deTROIT.

I did a little road trip to Detroit this weekend with friends from Flint. Hit up the downtown core including The Heidelberg Project, Belle Isle (which had a fantastic glass conservatory bursting with plant growth), did a loop on The People Mover, explored the local Historical Museum; a museum piece itself with cheery placards from more optimistic days-gone-by. 

Detroit has all the glory of an older city with a surprising amount of art deco architecture still remaining. Recently I've been working through William Dendy's Lost Toronto, a book detailing outstanding architecture from Toronto's past that no longer stands. Detroit seems to have retained much of the period styles of architecture that Toronto lost - is this due to the fact that the former's economic decline started from the outset of the 50's, during a collection of decades when outdated buildings were pulled down to make way for modern (mostly) blandness? Despite its present condition and lack of economy present, Detroit's an interesting city, and one worth checking out. 

Saturday evening we made our way to Ann Arbor's University of Michigan campus (beautiful, by the way) for a show at a local bar. Ann Arbor seems to have a similar vibe to Toronto, only on a smaller scale, and this is rather appealing. Did some crowd sketching, which included the perennial demographic of local hipsters and a fantastic dancer. Enjoy!