Channel 4 reported the other night that the W Hotel– the swank chain that has interesting parties in the lobbies of their hotels– is eying the Whitney Building as it’s potential “W Detroit” location. Might be worth a call to the folks at the Roxbury Group to see if there’s some merit to that claim as they are apparently managing renovations for the tower. In that same Channel 4 report, it’s mentioned that Target is looking at a downtown Detroit location. Smell the momentum.
Then, for the one-two knockout punch, Crain’s just put out a list of developments happening in Detroit– about 32 strong mind you, this is no walk in the park– that certainly makes you think this could be an interesting decade for the city.
I’m reminded of that landmark quote by Daniel Burnham (the architect, coincidentally, who designed the Whitney Building)– “Make no little plans, for they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” With all these interesting, mostly positive, transitions on the horizon, I hope we move forward thinking big– healthily of course, with an eye for sustainability and the development of an entirely new American model. The systems throughout the USofA are in questionable shape at best– banks, insurance companies, bickering politicians, unemployment woes, an aging education system, a consumption-based values system– which cues us up nicely for re-inventing the Dream. If we dare take that challenge. Sure, the “traditional” favorites– a Whole Foods, a W Hotel, a Target mega-mall– are essential pieces to the total puzzle, but let’s not forget about being innovative and even a little dangerous in the way we look at the future of this city. Only because we can, as we’re in a position to make these decisions out of necessity, which is a place that many cities haven’t gotten to.
Now I am reminded of ‘ol Robert Frost and “The Road Not Taken.” We are positioned nicely to follow the plot of Frost’s poem if we choose to do so. In the end, maybe that renegade spirit will completely revolutionize the “system”– just as we have done in the past with the likes of an industrial capacity that put the world on motorized wheels.