Is anyone building apartments like these today?

 

Detroit once had a lot of wonderful Art Deco apartment buildings. I'm sure Detroit is not alone. My guess is many of the once outrageously successful cities in the northern half of the United States, had blocks featuring beautiful 1920s apartment buildings. I found examples of beautiful, abandoned apartment blocks in many other areas of the United States as well.

Some of these, at least in Detroit, are being saved. But that is not the point of this post. When I went to art school in the mid '60s, these apartments were already falling on tough times. I had student friends who lived in these buildings.

Why are we not building apartments that look like these today? I can speak from experience. These were good places to live and they were located in what was at that time good, walkable neighbourhoods.

One thing that made these apartments walkable were the apartments themselves. These places added atmosphere to a neighbourhood. The entrances were often spectacular. No simple glass entries for these buildings.

And the interiors were as grand as the exteriors. Inlaid tiles, curved staircases, brass elevators and lots of stained glass.

 

The shot of the lobby shows, I believe, the abandoned Henery Apartments in Stockton, California.

Sadly, many of these wonderful buildings have been destroyed by suspicious late-night fires.

London, Ontario, has saved some old apartments but London never had any as grand as the ones that once graced many large American cities. Today, London is striving to create beautiful, walkable neighbourhoods. The huge apartments hardly visually improve the neighbourhoods in which these massive structures are located.

I wonder why there is no money to be made salvaging some of the beautiful features of old, abandoned apartment buildings and selling these heritage construction materials to be included in new structures.