1st Footage Posting

Combing through footage shot earlier this year in Detroit, I came across this shot my camera operator, Skip Erickson, grabbed while we were scouting around the mostly abandoned Brush Park neighborhood.  I hadn’t planned on posting any footage publicly, but this just seemed too amazing not to share.

That cluster of cylindrical buildings is the Renaissance Center.  It was built in 1976 with the hope that it would live up to its name and reverse the downward trend in Detroit’s prospects since the 1967 riots.  Instead, it sat partially occupied representing a massive failure in urban planning.  It had come as close as ever to fulfilling the dream with its purchase and renovation by GM in 1996, finally sparking a trend of corporate re-investment in downtown Detroit.  

But now, as we enter what may finally be the twilight of GM and the automotive industry, the irony of a symbolic beacon of hope being highlighted in a way such as this is rather amazing.