Great Lakes, Great Times … Thanks Michigan!

Hi friends, family, followers we’ve met along the way… we’re almost done!  Our epic ’round the mitten journey is nearing the end.  It is our last research day in Kalamazoo and we have two days of travel left. 

As we finish our trip, I can’t help but reflect on what we’ve encountered the past five weeks and convey how wonderful I think Michigan really is.  I’ve never been north of Lansing and I’ve never done more than a three-day bike tour.  Our “maps” consisted of google mapping a walking route and directions we got after meeting various people on the side of the road.  This led us on major highways to dirt roads to amazing rails-to-trails bike paths.  We’ve biked through hundreds of miles of farmland, huge rolling hills of orchards, down (what we’re told) is the worst street in Flint, borrowed cars from strangers-turned-friends at campgrounds and played in lakes all over.  We were helped along the way with fruit to eat, places to sleep, spare tubes to use, fun places to visit and someone even gave us $20 (he made us take it!) to go try the brews at Bell’s Brewing Company.  Not to sound like a total advertisement for Michigan, but I gotta tell you, this state is quite amazing.

To be honest, I don’t know that we’ll ever really be able to convey all the things that happened on the trip or aptly describe the wonderful and helpful people we’ve met along the way, but we’ll do our best to at least show you what we’ve found in these rust-belt cities.

We will be updating our blog with the progress of our research after we get back to Ann Arbor.  It will be much easier to update (and reply to comments AND post more pictures!) once we have better access to computers. 

So ’til then, wish us luck and no flat tires!  See you soon, Ann Arbor!

Ashley

Quite Contrary

In contrast with everything I/we’ve been saying lately, I want to talk about how fascinating these buildings we discover are in and of themselves, as these vast and immutable, often inpenetrable–glass and steel and concrete and brick–rectangular additions to the landscape. Pretty much all of my photographs over the past few weeks have been straight on shots of just a door, or a window, or a plane of different surfaces coming together. Because that is often the only way we experience these buildings, as surfaces. There are often “ways in,” or views in, but they are usually obstructed, or primarily a way out. Like an exhaust pipe, or a storm drain, or a boarded off doorway.

–sambo

Family Portrait

Re-Defining The City

The 3 of us are sitting in the library at Aquinas College [woo!  my alma mater!]  taking refuge from the rain and beginning our research of Grand Rapids.  We have a lot to think about now after a very successful 3 days in Muskegon.  We were very fortunate to have had gorgeous weather as well as to have crossed paths with some friendly, insightful, knowledgeable individuals.  One of the most helpful new friends we made while there was Brandon B.  We stumbled upon Brandon’s amazing collection of photography on Flickr – documenting several Michigan cities then and now – and decided to ask him if he wanted to get a cup of coffee and talk about Muskegon.  Lucky for us, he did want to.  After several cups of coffee and two incredibly delicious pastries [Mia and Grace you rock!]  we found ourselves much more knowledgeable of Muskegon’s past as well as its current and developing state.  Brandon was then so kind as to “give us the tour” of post-industrial Muskegon.

What we saw was slightly unexpected.  Muskegon has had a long reputation of being a “dirty, industrial city” – at one point, we were told, the entire east and south coasts of Muskegon Lake were lined with factories.  Today, however, most of those factories are gone – long gone.  There remains very little evidence that the city was once such an industrial center.  Instead of the abandoned, decaying buildings and vast vacant lots that we saw so much of in Detroit, Flint and Saginaw, we saw buildings like the Amazon building, the Art Works building, and the Shaw-Walker building.  All 3 of these were once large industrial factories.  Now they’ve all been redeveloped or are currently in the state of being redeveloped [Shaw-Walker].  The thing is, they’ve all been redeveloped into condos.  And there are plans to redevelop at least one more building in the downtown area into condos.  This strategy of “adaptive reuse” has been seen elsewhere [Grand Rapids].  The question is:  will it work?  Will people want to live in these condos downtown if the only other thing downtown is other condos?  The answer to this question, according to those residents of the area we interviewed is simple: no.  Lucky for Muskegon, and those who currently live in these downtown condos, there exists a growing number of individuals who are striving to bring those other things essential to a healthy city – shopping, restaurants, entertainment, that unique “something” that helps give a city some appeal – to the city’s downtown area.  We visited some of these new pioneering individuals and got a refreshing take on what the city could become.

