Thursday, November 1, 2007

Grande Inspection Tour

Tuesday October 30 dawned bright and clear. Today was the day that we had arranged for authorized access to the Grande Ballroom. We were expecting a high in the mid-60's in October !
I had been in contact with Emily Jeal, a researcher for the BBC in London. Emily and her production team are making a 1 hour television film on Detroit music. Her request for access to the building could not have been more perfectly timed considering the new partnership with the CHMBC and the F.O.G.
Dr. Smith's office graciously made arrangements for us to meet a representative from the Church at the Grande site.

I arrived at the site a little early to discover Emily and her crew interviewing a certain white haired gentleman on the open field across Beverly. His name was John and he was spinning tales from ages past that had the Brits spellbound.


As we needed certain safety equipment to enter the building, I had asked F.O.G. member Tom Lubinski to pop by. Tom graciously provided hard hats etc. to keep everyone safe from the odd falling plaster nugget.

We were pleasantly surprised to see that the Reverend Dr. Smith himself visited the shoot to meet Emily and company. As we had some time before the interview session was finished, it was decided an "advance inspection team" would tour the building including the Dr. Smith, Tom, Myself and four of CHMBC's trustees and deacons.


I spoke with the Reverend about the water damage and the challenges in sealing the building as tightly as possible while still allowing ventilation. The Reverend was impressed with the remaining architectural details and showed concern for their restoration and or salvage. Mr. Lubinski and I made some suggestions and offered help and donation of materials. I hope to arrange another meeting of concerned parties with the Reverend very soon. We spent about 20 Minutes in the building, then it was time for the next group.



The Reverend and his crew handed off the hard hats to the BBC and we were off. The BBC rolled footage all the way of what turned out to be John Sinclair's first visit to the building since 1972. We tromped through the dark musty lower level to the sound of John's raspy "wow" every so often. Cameras blinking, we ascended the staircase into bright sunlight streaming through the open windows. 39 years ago to the day, and Elektra records and their remote truck were setting up outside to record: MC5 Kick Out the Jams
We talked in whispers as the camera crew stalked John around the ballroom. I would have liked to have talked with John more, but deferred to the BBC and tried to stay out of the way. While cameras were being reloaded, we did manage to chat about the Translove concessions outside Russ Gibb's former office.

The Minister of Preservation with the Minister of Information.



"If these talks could wall"

I hope to get more feedback and reactions from John in the days to come when schedules are not so tight.
Today was the first day for key members to seriously begin assessment of the building's viability. Stay tuned as we continue to work with the CHMBC to hopefully stabilize this asset.

Please continue to respect this property that has suffered greatly over the years at the hands of material scrappers, souvenir hunters and architectural salvagers.


Cheers,

Leo B
Webmaster
Coordinator - Friends of the Grande





Thursday, October 25, 2007

Thank you Rev. Dr. Smith!

Hi All,

Good news from the corner of Joy Rd. and Beverly!
I had an opportunity to visit Reverend Dr. Lamont Smith today at Chapel Hill Missionary Baptist Church. As you may recall, the CHMBC was brought on board late causing a short delay in the nomination of the Grande to the National Historic Registry.
My objective today was to make certain the church had all the information they required to grant or deny permission for historical nomination. Secondly, I wanted to collect information on CHMBC for potential inclusion in the nomination documents.
I must note that Rev.Dr. Smith was very accommodating and hospitable in welcoming me at his office at the Rev. Roy Allen Sr. center. Rev. Dr. Smith is a very warm and engaging gentleman that was very open to suggestions.
I confirmed that he understood the nomination is largely an academic and honorary one. One that just happens to carry with it certain status and tax benefits! I explained that were the church to pursue preserving all or part of the structure, he would have full support of the FOG and Detroit's preservation community. What architect would not want to work on a re-use project for a Charles Agree building ?
Dr. Smith was very pleased with the notion of leveraging such talent and connections to achieve the CHMBC vision.
Dr. Smith agrees that he can and will support the nomination and would like to potentially present a "re-use" project to his congregation during his annual budget speech in December. His only caveat in this initiative is that the building "meet CHMBC's requirements". At this time, he has no reason to believe it does not.
Lastly, I left Dr. Smith with a copy of panel 1 of the Charles Agree blueprint set for the Grande and a proof sheet of the remaining panels. I promised to get him a complete set including a CD of images. We hope to meet regularly.
Oh, and did I mention that at my request he also gave rare permission for a BBC (yes THAT BBC) team to film chaperoned interior shots for an upcoming film on Detroit Music ??

Thank you Rev. Dr. Smith !


Leo

P.S.
Please bear in mind folks that the church gets weekly phone calls from collectors re: artifacts etc. and the Grande is broken into every weekend. Metal scrappers and souvenirs hunters are all the same in the church's opinion. Please do not call the church directly or attempt to trespass in the building. The church does not need to be burdened with this problem.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

New Grande News Blog

Hello Grande Ballroom Mailing Listers,

In an effort to keep everyone up to date with the latest Grande news and press releases, we have created the Grande News Blog.
A blog is essentially a web log or journal of the latest news and information for a particular topic.
You will be able to read the latest Grande news postings via four different methods;
The Home Page:
A scroll window containing our blog posts now appears on the Grandeballroom.com home page...
www.thegrandeballroom.com
Friends of the Grande Page:
A scroll window containing our blog posts now appears on the main F.O.G. page.
Public Information on activities related to this group and the National Historic Registry Project can be found here as well.
http://www.thegrandeballroom.com/FOG_Public.html
The Grande News Blog:
If you use a news reader or like to browse blogs in general, you can subscribe or go directly to the blog here...
http://grandenews.blogspot.com/
Visiting the blog directly allows you to view all video and audio posts that can not be viewed in e-mail, for example.
E-mail updates:
As a mailing list subscriber you will receive an e-mail of each new posting (like the one you are reading). These are infrequent and should average 1 or 2 per month.

Enjoy,


Leo Early
webmaster
www.thegrandeballroom.com