{"id":21453,"date":"2017-07-28T13:54:54","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T13:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/?p=21453"},"modified":"2017-07-28T13:54:54","modified_gmt":"2017-07-28T13:54:54","slug":"impact-project-playground-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/impact-project-playground-detroit\/","title":{"rendered":"Impact Project PLAYGROUND DETROIT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Part of my fantasy was rebuilding or paying homage in some way to the design and the \u2018walls\u2019 of the old warehouse, to enclose a courtyard or common area<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Over the past few months I have been working PLAYGROUND DETROIT as part of my impact project. PLAYGROUND DETROIT<span class=\"s1\">\u00a0works with the top emerging talent including artists, musicians and creative entrepreneurs to support and catalyze the creative sector in Detroit through innovative arts programming. Being an artist working with this organization was a huge goal of mine that I was happy to be a part of. <\/span>The core of the project focused on transforming the outdoor space of their building on Gratiot near Eastern Market. We decided the best way to transform this space was to create an event to introduce to the community the use of the outdoor space. We are also accomplishing the outdoor space activation through a mural competition.<\/p>\n<p>Through the process, it became clear that keeping the history of the building was an important aspect with not only PLAYGROUND DETROIT but also with the landlord.\u00a0Because of this the\u00a0the\u00a0mural competition submissions are asked to work within the history of building and bring it back to life.<\/p>\n<p>In fact one of my favorite parts of this project was\u00a0dissecting the story of the building. PLAYGROUND DETROITS passion to focus on making something the community would enjoy, and the current landlord of the buildings passion for bringing the history of the building to life was infectious. Their excitement was what this project forward and inspired me to\u00a0make sure this mural will come to life with Detroits history in mind, the community in mind and all the people invested in this building in mind.<\/p>\n<p>Below is the story of the building that inspired me through the process.<\/p>\n<p>__________<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Neighborhood:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1920\u2019s &#8211; 1930\u2019s German District<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Church across the street removed tower for widening of Gratiot<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Building across street are older because of the widening<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Most buildings in the area are made with red brick<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mid-1970s &#8211; \u00a0the block had declined significantly, with only a few businesses still operating<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Playground Building:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Built in 1877 as a hardware store<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Glees Exchange<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sold appliances and hardware supplies<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Apartment above by John Glees<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is a ghost mural on the side of the building for Glees Exchange (advertising Laurel Stoves &amp; Ranges)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In the 1990s, the interior of 2845 Gratiot was gutted by fire, and later rebuilt by the previous owner between 2005 and 2010.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Building Next Door:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Built in 1905 by the same family<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Upper floors were used for hardware and stove storage<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Downstairs were rented to a jewelry salesman named Flachsmann<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mid-1940s apartments were added to the upper floors<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This necessitated the removal of the original freight lift and the conversion of the upper floors to residential. It seems there may have been an office up there too. The old freight elevator mechanism is still enclosed in the roof of the building.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 1974, Jimmy Hale bought 2853 Gratiot and kept the apartments occupied for a few years, but they were later abandoned<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">He also opened the now legendary Jimmie\u2019s Bike Shop in the downstairs retail space, which operated there until his death in 2013<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Adjacent Lot:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Otto Shemansky Sons which made headstones for cemeteries. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Beautiful and imposing warehouse building on the site in 1916<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Demolished sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Otto Schemansky lots were foreclosed on and put into the land bank, where I acquired them<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Otto Schemansky Sons still operates a marble works in the city, where they continue to make headstones, on the northeast side.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-21461\" src=\"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/unnamed-2-2-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/unnamed-2-2-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/unnamed-2-2.jpg 680w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-21462 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/unnamed-5-300x189.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/unnamed-5-300x189.jpg 300w, https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/unnamed-5-768x484.jpg 768w, https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/unnamed-5.jpg 812w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Part of my fantasy was rebuilding or paying homage in some way to the design and the \u2018walls\u2019 of the old warehouse, to enclose a courtyard or common area.&#8221; Over the past few months I have been working PLAYGROUND DETROIT as part of my impact project. PLAYGROUND DETROIT\u00a0works with the top emerging talent including artists, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}