06/14/06 - David Broderick Tower
The Broderick Tower has been neck & neck with the train station for a long time competing for the #1 building I wanted to go into. We scouted it one day and now that Tony's back was capable of climbing...we were headed back.
Eaton Tower began construction in 1926 and finished in 1928. In 1945, David Broderick, an insurance broker, purchased the building and named it after himself. The building began to gain vacancy in the 80's until it was nearly completely vacated in 1985, saving one bar which remained opened on the first floor until 2005.
Broderick Tower stands out near Comerica, if only for it's 114m elevation; but many of you also, may recognize it as the building with the large whales painted on the side.
The Broderick Tower enlightened by the Comerica night lights. Since the Devil Rays were getting beat up pretty bad in the game; I was focusing a lot of energy towards this building and just licking my chops.
I imagine I must have annoyed
Roach with my Detroit talk.
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The next day I was looking back
to where I was looking the night before; this time in a room full of old papers
& dust as opposed to friends, nachos & beer.
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Tony was excited by the amount
of stuff left behind on most floors. Sometimes there's very little left in
buildings and it was interesting to rummage about the valuables left behind.
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Who the hell is Siren? Any
help Scott?
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oooohhhh, Chevette!
I found one of these fancy
pictures with a Camaro first, then broke out laughing when I spotted the
Chevette one.
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The center of each floor had a
mail slot to send mail down to the lobby.
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It's 1981 and the Saudis aren't happy.
15¢ newspaper anyone?
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The next room over had this machine.
Your guess is as good as mine as
to what it is...but I will tell you I had fun making noises and changing the
dials.
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X-ray machine.
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In the room with the x-ray
machine, there was plenty of medication. I threw one out the window and it
sailed perfectly onto the Woodward Avenue sidewalk.
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Satellite.
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A typewriter and some other
device that made these metal pieces with information stamped on them (see
below)...
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Said metal stamps.
Shout out to Big Beaver Road.
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Brenda Vaughn forgot her Detroit
College of Business plaque.
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With the Broderick Tower being a
parallelogram not spanning much width; each floor basically had the main central
staircase and a hallway around the staircase with rooms coming out from the
hallway.
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The same hallway without using a flash.
This was an average amount of
light...some floors were slightly darker and some were slightly brighter.
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I don't know about Tony, but
this painting threw me off when I turned & saw it.
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Many places in the building had
drywall walls and people threw concrete, metal and even doors into the soft
material.
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Old IBM machinery.
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Files, files and more files.
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Reagan is impatient with Libya.
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Signage on a dark upper floor.
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I believe it was the 30th floor that we found the elevator resting in suspension. I tried to kick the floor hard (while grabbing onto something), but it didn't move at all.
Look at that old-school floor
dial.
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Prevalent throughout this
building were Survival Supplies Drinking Water. I remember seeing this
like 2 years ago and wanting to find it and am now excited that I did.
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A drinking fountain and a fan.
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I felt that I was getting too
many pictures of actual objects and not what the floors looked like...so I
decided to snap a couple, including this one where vandals didn't take nicely to
the drywall.
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The washroom was indeed the
women's washroom and we both wondered what a "whisper-soft fabric cover"
was...too bad someone had looted the nickels from the machine already.
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When David Broderick purchased
the building in 1945, he created a club on the 33rd floor to entertain guests.
Tony & I were both very impressed with this bar and other amenities...
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Like this wallpaper featuring a giant picture of Detroit...along with someone notifying us where we were.
Also, I may know a bit about
Detroit, but I got a D this day because I couldn't even spot one demolished
building...it didn't help half the wallpaper was torn off either though.
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The floor also featured about 6
or 7 balconies where you could walk out into a small area and take in the
city...this must have been the spot back in the day.
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Black tile shower on the 33rd
floor.
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A look at the bar area from one
of the balconies.
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Another look at one of those
balconies.
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It seems that KRAKHEAD must have been a guess of Davey Broderick...
too bad David Broderick died in
1959...
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The 33rd floor fire place.
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Anyway, enough lampin in the
penthouse...up another floor and we find most of the machinery; including the
machines which moved the elevators and their cables.
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A small window illuminates a
small portion of machinery...how they're going to get this stuff out in a couple
months is beyond me...
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The rooftop; somewhat small, but
with a spectacular view
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Looking west you could see Tiger
Stadium and the Train Station.
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Looking Northeast (?), you have
quite a good view of Comerica Park.
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In fantasy I have Julio Lugo and I was happy to see him out there...too bad this is with the maximum zoom on my camera.
Also, I named this picture Julio
Lugo, so that hopefully he Googles his name one day and sees a picture of
himself taken from the roof of an abandoned building in Detroit.
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Looking up Woodward you can see
the State & Fox theatre.
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Looking east we can see Belle
Isle.
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Tony was wondering if that
white spec in the middle was the Lakeshore Tecumseh water
tower; but I believe it's just the one that's located in the east end of
Windsor.
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Sitting on the roof you achieved
a weird feeling as you normally aren't eye level with buildings such as the
Fisher & the Ren Cen.
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Looking to the right of the
Renaissance Center, you can see the Casino Windsor looking really small.
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Taking a look down on Woodward you get a feel for how high up you are.
Also you can see the people mover
moving by.
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My vehicle is in this picture...good luck spotting it.
Also, I can spot 4 abandoned
buildings in this picture...and that's just with my limited Detroit knowledge.
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Looking up Woodward.
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A panoramic of Detroit from the
roof of the Broderick.
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Looking across Woodward we can
see the (also abandoned) David Whitney building & it's interesting hollowed
polygon shape.
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As we made our way down we
encountered a few more interesting rooms...this being full of blueprints.
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Purple Shag Carpet.
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Signage.
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Random Junk Room...
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Unidentified contraption
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Two rooms separated by
sliding doors.
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Many times people will ask if I encounter bums when I enter these places. Well, there's abandoned buildings notorious for being wide open and bums would probably rather live there then have to climb like us to live in a place like the Broderick.
Nevertheless, there was a
homeless man's possessions...but these could have been here for years.
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An optometrists office complete
with thick-ass lenses and frames.
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Meredith Higggins cheque...
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Red Sox won't retain Tony Armas...
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A better, up-close look at the
whale mural.
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An octopus that I never noticed
before.
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I've always thought this was crazy. This IAGO ESAU roller has been here for years and I've always respected it because of it's size and location.
I remember watching the All-Star
game and seeing this roller on network television wondering what ESAU or IAGO
would think about it. Thankfully, a motion to replace the whales with
advertisements has been turned down 4-2, so the whales and this IAGO ESAU should
remain.
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Tony standing on the 8th floor
roof of the Madison glaring up at the Broderick's 34 floors.
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This roof actually provided a bit better view because it was closer...but again, this is with my camera fully zoomed in.
Go Jonny Gomes!
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Being on that roof was sort of noticeable, so we left within 10 minutes or so and headed down.
The last interesting item we saw
was this roof on the first floor; imagine years ago entering the lobby for this
giant and being greeted by these beautiful details. I'm sure it'll all be
gutted for something more "modern."
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Today the Broderick is under serious plans for renovation with the building being converted into lofts. The construction and removal of material is to begin late July/early August; hence why I was somewhat in a hurry to witness this beauty while I still have a chance.
Sources of Information:
1. Emporis
Buildings
2.
Friched.net
3.
SkyscraperPage.com
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JurajKolnikIsElite@GMail.com
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