A series of photos by James D. Griffioen, on the Planet Mag website, show the “greening” of Motor City, what used to be one of the country’s biggest production centers. In the light of the Moss Graffiti tutorial and the grassy 3D painting piece we saw in the last couple of weeks, this struck me as a stunning (albeit sad in a sense) example of the natural incarnation of the same. I love how the subhead on this post is “Feral Houses in the Motor City.” My favorite is this building below. I can’t help but to wonder what it will look like in a couple of months.
12 thoughts on “Mother Nature’s Detroit Art”
Comments are closed.
ADVERTISEMENT
Join Make: Community Today
I think it’s kind of sad… poor Detroit, poor Michigan…
This home is on a street that once housed among the richest folks in the Detroit area. As a suburban Detroiter and Michigander it deeply sadens me to see this throughout the downtown. This once great place/mecca of industry is no more and most likely never will be if the people if this city keep allowing dirty business dealers and crooks to run it’s city. Good luck to Detroit. :(
I think its beautiful. There can be so much beauty in decay.
I’m guessing you don’t live here? It’s easy to see beauty in something you don’t have to look at everyday. Or worry that this city will never thrive again because shady business people would rather fill their pockets up with cash than try to make this city a better place for it’s citizens to live in. Yeah! Pretty, ha!
It’s sad to see what where once beautiful homes, in a thriving city, decay like this. The photos, & what nature has done, are beautiful in their decay. The economic decline that this decay & the resulting photos represents is sad & unattractive.
I’m a lifelong Detroiter myself, bsrochon, and while there may be no “resurrection” of what the city was, I say, GOOD. We don’t need resurrection of the old. Better we see this as evolution than decay — nothing new can come until we let go of the relics (physical, political and philosophical).
One of the things I love most about Michigan is how green it is here. It may seem particularly poetic to photograph all these formerly grand homes in their states of natural reclamation, but you know… if you leave ANYTHING untouched on the land in Michigan, greenery will overtake it quickly.
It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.