Heidelberg Project

In 1990, my daughter and I went to see the Heidelberg Project. It was summer and we spent about an hour walking the neighborhood. I was fascinated with the art work everywhere: on the sidewalks, in the street and even in the trees in the boulevard. However, after much controversy, the city of Detroit bulldozed the whole project in the late 90's.

Of course, Tyree Guyton was not to be stopped and began again. Tyree uses once new and useful objects that have been discarded and re purposes them into his art form.(this includes houses) His artwork, in many forms, is displayed in galleries around the world. Even if you disagree if this is "art", you will have to admit that it is interesting and entertaining.

It was a bitter cold the day that we were there so all my photos are taken from the car. I had Mike driving around and around again because there was so much to see....all the details, such fun but also sadness. There is a lot of irony in it all.

Click on my links to the right for more on the artist.

Highland Park Ford Plant

The Highland Park Ford Plant was built in 1910 and set precedent for future production plants because of it's size and design. It is an impressive building even today because it is so huge. We could tell that it was still in use because it has been kept in decent repair. Normally a building like this would not have a window left. According to Wikipedia the building is still use by Ford for storage of documents and by the Henry Ford Museum for artifact storage.

Highland Park

Highland Park sits right in the middle of Detroit. The city has had it's issues in recent years. In 2001 it's municipal building and fire department (which were built in 1917) were abandoned. There is an excellent website with pictures, old and new. detroiturbex.com.

Carnival on W. State Fair Street

This collection of carnival memorabilia is really bizarre. Located just east of Woodward it is directly across from the State Fair grounds. All of this stuff is in some one's back yard! Most of the houses in the neighborhood are abandoned and dilapidated. I suppose it is pretty cool on Halloween. On this grey and gloomy day the effect was definitely eerie. That's what makes Detroit so interesting and only in a city of this size, where no one really cares about the neighborhood could you get away with this.

Detroit...it's an interesting city!

When my son Mike was in town, he took me downtown...he drove, I took pictures. I got some great photos! The above pic is on Woodward going towards the river but these kind of pics are not what we went for. We put ourselves in harms way to get some great shots of the inner city. In fact, my other son Tim, was working downtown and said he would meet us as he was nearby. We were at a McDonald's and pulled into a car wash parking lot to wait. When Tim got there he advised us to get out of there as the car wash was a place that, as they guys dried your car, they sold you drugs. Also there had been numerous shootings there. What did we know?

We started our day near 8 mile near the State Fair grounds where someone has collected the most bizarre carnival memorabilia. We drove on to Highland Park for some great shots of an old auto plant and also the old Highland Park Municipal Buildings. We found quite by accident, the Heidelberg Project featuring the outdoor art work of Tyree Guyton. Next we headed to the Cass Corridor which was probably the most depressing area of all. It was a cold and bleak day and seeing homeless men huddled around a fire in a barrel was heartbreaking. Many others were hanging around a homeless shelter. What can be done? Some of us have so much...too much.... and they have nothing.
We ended the day at the old train station which always is a fascinating place to me...where have all the people gone?
So, for the next week I will be posting my photos of the D.
I would welcome your comments.

Winter Visitors

What a surprize! A flock of finches at my birdbath today...... a mixture of goldfinches and house finches.They hung around long enough for me to get my camera and snap some pictures. When everything is frozen they appreciate a drink of water.

Isn't he handsome?