the bottom link works ok...
Posted on 04/14/2012 7:55:46 PM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse
Perhaps the biggest shortcoming of Detroit "ruin porn" is it inherently ignores the very real people who still live in the city. Now there's a convergence the amazing story of Allan Hill, the man who legally lives inside the city's abandoned Packard Auto Plant. What's most surprising about this moving mini-documentary is Hill's "quality of life" doesn't look as terrible as you'd imagine, nor does his reasoning for choosing to stay in the largest abandoned factory in the world seem so unsound. The whole creation is a huge gut-check to our biases. Yes, the Packard Plant is so giant and empty and strange they shoot Michael Bay movies there. And, occasionally, kids push a dump truck out a window. Yet, Hill has power, Internet access, a welding setup, and a small kitchen. He even maintains a webcam. The owner apparently gave him his blessing so long as Hill works as a custodian of the property.
(Excerpt) Read more at autos.yahoo.com ...
Welcome to FR.
Great story, very amicable, humble man. Thanks for the post, link worked fine for me.
the bottom link works ok...
Works for me. May have gotten fixed.
Thanks for the welcome. I wish I were more computer savy. Someone posted that the link works now. Maybe a website tech fixed it.
Why would a building for a company that’s been out of business for decades and still not occupied by another business still be standing? I would have thought if it couldn’t be converted to something else it would have eventually been demolished to save on property taxes.
Is there something you can do if your link doesn’t work or if you copied it wrong?
You're assuming everyone pays all appropriate taxes.
I grew up near the area. There are a lot of abandoned buildings and warehouses in Detroit. I'm sure it's similar in other big cities.
The true owner must be doing “something” there. He seems to appreciate Mr Hill's presence.
The city is bankrupt and cannot afford to demolish the empty houses and buildings in its environs. So it sits.
Packard did build great cars, though.
The parade of corrupt mayors and grifter CONgressmen had more important pursuits.
use the autos.yahoo.com link
That’s what I thought I did! I’m learning as I go...
Yep. Report your post by clicking on “Report abuse.” Then tell the moderator about the change you need made. The mods are usually pretty good about this. They’ve corrected several silly errors I’ve made in the past.
The city is bankrupt and cannot afford to demolish the empty houses and buildings in its environs. So it sits.
The old Packard auto showroom in Oakland, CA is now a live/work space:
http://packardloftsinoakland.com
Packard did build great cars, though.
Someday, God willing, I will own a Packard. :)
I live within 5 miles of downtown Detroit. In the 1950’s Detroit had 10 times the number of people that my city has. Now it has 3 times. My city has not grown that much, Detroit is shrinking.
Sounds like a writer pushing the benefits of poverty and third world living
Boy there’s a sobering thought.
Packard went out of business in the 50’s.
So in fifty some odd years there’s been no demand that would have caused the factory to be put to some other commercial or redevelopment use? Talk about zero growth.
Just think of the industrial powerhouse we were during World War II, and then look at us now. Yikes!
Santa Monica CA had a lovely old building that was a Packard showroom. My grandparents drove Packards. What a gorgeous car.
I had never rode in a cold air conditioned car and one that ran so quite. Spooked me, it even crossed my mind he could be the devil. But he wasn't, just a nice guy who even drove me home couple miles down the gravel road where we lived.
Packard ended production there in 1956, but there were dozens of little companies still operating in the complex until 1997, when the city foreclosed on the property and ordered 87 tenants to leave. Then it was left to rot. The only others left now are a chemical processing company, someone selling exterior lighting, a few squatters now and then, and a lot of wild animals.
http://www.detroitblog.org/?p=1949
Albert Kahn was born in Germany in 1869. When he was 11, his family moved to the United States and settled in Detroit, where the teenager took a job as an architect’s apprentice. In 1902, after working at a number of well-known architectural firms in Detroit, Kahn started his own practice.
While building factories for Packard, the young architect found that swapping reinforced concrete for wood or masonry sped up the construction of manufacturing plants considerably. It also made them sturdier and less combustible. Moreover, reinforced-concrete buildings needed fewer load-bearing walls; this, in turn, freed up floor space for massive industrial equipment. Kahn’s first concrete factory, Packard Shop No. 10, still stands today on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit.
Kahn was also Henry Ford’s go-to guy for Ford’s famous Highland Park plant, which introduced the moving assembly line.
Thanks. Someone else indicated it had been occupied in parcial by other small companies which makes sense. Usually where I’m from, if you can’t sell a property, it becomes more cost effective to tear down a building than to pay mounting property taxes.
I don't know if the property taxes would be reduced or not but to demolish all the standing buildings on that site and the removal of same would cost in the millions of dollars.......
I worked for a company on Detroit's east side, the corner of Conner and Charlevoix. On the east side of the street, between Charlevoix and Jefferson is the Chrysler Jefferson assembly plant.
I remember watching the rebuilding and expansion of the plant which also included the removal of the warehouses across the street. Once all of them had been removed, along with all the concrete flooring and driveways, then the environmental clean-up had to begin.
All the soil that the buildings stood on had to be removed due to the oil and chemicals that had run off and leached into the ground over the decades. They had huge excavation trucks constantly digging up and hauling off the dirt, with all the workers forced to wear hazmat suits. Once it was cleaned up sufficiently, they then had to truck in all new dirt before they could start rebuilding. Just the clean up alone had to cost in the tens of millions of dollars alone.
So to answer you question, the cost of demolishing and removing those buildings alone would be cost prohibitive let alone having to also be responsible for the environmental clean up.
The reason they used wooden blocks was so that they would absorb all the oil and grease that was constantly dripping from the machinery and parts. That helped to prevent slippery floor surfaces which is typical of concrete floors. Over time, they could simply replace the wooden blocks as needed.
They of course don't use them anymore because of the cleaning machines which have been developed but back then they didn't have such machines.
Another thing that's not available to the average viewer of these manufacturing properties. The production and stamping plants, as my company was, had huge basements underneath their press shops that were called "pits"
These pits were literally ankle deep and higher with oil and scrap metal run-off from the presses that had to periodically be cleaned out by the sanitation department. Real nasty work.......
So in fifty some odd years there’s been no demand that would have caused the factory to be put to some other commercial or redevelopment use? Talk about zero growth.
Remind me, when exactly did the liberals gain control of Detroit?
Willow Run too. They made a lot of B-24’s there.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.