1963

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• Great photo's Andrew!! Really interesting when we take a walk back in time eh??
  Notice the GM building isn't in the backround yet...that went up in the early 70's correct?

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Center
  1977 apparently. I thought it was a wee bit older.

• Ross, you would not have been able to see the Renaissance building in that pic even if it was there. Awesome pic Andrew. boy we live in shitty times.

• I remember as a kid watching the RenCen being built from our waterfront. It left a huge impression on me and is probably part of the reason I went on to study architecture. Growing up and learning more about John Portman (big architect in Atlanta) and his buildings helped me learn a lot more about the social implications of buildings. They weren't that good. This building was supposed to usher in a "Renaissance" in downtown Detroit, but all it did was further solidify the "rich white guy's secure tower" amongst the unwashed masses. I still love visiting it, though.

• Excellent how Jack Shanfield's sign hasn't changed. The rest of downtown sure has, though.

• Shanfield's looked like hell then as it does now. But at least they are still downtown!

  Wow! Talk about a blast from the past...Jack Fraser! I remember one being in the mall as well.

  We would have a heck of a lot more people downtown if our illustrious planning department hadn't allowed our industrial parks to become office parks/industrial. Take a look at Rhodes Dr. and tell me why there couldn't be incentives for those offices to be downtown (no, not the architecture but the businesses themselves)?
  Windsor whines we don't have industrial space yet we allowed our downtown to lose its office workers. Take a look at the Green Shield building on the edge of Windsor/Tecumseh. They were in a crappy building on Giles and McDougal and could have built downtown (which there was an idea for) but due to parking issues and from what I have been told from a very reliable source, issues with the city they decided to move on the edge of the city. Most workers there live in Tecumseh/Lakeshore and most go for lunch in....you guessed it, Tecumseh.

  I would like to be the first to congratulate our "leaders" for hollowing our downtown with short-sighted thinking. But at least we have bars! And empty storefronts.

• In the second picture above, is tht the B&A hotel just left of the woman with the red scarf? It appears to close to the river to be the CIBC building. Just wondering!

• Urbanrat, it is the old BA.

• Great pics! Thanks for posting these. I get very nostalgic looking at the world I lived in as a kid. ....Oh yes, my wife's company is moving out of downtown to Rhodes Dr! Mainly because the dowtown rent is expensive, the landlord doesn't keep up with the maintenance and there's vagrants and crackheads combing the area. Good times.

• Interesting how the signs are all oriented perpendicular to the street - when on foot you could spot a store's sign near or far and blocks away. Now, however, the signage and lettering cant be big enough or tall enough plaster to the face of the building, better viewed from your s.u.v. as you speed past.( ie. previoius post - b.o.m building) How often have you walked past a store front and had to step sideways into the street just to learn the name of the store?

  Also, is that the correct placement of the 'kings highway 18' sign ?