Mies van der Rohe Invades Detroit!

Hello Cameron...Cameron....total Ferris Buehler

the apartments above have (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) facinated me ever since my friend Neil Meredith showed them to me a few years ago. I always remember them, but never actually went into the actual complex. These things are amazing. I only wish I could have gotten inside these minimal masterpieces. Here's the excerpt from a website.

Lafayette Park’s Chicago developers imported modern masters of architecture and planning to design a new community for Detroit. The master plan, one of Hilberseimer’s best, distributes high-and low-rise housing across expansive superblocks – large blocks created by closing streets. The Pavilion Apartments (1958) and Lafayette Towers (1963) exemplify Mies’s trademark attention to form, proportion, and detail. Nearly 200 units of two-story townhouses and one-story courtyard houses were arranged around cul-de-sacs, as the overall development frames a central municipal park. In its now mature landscape context, the modern masters’ formula achieves its most engaging and timeless potential.

I can't tell if people in Detroit even know these things exist. It seems like a lot of architecture in Detroit just gets ignored because everyone is driving. I didn't get a chance to do any biking while I was there. I did however take some pretty interesting cruises down 6 and 7 mile which proved to be a little disheartening. The photos I took about four years ago for some reason seemed to be a better attempt at capturing the flow of the "East Side" of Detroit. What's interesting about the Van Der Rohe complex is that its basically a 15 minute walk from downtown Detroit and yet its nestled in this plush woodsy sanctuary!

Here's some more of his work in Chicago!