Bob at Clay Street Cellars told us the story of his building – once an old filling station, built in 1928, and slated for demolition to make way for a Hertz car rental agency.  They successfully saved the building from the wrecking ball and had the entire 75 ton building moved.  It now sits on Clay Street, across from The Art Works, the former boiler works which now houses artists of every discipline.  They make and sell a huge variety of different fruit wines.  And business has been good, as it has for the owners of The Cheese Lady, a great little store not too far away that sells cheese from all over the world.  [Just don’t ask for Velveeta.]  The couple that owns The Cheese Lady, long time residents of the area, know “Wino- Bob” and support his business, just as he supports theirs.  And then there’s Mia and Grace, a bistro and bakery in the same downtown area.  Started by two chefs, Mia and Grace that is, who moved to Muskegon, this place is now known in the area for its excellent food, pastries and atmosphere.  Mia and Grace are also part of this growing collaborative group of small business owners and entrepreneurs that cooperate to support each other.  Together, these individuals are working to make downtown Muskegon a place where people are going to want to live.  They are recreating the city’s identity.

And this is really what I wanted to write about – the identity of a city – the way it changes – the power individual citizens can have in the formation of a new identity for their city.   What if, instead of looking at the decline of industry in a city as a completely negative thing, we saw it as a truly opportune moment in the city’s life?  So the industry that once formed the foundation of this city’s existence is gone – what happens? – does the city cease to exist in a sense? – do the people move out to other cities? – does the city essentially die? –  or does the city adapt to the situation and recreate itself?  You start to think about the traditional definitions of a city – all the existing types of cities – what if the Rust Belt, in its efforts to survive the exit of industry unwittingly becomes the birthplace of a completely new type of city – what if everything we thought we knew about cities suddenly came into question as these old industrual cities struggle and begin to morph and develop in an organic fashion – creating, as if through a series of tests and experiments, a functional, vibrant city that requires a whole new definition of what a city should be.  It’s really exciting to think about – but at the same time, it seems an extremely daunting task.  It’s something we’ll be thinking a lot about as we turn our attention to Grand Rapids – a city that certainly seems to be in the process of creating a new identity for itself.

-Jamie

P.S. – Check out Brandon’s Flickr page at www.flickr.com/eridony

O bikes, how I love thee!

Anyone who knows me well (or at all) understands that over the past few years I have become entrenched in a somewhat obsessive love affair with two-wheeled forms of transportation. Our most recent endeavors could be seen (quite easily) as simply an outlet for said obsession, but I assure you it is so much more than that! The project, I’ve said, doesn’t serve the bicycles; the bikes serve the project.

There is something very particular (and special) about approaching a city, or a neighborhood—or even a building—at the comfortable and accommodating speed of a bicycle. It humbly allows for any motor vehicle to pass quickly by (occasionally with a honk…a friendly one, we always hope), yet it easily and inevitably outpaces walking. Bicycling thus allows us to slowly yet surely pass through forests and over bridges, from one city to the next county, and eventually through nearly the entire state, back to our home, Ann Arbor. There is no enclosure—thus no screen—and with the steady and increasing interaction with the surrounding environment, one can’t help but notice much more than a person normally would on any other day, on any other form of transportation.

And I have to say, passing through these cities, one to the next—seeing them often for the first time—it is changing the way I think about Michigan, about post-industrial cities, and about everything that was the foundation of our project at the outset. I have become much less interested in abandoned industrial architecture as a static and significant artifact in and of itself, but I am becoming ever more curious about the history of the sites, about the morphology of the building, and how the surrounding people and places have ebbed and flowed in order to accommodate for these buildings, their functions, and the often far reaching implications of the products that are produced because of them.

—Sam

Abandoned Cities

Hi all.  Sorry for the delay in postings.  We’ve been on the road traveling around the northern part of the lower peninsula for the past week.  We made a few stops (Harrison, Cadillac, Traverse City, Copemish and Pentwater) and a few friends along the way.  We spent most of our time in Traverse City re-assessing our research methods and going over the photos and video that we had taken up to that point.  Oh, and we did check out Lake Michigan a bit.  If you ever have the chance to play on a water trampoline, I highly recommend it.

Anyway, we have now moved on to the western side of Michigan.  From Traverse City, it took us three days, four flat tires, two wicked storms and some pancakes and ice cream to get here… Muskegon, that is. 

