  Masterblaster Member Username: Masterblaster Post Number: 82 Registered: 03-2005 |
Below is a link to a September 1940 Time magazine article about Department Stores chains expanding to other parts of the country. The article describes the circumstances surrounding the opening of the Saks Fifth Avenue store in the New Center Building. http://www.time.com/time/magaz ine/article/0,9171,764715-1,00 .html What caught me off guard was the author stating that Charles Fisher, one of the acclaimed Fishers Brothers, hoped to develop the New Center Area into the “The Rockefeller Center of Detroit”. This never happened. The last large building erected in the New Center, other than the Henry Ford Hospital, was the New Center Building, which was completed in 1931, NINE years after this article. I wonder why GM/Fisher was never able to attract large office buildings/development around itself, like Ford Motor Company and Dearborn was able to do in the Fairlane Mall Area. There are an enormous amount of mid and low-rise office towers, light industrial, and retail development in the Mercury Dr-Hubbard-Michigan Ave-Ford Road Area. It would have been interesting to see how the New Center would have turned out if it could have attracted some mid-rise office towers and retail development (other than the Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge and New Center One)!!! Maybe a second skyline could have formed, like they have in Atlanta and Houston. The New Center was originally touted as a “new commercial center”, but currently half of it is vacant/parking lots and has very little retail. | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 4919 Registered: 10-2003 |
The Fisher family certainly had the clout and funding for a project like this. Was this area affluent after the 1950s? By "this area" I mean New Center along with the wealthy enclaves of Boston-Edison. | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 4130 Registered: 10-2003 |
It sort of happened. When I first saw Campus Martius skaters on a winter night with Christmas lights and skyscrapers towering above, the first thought that crossed my mind was - Rockefeller Center. | ||
Scottr Member Username: Scottr Post Number: 744 Registered: 07-2006 |
Much of the reason New Center didn't grow was because of the Great Depresssion, which put a halt to phases 2 and 3 of the Fisher Building, as well as halting most other development. 'Wanting' to develop it into a Detroit Rockerfeller Center is a far cry from actually doing it in a country in a depression. Most likely, Fisher was looking to the future, after the depression was over, but not seeing the upcoming war (this was over a year before Pearl Harbor) or that it would change America and the way cities were built. The post-war period may have been good to Detroit, but also laid the foundation for its decline. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 5303 Registered: 08-2004 |
One other point of note... the Fisher Building predates and was likely a prototype for other grand centers across America.... namely Cincinnati's Carew Tower Complex, Cleveland's Terminal Tower Complex, as well as the Rockefeller Center. | ||
Russix Member Username: Russix Post Number: 48 Registered: 11-2006 |
Great Detroit. A city like no other city. Felled to the great depression and racial tensions. Will we write it off as a loss or complete the plans of our ancestors. I have a shovel, whenever the rest of you are ready to start digging the subway we already started building in 1929 we will then start completing the plans for a Great Detroit city that New York and Chicago enjoy so well. | ||
Bvos Member Username: Bvos Post Number: 2226 Registered: 10-2003 |
As stated above the Great Depression stopped the original plans for the Fisher Bldg. Any hopes for fulfilling that plan were killed by WW II and then the mass exodus of white people that resulted after the war. There were similar plans for the Book Tower as well that met demise for the same reasons. | ||
56packman Member Username: 56packman Post Number: 1732 Registered: 12-2005 |
The move to build the new center area, begun by Billy Durant and his General Motors headquarters building (look over the main doors: there is a big "D"--for Durant) on cheaper land than was available in the established CBD. The Fishers came along later and built their wonderful building as an additional source of income outside the auto industry, and they built it high enough that they could look DOWN on the GM-HQ. A few others followed suit. It is a development that is credited with devaluing the CBD as the years wore on because there was no central area that held the commerce, banking, cultural and entertainment buildings in a cohesive mass as with other cities that sustained their downtowns. Sprawl before we even had a word for it. | ||
Kaptansolo Member Username: Kaptansolo Post Number: 261 Registered: 07-2007 |
Russix, I think I will join you. I am getting sick of New York and if the journey of a 1000 miles is to be completed, it must begin with the first steps. I have some work lights, a shovel and gloves to go with your shovel. Detroit cannot be rebuilt with "words and papers"...it will take good ole fashioned hard work. When do we start? | ||
Detroit_stylin Member Username: Detroit_stylin Post Number: 4894 Registered: 10-2003 |
<<<will get a lil dirty.... hell my background as an army engineer is perfect for this.... lol | ||
Hooha Member Username: Hooha Post Number: 147 Registered: 06-2005 |
We'd probably get pretty far with that subway before DPD bothered to find out why we were digging a giant hole underneath Woodward. Regardless, I'm in. | ||
Kaptansolo Member Username: Kaptansolo Post Number: 265 Registered: 07-2007 |
lol Hooha. Even after they find out...they probably would not care | ||
Douglasm Member Username: Douglasm Post Number: 930 Registered: 10-2003 |
You know, in a way it became so. I was always impressed with the New Center area. The wide sidewalks around The Fisher Building (especially on Second in front of the theatre), Grand Boulevard with The General Motors Building across the street, the resturants along Lothrop with their canopies. Granted, except for Sacks and the commercial strip along Woodward there wasn't a lot of retail, but I guess when you're 9 years old (I saw Dr. Cole in the Fisher weekly for allergy shots till I was 14), a chocolate Coke at Shetler's Drugs was retail enough.... | ||
Detroit313 Member Username: Detroit313 Post Number: 477 Registered: 02-2006 |
Not to get off the topic but Detroit could have already had a "Rockerfella Center of its own and much more........lets compare: At the height of his power Henry Ford was the richest man in the world, even richer than J.D. Ford could have built a massive Ford Center, oh wait he did, at least his grandson did. It's called the Renaissance Center. But it would have been great to see the Chrysler Building in New Center instead of Manhattan. <313> | ||
Ray Member Username: Ray Post Number: 996 Registered: 06-2004 |
jesus, how could this all go to shit so fast: No stranger to the hinterland is the name of Saks Fifth Avenue. It is the crown jewel of Macy's Herald Square competitor, Gimbel Bros., which last week opened its eighth U. S. shop. The place: Detrot. There for the event with a coterie of 25 top Saks officials was suave Adam Gimbel, who combines polo and business with more than average success. Retailer Gimbel sounded off to the local press on the ability of the U. S. to get on without Paris (TIME, Aug. 19) and of Saks to bring the mode-in-volume to Detroit. Sample sound-off: "We want to be an intimate part of a community which posses such dynamic vigor." |
