DETROIT | Condon - Neighborhood views and everyone's favorite: abandonment! - Page 2

LMich · #21 Posted **Dec 8, 2008, 7:44 AM**

Let's be clear, there are aesthetics, and then there are actually issues of construction. Just because an older home may look better doesn't necessarily mean that it was built better. More specifically, I'm talking about energy audits now being conducted on older housing (there was a story about it in one of Lansing's papers last week) showing that even the most beautiful olds homes are huge energy hogs that costs thousands to upgrade with new heating systems, insulation, efficient water heaters, caulking windows...

I'm not arguing in favor of demoing everything, I'm just saying that I think we sometimes overlook the means of construction, and over-romanticize aesthetics. We need to to take both into consideration when judging the value of updating old tract housing.

hudkina · #22 Posted **Dec 8, 2008, 9:05 AM**

My house is over 130 years old so I understand the energy-hog aspect. When we renovated it we found that for insulation they basically just threw a bunch of debris and crap into the wall.

Buckeye Native 001 · #23 Posted **Dec 8, 2008, 5:21 PM**

Life and death!

Rizzo · #24 Posted **Dec 8, 2008, 8:12 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LMich

Let's be clear, there are aesthetics, and then there are actually issues of construction. Just because an older home may look better doesn't necessarily mean that it was built better. More specifically, I'm talking about energy audits now being conducted on older housing (there was a story about it in one of Lansing's papers last week) showing that even the most beautiful olds homes are huge energy hogs that costs thousands to upgrade with new heating systems, insulation, efficient water heaters, caulking windows...

I'm not arguing in favor of demoing everything, I'm just saying that I think we sometimes overlook the means of construction, and over-romanticize aesthetics. We need to to take both into consideration when judging the value of updating old tract housing.

I don't know if you are referring to me or others who posted. I agree with you that there are a large number of homes that are not suitable for renovation because of high energy costs and issues that make renovation very difficult. However, there are also just as many homes that were built after the 40's that are easier to update, smaller, and more manageable to rehabilitate, and could be used to house low income residents. There are already plans in the works to renovate hundreds of these homes in parts of Detroit. I think this is a better plan. My argument really has nothing to do with aesthetics, although I wish it could include this matter, but I know it's not practical. Although I really hope people understand my point about new construction. It's really not an option to build 100 homes in the hood when Detroit's economy is in crisis.

le calmar · #25 Posted **Dec 8, 2008, 8:53 PM**

Detroit is one fascinating city!

TinChelseaNYC · #26 Posted **Dec 8, 2008, 10:17 PM**

This was spectacular. Have you done other threads on Detroit? I'm going to have to look. I really enjoyed this. Commentary was nice, too.

hudkina · #27 Posted **Dec 9, 2008, 12:33 AM**

Here's one I did for Monroe which is a satellite/suburb about halfway to Toledo:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=154426

Although the thread wasn't originally posted by me, I posted a bunch of additional photographs of Southwest Detroit on the 2nd page of this thread:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...=127216&page=2

Here are some pics I took of the Grandmont-Rosedale neighborhood, a more middle-class area of the city:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=153119

And Palmer Woods, Detroit's wealthiest neighborhood:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=153142

TinChelseaNYC · #28 Posted **Dec 9, 2008, 2:31 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hudkina

Here's one I did for Monroe which is a satellite/suburb about halfway to Toledo:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=154426

Although the thread wasn't originally posted by me, I posted a bunch of additional photographs of Southwest Detroit on the 2nd page of this thread:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...=127216&page=2

Here are some pics I took of the Grandmont-Rosedale neighborhood, a more middle-class area of the city:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=153119

And Palmer Woods, Detroit's wealthiest neighborhood:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=153142

Ah, yes. I remember those well. I forwarded them around to a lot of people to show them that Detroit isn't ALL bad. Many people were surprised to see them. Keep up the great work!

pj3000 · #29 Posted **Dec 9, 2008, 3:29 AM**

Great tour. Amazing how much this area of SW Detroit reminds me of neighborhoods on the east side of Erie, where I grew up, or neighborhoods in Buffalo or Cleveland. Actually, I guess its not that amazing at all considering they're all Great Lakes cities. There's a strange beauty in these places to me.

hudkina · #30 Posted **Dec 9, 2008, 9:00 AM**

Thanks! I used to do photo threads more frequently, but it seems that lately I haven't had as much time. Maybe I'll start doing a few more. Maybe I'll even do a companion piece on Poletown. It's like the "Condon" of the other side Downtown.

peanut gallery · #31 Posted **Dec 10, 2008, 4:40 AM**

Outstanding tour, hudkina. One of the best I've seen -- not just the abandonment, which I admit fascinates me. This thread would have been great without it. Thanks for enlightening me on a neighborhood I've never visited before.

dfane · #32 Posted **Dec 10, 2008, 6:12 PM**

Detroit is weird since it looks like 1 big suburb with a single houses

Too bad the people destroyed them. Wonder how many of those burnt down houses were actually owned by someone or if they were all rents, hud, or section 8?

hudkina · #33 Posted **Dec 10, 2008, 8:18 PM**

You could probably ask the same thing about all those nasty rowhouses in Philadelphia...

flar · #34 Posted **Dec 10, 2008, 8:26 PM**

Excellent thread.

These streets and houses look almost identical to those in my hometown, which is not far from Detroit, but on the Canadian side of the border.

bnk · #35 Posted **Dec 10, 2008, 11:34 PM**

This is one of the better Detroit grit threads IMO. Thanks for posting it hudkina.

I proclaim this house as the next east Great Lake center of the future Fight Club.

the Victorian home where Brad Pitt and Ed Norton lived and trained the Fight Club members,
One of the all time great movies.http://www.seeing-stars.com/Locations/FightClub1.shtml

olga · #36 Posted **Dec 11, 2008, 1:44 PM**

Its fascintating how time and place is everything. So many nice houses that would be worth a fortune if they were located somewhere else or in another time.

Jibba · #37 Posted **Dec 17, 2008, 5:52 AM**

In some ways it is more interesting to see shots of the whole neighborhood and how it is functioning in its (ostensibly) depressed state rather than solely the gloomy extremes that many people have documented there. Thanks for elucidating the actual condition of the neighborhood.

ColDayMan · #38 Posted **Dec 17, 2008, 5:59 PM**

Interesting tour.

dfane · #39 Posted **Dec 17, 2008, 7:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hudkina

You could probably ask the same thing about all those nasty rowhouses in Philadelphia...

I am not saying Philadelphia is much better
My point was Detroit looks like it could be a nicer looking suburb of a big east coast city, but the people destroyed them.

Detroit just looks like the city the world forgot about and is still in the 70's
It is a shame

hollow man · #40 Posted **Dec 17, 2008, 9:14 PM**

Detroit really fascinates me.

Great tour!