[Image: Geoffrey George takes us on a stroll through Detroit’s Michigan Central Station, a building both abandoned and unfinished, in this Flickr set; the above image, so wonderfully skewed and angular, is the strongest of the lot – in fact, it’s rather hard to stop looking at].
So heartbreakingly beautiful.
It doesn’t break my heart, but I do find it hypnotic. I really like this photo, and I could look it for hours. I don’t even know why. It’s like an Escher print. I love the way the building seems to have been torqued off its axis.
Anyway…
Heartbreak perhaps only for a Detroiter (even a relatively recent one). What is most striking about the building is the degree to which it is transparent, not only in the metaphorical sense that it is ignored but in the very real sense that without windows or internal doors, the light from the other side comes straight through, including the image of the Ambassador Bridge which a normal building would block but this one makes visible.
Less visible but even more heartbreaking is the Michigan Theater in Detroit, once a palatial and ornate movie house, now home to a 3 level parking deck, though the balcony, ticket booths, plaster ceiling and even the velvet curtain still remain:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Theater_%28Detroit%29
http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=30&category=locations
http://www.buildingsofdetroit.com/places/mi
http://detroityes.com/downtown/38michtheat_pan.htm
Sorry for posting here. It’s just for leave you the link of our blog (pt/eng):
http://arqmob.blogspot.com
Interesting photos. Its disappointing to see a building of that scale fall into disuse.
Along similar lines, you may find these links interesting: http://www.opacity.us/ http://infiltration.org/
that’s nothing, you shoulda seen the book cadillac hotel until recently (it’s being renovated by cleveland’s ferchill group now – how’s that for ya? – of all things clevelanders are helping fix up a piece of detroit). anyway here’s a pic:
http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/CadillacGrandBallroom-thumb.jpg
ahh the rust belt…detroit, cleveland, etc. — a depopulated and totally forgotten region of america that’s been left to it’s own devices. yet one block of those cities is more interesting than most of the latest, newest boom towns.