Thursday, June 25, 2009
Lafayette Building Next to Fall
The 1923 C. Howard Crane designed Lafayette Building could meet the wrecking ball within the next two weeks thanks to a unanimous vote by the Detroit Downtown Development Authority. Detroit-based Adamo Demolition Company will eliminate the historic building for a fee of $1,445,888. The building will be replaced by a "pocket park" of grass and shrubbery.
4 comments:
I don't understand why they couldn't have used that money to retrofit the main floor for shops and retail and clean up the windows and patch up the roof. You don't need to use the whole building to preserve it, just a small part. I bet it would be a lot cheaper too. The David Broderick building has been vacant a lot longer and they turned the main floor into a restaurant while the rest of the building remains vacant. I can't see why they couldn't do the same thing here. Just turn the utilites on with seperate a heating/cooling for the main floor only. Offer really low rents. Building saved. If this gets knocked down, maybe a more active approach needs to be done to try to save the Metropolitan building in the same fashion before it gets added to the demo list.
So does that mean no Lafayette Coney anymore? I think we need to ask ourselves if we really want a Detroit that has no Lafayette Coney in it??
Layfayette and American are staying. They are not attached to the Layfayette.
ITS BETTER TO TEAR THE BUILDING DOWN THAN TO TRY AND RETROFIT THE MAIN FLOOR. THE CONSTRUCTION PREDICTIONS ON COST IS PROBABLY THROUGH THE ROOF. THIS WAY IF A DEVELOPER WANTS TO DEVOLP THIS LAND, THEY WILL HAVE LESS OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME IN TERMS ON INVESTMENT AND CONSTRUCTION COST. NOT TO MENTION UNTIL THAT HAPPENS IF EVER "WE THE PEOPLE" HAVE A BETTER PLACE TO LOOK AT.
AN URBAN DEVELOPMENT STUDENT AT WAYNE STATE DV4613@WAYNE.EDU
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