While we are starting our research in Muskegon today, my mind is still in Saginaw and Flint.  Our second day in Saginaw we interviewed two retired GM employees.  Both engineers.  Both on the management side.  We asked the same questions that we asked the group of UAW retirees from Saginaw and the librarian in Flint:  What was the city like before GM/at its peak/and now?  We also asked what each person thought should be done with these abandoned sites now.  We heard a lot of ‘Idon’t knows’, got a few blank stares, the occasional ‘turn it into a parking lot’ and then there was David, born and raised in Ohio and moved to Saginaw to work for GM as an engineer.  His answer left our mouths agape and our minds a bit spinning: Should we do anything with the land?  If there is no industry, no jobs, no income for the city, why should Saginaw (or Flint or any other city in this position) continue to exist at all?

I looked at Jamie.  Jamie looked at me.  I looked at Sam.  Sam looked at Jamie.  We sat there silent.  Never in any of the conversations that we had about these sites up until this point had we considered that an answer. 

Later on after we’d said our goodbyes and thank yous to the gentlemen we had just met with, we sat and talked about what we had heard from David.  Jamie brought up the Gold Rush in the 1800s.  Towns were built around the needs of the miners and the miners were there for the gold.  When the gold ran out, the miners followed and so did everyone else.  

But, that was 150+ years ago.  How could that be a possibility today?  How can you abandoned a city that housed 200,000+ people at one time?  Where does everyone go?  What happens to the remains of the city?  What happens to the infrastructure that was set up to support its residents?  What about the people born and raised there, were there before the auto industry, would stay despite the factories closing?  What about the thriving Farmer’s Market we found in both Flint and Saginaw or the Sunday afternoon bike crew we randomly happened upon?  Those people aren’t running out of town.  What about our friend, Gordon, from Flint Expatriates.. he’s trying to get back in even.

These cities may be shrinking, but that doesn’t mean they are dead.  Or, that anyone is about to let that happen.  But, it does raise an interesting question… one that started this conversation.  So, what happens to these abandoned sites?  Or, if you want to go in the direction of David’s option — what happens to these abandoned towns?  Anything?  Nothing?  Maybe, it’s the optimist or the student in me or maybe its just the driving force behind our entire project kicking me in the shins saying, “SOMETHING has to happen.  We’ve come all this way to see what’s out here, to document it for ourselves, to meet the people who live here, who care…”  Should it just remained abandoned?  Impromptu parking lots and rusted barbed wire fences?  KEEP OUT! signs and graffiti-ed walls?

This has been an on-going discussion for the three of us over the past few weeks as we pedal our way through Michigan.  We’ve come up with our own ideas and we have the answers from our interviewees, but  now I want to ask it to you:  What do you think will happen to these abandoned sites (or towns)?  What do you think this land could be used for?  Leave us comments or email us.  We’ll try our best to respond, but it might not be a quick response.  Blackberry and iPhone keyboards were not meant for the long-winded or those with spotty internet access next to campfires.

Til next time!

Ashley

Shout Out!

We’d like to send out a resounding thanks to Gordon Young, a journalist and former Flint resident who was a huge help to us while in Eastern Michigan. Check out his blog flint expatriates.

“It’s like bad archaeology.”

I think every piece of infrastructure–every building–is on a trajectory, and you’re experiencing it at just one moment in its very extended life. We see things, but we don’t often ask how they came about or where they’re going to go from here–whether there will be structural deterioration, or if living things will colonize the structure. We tend to ignore these things, or to see them in temporal isolation. We also don’t give enough time or consideration to how this infrastructure fits into a broader urban fabric, within the history of a city, and where that city’s going, and whose lives have been affected by it and whatever may happen to it in the future. I think these are all the stories that really need to start being told.

