COMMUNITY
Taubman from page 41
and mobility.
And each of them had a unique
relationship with the Ford family.
Looking back, Rivera once said, "I
should have attempted to write
a book presenting Henry Ford as
I saw him, a true poet and artist,
one of the greatest in the world."
Henry's only son, Edsel, commis-
sioned and then defended Rivera's
extraordinary frescoes at the DIA.
Edsel's eldest son, Henry Ford II,
partnered with Taubman on So-
theby's and Detroit Renaissance.
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42 May 20151 RED THREAD
6 p.m., College for Creative
Studies. I should have known I
was overwhelmed by Diego and
Frida when I found myself strolling
past Pablo and Vincent without
breaking my stride. But I couldn't
leave Detroit without stopping
by the CCS building named for Al.
(Note: At this point, I seem to be
on a first-name basis with every-
one.)
It's beautiful — a far cry from
its latter years as GM's Argonaut
Building. And based on the work
on the walls and the CCS grads
I know, it is indeed "a unique in-
stitution that is effectively training
the next generation of artists and
automotive designers."
The presence of a charter school
in the building is also a legacy of
his. He advocated for the creation
of charters in Michigan, on the
premise that"! remain convinced
that without a healthy injection
of market forces, our entrenched
public school systems — especially
in inner cities — will never embrace
the necessary reforms!'
Al and I will have to agree to
disagree on this.
7:30 p.m., Pontiac. "The com-
fortable four-bedroom Tudor-style
home at 300 Ottawa Drive in which
I was born" in 1924, built by father
Phillip, is in excellent condition, as
are the nearby houses.
7:40 p.m., Pontiac Silverdome.
Less than 5 miles away from Ot-
tawa Drive, the Silverdome, where
Taubman's national champion USFL
Michigan Panthers played in 1983,
is now dark and domeless.
7:55 p.m., Taubman Headquar-
ters. Maybe I'm just getting tired,
but the Bloomfield Hills complex
seems to reflect his preference for
retail development:"Office build-
ings, by contrast, are a commodities
business!'
8:30 p.m., A&W. Taubman sold
A&W over 20 years ago. It has clear-
ly regressed to the "consistent me-
diocrity" he sought to avoid, though
even he could never persuade
consumers that his V3 Pounder was
bigger than McDonald's Quarter
A. Alfred T
aubman Wing
Ben Falik pausing at (but not resisting) a
threshold at the Detroit Institute of Arts
Pounder. The frosted mug of fresh
root beer was neither frosted nor a
mug nor, I suspect, fresh. But, in the
interest of journalism, I overcame
my hyperglycemic lactose intoler-
ance to drink a root beer float in its
entirety, along with a hotdog that
bore no resemblance to the garlicky
"A&W quarter-pound hotdogs —
always steamed first, then rolled on
a grill —"that Taubman modeled
after"the Wurstmackers [sausage
makers] in Budapest!'
A New Day
Of course, more has changed than
the contents of the hotdogs, even
since Threshold Resistance was pub-
lished in 2007.
Kwame Kilpatrick, who attended
"a welcome-home luncheon for me
at the Detroit Athletic Club," later
took Taubman's place in federal
prison. My Kindle purchase may
help explain why it is no longer the
case that "the brick-and-mortar out-
lets of Borders and Barnes & Noble
have never been stronger."
Then there's this:"Detroit's
hoped-for extension of dense
commercial development from the
river to the New Center area never
materialized. And it never will (at
least not in my lifetime)."
With the M-1 Rail project and
construction up and down Wood-
ward, this proved to be uncharac-
teristically pessimistic.
More so, though, there is the
example of Taubman's better self
and the habits I hope will endure
— making and nurturing strong
relationships, embracing and miti-
gating risk, giving away wealth as
passionately as you create it.