ReadyMade: Instructions for everyday life

Lately I’ve been immersed in Colum McCann’s novel, “Let the Great World Spin.” The story revolves around the lives of several different New York City residents during the summer of 1974, when Philipe Petit decided to tie a tightrope between the then uncompleted World Trade Center Towers and take a stroll.

Anyone who has seen the 2008 documentary, Man on Wire, by James Marsh, has a sense of what it must have been like to actually witness the epic event. Of course, seeing it from the comfort of a movie theater or curled up on your couch can’t come close to standing on the streets of lower Manhattan on a muggy August morning and seeing a spec step off a 1,368 foot tall building onto a thin steel cable. Still, the film does a decent job. But I’m tempted to say that McCann’s description in “Let the Great World Spin” does it one better.

On a recent flight back east from California, I dug into the chapter, “Etherwest.” Here, McCann paints the picture of some computer hackers in Silcon Valley calling pay phones in Manhattan’s financial district in hopes of getting someone to pick up and give them the play by play of Petit’s walk. During this reading I was struck by what I found so amazing about this feat. Obviously it was an incredible physical undertaking and an adventure unlike any other. More than that though, I was taken with the fact that Petit took this amazing risk for seemingly no other reason other than to see if it could be done. To see what is possible. To see what would happen.

Much like Petit’s walk atop New York, the city of Detroit sparks similar emotions in me. I visited the city a few weeks back and it never ceases to amaze me so I thought I’d share some of my photographs from this recent excursion.

Dutch artist Jimini Hignett carved this piece from discarded scraps from a burnt out house in Detroit this past summer.

Speramus Meliora Resurget Cineribus is the city’s slogan. In Latin, It means “We Hope For Better Things; It Shall Rise from the Ashes.”

The slogan is prominent on the city’s flag—a reminder that if ever there was a time for a slogan to ring true, now would be it. Everyone has heard the stories of the epic destruction that has taken place in Detroit over the past 30 years but it’s still shocking to see in person. But what has always resonated more with me is the amount of energy, creativity, and enthusiasm that exists in the midst of so much devastation.

The Heidelberg Project has been perhaps the shining example of all this. Created by Tyree Guyton in 1986, the project has expanded to encompass blocks of Heidelberg Street and even crept around the corner onto Mt. Elliot Street and Elba Place…

and drifts from house to house and lot to lot…

and even tree to tree…

Perhaps inspired by Guyton, artists and makers of all sorts have been taking inspiration from the city and putting their work on public display. Native Detroiter, Mitch Cope and his wife Gina Reichert have been doing incredible work in the city for years now. (Below, photos from the couple’s series “Alley Weeds” now on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts.)

Mitch picked some of his favorite plants from the alleys throughout Detroit this past summer and Gina photographed them.

Their latest undertaking, The Powerhouse Project, fuses their uncanny ability to take what’s been left behind with their need to create something unique and in doing so, given the city something entirely new to think about: renewable energy.

As the duo state on their site, the goal of the project is “to develop a model home. The house, as an architectural experiment, will work as a prototype example or model home for what is possible in the current atmosphere of cheap housing in the city. What does it take to create a truly affordable, secure, sustainable house for under $99,000?”

‘Non-sanctioned” art in many different forms is popping up all over Detroit. Led by writer and Detroit enthusiast, Toby Barlow, my fellow tourists and I rolled through Belle Isle , Detroit’s Fredrick Law Olmstead-designed city park, and stumbled upon this ice sculpture that was engulfing a tree…

And though we didn’t get a chance to see it, the Ice House Detroit (below) created by photographer Gregory Holm and architect Matthew Radune is another amazing example of the types of things being done in the city now that make you question everything you thought you knew about a place and cities in general.

A thorough reexamination of what a city is, was, and could be is underway in Detroit and the possibilities seem endless. Obviously there are major issues to be dealt with but for those with an idea and the drive to realize it there isn’t a better place to be in the United States right now. (Below, the evolving Eastern Market—part of Detroit’s ongoing revitalization.)

Detroit represents an opportunity to completely rethink what purpose a dense urban center serves in the 21st century and what shape it might take. I believe the next few years will see a true renewal in the city. And not in any contrived, idealistic, New Urbanist manner, but rather in a real, meaningful way that will help guide cities of all shapes and sizes in the years to come. It’s hard to imagine a more ReadyMade city so please, keep an eye out over the next few months for our future involvement there. And while I saw A LOT over my three days there, I couldn’t capture everything that happened and I’m sure I missed some things so by all means, let us know what we need to see.