Buzz

We found this dandy report on the Michigan Radio site, and thought "it's about time that Hostel Detroit and its general manager, Michel Soucisse, some more love.

An excerpt:

One of (Soucisse's) guests is Chloe Dietz, a student who goes to school in Portland, Oregon who grew up in Brooklyn, Michigan. She’s on a cross country tour by train. Another guest is Jonathan Dowdall who is an artist from Canada.
Dowdall says Detroit’s art scene drew him to the city.

“Detroit has always had a mythical presence in my mind and I’ve always imagined it a certain way. I really wanted to come here and see on the ground what it was like, in particular street art,” Dowdall says.

Our first stop on the trip is an outdoor street art project on the East Side of Detroit called the Heidelberg project created by artist Tyree Guyton.

Read on here.

Those of us who grew up in print media are thrilled to see the return of the letterpress and real, non-virtual graphic design in a physical form. Like what's being produced in Eastern Maket at Signal-Return and Salt & Cedar, or 44FortyFour Studio in the Green Garage, or at Ponyride's Stukenborg Press.

An excerpt from the Detroit News: 

The first new letterpress to set up in Detroit was Signal-Return in Eastern Market, a combination print shop and retail store founded in November 2011 by a group associated with Team Detroit, the Dearborn-based ad agency. Team Detroit chief creative officer Toby Barlow says the memory of letterpress is still deeply embedded in advertising's DNA.

"I've been in advertising 20 years," Barlow says, "and have seen the transition from mechanical marketing to the digital age of marketing. To remind us of our roots, Signal-Return seemed like a good idea. The passion of the craftsman is something I think advertising really needs to hold onto."

Read more here.

Model D contributor Francis Grunow, a consultant with the New Solutions Group, recently took part in a Q&A with Next City, talking about the book Detroit City is the Place to Be. 

An excerpt: 

Francis Grunow: The place to start with discussing (the book) is the idea that people and policymakers in Detroit are looking for something prescriptive. Detroit’s problems are so big that it’s really hard to put your mind around them. I get why (author Binelli) sort of punts, but it also bothered me. I think the city and its people are used to being told what our problems are, and I think there is a tendency to feel like these problems have a single answer.

Right on, tiger. Go get 'em.

Read on here.

Late in 2012, we featured a news item on an intriguing business idea in Corktown -- the city's first nano-brewery. Like most cool indie commercial projects, it could use some seed money.

An excerpt: 

Turns out, opening a brewery is pretty effing expensive. And while banks are tripping over themselves to lend money to startups like this, we thought we'd take our efforts right to the people: our friends, family, and community.

We feel you. Read more here.

Social entrepreneurial whiz kid Andy Didorosi, founder of the Detroit Bus Company, has a dandy new renant for a foreclosed gas station he bought at auction. It's Lisa Waud, an Ann Arbor-based biz whiz in the process of relocation to Detroit. Sounds like a groovy collab in the works. 

Excerpt:

Lisa's goal is to get Pot & Box open near the end of the year, though patrons looking for a taste of what's to come are very much in luck. She's teaming up with Andy to host venders from all across Detroit for a Valentine's Day Market at the gas station. Pot & Box will be selling flowers (Lisa mentions an old ice cream truck she's repurposing for the task) while merchants like City Bird will set up under a giant tent out front.

Read more in Curbed Detroit here.

Our favorite extravagant but hardly reckless spender Dan Gilbert is ahead of the pack again, hinting that once the M-1 is fully developed (by 2016) more Woodward corridor retail will be waiting for it.

Excerpt from the Detroit News:

And Gilbert, one of downtown's major employers and private land owners, said his group has "definitely gotten commitments" from retailers who will be ready for business when the M-1 debuts.

"That's the goal as we work behind the scene, versus just taking a rough shot of opening one (retail store) at a time here and there," Gilbert said. He would not specify which retailers have made commitments.

Since August 2010, Gilbert's portfolio of companies has moved 7,000 workers downtown.

Rock Ventures owns 15 properties and is working on buying its 16th at 1001 Woodward, across the street from Campus Martius and Quicken Loans' headquarters in the Compuware Building.

For more, go here.

It's always nice to see smart, new businesses get a nod in the dailies. We were happy to see the Freep catch up to three of our faves last week. 

An excerpt:

Up this week? Three independent stores in Detroit.

Two are located in Midtown and the other is in Eastern Market.

Among them you can find Stormy Kromer wool hats, fabulous notecards and wrapping paper, cuff links made from Tiger baseballs, vintage Playboy magazines and barware, tablecloths and linens, and home accessories with a Scandinavian flair.

Read on here.

Chicago art dealer and collector David Lusenhop, who has been working and now living in a studio space belonging to former Hamtramck mayor Gary Zych, has been hunting down notable works of revolutionary African-American Americana for the past 12 years.

The coveted collection -- 44 works by 26 artists -- was just acquired by the Brooklyn Museum, reports the New York Times:

When the curator of American art at the Brooklyn Museum began work on an exhibition to coincide with next year’s anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, she happened on a trove of works from the Black Arts Movement, the cultural arm of the black power movement of the 1960s and 1970s. This was an area of the art market long neglected but recently attracting attention. Great stuff.

