Ozymandias alert: the Michigan Theater, a once-glorious theater in Detroit, now houses parked cars. Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
The theater is the subject of a Flickr set by photographer James D. Griffioen.
Update, March 6, 2010: The New York Times reports an effort to save the building: Seeking a Future for a Symbol of a Grander Past.
Related reading and viewing
James D. Griffioen (the photographer’s website)
Michigan Theater (Wikipedia article)
(Thanks, Rachel! And thanks, Shelley.)
Monday, December 7, 2009
The Michigan Theater
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comments: 4
How depressing! Still, it is of a piece with the rest of the way that city's early 20th century treasures have been treated (Google "the Fabulous Ruins of Detroit" for a sobering tour of the results of turbo deindustrialization: http://www.detroityes.com/home.htm), or do a Google street view of Detroit, starting anywhere on Woodward Avenue and "cruising" through town at leisure in any direction. There is no city in the US that has suffered as much at the hands of its vampire suburbs as Detroit. I consider myself fortunate to live in a walkable city (Oslo) where the most desirable neighborhoods are those in the pre-World War II core and where my morning and afternoon commute is a 30-minute cardio workout.
Norman, thanks for the link. Take a look at Griffioen’s website for more Detroit.
A child of Detroit, I attended the Michigan. I'm uncertain as to which represents the greater source of despair: the Michigan's inglorious fate, or the fact that the Pontiac Silverdome (built in the early '70s, where I saw Elvis pick spinach off his teeth mid-set) just sold for $580,000, approximately 1% of its building cost. Detroit didn't suffer the lightning strike of a Katrina, but I almost wish it did; at least the government might have noticed, instead of simply looking the other way.
Hey Michael. I parked there with my family a summer ago. We had no idea what was going on when we rolled in. Quite a shock...
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