The petition we’ve made possible here will be presented at the hearing and to the Detroit media.

I want to personally thank all that signed.

Keep your fingers crossed. I will know the outcome of the hearing on the 29th and will post back as soon as I know something.

Thanks again, everyone!

Walter Victor

Whitney Warren was a cousin of the Vanderbilts and spent ten years at the École des Beaux Arts. There he met fellow architecture student Emmanuel Louis Masqueray, who would, in 1897, join the Warren and Wetmore firm. He began practice in New York City in 1894.

Warren’s partner, Charles D. Wetmore, was a lawyer by training. Their society connections led to commissions for clubs, private estates, hotels and terminal buildings, including the New York Central office building, the Chelsea docks, the Ritz-Carlton, Biltmore, Commodore, and Ambassador Hotels. They were the preferred architects for Vanderbilt’s New York Central Railroad.

The firm’s most important work by far is the Grand Central Terminal in New York City, completed in 1913 in association with Reed and Stem. Warren and Wetmore were involved in a number of related hotels in the surrounding “Terminal City”.

Whitney Warren retired in 1931 but occasionally served as consultant. Warren took particular pride in his design of the reconstructed library at the Catholic University of Leuven, finished in 1928, which carried the controversial inscription Furore Teutonico Diruta: Dono Americano Restituta (“Destroyed by German fury, restored by American generosity”) on the facade. The library was largely destroyed by German forces again in 1940.

The architectural records of the firm are held by the Dept. of Drawings & Archives at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.

Among the firm’s other commissions were:

• The Racquet House at the Tuxedo Club, Tuxedo Park, New York, 1890-1900
• The New York Yacht Club, 1899
• 49 East 52nd Street, Vanderbilt guest house, New York City, 1908
• Union Station (Winnipeg), Manitoba, Canada, 1911
• Union Station, Houston, Texas 1911 (Now a part of Minute Maid Park)
• Aeolian Hall (New York), 1912
• The Helmsley Building, originally the New York Central Building, part of the Grand Central Terminal complex, 1913
• The unfinished Michigan Central Station, Detroit, Michigan, 1913, also with Reed and Stem
• The Texas Company (Texaco) Building, Houston, Texas, 1915
• 927 Fifth Avenue, New York City, a cooperative apartment house, 1917
• The Commodore Hotel, now the Grand Hyatt Hotel, part of “Terminal City”, 1920
• The New York Biltmore Hotel, also part of “Terminal City”
• The Crown Building, formerly the Heckscher Building, New York City, 1921
• The Providence Biltmore Hotel, Providence, Rhode Island, 1922
• The Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D.C., 1922, with Robert F. Beresford
• Steinway Hall on 57th Street, New York City, 1925
• Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1927
• Asbury Park Convention Hall, 1923, and the adjoining Paramount Theatre, 1930
• The Chelsea Piers

Material from Wikipedia and all text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

He said, “I know Americans love their cars and no one’s talking about replacing the automobile.  But this is something that can be done.”

There are 10 corridors which could receive federal funding.  Some them are:

• A Chicago hub network, which Obama called “something close to my heart” in reference to his adopted hometown, linking much of Midwest, including Toledo and Detroit with Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Louisville, Ky.
• A California corridor, from Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay area to Los Angeles and San Diego.
• A southeast corridor, linking Washington, D.C., with Atlanta and Jacksonville, Fla., and other points along the way.
• A northern New England corridor, from Boston to Montreal but with links to Portland, Maine; New Haven, Conn., and elsewhere.

Now this to me sounds like an excellent reason to keep the Michigan Central Station right where it is.  The station is not in downtown Detroit, but, it is close enough to be made use of in my opinion.

Most airplane and train trips these days involve some sort of lay-over.  If not a lay-over, you’re train leaves at 4:30AM.  Who wants to get on anything that leaves at that time?  Some of the office space in the Depot could be used for accomodations for those wishing to arrive the night before their departure or spend a lay-over in a room instead of a waiting room.

There have been arguments in favor of the high speed rail and against it.  I have a feeling it’s going to happen and what an opportunity for Detroit and the Station.

I put out the word to friends and collegues.  I also emailed Stanley Christmas about the site and he seemed overyjoyed by the support.

The fact is…sigh… it’s not getting signed.  The petition is one of only a few things I can do from Wisconsin.

Please find a couple of minutes and lend your signature to the petition.  It might not make any difference, but what if it did

Click to sign: Save Michigan Central Station Petition