09/06 - The David Whitney Building
One day while walking around downtown Detroit; I began to tell Donnie about the David Whitney and how nice it is inside & conversely, how hard it is to get in. After all, one of the sites that I frequent had trouble getting in, and he's a lot better urban explorer than myself. Frustrated that he wouldn't be able to see inside; Donnie tried the front door - and low & behold, it was open! We couldn't pass up this oppurtunity and it turned into an impromptu urban exploration.
Built in 1915 and completed a year later; the David Whitney's 21 floors sit 83 meters in height at the corner of Washington & Woodward - meters from Comerica Park.
Originally built to serve as office space; the building has changed owners several times and sits in disrepair; but still in better repair than most buildings.
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Once inside, you're greeted by the magnificent atrium on the first floor.
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The David Whitney features 6 elevators and running electricity!
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A look at some of the detail from standing on the first floor.
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Looking through a corner at the detail on the second floor.
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The third floor and a closer look at the clock.
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A look down from the fourth floor.
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The skylight roof from the fifth floor.
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I can't remember what floor this was...but it was the (closed) entrance for the Detroit People Mover.
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Once we were a few floors up, the offices started to get more interesting.
Aerial photographs.
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Nitrous Oxide left over in a vacant dentist office.
It was empty...and probably been empty for a very long time.
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Good ole' Sulfuric Acid.
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On the fifth floor we were greeted by the elusive ghetto bird.
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The Survival Crackers are another group of explorers from Detroit and I found this message quite funny.
Yes, SC, I finally got here.
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More chemical tanks...
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Opened safes...
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On the sixth floor, you could look out and see the top of the atrium. I saw a picture on myspace of some guy standing atop this & I wish I would have thought of that first...
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...because this was the background behind him.
A look up at the remaining part of the building to be explored.
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Every floor had a board showing what the floor featured by the elevator.
Bang Tech was in room 610.
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Some of the offices featured quite nice furniture and doors.
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Then again, some had pretty tacky furniture.
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Quite old computer equipment.
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5 1/4 disks. I think I may have used these a couple times when I was around age 10.
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A lot of different offices had these shortbread cookies. I'm thinking that someone was peddling them around the office.
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Certification of Jail or Prison Visit document from a lawyer's office.
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I laughed when I saw this because I have the DeskJet 540 at home...wow; time for a new printer.
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While every floor looked quite nice & maintained...this one just had everything broken and demolished for some reason.
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This is what the normal hallways looked like.
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Old bottles of Mountain Dew & Vernors.
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A few more floors and there was plenty of stored medical devices.
No clue what this was though.
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Blood pressure devices.
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Building The Stage for a New Detroit...
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A 386 computer. This is very slow.
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Many doctor's offices.
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We found condoments in this one desk and I broke open some ketchup to find out that it had turned black for some reason.
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A left over plant with no chance of survival.
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A look at a poster of old photos. Why would you leave this behind?
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We walked the hallway and discovered the x-ray storage room as someone had put them up against the natural light from outside.
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Dr. Donnie.
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Another medical device...
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The 21 floors were 19 of offices & 2 of elevators. This floor was really low & interesting looking; but some squatter popped out and we headed out to the roof. Although, I think we both were just scared of each other & once we found out the each other were just looking around it was fine.
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Once on the roof, we could see how much the Broderick dwarfed us still.
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This picture is from when Donnie & I visited the Broderick and I put it here so that you can understand what you're looking at.
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A look down the center of the David Whitney.
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The facade that many see from Woodward but few see from 5 meters away.
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A look down upon Comerica.
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Panoramic of the roof.
It's really not as big as this picture makes it seem.
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Off the south side of the building you could see up Washington and even a bit of Canada.
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While the David Whitney was amazing and I'd love to go back, I can't. I don't know why it was unlocked in the first place, but weeks later when Dziamaarsky & I tried to go back; it was locked back up.
C'est la vie.
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Sources: 1. Emporis Buildings
2.
Detroit Blog
(Detroit Blog does an absolutely tremendous coverage
of this building and is worth the read for sure)
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JurajKolnikisElite@gmail.com
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