  Eric_c Member Username: Eric_c Post Number: 736 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 68.76.202.10 |
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.d ll/article?AID=/20060516/AUTO0 1/605160386 I've always admired this building. I'm sure the employees admire their jobs, too. | ||
Bob Member Username: Bob Post Number: 981 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 152.163.100.8 |
Hopefully this building does not go vacant and abandoned. Maybe lofts if someone doesn't decide to use it as a factory? | ||
Viziondetroit Member Username: Viziondetroit Post Number: 486 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 68.42.176.190 |
""We certainly would like to consider any options."" I hope someone is just looking for something like this for their development idea | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 695 Registered: 10-2004 Posted From: 69.242.223.42 |
Seems to be a rather dicey area to have loft apartments/condos. | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 64 Registered: 12-2005 Posted From: 69.136.155.244 |
I'm pretty sure that some level of remediation would have to occur if the building's use were to be changed to residential. Remediation costs for an industrial site like this which has been in operation for at least 87 years would be very expensive. No one knows what is buried on that site or under the factory floor slabs. The best hope for quick reuse is another industrial tenant who could avoid remediation as long as they did not demolish or build on the site. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 1517 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 69.221.35.202 |
This is true. Seems like an strange and difficult to market place to live, as well, being in the middle of an industrial valley, with blighted neighborhoods to the east. | ||
Troy Member Username: Troy Post Number: 166 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 67.37.213.65 |
There is no way that this will become residential. The location would never work. It is right next to Jefferson North Assembly plant so perhaps another supplier will end up finding it useful. | ||
Hornwrecker Member Username: Hornwrecker Post Number: 1166 Registered: 04-2005 Posted From: 63.41.8.23 |
Damn Shelbyville stealing our stuff, first it was the lemon tree, now this! Nice to see some accurate history in an article, the only thing missing was that Columbia bought out Liberty in 1923 and promptly went tits up. 1922 Liberty Six  (Message edited by Hornwrecker on May 16, 2006) | ||
River_rat Member Username: River_rat Post Number: 121 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 68.166.44.44 |
Another vacant building that will provide Lowell a fresh ruin to post in a few months. Squatters, bums and crackheads will be the next occupants ...an all too common a fate in this city. When will we wake up and realize that the biggest problem Detroit has is due to some of it's citizens? I know, the next post will lament industrial decline, poor schools, lack of opportunity, hopelessness, etc. Is it the sty that makes the pig or the pig that makes the sty? Reduce crime, corruption, incompetence and stop excuses for the perpetrators of the same and Detroit will start to recover. But that would require realism. the river rat awaits hate mail | ||
Hornwrecker Member Username: Hornwrecker Post Number: 1169 Registered: 04-2005 Posted From: 63.41.8.23 |
From the OCF page 5, a photo of the front office, taken by Sven, since the article is lacking a photo.  For more on Liberty, see OCF thread page 10,11 about the early years of the company. I'll post some other photos of the Budd plant in that thread later. | ||
Alexei289 Member Username: Alexei289 Post Number: 1133 Registered: 11-2004 Posted From: 68.61.183.223 |
anyone have some decent pics of this building, and what directly surounds it? Perhaps it could serve as a light industrial use/warehouse... theres always need for that type of space. Whats at this corner... | ||
Aarne_frobom Member Username: Aarne_frobom Post Number: 25 Registered: 10-2005 Posted From: 162.108.2.222 |
This news makes me feel lucky I got to tour this plant with the Society for Industrial Archeology on its fall tour of Detroit last year. It also makes me feel a bit like a ghoul, and faintly guilty, as if I had jinxed it. The workers who led the group of history hangers-on through their plant were conscious of the fact that it was surviving only by keeping its costs competitive. They were clearly proud of having kept an old plant going through efficient operation. But absolute lack of demand evidently proved too much for them. The plant behind the Independence Hall-style headbuilding is a mixture of many structures of various ages and styles, from the twenties through the fifties. Efficient material handling must have been a challenge. Even the oldest parts were well-maintained. The flashy front office is small and plain inside, containing the administrative offices of the plant; it took a lot less administrative overhead to run an auto company in 1921. It retains much detailing and layout that probably dates to 1921. In a meeting room there is a small display of great stampings of the past, in which auto fans could spot several pieces of readily-identificable sheet metal. | ||
Hornwrecker Member Username: Hornwrecker Post Number: 1171 Registered: 04-2005 Posted From: 63.41.40.247 |
This is what the side of the Budd complex looks like  WSU This facility extends all the way from Conner to the RR tracks, about 1/3 of a mile. Another dead elephant carcass rotting away like the Packard plant. | ||
Chitaku Member Username: Chitaku Post Number: 329 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 68.43.107.72 |
Ahh my ride home is littered with these behemoths, Packard and this one. It's a shame but I don't see much of a future for the building. The area is a bit shady | ||
56packman Member Username: 56packman Post Number: 294 Registered: 12-2005 Posted From: 24.208.234.52 |
River Rat--good call. All of Tayshaun's scrapper friends are having a planning session as we type. spin it, justify it, scrap it!. Proof again that "we just can't have anything nice around here" | ||
1953 Member Username: 1953 Post Number: 826 Registered: 12-2004 Posted From: 4.165.39.140 |
What we need is a World War III to boost demand for manufactured goods! | ||
Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 2460 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 71.234.183.131 |
How many independence halls in the Detroit area? I can think of three, this one, Henry Ford Museum and Dearborn city hall. Any others? | ||
Hornwrecker Member Username: Hornwrecker Post Number: 1174 Registered: 04-2005 Posted From: 63.41.8.20 |
Grosse Pointe South HS | ||
The_aram Member Username: The_aram Post Number: 4878 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 68.41.124.8 |
There's a smaller Independence Hall-type building off of I-696 in what would be, I think, Farmington Hills? It used to be a John Hancock office, now it's some other financial type. | ||
Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 2461 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 71.234.183.131 |
ok that's four independence halls in the detroit area ... any more? | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 2112 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 4.229.129.199 |
If ever there was a building suitable for the Mega-Movers (on the History Channel), this would be it (actually the Lee Plaza would be "IT", but this one would be my 2nd choice!). Before I get asked "where to".... Jefferson Ave. (to replace some ugly IHOP!)  (Message edited by Gistok on May 17, 2006) | ||
Jerome81 Member Username: Jerome81 Post Number: 1000 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 64.142.86.133 |
Sad to see. History comes and history goes. | ||
Aiw Member Username: Aiw Post Number: 5559 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 64.228.201.179 |
Oddly enough I just stumbled across this blurb in the March 16, 1925 issue of "The Detroiter".  | ||
Ndavies Member Username: Ndavies Post Number: 1842 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 129.9.163.105 |
There's a nice mini history of the plant on thecarconnection.com today. http://www.thecarconnection.co m/Auto_News/Daily_Edition/Dail y_Edition_May_26_2006.S173.A10 456.html | ||
Ventura67 Member Username: Ventura67 Post Number: 38 Registered: 12-2003 Posted From: 69.245.93.12 |
With all the ruins being torn down across the city, I think it's urgent to add more whenever possible! |
