Recently, I talked to Khalilah Burt Gaston of the State of Michigan Land Bank, who gave me the updated news on their nascent deconstruction program in Detroit.

So for everyone out there, this is the report I was given:

The Michigan State Land Bank is moving forwards with their plans to start deconstructing instead of demolishing homes in the Detroit area. They have sent a Request For Proposals to 8 or 9 local nonprofits to do the first phase of work, and these are due back around July 21. The first phase of deconstruction work will involve 9 homes, of which the Ice House Detroit project property is one. So the Ice House Detroit house will be deconstructed during the month of August or early September.

As a reminder, Gregory and I stipulated with the State of Michigan Land Bank that deconstruction of the house be one of the conditions upon which our contractual lease of the house, and our financial contribution to them, would be based.

Matthew

Demolition sounds great, but in my knowledge, American urban history does not look kindly on population relocation, whatever the reasoning, because its always political who is being moved, whether for a new highway, new developments, or any other reason. There's always a good chance the people making the decisions for relocation are not the ones being relocated. It affects the integrity and history of neighborhoods and cities alike.

When Mayor Bloomberg of New York City made 220 people including myself homeless in 2007 by allowing a forced "evacuation" of a loft building with 5 hours notice, I certainly thought there were other options that could have been explored. I feel like there are other options in this case also, and will be curious to see what happens.

-Matthew

Detroit spring demolition begins April 1 2010

Today Mayor Dave Bing began to make good on his promise of tearing down 3,000 vacant buildings before the end of the year. Crews started early this morning in the Delray neighborhood at 1123 Lewerenz St and as of an hour ago the crew had moved on to their second demolition site near the intersection of 14th St. and Martin Luther King.

Recently, two separate surveys revealed that nearly 1 in 3 Detroit lots are either vacant or abandoned.

The Detroit Data Collaborative's block-by-block analysis of about 343,849 residential parcels found that about 64 percent contained occupied housing, nearly 10 percent had vacant homes and more than 26 percent were empty lots.

The survey conducted in August and September found 219,511 occupied homes, 33,529 vacant homes and 91,488 vacant lots. It also said 86 percent of homes appeared to be in good condition, while another 9 percent needed minor repairs.

Whereas most homes in disrepair are demolished, the Michigan State Land Bank has repeated that it is their intention to deconstruct the Ice House Detroit property on McClellan St. Theirs is a unique project that disassembles rather than deconstructs homes so that the materials can be reused and recycled.

Also today, on what feels like the first day of spring in New York, Matthew and me met to discuss the book design which we are beginning to lay out. The book will document the production process of the Ice House Detroit installation from beginning to end, including stories from Ice House neighbors. The book will be given as a reward to those that donated to our project and will also be made available through local channels.

With the opening of tomorrow's event there has also been a bit of reflection regarding all of those that have contributed to our successful project.
I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone that extended themselves: from The ARD TV in Germany to local resident Michael T. Jones that lives in the abandoned school across the street, a brilliant conversationalist that could use a hand.

It is with the highest regard that I thank all of the local Detroit support- there are so many. But if it were not especially for David Runk, Philip Cooley, Erica Hill, Tom Stoye, and the Michigan State Land bank, this project would not have gone off in the same manner, if at all.

It should be noted that The Michigan State Land Bank's Executive Director Carrie Lewand-Monroe, and Development Specialist Khalilah Burt both extended themselves for a community based project in a manner that is not so commonly seen in other states. It is because of their continued interest in community stabilization, and their goal of fostering the development of the blighted, tax reverted properties that they got behind our project from the very beginning.
I am extremely pleased to hear that it is still the State's intention to go ahead with the deconstruction rather than the demolition of the property at 3920 McClellan St.
If they have continued interest in working with us on the property, we hope to lease it in the future, and to further it's use as a beacon for constructive dialog between the far east side residents and those outside the city limits.

To the Michigan State Land Bank- thank you for keeping Michigan a productive State.

art update

It has been nearly two weeks since our return to Brooklyn. The drum scans of the 8x10 images are back and here is one of the images. I have been editing the 35mm film which was shot and I should have this completed just in time for the debut on March 4th at the Scope Art Fair in New York. Although it was transfered to High Definition, the initial viewing will not be in HD. The soundtrack is a collaboration between myself and Jeffrey Williams - think bowed gamelan, cymbals, and glasses. It is quite beautiful. It is my intention to find a venue where an actual gamelan will perform live to the film. ~Greg