Packard Plant soon to be torn down.

Check this out! www.silentbuildings.com/38/temple-and-cass/ I'll look up more info and post it when I find some..

 

I just surfed the silentbuildings.com web site...Detroit sure has a lot of abandoned buildings....very sad !

 

There's one other site I found That made me sick! I don't think I should post that one. And to think how our great grandfathers busted their backs building this city and only watch it to crumble.... How sad..

 

That is a shame to see the old heritage buildings like that pulled down, they could make it into a museum or something for public use, fuuny eh they will spend a fortune on some sculpture that means bloe all to the rest of us but let history like that be pulled down. I know it costs a lot to maintain them but maybe a theme park.

 

Detroit is pretty well broke, who the hell's paying for the demolition?

 

Detroit's own Mayor Dave Bing... The retired basket ball player. I heard he got something like $300,000,000..(Man thats alot of zeros) from the state or federal taxes set aside to demolish the Packard plant and like thousands of homes that are in ruins. I could be wrong on those figures, so don't quote me on it.

 

Man.... that place would be awesome as some high priced apartments... We used to have a flower mill in my old suburb, one of the highest class suburbs in town, and instead of tearing that down (it was heritage listed) they gutted it and built flash apartments inside it... Looks good and made a heap of money for the developers...

 

Yeah, it's pretty sad to see all of the auto-related businesses that have gone belly-up around southeast Michigan. Used to be many of the towns & villages in this area had little shops or industries that supported the Big 3. Nowadays those same buildings are either abandoned or have been torn down. I drive by the old Ford Wixom Assembly Plant (Lincolns and Tbirds were some of the cars built there in its heyday) on my way to work every day, it's sitting idle; supposedly a 'green company' will be doing something with it soon. I think it has been idle for about 10 years now.

We used to go over to Utica where the old Packard Proving Grounds used to be, they had classic cars shows on the grounds. Haven't been there in awhile though, I don't know if any of those old buildings have survived.

And it's not just the businesses that sit vacant around here - many many houses too. Sadly, changes in the auto industry have taken their toll big-time in this area. Other areas too.

 

Not only did Packard build some fine ass automobiles back in the day, they also helped build Rolls-Royce aircraft and tank engines during WW2. It kind makes ya wonder where it all went wrong.

 

Good question...Packard used to be one of the industry standards, I understand that things began to go wrong in the late '40s when Packard fell behind the other manufacturers in design and innovation...then merged with Studebaker, another car company in trouble...but I'm sure there are others on this site that know more about Packards than I do.

 

All I can say is we used to be a mighty and proud bunch and somewhere down the line, we got a little soft. I think some of the older guys can relate to that.

 

So sad. I get very upset thinking about all the automotive history we are losing in this city. When you think about how much the car changed our society and culture, how many jobs were created from the industry, sad, very sad

 

Wish we could change things for the better... But we can't do it on our own.

 

For all of you out-of-towners thinking theme parks and loft apartments....... nobody would go to them and nobody would live in them because the areas that they are in are a wastland of vicious criminals and abandoned buildings. Would you want to live there in a nice fresh loft apartment if you could not go out the front door or you would get mugged or killed and the nearest store was miles away?

It's my opinion that it isn't so much the demise of the auto industry that has killed Detroit as it is the majority of the people who live there that killed the city. Detroit was dying of "cancer" even back when the auto industry was healthy. I think it started back during the 68-69 race riots when most people saw what their "neighbors" were capable of and wanted no part of it. That's when "white flght" started and it has never stopped. When the complexion of the population changed so did election results. Once the crazy corrupt moron Coleman Young became mayor there was no stopping the systematic destruction of the city that has not stopped to this day and never will. When you have a general population that for the most part would rather steal, rob, kill and loot than work everyone that doesn't want to be stolen from, robbed or killed will move a safe distance (many miles) away. When the people earning an honest living move away they take their taxes they pay with them. The taxes that remained are squandered by a corrupt government that keeps getting elected by the majority of the population that would rather have someody their own color in office even if they are inept and corrupt. THAT is what killed Detroit, NOT the demise of the auto industry.

 

one of the Franklin car company buildings in Syracuse were turned into apartment buildings, but that is in a city where housing is in demand. I would assume that most people are moving out of Detroit and making it into an apartment complex would just be pointless.

 

Ariel view-
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q...code_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ8gEwAA

 

Unfortunatly it is sad, Detroit is a crazy place, i just cant believe some of the sites when weve been out there for Autorama, its just sad to see some of the beautiful buildings in such disarea.

JEFF

 

Very interesting site! Sad to see all the old buildings like that. That's progress.

 

After the first time I had seen the Packard building in its' present state, I thought that complex would make an incredible upscale town-of-its-own!

Automobile museum concentrating on Detroit specifically, and American cars in general...

Loft apartments set up where you could park your car(s) inside your apartment/condo...

Shopping area...

Gymnasium and running track...

Restaurants and sports bars, with none of that chain crap!...

Tech center, with all aspects relating to the auto industry and keeping it alive in the US...

The possibilities are endless. Or, were, anyway.

Truly a sad thing to hear that the plant is slated for demolition. I'd bet it would take about $250M or more to get a good start on my little idea for the Packard plant. I'm about $249,999,000 shy of that, however.

Hey, Barry, send ME some stimulus money, I'll show ya what can be done!

 

The decline of many American cities.

 

Thanks for posting that link those are great pictures. Other cities, that building would be saved and reused but Detroit will continue to miss that boat there's too many strikes against it, for starters 800,000 residents instead of 2 million at it's peak. Right above my computer are two pictures; mansions in Brush Park built in the 1880's (before it was motor city obviously), and an old Vernors delivery truck, solid tires and all, loading a Detroit-Buffalo ferry.

For more Detroit building pictures (if you can stomach it) here's another great site:

http://www.angelfire.com/de2/detroitpix/

 

Very sad to see. This will really bum out my parents when I show it to them. One of my Gradfathers worked there and the other at Continental Motors.

 

The Packard Plant isn't in an area that anybody would want to live in...

 

It's too bad Detroit gets so damn cold all winter otherwise I think they could draw some people back in with the right marketing of these old buildings. I know I'd love to live in one but I'm not dealing with that winter, and this coming from a NJ guy who had the roughest winter in a decade this year.

 

Gary Indiana has some cool old buildings in decay. The city is so poor that in some recent newspaper articles it has been proposed that they just resolve it. The surrounding towns would absorb portions and just erase it from the map. Seems such a waste to destroy such architecture, leaving nothing, while building a disposable strip mall on fresh property somewhere else.

 

Really, there's an education here in who to thank for this and why, but unfortunately it's a subject for another board. I suppose you could sum it up by saying Detroit is just a key example of how "The Great Society" doesn't work. It's too bad they're able to go through and knock down all the most obvious evidence of it, though.

 

I'll find more info later tonight. As for the old Packard plant, That's going to be demolished this summer... That should put some folks back to work for clean-up duty.

 

If there is no place for the rats to live they will move out. It is called flushing the system. So sad.

 

Yeah! Ain't that the truth...

 

By a corrupt contractor giving kickbacks to politicians and using illegal labor.