Allan

Hudson's looks great, Wolverine!

I wish I had time to go out & party! Haha. I haven't actually slept since Sunday night. I've redone my design project three times now - twice in cardboard & once in wood. One more redo will make it just about perfect. Note to self: next time design a project that can actually be built! I have a 15 minute presentation to give on Monday. I have to render my floorplans, elevations, site plan, & interior perspective by Tuesday. My final basic design project is due on Monday. I have a calculus exam on Wednesday. I also have one paper to rewrite, and another five page paper to write by the end of next week. That's in addition to a 20 page paper I'm working on right now. The end of the semester is so much fun! LOL.

Haha! The only projects I have had time to work on are all these renderings I have to do for my visual communications class. Between my two studio classes and my English class (which requires about 120 pages of reading for each class) I have been swamped with work. Not that there's anything new there!

We have one of those machines too. I have never used it...maybe someday. I like using the laser cutter too. Draw up your model in autocad and then let the machine do all the work cutting out the pieces. Then it's just a matter of gluing them together. I used that last semester...it turned a project that took most people 30-40 hours into one that took me about 10. Your model looks good, Wolverine! I am working on a similar project that is due in about three weeks. I need to head downtown now. I need to take photos of light and shadow used in buildings. That's not going to work very well. My professor wants us to do it on a sunny day, but it doesn't look like there are going to be any sunny days between now & Monday.

I will have to dig through my photo collection to find Southfield photos then. I am going to have to take some more. I only have a handful, despite living right next to the Southfield Town Center. I really don't have many photos of Southfield, mostly because Detroit is so much more interesting. I won't have time to post Southfield photos until later this week. I need to find an architecture job near downtown too so that I can start looking for an apartment. That is at the top of my priority list right now. I drove around Detroit a bit today looking for an apartment...I haven't really made any decisions yet. I have a friend who lives in Lafayette Towers and has an amazing view. Lafayette Park is too suburban for my tastes though, so I think I will end up in midtown. There aren't really a lot of apartment options downtown unless you're old or have a relatively high income. As a college student, neither of those apply to me. Haha.

Date: 2/11/2005 3:38:28 PM Author: Farminsim I was thinking bout doing some of the more modern Southfield skyscrappers while I wait but there arnt any picture close enough on the web it seems.quote> I live literally a stone's throw away from the Southfield Town Center. I can get a photo of any of the buildings you want as I'm out and about, since I drive by them every day. Just let me know which ones. Hopefully I won't be in Southfield for much longer. I hate it. It's like a bigger version of my hometown, and like my hometown, the place is really boring on weekends. I am hoping to move to the city after this semester is over. I had thought about moving to Grand Rapids for the summer & working for my uncle, but my parents are wanting me to stay in metro Detroit, and are encouraging me to get my own apartment. I am fed up with my roommates, so I am quite happy about this. Fortunately, apartments in Detroit aren't all that expensive. The biggest downside is that I will have to drive 12 miles to school everyday. That could get interesting once they repave the Lodge this year! Oh, and I have not touched the Statler BAT in a month. I am too busy with school, and I am now making trips to Grand Rapids almost every weekend, so I have even less time now.

