If you could restore one Detroit landmark, which one would it be?

[fallingwater]

Originally Posted by Dexterguy

Here's some pics of the Detroit Boat Club, if anyone is not very familar with it....






Inside.....




I hope this beauty can be restored one day!

Stunning architecture. Could be a real beauty.

[fallingwater]

Originally Posted by and the

I wouldn't vote for the boat club because it's on Belle Isle. I'd vote for something in or at least close to a neighborhood that will impact a whole area after restoration. I guess I'd vote for the train station to be used as offices, retail, entertainment and, what the heck a TRAIN STATION!

I agree.

[zthatzmanz28]

I N T E G R I T Y

[Northman]

Are you kidding me? TIGER STADIUM! A baseball shrine all but flushed down the toilet so that Detroit could keep up with the Jones's and have a stadium that looks just like everyone elses. SACRILEGE! I wake up every morning hoping that it was just a bad dream that the Tigers moved to Comerica, but I'm continually dissapointed.......oh, what I wouldn't give to be chuggin' a cold barley bomb on a warm July evening up in that ol' short porch in right field this very minute!

A close 2nd would be Boblo Island, although I know it was technically a Canadian site.

[and the]

I don't think it was about keeping up with the Joneses as much as making money. The real Tiger Stadium had no parking, not much for expanded concessions or restaurants inside and no suites to speak of.....Now they can charge you crazy prices for parking, Illitch has various restaurants right inside the stadium and all kinds of suites. It's just about greed and money and consolidating the entertainment district around Woodward. Nothing wrong with that really. If Illitch hadn't sunk all that money into the Fox Theater and followed up by moving there from Farmington Hills, what would that area look like now?

[MICoastieMom]

The Michigan Central Station. I have many memories, when I was growing up in the suburbs and my older brother (who was crazy for trains) would babysit us younger kids, we used to walk over to the station on 11 Mile and ride the train downtown, then walk around the station until it was time to ride the train back home. Good way to kill a lazy summer afternoon.

[johnishere]

Restore / replace? (Tomato/Tomoto)

THE FIST! The d&#mn fist.

I am very much an artist myself, so I can conceive the abstract nature of the representation BLAH BLAH... But for THIS city.... No, not a GIANT FIST.

It just seems to ionically feed the negative vibe that permeates the air here. A giant fist seems to "fit" for Detroit... and that's the problem.

Tribute to Joe Louis?!? If you want to tribute him, then build a 24 foot BRAIN - cause it was his intellect as a boxer that prevailed him. Or build a 24 foot HEART, cause it was the heart and soul of the man that pushed him to great status. Not his fists.

The fists of a legend are merely tools that are used to carry out the "ugly" part of the art of the sport. The art of the sport is not when you draw blood or physically damage your opponent; boxing is the art of sport, strategy, stamina, intellect, execution. The featured components of the fighter is brain, spirit, heart, stamina, even strength. Would have been better served to do a statue of Joe Louis' EYE! It was with the keen eye - sharp as an eagle's - that... you know.

A statue of JL's fist is as trite and prosaic as building a giant oak gall in tribute to Leonardo DaVinci. Afterall, isn't that what he used to make ink with which to draw his drawings.?.

[Bluefly]

That's the most beautiful description of boxing I've ever seen. Knowing George Foreman rose to its highest echelons leads me to doubt its validity, but it's still eloquent.

You all do realize that sports is a business, right? You can attach all the sentiment you want to Tiger Stadium, and it's still just a "store" to sell a "product". I think one of the biggest problems with Detroit is that people bank too much on these big ticket projects and sports. The cities that are thriving today are creative.

It'd be great to see some of the old factories and warehouses reclaimed as entrepreneur and artist lofts - not thinking of any one in particular, but boy would Detroit be interesting if it became a mecca for artists, musicians, writers, inventors, designers, etc... to nurture their work, display / perform their work, and have production markets available locally. Like an alt-urban Austin.

But, if you do want one landmark, Washington, DC's Union Station gives hope. It was crumbling and in not much better shape in the 80s and early 90s than Detroit's train station. Finally investments went in to restore it and it's an anchor of DC.

It's mind boggling the city went from that massive landmark to the tiny Amtrak Station up Woodward - smaller than stations in cities a tenth Detroit's size.