A few older postcard shots of the Cleary Auditorium. Designed in 1957 by Johnson and McWhinnie, the buidling that was built was a much scaled down version of what the architects had imagined.
Even back then the Mayor and Council meddled in the plans, and the auditorium was shrunken as was the convention space. Plans for a smaller second theatre in the basment were also scrapped. The basement theatre would have been able to share dressing area and technical areas with the larger theatre above.
Instead of a multi-purpose facility, we got the scaled down version that was recently sold to St. Clair College. Almost immediatley the short comings of the truncated facility became evident.
Johnson & McWhinnie were comissioned in 1963 to add a freight elevator (that was removed from the original plans) and a kitchen. In 1966 they were again called on to work on an addition to the building.
Hey – you’re using the term “scale(d) down” in a derogatory way, reflecting poorly on our organization, and will seen be hearing from our lawyers 🙂
You can’t go after me, the city has been scaling things down in a derogatory way since before you or I were born!
Threating lawsuits, huh? You sound like a typical blogger… 😉
Who designed the last expansion of the Cleary?
Is it me or winter? But the gardens look much better then than they do today.
What do you mean by meddling? How much did it cost to build? What was the city’s portion? How much was it supposed to cost, since we ended up with a scaled down version?
I don’t care what any says the Cleary auditorium was an architectural masterpiece and an important part of the community for many years. God only knows how many graduations, weddings and VIP’s it hosted during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. I remember my own high school graduation was held at the Cleary and Pierre Trudeau, Stephen Lewis and the Queen attended receptions there during the buildings heyday.
It really was a remarkable builidng. I generally love that era of modernism–though I find the original Cleary a little hard to love, I do appreciate it for it’s purity of modernist design. The renos–when was that–late 1980s?…actually weren’t all that bad–although the original design was completely obliterated–they did create an attractive and slightly more flexible (but still not profitable) facility.
The pre-renovation Cobo Center in Detroit was equally impressive archiecturally.
OK, maybe someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I heard that Mr. Cleary donated the money to the city for the Clearly Auditorium to be built and it wasn’t built using public funds.
Looking at the precious Baby House tucked back there and thinking what a miracle it is (by Windsor standards) some numbskull didn’t tear it down to make room for executive parking or a loading dock when the Cleary was expanded in the late ’80s. At least *some* things are sacred. 🙂
David, correct but I don’t think it covered all of the bills.
I too don’t mind the addition of the ’90s.
David, yes Cleary left funds for both a “civic auditorium & riverfront guest house”. Within little more than a half century this current administration of the city has completely wiped the Cleary legacy off the map. Demolishing the guest house and selling and chaning the name of the Cleary.
I’m not certain the particulars (I don’t have them handy), but I am just going off what Doug Johnson the architect of the Cleary told me. He said that between the original design, and the final design there were many trips to present before council, and constant chops from the design.
The building is also engineered with a “floating” foundation. Apparently that was a pretty novel feat of engineering at the time, and saved a ton of money over a more traditional foundation. Hey, it must have worked out well, as the building has survived a half century without any structural problems.
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Geroge, I agree with you, it’s a shame that it’s been so altered the original design is now unrecognizible.
When I look at the new cleary all I see is the great mouth of the ugly car drop off underneath. It’s just a hulking beast now — though the Ferry side is alright and somewhat ped friendly. Strike that — it was good when the Norwich block balanced it out — now that bit of road is like the service road between pet smart and costco (or whatever the big box is).
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I remember the stairwells of the original clearly (cleary) — sweeping and curving stainless steel rails.
are those actual roses in the garden??? wow…imagine that…rose bushes in the city of roses 🙂
Speaking of — does anybody know why Windsor is the City of Roses? Were roses just picked randomly, or is there a reason?
In Grade 6 (no word of a lie) our (catholic school) teacher told us it was so named because of all the abortions that happened in Windsor. Have not heard reference to that since, but I sure didn’t forget it.
I heard it was because when the British arrived they found that the French settlers had lots of roses in front of all their buildings, so they renamed the area the City of Roses.
It’s really sad how the city demolished the Guest House and gave the Cleary Centre away. They just pissed on civic minded private donors. I’m sure private donors will be lining up to build more civic buildings now. If Belle Isle belonged to Windsor, I’d bet they’d knock down the Scott fountain and replace it with a sandbox or some pointless wadding pool.
David, they would replace it with a parking lot. 🙂
I never heard abot the abortion thing nor the french/english settlements. As far as I knew it was due to Jackson Park…
The City of Roses seems to show up on more recent documents (ie. last 40-50 years). I doubt it has anything to do with anything that happened in the 17-1800s. I think ME is the closest so far – Sunken Gardens / QE II Gardens. I have a Chamber of Commerce travel brochure for Windsor from the ’50s and there is no mention of the “Rose City” in there either.
I have read and heard several times over the years that the ‘City of Roses’ nickname came from the rose garden in Jackson Park.
I always liked Jackson Park, the sunken gardens. Parents had their wedding pictures taken there, etc.
But just a couple of beds to turn Windsor into “The City of Roses” seems —- kind of like an artificial marketing ploy. Seems to have caught on. “Rose City Ford” and the like.
Still, it’s nice when a nickname corresponds to something deeper or traditional in a city’s history. Glad nobody else was told the abortion story though.
The guy who told me that it was named after French settlers was an older tour guide who was doing the free tours at the Downtown Business Association Office on Ouellette St. Perhaps, he meant it was named “Rose City” after the Americans occupied the Canadian side of the Detroit River and they didn’t want a connection with British imperialism from the name Sandwich, which referred to the British Earl of Sandwich. Yet, I can’t find anything on it in an Internet search. This is baffling.
Roses grow in the area in abundance because of the steam-heat of our summers down here. I know that’s a simplification–but whatever the source of the actual nickname, it’s the favorable climate and soil that started the ball rolling.
Oh well, it doesn’t matter any more anyway…. Windsor is no longer the Rose City.
It is now “The Place to Be”. 🙂
I seem to recall when Windsor became “The City of Roses” in the 60’s everyone was encouraged to plant roses in their gardens – and I do think it was just an artificial marketing ploy. Windsor sure does have some nice rose gardens though – or at least did when I lived there. (The one in Jackson Park is still lovely.)
And – I can remember sitting on the lawn down there in front of the Cleary and listening to Trudeau campaign for PM in the summer of ’68. It was like seeing a rock star. We all had Trudeaumania back then. I think I was just about to start high school and very sorry I wasn’t old enough to vote…
I don’t remember the pre-’90s renovation Cleary well. But looking at these pics, I just realized how much the main auditorium looked like the Edsel Ford Theater across the river, which they recently knocked down.