DecoJim's photostream  

I grew up in Troy, Michgan. During my childhood Lego was by far my favorite toy.
I obtained a BS in Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

I have been interested in architecture, especially that of Detroit, for a long time. Unfortunately I had little interest in photography until recently so I missed out on a lot of opportunities to photograph buildings that are now gone or are in a ruinous state. I only took a few pictures with a cheap camera. I may scan then in and post them even if they have little merit as photography.

I have recently begun to build with Lego again. I had given up Lego around the age when most kids had - at about 15 years old. Many years later I have started up again and I find the act of building to be a theraputic release of stress. I have combined my interest in Detroit architecture with the Lego to create some replicas of some of the buildings of Detroit. I have other interests but these are the ones that I choose to share via flickr.

I have a few Detroit memories that perhaps some people who are familiar with the area might find slightly interesting.

My fraternal grandparents were members of the Detroit Boat Club. I remember exploring every inch of that very interesting (Spanish revival) building and attending the Sunday afternoon brunches in the dining room. It was like a trip back in time with white patrons being served by black waiters. Later we would look at all the boats and yachts in the marina. I find it very sad that this fine structure is now abandonded and decaying.

I remember a trip to the downtown Hudsons around 1970 to see "Santa Claus" just before Christmas. I bought my stero system from the downtown Hudsons around 1983; it still works. It was also sad to see the store close and later suffer the indignity of the the largest implosion in demolition history.

My father is a member of the Marine Historical Society of Detroit (MHSD) which used to have meetings at the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle. When I was a teenager, he would take me to a MHSD meetings; driving downtown on Woodward, I recall seeing only a few stores still open, mostly wigshops. The Dossin Museum at the time was full of rows of old ship models; most are gone today, replaced by exhibits apparently designed to appeal to more visitors.

I am not currently an "urban explorer" but I nevertheless I have been inside the Michigan Central Station (MCS) - as a paying Amtrak customer. Of course that was back around 1984 a few years before the station closed; if I had known what was going to happen to the station, I would have taken a copious amount of photographs.