  Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 256 Registered: 08-2006 |
I have heard that there is a now closed observation deck up in the Penobscot building. Does anybody know anything about it or other closed observation areas in other downtown towers such as the Guardian? | ||
Viziondetroit Member Username: Viziondetroit Post Number: 1041 Registered: 11-2003 |
I called a few months ago and the lady told me it was closed | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 257 Registered: 08-2006 |
Anyone been to the top of the Guardian? I was just looking at some close up shots of the top 4 floors and I wonder what is in there? just offices? I read that there was a public theater on the 32nd floor in the Guardian...that is interesting | ||
Hans57 Member Username: Hans57 Post Number: 69 Registered: 05-2006 |
Check the picture out in the top left. http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/ i/image/image-idx?sid=f053bd96 3f6996a2eb2fa213e290eea0&q1=pe nobscot&rgn1=vmc_ti&op2=And&q2 =&rgn2=vmc_ti&type=boolean&med =1&view=thumbnail&c=vmc | ||
6nois Member Username: 6nois Post Number: 124 Registered: 11-2006 |
The 32 of the Guardian has a ballroom type set up. I was just there. | ||
Everydayislikesunday Member Username: Everydayislikesunday Post Number: 319 Registered: 12-2004 |
Ive been to the top of the Guardian recently as well. There used to be a restaurant on the observation floor. It is now just an open room with a fabulous view. It's primarily used for banquets and conferences. They have replaced the old double doors leading to the observation deck with windows. I was told the deck was closed due to liability issues, specifically resulting from a suicide incident. However, I have never been able to find any information regarding a suicide at either the Guardian or the Penobscot. Does anyone have any recollection of either? I would assume when it happened, it wouldve been what the media considers newsworthy... I also used to go to the rotating observation deck at the Renaissance Center before Summit closed. (Message edited by everydayislikesunday on March 22, 2007) (Message edited by everydayislikesunday on March 22, 2007) | ||
Barnesfoto Member Username: Barnesfoto Post Number: 3251 Registered: 10-2003 |
I've seen old newspaper ads for a restaurant that used to be at the top of the Penobscot (probably in the 30's or 40's) There are periodic downtown historic skyscraper tours that allow access to some of these buildings...I think that it's a Preservation Wayne thing. | ||
Kathleen Member Username: Kathleen Post Number: 2119 Registered: 10-2003 |
The Penobscot Building observation deck was a part of the Downtown Skyscraper Tour offered through Preservation Wayne until 2005 when the deck was closed to them by building management for maintenance reasons. I'm crossing my fingers that it might be open to them once again this summer, but not holding my breath. If it happens, rest assured that the info will be shared here. | ||
Irish_mafia Member Username: Irish_mafia Post Number: 799 Registered: 10-2003 |
My neighbor jettisoned herself out of one of those buildings back in the late 60's / early 70s. I am not sure which building and I thought she did it from an office window not an observation deck. I think she also took out a guy who was arriving early to work. | ||
Karl Member Username: Karl Post Number: 6552 Registered: 09-2005 |
There was a suicide much like the one described by Irish at the Book Building in approx 1975. I recall that the person arrived at the office, set a bag of donuts on his/her desk, and hopped out the window. Besides the suicide, a father of 2 was killed while walking on the sidewalk below. Most windows today are inoperable due to air conditioning. The Book was built before that innovation and thus most/all windows open wide. | ||
Irish_mafia Member Username: Irish_mafia Post Number: 801 Registered: 10-2003 |
That was her. Thanks Karl | ||
The_rock Member Username: The_rock Post Number: 1644 Registered: 11-2003 |
Our law offices occupied just about all of the 32nd floor of the Guardian building from 1960 to about 1978. The space was formally part of the restaurant mentioned above. It was called the Aztec Restaurant. After the gas company bought the building, they booted most of the Guardian tenants out for their own employees, and the 32nd floor first became a training area and then an large theatre-like auditorium. I spent a few hours on the roof of the Guardian Building. Great view up there. We saw the fire works one time, sailed balsa airplanes off the rooftop, took freighter pictures and pictures during the construction of Renaissance. The present owners of the building ( Sterling Group) have done a nice job preserving it and we have all commented on the beautiful lobby.lobby. | ||
Mallory Member Username: Mallory Post Number: 96 Registered: 05-2006 |
I worked in the Penob for three years. I went to the top once. When you get out of the elevator at the top floor, you still have to walk up one flight of stairs, open a door and you're on the roof. Scary as shizzit. The top floor looks like a big panelled room. Dark wood surrounds you, except for the door to the roof and the elevator. I always thought that there were two offices (or maybe one with two doors) at the top, but it's been several years now. I worked on the 20th floor, and always remember the window in the elevator lobby was chained. You could only open it about two inches. Reason? Somebody decided to open it up and take a plunge. Not sure on a date for that one, but that was the story. In our office, we could open up the windows and sit on the ledge (if you wanted, but not advisable). Beautiful building. And fricking solid. They don't make 'em like that anymore. | ||
