Detroit, Michigan

• Portfolio

A collection of images taken in Detroit, March 2009, descriptions outlined below:

Fisher Body Plant 21, although lacking in architectural magnificence, this dilapidated building best symbolizes Detroit. No cars were manufactured here but the car bodies produced by Fisher became the industry standard. Fisher Body 21 was the birthplace for the bodies of countless Cadillacs. Closed since the early-90's Fisher Body 21 has joined the list of forlorn symbols of industry.

Packard Motors Plant was an American luxury automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and later by the
Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899 and the last in 1958.

Roosevelt Warehouse was a public school book depository: At first, it was used as a post office. The new post office is right outside. After the new one was built, this was turned into a storage facility for all of the public schools' books, pencils, pens, paint, footballs, straws, library slips, passes, etc. You could spend days looking through the things here. In the 80's there was a fire, and the building was left deserted.

Michigan Central Station was built in 1913, when the previous Michigan Central Station burned, until the last Amtrak train pulled away from the station on January 6, 1988. At the time of its construction, it was the tallest rail station in the world. The building, located in the Corktown district. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Reports of restoration projects and plans have gone as far as the negotiation process, but none have come to fruition.

Grande Ballroom, Detroit's original rock and roll palace! Artists included, The Stooges, The Jagged Edge, MC5, Frigid Pink, Frank Zappa and the
Mothers, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Cream, Jeff Beck, The Who, Sun Ra, John Coltrane and Janis Joplin to name a few. The Grande closed as a rock venue in 1972. It has rarely been used and has fallen into a state of disrepair. As of 2008 it remained vacant and open to redevelopment.

Former Detroit School of the Arts, formerly the Wilbur Wright High School and the city's leading vocational high school for many years.

Lee Plaza Hotel, a vacant high-rise apartment building, registered historic site by the state of Michigan and was added to the United States National Register of Historic Sites on November 5, 1981. The building was designed by Charles Noble and constructed in 1929, it rises to 15 floors and is an excellent example of Art Deco architecture of the 1920s. First built as an ornate high rise hotel along West Grand Boulevard, Lee Plaza was an upscale apartment with hotel services. Decorated with sculpture and tile outside, the structure rivaled the Book-Cadillac Hotel and Statler Hotel for architectural notice in Detroit during the 1920s. After economic contraction, the apartment's ownership changed several times, being used as a Senior Citizen's complex before finally closing as a residence in the early 1990s. During its years of vacancy, much of the artwork, internal wiring, fixtures and valuable
material has been removed illegally by scavengers.