Read more here.

We've been all over the growing companies', startup and gazelle scene centered around downtown's M@dison building. It's a thrill all the same to see it reported from afar, this time in the UK's Guardian.

An excerpt: 

"It is pretty exciting," said Jim Xiao, a financial analyst for Detroit Venture Partners, the driving force behind the M@dison and an investor in new tech firms in the city.

Xiao, a 24-year-old who evaluates tech firms for DVP to finance, has trouble concealing his enthusiasm. He lives in one of the converted buildings nearby, socialises at the new downtown bars and has a keen sense of mission about tech's role in the city's future. "Where else in the country can you make an actual impact on a whole city when you are in your 20s?" he said.

Read more here.

Three years ago, California art mag Juxtapoz hooked up with the Power House Productions team in NoHam to re-do some homes in need on Moran St. This month's edition of the magazine includes a sweet overview of the project.

An excerpt:

Juxtapoz invited Swoon, Retna, Ben Wolf, Richard Colman, Monica Canilao, and Saelee Oh to paint and reimagine the residences.
 
Three years later, the neighborhood is beginning to take shape, and this past summer, the Ride It Sculpture Skate Park was built on four vacant commercial lots along East Davison Freeway, another creative endeavor that fuses art and community.

Lots more to see and read here.

Creative Capital recently announced its 2013 project grants in the categories of Emerging Fields, Literature and the Performing Arts, representing a total of 46 funded projects by 66 artists hailing from 17 states and Puerto Rico.

Among the grantees were Gina Reichert and Mitch Cope of Design 99. Creative Capital’s investment in each project includes up to $50,000 in direct financial support (disbursed at key points over the life of each project), plus more than $40,000 in advisory services, making the total 2013 investment more than $4,140,000. Wow.

To check out Mitch Cope and Gina Reichert's project, go here.

This one day event is at the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel, Feb. 2. It includes four tracks of instruction and learning: Intro to iOS, iOS Design, Advanced Programming and User Engagement.

For more info -- including how to apply, and the complete schedule -- go here.

Nice to see the world re-discovering -- or discovering for the first time -- the simple residential charms of the Mies van der Rohe towers and townhomes. Fast Company's Co.Design noticed.

An excerpt:

Nestled in a leafy neighborhood adjacent to downtown, Lafayette Park is a collection of high rises and townhouses designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1962. As Detroit suffered the roller coaster of the 1970s and '80s, the community has remained conspicuously healthy and diverse--a mix of old and young, black and white, professional and creative. In short, it’s a holy grail of 20th-century Modern architecture.

Good stuff. Read on here.

Motor City Brew Tours and Show Me Detroit Tours will partner to present four Detroit Automotive & Brewery History Tours on Saturday, Jan. 19 and 26, during the 2013 North American International Auto Show. Tours start at 11 a.m. and at 3 p.m.

The 3.5 hour bus tours will look at Detroit then and now, including Downtown and Midtown today, early brewing history, the Eastern Market, the Packard Plant, the Ford Piquette Plant, architect Albert Kahn’s work, and the brewery and dairy operations at the Traffic Jam & Snug Restaurant in Midtown.

According to Kim Rusinow and Pat Haller, Show Me Detroit Tours co-founders, interest is higher than ever in seeing and understanding Detroit’s rich history, as well as its current challenges and triumphs. It’s a tale of two cities as greater Downtown continues to attract new residents, workers, visitors and investors while many neighborhoods seek a viable 21st century reuse.

Steve Johnson, Motor City Brew Tours founder, noted that the tours will make a brief stop to view a video presentation at the Ford Piquette Plant -- the city’s most authentic automotive site and the birthplace of Henry Ford’s iconic Model T. Ticket sales will support restoration efforts at the Piquette Plant -- with $5 donated for every tour ticket purchased.

The $39.95 tour ticket price includes expert historical commentary, guided bus transportation, admission at the Ford Piquette Plant, and a brewery tour with sampling and light appetizers at the Traffic Jam & Snug. Tickets must be purchased in advance online. Tour guests must be 21 and over. Both tour companies offer gift certificates for gift-giving.

The tours will start and end in front of the Detroit Fire Department Headquarters Building directly across from Cobo Center at the corner of Washington Boulevard and Larned streets (250 W. Larned, Detroit).

A "tiny forest" on the largely cemented shores of downtown Detroit, Hart plaza to be exact? We like it. It's the winning proposal in a design competition for ideas on how to maximize the Detroit riverfront.

An exerpt from co.design:
 
The idea is to create a space, separated visually from the city, that can facilitate interactions of all sizes. Small attractions can be interspersed throughout the woods, while an open space called the knoll is intended as a central meeting place for larger activities. "In our proposal," Yoon and Yoo explain, "the important idea we focus on is not the types of activities but the scales of them. Many small components of the forest, such as sculptures, trails, or small bridges will be able to hold small scale activities. On the other hand, the knoll, a big open space, will hold large scale activities, such as concerts, screenings, or theatrical performances with magnificent background of forest."

Read more here.