Gsgeorge Member Username: Gsgeorge Post Number: 113 Registered: 08-2006 |
quote: That's cause modern buildings are 'made to move' with the wind and earth movements. The Penobscot would probably snap to a ground in any moderate-to-large earthquake. Thank god we're not on a fault zone. | ||
Softailrider Member Username: Softailrider Post Number: 24 Registered: 02-2007 |
I go out on the landing of the Penobscot every year for the fireworks .Law firm I give work to always has a teriffic party . The building managment shuts off the lights . There's a high brick wall there , totally safe . | ||
Pffft Member Username: Pffft Post Number: 1233 Registered: 12-2003 |
There was a nightclub at the top of the Penobscot, called the Penobscot Club. I saw an ad for it recently. A "nightclub in the sky" it was advertised... | ||
Mdoyle Member Username: Mdoyle Post Number: 45 Registered: 10-2006 |
In the early to mid 90's I was able to goto the roof of the penobscot. I was about 10, it was a boyscout field trip to DETROIT!! How exciting. As was the 45 minutes we waited at long john silvers because the damn ddot bus broke down. Some things will never change. | ||
Craig Member Username: Craig Post Number: 79 Registered: 02-2007 |
I've been to the top of the Buhl. Not so high as the others, but the now-empty restaurant has a look of high-rollers and opulent times: wood paneling and red carpeting. How far we've fallen... | ||
Andyguard73 Member Username: Andyguard73 Post Number: 214 Registered: 03-2006 |
Craig, I think that was the Savoyard Club. I found this article after reading a thread earlier this week about the Savoyard River that runs under downtown. http://info.detnews.com/histor y/story/index.cfm?id=155&categ ory=life It's the 5th club down, though the whole article is really interesting to read. (Looking back at the other thread I think Homer found this too) | ||
Craig Member Username: Craig Post Number: 83 Registered: 02-2007 |
AG73 - Yes! That's it. I forgot about the stained-glass accents in the windows. Must have been from walking up all of those damn stairs (another story). Thinking of the river, I was walking on Congress by the Buhl one day and spoke with some guys digging in a hole around a sewer. "Find any treasure?" Ha ha (like they'd never heard that one). "No, but we've found some beaver bones." Suspend disbelief and allow that a shovel-jockey can ID rodents from their skeletal remains - were they digging in the bed of the strangled-off Savoyard River? | ||
Jeduncan Member Username: Jeduncan Post Number: 80 Registered: 11-2006 |
Dude! I wanna go! hehe. Is there a way some average joe student could get up there to look around? Being a 20-something dude with earrings and big sideburns, everytime I go into those places I get shunned out by guarding eyes. | ||
Jeduncan Member Username: Jeduncan Post Number: 81 Registered: 11-2006 |
maybe I should clean up and wear a suit. Access Granted. | ||
Craig Member Username: Craig Post Number: 84 Registered: 02-2007 |
Jed - get yourself a FedEx envelope, a shirt with long sleeves and buttons, and a clipboard with a pencil. Walk in with a sense of purpose, and if asked respond that you're delivering a letter to your client. Go in via the north entrance, quick left and past some elevators and then another left up marble stairs. Smile and nod to security if approached. Look guilty and they'll see you as such. Beware: that's a long 28 flights to walk, though. | ||
Irish_mafia Member Username: Irish_mafia Post Number: 819 Registered: 10-2003 |
Craig, Very good! Jed, Please report back...pictures are best! | ||
Rhymeswithrawk Member Username: Rhymeswithrawk Post Number: 527 Registered: 11-2005 |
I think she also took out a guy who was arriving early to work. Wow. I've heard people call suicides selfish, but that adds a whole 'nudder meaning. That suicide was not only selfish, but involuntary manslaughter to boot. C.O.D.: Being pancaked by a woman falling from 40 stories. Suck. | ||
Karl Member Username: Karl Post Number: 6574 Registered: 09-2005 |
Rhymes, if memory serves, she jumped from the 11th floor (top floor = 36) I had taken that day off, but would have been walking in to work on that same sidewalk at the same time as every day - 8:55. That's when she jumped. It was a sad/wierd time that week for everyone in our office. | ||
Jeduncan Member Username: Jeduncan Post Number: 83 Registered: 11-2006 |
is the penobscot pretty much all law offices and such? If so, I have an easy solution, I could always just sue someone. I could use the money anyways. anyone have some ice I can slip on? | ||
The_rock Member Username: The_rock Post Number: 1645 Registered: 11-2003 |
Slipping on ice is not the route to go now with the vast number of cases that are thrown out of court by reason of the "open and obvious" defense. I would suggest you get hit in the rear by a Mack truck and break your neck and/or end up in a wheel chair and you have a better chance for the big bucks. There are very few lawyers in the Penobscot building who devote their practice to representing injured plaintiffs. Most are now in Oakland County. | ||
