from Here

Welcome to my new blog - Here Is Detroit - where I will chronicle the continuing growth and development of my hometown, Detroit, Michigan. Thank you for stopping in to read about the many positive happenings in the Motor City.

Detroit has received much negative press during the past few decades, due to the numerous socio-economic challenges it is battling. The city is definitely moving in the right direction, though, having gained the interest of businesses that previously located in  the suburbs, a growing population of young and energetic leaders, and national media outlets interested in the city's revitalization.

On this page, I hope to chronicle efforts to build the city and to make it a better place to live, work, and play. As evidence of what I'm talking about, I'll end this first post with a picture of a building rehabilitation on Library Street, in downtown. I took this picture today at lunchtime, which involved a sunny stroll from Grand Circus Park to Campus Martius and back.