Date: 2/6/2005 10:25:48 PM Author: XSpiderman WOW, Allan, how do you know all that stuff? Those night time shots were incredible, that must have been amazing to see. quote> It is definately an amazing thing to see. I have been to the Broderick three times now, but have only seen a small fraction of its 193,000 square feet. If you were to start on the first floor and just walk through every room on every floor, you're looking at about two hours to get to the top (this is without stopping to look at anything). If you stop and take photos, and really take the time to look through the place, you can easily spend one hour on each floor. With 34 floors, the roof, and six basments, there is a lot to see. The plans for the tower only show two basements, but there are more than that. The lower basements have been flooded for years, but they contain tunnels that connect the Broderick to other downtown buildings. The lower basements were also to be the location of one of the subway stations for the subway system that was never finished. You've got to bring scuba gear to see the basements though, LOL. I get most of my info on Broderick Tower from Gabe, the bar manager at Tavern on the Park. He has known Mike Higgins for many years. He also works at channel 4, so he gets to hear about all the stories before they air. Gabe told me that he found out the names of the two guys that have been vandalizing the penthouse since this summer. One is a 16 year old from Lincoln Park, and the other is from Livonia. He called up the 16 year old's mother on Saturday - she wasn't any too happy! Fortunately, they are moving out of the state in a few weeks, so he won't be causing any more trouble at the tower. The other is older, and Gabe had not been able to get a hold of his parents yet. These are the same guys that have been stealing the liquor from the bar on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, within the last two weeks, gang writing has shown up in the building. Gabe even spotted some in the lobby on Saturday while we were upstairs. In the very near future the alley behind the building will be monitored by cameras. Mike will also be having cameras installed inside the building within the next few weeks. He is fed up with people breaking in and destroying things. The $50,000 lawsuit was the last straw for him. In other downtown news.... The new opera house parking garage will have a 24 hour grocery store. Hopefully it will be cleaner and more reasonably priced than the one at Trolley Plaza. The Book Cadillac will now become a Hilton hotel if the financing is ever secured. They are still $20 million short. Three new downtown clothing stores will be opening around downtown. The owners of the Hughes and Hatcher store are suing the city because they demolished the building for the 1001 Woodward parking structure. All of the taxes had been paid on the building, and the city had no right to take it and demolish it. The owners had planned to reopen the Hughes and Hatcher store. It was supposed to reopen on the day after Thanksgiving, but one of the owners died, so that didn't happen. For those who don't know, H & H was a men's department store with locations throughout the Detroit & Flint areas. It was forced to file for bankruptcy more than 20 years ago, and they were only allowed to keep one store, the downtown Detroit location. All the other locations were sold off. Their plan was always to reopen, but now it looks like that will never happen. Since the building closed, they had gone in three times each year to clean the building. It was definately well cared for, and putting up new awnings and moving in shelves and merchandise was all that was necessary to make it a functioning department store again.