Dtroit Member Username: Dtroit Post Number: 3 Registered: 03-2007 |
Then RenCen actually offers free tours including a visit to the 72 floor, the movie theatre, GM world. The tours are offered 4 times a day, six days a week. (Message edited by Dtroit on March 24, 2007) | ||
Bulletmagnet Member Username: Bulletmagnet Post Number: 140 Registered: 01-2007 |
Thanks for the links Hans57. I think the vantage from the photographers POV is a better then the one of standing at the telescope. Could one climb higher still? The_rock, do you still have the photos you took from the deck? I'd love to see them. BTW, I recall being hit by a balsa airplane once while downtown. It seemed to come out of nowhere… | ||
Psip Member Username: Psip Post Number: 1595 Registered: 04-2005 |
WDIV has a camera mounted on top of the ball. There were some image spots DIV ran with a guy doing maintenance on the camera waving to the helicopter. Not sure you want to try that. | ||
Warrenite84 Member Username: Warrenite84 Post Number: 64 Registered: 01-2007 |
Instead of Preservation Wayne waiting to see if Penobscot opens it's observation deck, I'd like them to look into the Barlum tower, Stott, and Book Tower buildings as alternatives. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 3892 Registered: 08-2004 |
I stood up for a wedding back in 1986 whose reception was in the Savoyard Club on top of the Buhl Building. It was still operational at that time. The bride was the Buhl Building owner's (Jerry Luptak) niece and I stood up with the building owners daughter. It was an awesome place to have a reception. And it was in late May, and we got to watch the Hoe Down at Hart Plaza from 26 stories up. | ||
Reetz12 Member Username: Reetz12 Post Number: 152 Registered: 09-2005 |
I installed a permanent ladder on the rooftop of the guardian building a few years back, unbelievable view. Also, "accidentally" a cap from a 20 oz pop bottle happenned to fall off the side of the building and the thing caught wind an ended up well on the eastside of woodward. | ||
Rocket_city Member Username: Rocket_city Post Number: 202 Registered: 04-2006 |
Isn't a trip to the top of the Guardian part of Christopher the doorman's weekday tours of the building? I had some friends visiting from out of state last year, whom I tried to see if Christopher could take up, but it was unfortunately the weekend and he's only there Monday through Friday. Top of Ren Cen is a visitor favorite however! | ||
The_rock Member Username: The_rock Post Number: 1649 Registered: 11-2003 |
Bullet-The photographs I took from the roof of the Guardian Building consist of about 10 shots showing the construction of Renaissance Center from the Spring of 1972 til its opening on March 15, 1977.Maybe I can learn to operate this scanner of mine and put them on the Forum. On a clear day, with the help of my 7 X 50 binoculars, I could see the Court house in Mt. Clemens looking up Gratiot, and the power plants down in Monroe. Management of the Guardian Building was not overjoyed that I was up there, but they got used to it after a while. Had I know him back then, I could have beamed in on AIW's front porch in Windsor. The roof was particularily crowded the day the CORT, all 1000 feet of her, came thru Detroit for the first time. I was able to hustle up to the top of the parking deck of Cobo Hall for that event. | ||
Deandub11 Member Username: Deandub11 Post Number: 95 Registered: 05-2006 |
Kindof relevent topic....can you go to the top of the rencen to coach insignia and just go to the bar for a drink instead of paying for an entire dinner | ||
Miketoronto Member Username: Miketoronto Post Number: 506 Registered: 07-2004 |
I have been to the top of the Penobscott Building, to the outdoor obervation deck on the roof. I have pictures, but they never come up on this forum, because they are to large or something. But if anyone wants to see them, just let me know. The view is amazing up there. | ||
Jeff_of_dayton Member Username: Jeff_of_dayton Post Number: 9 Registered: 03-2007 |
Its too bad they dont reopen the deck. I know there is an outdoor deck on the top floor of the Carew Tower, an old art deco skyscraper in Cincinnati. It is open seasonally, and they charge an admission fee. You have to take two elevators and flight of stairs to get to the roof, though, so it is a bit of effort. So, it would be neat if they did the same think with the Penobscot.... | ||
Bulletmagnet Member Username: Bulletmagnet Post Number: 149 Registered: 01-2007 |
Thanks The_rock. Miketoronto, scanner help can be found here http://www.irfanview.com/ for resizing and cropping images (compliments of Mikeg).You may also try posting the URL from a Flickr or Photobucket account. Hope to see them. - Bullet | ||
Kathleen Member Username: Kathleen Post Number: 2129 Registered: 10-2003 |
These are photos I took on my first visit to the Penobscot Bldg. observation deck 5 or 6 years ago. It was in May, so by the time we arrived at this point of the tour, it was nearing sunset.      | ||
Bulletmagnet Member Username: Bulletmagnet Post Number: 151 Registered: 01-2007 |
Nice photos Kathleen. They look a little like a Boileau painting! Thanks for sharing. | ||
Archinnovator Member Username: Archinnovator Post Number: 21 Registered: 12-2006 |
Deandub11, yes you can go to Coach Insignia just for the bar. |
