The storied Michigan Building in downtown Detroit, built in the grandiose Renaissance Revival style of the Roaring Twenties, has now been used for a while as a facility the original architects perhaps never intended it to be used as: a parking garage.
Completed in 1926 by Chicago architects Rapp & Rapp, the theater has been through many lives: a jazz concert hall, a rock concert hall, a nightclub, an office space—and now a parking garage, according to the Huffington Post.
Today, Toyotas, Hyundais, Volkswagens and a plethora of automobiles manufactured by companies from around the world—and the occasional proud Michigander’s Ford or Chevrolet—park beneath the opulent rotunda, a place where once the theatre’s most esteemed guests sat beneath a soffit heavily decorated with cartouches and acroteria that today only give a hint that it must’ve once been gilded.
The decaying theatre has been gaining some public attention lately. It was a set in Eminem’s film 8 Mile, and recently aggregate news sites like the Huffington Post have circulated a collection of images of the garage turned theatre.
Vishal Patel/Flickr
TNS Sofres/Flickr
Related Stories
Structural Materials | Apr 3, 2017
Best of structural steel construction: 4WTC, Fulton Center, Pterodactyl win AISC IDEAS2 Awards
The annual awards program, sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction, honors the best in structural steel design and construction.
Green | Mar 29, 2017
Copenhagen Zoo and BIG unveil yin yang-shaped panda habitat
The new habitat will sit between two existing buildings, including the Elephant House designed by Norman Foster.
Architects | Mar 28, 2017
A restroom for everyone
Restroom access affects everyone: people with medical needs or disabilities, caretakers, transgender people, parents with children of the opposite gender, and really anyone with issues or needs around privacy.
High-rise Construction | Mar 27, 2017
Density and tall buildings
CRTKL’s Maren Striker examines Europe’s desire to build upward.
Architects | Mar 9, 2017
Watch Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminster Fuller discuss architecture in animated video shorts
Given more time, Wright wanted to rebuild the country and change the nation.
Architects | Mar 6, 2017
Demolished Frank Lloyd Wright buildings get new life with photorealistic renderings
Architect David Romero recreated the Larkin Administration Building and the Rose Pauson House with detailed, fully colored renderings.
Building Team | Mar 6, 2017
AEC firms: Your website is one of the most important things you'll build
Don’t believe it? You’d better take a look at the research.
Architects | Mar 3, 2017
Hoffmann Architects’ Leadership Elected President of Three Industry Organizations
Maureen Dobbins, Lawrence Keenan, and Arthur Sanders to lead chapters of BOMA, AIA, and ICRI.
Office Buildings | Mar 2, 2017
White paper from Perkins Eastman and Three H examines how design can inform employee productivity and wellbeing
This paper is the first in a planned three-part series of studies on the evolution of diverse office environments and how the contemporary activity-based workplace (ABW) can be uniquely tailored to support a range of employee personalities, tasks and work modes.
