Friday, June 26, 2009

Detroit wins this weeks urban destruction contest - Lafayette Building to be demolished

A vintage shot photo of the Lafayette Building that I found on City Bird Detroit.
Original photo source and the building's history is on Buildings of Detroit.

As if not to be outdone by Monday's vote by St. Louis' Preservation Board to demolish the San Luis, yesterday the Detroit Downtown Development Authority voted unanimously to demolish the historic but vacant Lafayette Building. One would think that with its location literally in the shadow of the beautifully restored Westin Book-Cadillac and nearby Fort Shelby Hotel & Apartments both recently opened after years of abandonment and decay, that the DDA would see the natural potential of the Lafayette?

Sometimes people here wonder if St. Louis is striving to be like Detroit with our seemingly never ending wanton destruction of urban fabric. Unfortunately this week it seems that Detroit is striving to be like St. Louis.

2 comments:

Chris said...

I heard Detroit needs more parking downtown.

Anonymous said...

How sad and short sighted. What do they think will replace such a structure? perhaps a tall non descript green glass building or a Walmart store? Yikes, who are the bozos driving the Detroit bus?