Parallel Johnny

About two weeks ago, The Metro Times ran an article about two Chi-town residents who came to Detroit on assignment for the NYTimes and were completely awe-struck by Detroit. They were so inspired that they decided to make American City: Detroit Architecture 1845-2005.

From the MT article, Still Standing:

According to Sharoff and Zbaren, what makes Detroit so interesting is that its architects have looked to the East Coast for inspiration. In a lot of ways, you could transplant our buildings in lower Manhattan, and they’d fit New York’s proportions. They say we’re a Midwestern city with extreme beaux-arts elegance and art deco attitude, and we’re also modernist to the max.

The building that started this: the recently reopened-to-the-public Guardian Building. It just so happened that about a month ago, my friend Lisa made a visit to the building to take some pictures. While there, she met Shawn Santo and Kevin Borsay, The founders of Pure Detroit and the recently opened Rowland Cafe. Lisa received much more than some photos. She had a ‘private seminar’ with the two, learning all there is to know about The Guardian as well as Wirt Rowland, whom the Cafe is in honor of (The Guardian’s architect).

There has been a great buzz going around for the book, Santo, Borsay and Detroit architecture. The Free Press recently interviewed Sharoff and Zbaren, the author and photographer of American City. WDET interviewed Shawn Santo on the weekly cuisine spot, Ala Carte. And there was also a local news spot for the book found here.

Sharoff and Zbaren on aWDET news spot:

They think that if it’;s here [Detroit], it can’t be great. We had so many people who were like, we’re sorry you have to be here almost. A very strange attitude. What is that all about?

I have had so many people say, I’m so sorry you had to come to Detroit. And I say, I’m so proud to be here. I’m so honored to be here.

Sharoff and Zbaren will be at the Rowland Cafe in the Guardian building for a book signing. Also there will be live music by Blackman and Arnold. It all happens this Wednesday 12/14 12/21 from 11:30 am - 2:30 pm. Show some support for Detroit and be there.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 11th, 2005 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Detroit, News, Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.