by
Jason King
....
It's reductive, and it limits the stories behind the former beauty,
and the nasty racial discrimination that was at work in the creation of
something like the large Hudson's store on Woodward Avenue, captured in
this image that shows the cutaway of the various departments inside the
hive of mid-century activity which was vital to the "making of
shoppers, like the making of citizens, was an essential function of both
store and city, especially the city of middle-class arrivals made
possible by the flourishing of modern industry". This idealistic
experience is another cultural ruin that no longer exists (as it was
demolished by changes in commerce) - much like the building in which it
used to happen.
The same fates, to a differing degree, befell many sites, like Hudsons,
but the overlay of the old (ruin) and the new become something similar
to Rome - a cafe right outside the Pantheon, or a gelato stand at the
Colosseum... In Detroit, the Michigan Theater, for instance, was an
architectural gem from the 1920s, which in the words of Herron was
somewhat rudely transformed into a parking garage...
"The old
Michigan Theater is one of the most suggestive sights in the whole city
of Detroit: neither an abandoned ruin nor a precious, restored fetish,
but a working statement about making do with the past. The tenants of
the offices adjacent to the theater threatened to move out unless they
were provided with secure parking, so that’s what the landlord
improvised out of the otherwise useless auditorium. And that is the
genius of the place."
....
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| The Old Michigan Theatre, Detroit, photo by jvh33 |
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| The Old Michigan Theatre, Detroit, photo by jvh33 |
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| The Old Michigan Theatre, Detroit, photo by jvh33 |
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| The Old Michigan Theatre, Detroit, photo by jvh33 |
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