~ Michael Cook, The BLDG BLOG Book

Reclaiming Landscape, Imaginatively

As we continue our investigations into the post-industrial spaces left scattered across the cities of Michigan, I find myself becoming more and more interested in the landscape itself – how it has been adapted for industry, how it is now left empty, barren and polluted.  We’ve been fortunate to have been offered many leads by many kind and helpful people everywhere we go as to where we could find the evidence of industry come and gone.  [Not that, in towns like Detroit, Flint and Saginaw it’s very difficult to find such evidence – it nearly surrounds you.]  Many of the sites we’ve visited are now nothing more than vast, empty and windswept concrete fields dotted here and there with small heaps of garbage.  Of the abandoned buildings we’ve visited, nearly all of them are in such a state of decay it’s hard to imagine any kind of re-development or renovation being possible.We know, from our own observations, as well as from the various interviews we’ve conducted so far, that these sites are heavily contaminated by years and years of pollution from industrial processes.  The clean-up costs for any one of these sites would be considerably high.  So the question I find myself asking now is:  What should/could be done with these post-industrial sites that have accumulated throughout the Rust Belt?  From an environmental standpoint as well as from an architectural and urban design standpoint.  How can these polluted landscapes not only be cleaned up, but also turned into inhabitable spaces that enhance the community in which they are linked to?  All kinds of wild ideas start to pile up if you give it some good thought – however fat-fetched or otherwise.  Bio-remediaton, as we saw at the Rouge Plant, is a viable option as far as environmental clean-up, but what about all the many options there are for the creation of inhabitable space on these sites?  As Sam has suggested, maybe as a supplement to this research project, we should design for these sites our most imaginative ideas of adaptive re-use.  An example: the site of a former GM plant is transformed into a paintball arena, or an ultimate frisbee field, or an extreme obstacle course, or all three.  Maybe some of these sites, as the old train station in Detroit already has, will become backdrops for movie scenes.  Or maybe some altogether new and original type of space will be designed – a space that will have been impossible to concieve of or implement before there existed these post-industrial landscapes.  I’m not at all certain what this wholly post-industrial type of space would be like, but the idea of it excites me.  I do feel certain that there is a way to reclaim these scarred and desserted landscapes from the unfortunate future assigned to them by industries long gone – we just need to committ to it and most importantly, use our imaginations.   
                                                                                         -Jamie

Thursday Morning Breakfast

Thanks to the ever accommodating Tierman family, we were able to catch a lively breakfast meeting with a group of GM retirees. My, did they have a lot to say! Recent activity has given them a bit more to react to, but I suspect this group could keep the conversation moving regardless.

Willie Bonds, Dennis Zehnder, Bob Hollingsworth, Ken Beaudin, and Pete Alexander all worked together at Delphi, an offspring company of GM’s, and they convene at a local diner every Thursday morning to share breakfast, recent news, and plenty of sarcastic jokes. Today, the most pressing topic at hand was the the fact that Delphi’s most recent bankruptcy proceedings have put the group’s pensions under threat. As an outsider to the situation, I can’t pretend to understand it all completely–but to put it simply, they were all pushed by GM into an early retirement with the promise of a comfortable life, and now that life is being threatened.

Our presence at their breakfast certainly steered the conversation in particular directions, but so many tangents were followed and stories told that it is difficult to think of a way to sum everything up. The only constant seemed be that GM’s overwhelming presence in Eastern Michigan can be equaled only by its absence–an absence that no one seems to have expected, much less prepared for.

After breakfast, we returned to the Tierman residence in order to meet with two other GM retirees, George Baumann and David Hersh, who worked in management at GM (not Delphi). Both David and George have college educations and secure retirement funds–neither of which seemed to affect their equally dismal views of recent events in the auto industry and the consequential deterioration of the city they call home.

We asked these two groups, what hope is there for Saginaw? They began to mention a small uprising of medical companies, before spiralling back to the answer that echoed what we heard in Flint: there is none. The industry that these cities once thrived on has left the state, even the country, with essentially no hope of return. The cost benefits of outsourcing labor are difficult to argue against, even with so pressing a need for domestic work. These men voiced a unanimous desire for manufacturing to return to the US, but when questioned in what form it might return, few answers were given. They just aren’t sure.

I wish I could elaborate more on the varied and often provocative topics that were raised by these men, but my time is limited and my resources finite (thank you Saginaw Public Library!). I hope to write something with a bit more reflection soon to share with you all; I can’t begin to explain how what we’ve seen and heard has got me thinking. I didn’t mean to sound hopeless or discouraging in this post! But I guess I have. It’s hard to take in what these people say and then write about it so immediately. We do have video from both of these interviews, and hope to be able to post them in the near future.

Well–thank you for your time! We hope you keep reading. As always, please provide any comments, questions, or suggestions you might have! We’d love to hear from you.

~ Sam(bo Jo)