Our series on Re-Imagining Detroit Buildings is an unscientific approach to seeing which buildings this city would like to see saved. We're asking people who tend to know about these things to make a pitch for a building that has not been redeveloped yet... but should be! Intern Daniel contributed to today's post.
Today, we ask a developer who is a principal at the Roxbury Group to vote for the next building to be redeveloped in Detroit. After putting in a plug for the David Whitney (already being developed into a hotel by his company) David Di Rita votes for the David Stott building, where he was once a tenant.
Located at 1150 Griswold, the 37-story David Stott Building is a highlight of the Capitol Park area. Di Rita recently told Crain's that not only does he respect its current owner's ability to balance short-term upkeep with long-term vision, but that the mostly-vacant building is actually cleaner now than when he worked there. Sometimes confused with the nearby Guardian Building due to their similar materials, size, and Art Deco fashion sense, the building represented flour magnate David Stott's foray into the booming 1920s real estate market. In a development utterly and completely alien to 21st century ears, the structure was completed in 1929 to help meet the massive office demand that was sure to stay high indefinitely- and then was left heavily under-occupied until after the war. In 2010, the building was purchased by then Florida-based Emre Uralli (recently relocated to sunny Grosse Pointe), who made plans to lease the building as office and residential space, sandwiched between lounges on the top and bottom. Recently graced with a large neon martini glass, the Stott building currently hosts the Sky Bar Lounge in the moderately ironic first-floor space. With the upstairs lounge space possibly opening during the next year, Detroiters may not yet have a fully renovated Stott building— but they will at least be able to do some fantastic vertical bar hopping.
Update: In an email to Curbed, David would like to extend his pitch to The Three Davids. No, he is not one of them. Here's what he means:
The three Davids include the David Broderick, the David Whitney and the David Stott. All three act as gateways to West District, and as recently as a year ago, all three were vacant and fully dormant. It has long been said that as go the three Davids, so goes downtown Detroit. Today, the David Broderick is in a full redevelopment phase into apartments and retail. The David Whitney is clearly next to be re-born—as a boutique hotel and residential project. The future of the David Stott is less clear, but its skyline prominence, strategic location at the southern gateway to Capitol Park and sheer beauty makes its redevelopment a natural choice. Allowing Detroit to brag that it had brought back the Three Davids is just a bonus. · All Re-imagining Detroit Buildings coverage [Curbed Detroit]
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