Date: 2/6/2005 2:45:52 PM Author: XSpiderman Well those are some great pictures and great information. My computer decided to stop working for me and now I have to use the Dell. I fear that all my BATs are going to be deleted because I might have to wipe my hard drive. quote> Thanks! It sucks that all your BATs might be deleted though. I went back to Broderick Tower on Friday night and went to see the basement, which ended up being flooded. Some of the guys thought about putting waders on and walking down there, but I wasn't about to do that! The bar manager quickly put a stop to that once we discovered that the water was four feet deep, because there is a possibility that the water has sewerage in it. When they built the people mover, they put a support column right over an 80 year old sewer line. The leak in it is very small, but it is still possible that sewerage was in the water, even though the leak is three basements down. They are now thinking that someone stole the sump pumps out of the Broderick. Saturday evening I went back to the Broderick for a third time with a friend. We pretty much headed straight for the roof. We didn't stop until the 29th floor, which was an architect's office that was last used in 1985. The climb is a lot harder when you go straight up to the top, but the view was well worth the effort. The building lobby on Friday night Anyone want to build a hotel? These are the plans to the Highland Park Holiday Inn which was demolished this past summer Looking out of a 31st floor window The 31st floor The roof has an old non-functioning antenna that you can climb to get a better view. I held onto this thing for nearly 10 minutes while my friend took my photo! You've got to love the views. You guys know where I'll be during the fireworks this summer. Now, for those of you that are wondering what is the deal with the building.... City council had a six hour meeting this past week specifically to discuss Broderick Tower. The city wants the building torn down because of the whale mural on the side and the religious symbolism of it in the Roman Catholic church. The city wants to put a new city-county building on the site, since the current building is more than 50 years old. The city can only take the building if the Tavern on the Park fails another health inspection, since all of the taxes and everything are paid on the building. The city is trying to work with Mike Higgins to get it renovated, however. They want to get the ball rolling, since the building is one of the biggest eyesores around. Mike has owned the building for 20 years, and purchased it for $54,000 after David Broderick died. He basically went behind his colleagues' backs to get the building. After Broderick died, all the tenants had to move out, but Mike tried to find new tenants once he got the building. Unfortunately that never really happened. The building emptied out almost entirely in 1983, although Mike did manage to sign a few leases with people, so the building did not become completely empty until 1985. Mike lived in the penthouse of the building until 10 years ago, when the city finally told him that it was uninhabitable. Mike owns 75 properties around the world, most of which are older buildings that are difficult to get insurance for. He is currently in Paris trying to sell one of his hotels. He is trying to unload all his international properties so that he can concentrate on his U.S. properties. Wyland paid Mike $3 Million to paint the mural on the side of the building in 1996. He had planned to invest a portion of that money into the Broderick immediately, by replacing all of the windows, so that at least the elements would be kept out. However, right after he got the $3 Million, the city slapped him with a bunch of fines, and all the money ended up going towards paying the fines. More recently, Mike would have been paid $2 Million to put an advertisement over the mural. The advertisement would have been electronic. When it was on, the advertisement would be visible. However, when it was off, the whale mural would have been clearly visible. Wyland did not like this idea, and threatened to sue, since the mural is considered public artwork. Mike's lawyers decided not to take any chances, since they felt that Wyland had a fairly strong case against them. Mike hopes that selling his foreign properties will get him enough money to make some improvements to the building. Mike has lost a lot of money. He pays out roughly $6 Million per month in lawsuits related to the Ramada hotel alone. Mike has said that the only reason he even has a roof over his head right now is because he has a small house in Indian Village and the taxes have been paid off for the next 15 years. Otherwise he would be living on the street. The bar manager at Tavern on the Park runs the bar out of the goodness of his heart. He does it simply because he does not want the building torn down. He loves the building, and actually has family connections to the building. At the same time, he says that running the bar was one of the worst decisions he's ever made, simply because of the amount of cash he's put into the place himself. He pays for many of the improvements to the building out of his own pocket. It is almost impossible for him to make money, especially with the thieves stealing the liquor. He said that he will be happy just to break even once all is said and done. He was thinking of moving to Pittsburgh, but has so much time and money invested into the Broderick that he doesn't know if he's going or not. Basically, it all comes down to this: If the bar on the first floor stays open, the building will remain in Mike's hands, and Hines will begin a renovation in about one year. If the bar gets shut down again due to code violations, the city will take the building, and will ultimately demolish it because of the religous symbolism of the mural, and a new city-county building will go up in its place.

Broderick Tower has been closed since 1985. Despite this, it is in better condition than most of the abandoned buildings downtown. Only in recent months has significant vandalism occured inside the building, especially in the penthouse. As most of you probably know, the building is owned by Mike Higgins. When Mike appeared in Fortune magazine at age 12, he was considered the richest 12 year old in the country. He made his fortune buying vacant properties for dirt cheap, and then selling them to developers for much more money. This is what he had in mind for his three downtown properties (Broderick Tower, Farwell Building, & Ramada Inn). He purchased Broderick Tower in the late 1990s for $54,000 with the intention of converting the building into 200 loft apartments. He hired Hines, Inc. of Houston, TX to manage the building while he got the plans finalized. Unfortunately, he ran into problems as the costs to insure his properties in the city began to skyrocket. It is not uncommon for house insurance in the city to cost $1000 or more per month. I could only guess at the costs of insuring an abandoned 193,000 square foot, 34 story skyscraper. Mike finally got the plans finalized in 2000, and construction on the tower was supposed to start later that year. Unfortunately, he ran into red tape with the city, and had problems getting approval and permits. With insurance costs rising ever higher, Mike's money was running out fast. The city tried repeatedly to take the building, and the press began to group Mike Higgins in the slumlord category of downtown building owners. The city stepped up code enforcement, which set Mike back even further and made prospects for renovation even less likely. Mike has recently paid the city $50,000 in fines, and has also settled for $50,000 with a woman who was injured by glass falling out of a large window that vandals had pushed out onto the sidewalk below. After dealing with years of red tape from the city, the plans for Broderick Tower's renovation were recently approved by city council. From what I've been told, the actual renovation itself should get underway in approximately one year. Mike has similar plans for the old Leland Hotel (Ramada Inn) and the Farwell Building, but it is unknown when those will be completed. I suspect that he wants to get the Broderick renovated before he starts to renovate the Farwell. The Ramada Inn is partially renovated, but the renovations stopped when Mike ran out of money. For now his major source of income is the City Club inside the Ramada Inn. In other news, I have heard from a friend that the news yesterday said that the IRS has awarded a tax credit totaling $20 million to the Book Cadillac project, which would complete the financing deal and would allow construction to finally begin.

