DETROIT, MICHIGAN | Friday, March 12th, 2010 | 2:43 AM | 113 articles and counting...

From the category archives:

Suburbs

The Think Shop Architects

August 5, 2009 Suburbs
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The Think Shop Architects have been working away for at least the past year designing and building the Flute House in Royal Oak, Michigan
The house was envisioned as a live/work space with the living space suspended above an existing ground floor structure.
You can read more about The Flute House and see pictures throughout the design [...]

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Traverwood Library

June 9, 2009 Green
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Detroit Public Television will air “Up from Ashes,” at 8 p.m. this Thursday (June 11)  on channel 56.
Viewers can relive how the building came into existence and find out how developers harvested hundreds of ash trees that were devastated by the emerald ash borer, and used the trees to build what is arguably one of [...]

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Chrysler’s Auburn Hills HQ Rumor

May 7, 2009 Awareness
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I don’t know if many of you caught this on the internet earlier this week, but some sources are claiming that Chrysler’s Auburn Hills Headquarters (built from 1993 – 1996) was designed with a second purpose.
This all seems to have started with a Business Week article that was published on April 23rd, 2009:
When the building [...]

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General Motors PCC-Central

April 20, 2009 Awareness
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Last week I shared an older building that GM vacated.  In honor of today’s news (1600 additional involuntary terminations), how about a more recent building that GM vacated?
Located in Pontiac, Michigan the Pontiac Centerpoint Campus, formerly known as the Truck Product Center,  is actually 3 separate buildings North, Central, and East) that GM developed with [...]

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UMMA to Re-Open this Weekend

March 26, 2009 Suburbs
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The University of Michigan Museum of Art will re-open this weekend after being closed for nearly 3 years as it underwent a significant expansion and restoration.  The project was designed by Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture and cost nearly $42 million dollars.

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GM Warren Technical Center

February 23, 2009 News
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If you ever get a chance to go on an architecture tour of GM’s Warren Technical Center and have a fondness of modern architecture you won’t regret it.  Here are a few vintage pictures of some of the more famous buildings on the campus.  There are still so many pictures that I would have like [...]

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Retail Service Area

February 23, 2009 Suburbs
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I haven’t been to Twelve Oaks Mall in a bit so I didn’t realize they finally updated their customer service area.  It’s a nice contemporary improvement with lots of glass, delicate lighting, and integrated service areas.  In all, it’s a very nice execution of a box which is essentially a closet.  In case you’re wondering, [...]

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U-M Architecture Critique

January 8, 2009 Awareness

The Ann Arbor Observer asked local architects to evaluate some of The University of Michigan’s newest buildings.  Specifically, architects reacted to the following buildings:

Michigan Stadium
202 South Thayer Street
Biomedical Science Research Building
Weill Hall
North Quad
University of Michigan Museum of Art
Mott Hospital

Not surprisingly, at least to my small circle of architects, most of these buildings received harsh criticism.  [...]

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Highland Jewel

August 6, 2008 Suburbs
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A quick side trip revealed this jewel hidden in Highland Township.  It is the Highland United Methodist Church and is currently being used as a historical library for the county.
The building is Victorian Gothic with elaborate scroll work above the window heads, gables, and the tower.  The detail of the tower, which includes even more [...]

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GM Renaissance Center

July 18, 2008 Downtown
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address:
East Jefferson Avenue

data:
Year Built: 1976-1981
Architect:  John Portman & Associates
history:
Conceived by Henry Ford II and financed primarily by the Ford Motor Company, the Renaissance Center became the world’s largest private development with an anticipated 1971 cost of $500 million. In part, civic leaders intended this ambitious urban renewal project to quell the white flight which followed [...]

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