[ad_1]
It was October 24, 1998, and Michael Poris and Douglas McIntosh, business partners of McIntosh Poris Architects, were building a building that had just been razed. The controlled explosion of the huge, empty JL Hudson store building in downtown Detroit was not a good feeling.
It wasn’t just the resulting clouds of dust that shrouded neighborhoods, or the structural debris that rained down on nearby people-mover tracks, forcing them to stop running for the rest of the year.
Rather, it was the loss of a unique and historic downtown building – once home to the world’s largest department store – that in the young architect’s assessment could have been saved with some design ingenuity and enough drive. and adaptive reuse.
They believe that if downtown Detroit wants to experience a true renaissance, it cannot continue to lose all of its unique architecture and rich architectural history.
“It was 2 million square feet and could have had 600 lofts, a hotel and retail,” Polis, 61, said in a recent interview.
“We actually had six developers from across the country who said, ‘No, we’ll redevelop it.’ But no one was thinking about tax credits at the time, they just wanted to bring it down. People in town actually It said, ‘Come back when it comes down,’ and they said, ‘No, you don’t understand. We want this building,'” he recalled.
“But it was a learning experience. It taught us how to save other buildings, which we later did.”
A lot has changed since that famous day in Detroit’s history: for downtown as a whole, especially for the Old Hudson site, and for Birmingham-based firm McIntosh Poris Architects, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
The architecture firm has completed hundreds of commissions for a variety of projects across Michigan, including the design of new apartment buildings, restorations, adaptive reuses, private residences, and restaurant designs.
Many projects are underway in Detroit involving historic restoration. One of the latest designs is the architecture of Gilly’s, a new multi-story sports bar at 1550 Woodward in downtown Detroit, designed by Nick Gilbert, the late son of businessman Dan Gilbert. ) concept, scheduled for opening day on April 5 at the Tigers.
Boris was a founding partner and is now one of three principals at the firm, along with Laurie Hughet-Hiller and John Skok. Another founder, McIntosh, died unexpectedly of pulmonary embolism in July 2006 at the age of 44.
“We like projects that make an impact,” Hueter-Hiller said. “So whether it’s designing a restaurant that has an impact on the community and allows people to come in and have fun, or designing a mixed-income residential development, it’s going to be a catalyst for more development in an area.”
The company currently has 20 employees and continues to retain the McIntosh name.
“We wouldn’t be here without him, and he still continues to be a presence in the work that we do,” Polis said of the late Doug McIntosh. “He was instrumental in the direction we were going and how we A lot of the conservation work and advocacy work that was done early on was very influential – much of it was led and driven by Doug.”
Over the past 20 years, downtown Detroit has experienced a real renaissance, with many once-empty buildings coming back to life. Although the number of office workers has declined since the COVID-19 pandemic, there are more activities and entertainment options than at any time since the 1960s.
As for the old Hudson site, after the implosion, the city built an underground parking garage there and opened it in 2001.
Dan Gilbert’s real estate company later purchased the underground garage as well as development rights to the site and broke ground in December 2017 on an ambitious $1.4 billion project: a 49-story skyscraper. It contains luxury hotels and apartments, and is adjacent to a wider 12-story building. Story building with offices and event space. Both buildings are expected to be completed or near completion by the end of this year.
childhood friend
The co-founders of McIntosh Poris Architects grew up in Farmington Hills and are childhood friends. Polis and McIntosh each studied architecture as undergraduates at the University of Michigan before leaving the state to further their education and start their careers. Later, at McIntosh’s suggestion, they returned to China in October 1994 to open a company together.
After watching how some of the country’s struggling urban areas made dramatic comebacks in the 1970s and 1980s, they saw similar potential in downtown Detroit and wanted to help with the revitalization there.
“We saw these happening in the ’80s and early ’90s, and Detroit was kind of missing the ’80s,” Polis said. “We thought that was a good thing because it missed the postmodern.” So here are these 20th-century Great buildings from the early and mid-20th centuries, and they are still intact. “
Some of McIntosh Poris Architects’ high-profile projects include:
- Converting the former Detroit Fire Department headquarters downtown into the Detroit Foundation Hotel and Equipment Room Restaurant.
- Converting Shelton Park next to the Detroit Institute of Arts into apartments.
- Converting a 1919 auto shop in Berkeley into the Vinsetta Garage restaurant.
- Designs are currently underway to convert the former Higginbotham School in northwest Detroit and the Cadieux School in Grosse Pointe into housing.
- Architecture and interior design of the Townhouse and Prime + Proper restaurants in downtown Detroit, as well as the former Kid Rock’s Made in Detroit restaurant and the current UWM District Market food hall (both located at Little Caesars Arena).
- Renovation of Midtown’s historic Garden Theater into a special event space and design for the adjacent 61-unit 3909 Woodward Apartments.
- Design of the 185-unit DuCharme Place in Lafayette Park, Detroit.
- Detroit Athletic Club kitchen layout and design updates.
- There are future plans to redevelop Detroit’s long-abandoned Fisher Body Factory 21 into more than 400 apartments.
Polis said he doesn’t think the company has a signature style.
“We start every project by listening and trying not to have preconceptions, so the project is the result of our dialogue,” he said. “I would say it’s a modern context.”
a dramatic proposal
In the mid-1990s, Polis and McIntosh were part of a group of local architects and planners who advocated preserving (rather than razing) the many vacant buildings in downtown Detroit at the time.
“That’s when everyone was saying, ‘Be the last one out, turn off the lights,’ and then you can fire a cannon at Woodward,” Polis said.
Polis said there was a proposal to demolish not just the Hudson’s but all the buildings on the east side of Woodward Avenue from Ares Campus north to Circus Park to make way for the new giant park. .
A group of architects and planners known as the “New Avenues” group strongly opposed the idea and encouraged then-mayor Dennis Archer to consider redevelopment as a future option.
“The idea was that downtown was empty — there were 90 vacant buildings — and we thought it could become a world-class entertainment, cultural and residential district. That was basically what we envisioned in 1995,” Poris said. “The mayor said, ‘Why don’t we build a SoHo?’ It’s like, you can’t have SoHo if you tear everything down.”
let’s just mothballs
While these conservation efforts didn’t succeed in saving the buildings on the Hudson River, Polis believes their efforts did help spur more city officials and downtown property owners to board up and “mothball” vacant buildings and Awaiting future redevelopment possibilities.
Sequestration ultimately saved dilapidated downtown buildings such as the Book Cadillac Hotel, the Metropolitan Building at 33 John R. and the iconic Michigan Grand Central Terminal until Detroit’s economic outlook shifted.
McIntosh Poris Architects even produced some concept sketches for Michigan Grand Central Terminal in the 1990s, exploring how the 1913 train station could be transformed into a casino with a hotel and apartments within the station tower.
Nearly 20 years later, Ford Motor Co. became the long-awaited savior of the abandoned station, purchasing the building to serve as the centerpiece of Detroit’s new mobility campus. The restored landmark will be unveiled in June. While the building won’t include a casino like in the McIntoshpolis sketch, the tower’s top floors may eventually house hotel rooms.
“It’s one thing to design expensive and beautiful buildings,” Polis said, “but it’s also satisfying to help a city come back and make a difference where you live.”
[ad_2]
Source link