Here are a few of my photos from the trip. I hope to go back to the roof on Friday to take some more photos, since some of mine didn't turn out as well as I'd have liked. The ill-fated Statler Looking down on the Whitney Ok, back to work....

Date: 1/27/2005 1:42:07 PM Author: gshmails Allan - 3/16? That is an odd scale. I am shocked that your teacher allows this. It really is not a real world scale. I have been doing real world projects for years, and have never seen anything drawn in 3/16. quote> I know blueprints are NEVER drawn in 3/16. My prof is the one who suggested 3/16 for a scale in the first place though, and I'm not going to complain, because drawing them at 1/4 scale would mean using 24x36 paper. Using 24x36 paper would mean that I have to draw them in the studio instead of in my apartment, which would mean hauling all the studio supplies back and fourth. No thanks! It might be non-conventional, but I'll stick with my goofy scale. Now we're doing rendering, so scale doesn't really matter as long as it looks good.

You've got to love late nights in the studio! It's really sad when you're working on a project and then the next day's classes start. All these people who have had actual sleep come in all refreshed and then ask if you've been working all night. I don't have late nights like I did last semester though. My classes start at 8:00 AM Monday through Thursday, so I'm usually in bed by 2:00 or so. All we've really done so far is designed and drawn up construction drawings for a house. Now I have a week to render the front and back elevations and the two floorplans. Of course rendering simply involves photocopying the original plans and coloring them in and adding texture with pastels, prisma markers, and colored pencils. The nice thing is that my professor is letting me work in 3/16 = 1', so it's small enough that I can work on it in my room. I've never seen plans in 3/16 scale, but whatever. My other studio is devoted to 3D sculpture. All we do in there is take photos of Detroit, arrange them in a collage, sketch a model of what the sculpture could look like, and then build the sculpture. Very simple. The professor thinks everything I'm doing is really good. I don't think it's all that great, but that's just me. Other than that, all I've really been doing is wandering aimlessly around Detroit in knee deep snow. Or at least it was knee deep when I went to my friend's loft last weekend! I should've just stayed home, since nothing was actually plowed. I've never driven that slow on the Lodge before, and Woodward and Jefferson were the only two surface streets that were sort of clear. Anyway, that's what I've been up to. I haven't touched the Statler BAT in a long time. I might have time to work on that this weekend.

I think we've all been really busy lately. This is my first free sizeable amount of free time all week, actually. Which reminds me, I really need to work on the Statler. I haven't even touched the BAT in three weeks!

Date: 1/13/2005 9:26:26 PM Author: ert90 Which weather? The warm or the cold? I'm hoping for a snow/ice day on Friday. All this rain we're getting should freeze over tonight (I hope so)! quote> Haha, I'm hoping that it won't make a big mess of the roads because I need to go downtown tomorrow, and driving in rush hour traffic on icy roads isn't exactly my idea of fun.

Wow! Awesome job, Farminsim!