DETROIT, Feb. 2, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Marygrove College, through its Institute for Detroit Studies, presents a Defining Detroit event, "Historic Preservation in Detroit: Aesthetics and Sustainability," on Thursday, February 23, 2006, at 7:30 p.m. in the Madame Cadillac Building. The discussion panelists are Royce A. Yeater, AIA, Midwest Director for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Francis Grunow, Executive Director of Preservation Wayne, and James A. Turner, Michigan Advisor for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Metropolitan Detroit has hundreds of historic buildings, neighborhoods, landmarks and public spaces. Camilo Jose Vergara observed that Detroit's downtown contains the "third-largest concentration of pre-Depression skyscrapers in the world." Some of these buildings are now neglected, leading the National Trust for Historic Preservation to include them on its 2005 list of Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places. (See http://www.nationaltrust.org/11Most/2005/detroit.html.)
Politicians, developers and others have sometimes dismissed preservation efforts as nostalgia. Preservation activists counter that historic preservation not only maintains a region's historical, cultural and aesthetic legacy, but also promotes economic justice and a healthy environment.
Royce A. Yeater, AIA, an architect with an M.A. in Historic Preservation, will address "Preservation and the Revitalization of America's Cities." In 2001, he left his private architectural firm to head the National Trust's Midwest office in Chicago.
Francis Grunow, Executive Director of Preservation Wayne, is a native Detroiter. He is a co-founder of Detroit Synergy (www.detroitsynergy.org) and is on the board of the Cass Tech Alumni Association, Friends of the Book Cadillac, and Transportation Riders United. He will discuss "Preserving Downtown: The Politics of Perseverance."
James A. Turner, an alumnus of Marygrove College, serves on the Boards of the Michigan Preservation Network and Preservation Wayne and is the principal of Turner Restoration, which restores residential and commercial buildings. His presentation will address "Strong Neighborhoods Build Stronger Cities."
This is a "Defining Detroit" event of Marygrove's Institute for Detroit Studies, an interdisciplinary series of public exhibits, lectures, performances, readings and discussions that explore different aspects of Detroit life. Previous presenters include Detroit poet laureate Naomi Long Madgett, novelist Joyce Carol Oates, historian Thomas Sugrue, poet Philip Levine, musical conductor and choirmaster Brazeal Dennard, poet Lawrence Joseph and author and labor activist, Lolita Hernandez.
"Historic Preservation in Detroit: Aesthetics and Sustainability" is free and open to the public.
Marygrove College is a private liberal arts college located at 8425 W. McNichols Rd. in Detroit since 1927. More than 1,200 students attend classes in its undergraduate and graduate programs in education, business, human resource management, social justice, social work, science, theater, music, the fine arts and many others. Call 866-313-1927 or visit www.marygrove.edu.
For more information about this Defining Detroit event, please contact Dr. Thomas Klug at 313-927-1520 or tklug@marygrove.edu.
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