The Detroit
Institute of Arts spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of
the Ford family fortune in the 1980's redesigning its front
entrance with fountains, expensive masonry, and landscaping.
Today that area is routinely used as a parking lot blocking
vistas to the sculptures and pedestrian traffic while oil
staining and breaking the brick walkways.
Detroit
Institute of Arts
How does decay begin?
The Fabulous Ruins
of Detroit all began as sparkling edifices, the fulfillment
of the dreams of their architects and developers.
Their end did not
come suddenly, as part of some natural disaster or war.
Instead it resulted from an accumulated lack of basic aesthetic
sensibility. A small thing left broken here, an indiscretion
of taste there, until a preponderance of damage equals an insoluble
situation. What was revered becomes scorned.
Abandonment and
vandalism follow and the damage becomes irreparable.
