Abandoned Detroit Skyscraper

the tallest of them all.

[@dogon3]

I can not understand what possessed people to just up and leave lifetimes-worth of memories behind. Were they somehow unable to ever return for their possessions? So many places like this. Where did they all go, so suddenly?

[@TheKing-vm7po]

Do research. It's called the great white flight. This is what happens when white people leave a city out of fear for there lives.

[@gtas321]

The King Not really. White people left because the lack of job opportunities. Whites have NEVER experienced any form.of racism directed against them.

[@ChrisBrideauMedia]

Dude that snare drum is worth a fortune!!! Looks like an Old Ludwig Black Beauty from the 20's

[@dreco4]

as a child growing up in Detroit , abandon houses and buildings was normal. its what we played in. great memories. I went to Redford hs which is torn down and my brother went to cast tech.

[@gendason]

Australian here too and I was in downtown Detroit earlier this year. No its not completely abandoned, met a lot of cool ppl actually and I'll be going back next year.

[@whyyyyou]

Nice video. Pretty cool building. Love the architecture. Facinating. Hope it gets purchased,restored and opened up for business. The people who abandoned this building to go work in a boring non descript office building in some industrial park out in Utica or Rochester Hills really had no taste.

[@brucebeamon5460]

Well it’s 2023 and your hope CAME TRUE they are doing FINISHING TOUCHES and will be REOPENING VERY SOON !

[@johnnyappleseed4386]

That is awesome !!!! I'd love to troll around those abandoned buildings !

[@trilobright]

It's like in the Walking Dead. What a beautiful building, I hope one day it's restored instead of being demolished in favour of a 50 hectare strip mall.

[@vuurVEVO]

how'd u get in there? i live in holland and i would love to go to detroit to take a look in this beauty

[@Wiedenweg]

It is heartbreaking to see the hope of the world, America, in shatters. This is the birthplace of affordable cars. This is the birthplace of the birth of the middle class. It is sad to see it melting in front of our eyes.

[@sbadges]

As Moe from the Simpsons put it. "Detroit is living in Mad Max times".

[@stripclubdeej]

Yeah I am both fascinted and disturbed with Detroits abandoned landscape. You commented on my vid of Abandoned Detroit and I am going to check your vids of Detroit.

[@Featureman]

Sarah Vaughn was big. That probably has some music history there. Try to save it. Good luck.

[@Itsa6stringthang]

I love that city and I have since I was a little kid . It will rise again , eventualy .

[@Yesquire0]

This building is the Book Building. I had an office there for about ten years. The landlord goes broke, and the utilities get shut off. Once the elevators stop running, there is no practical way to remove the contents of your office suite. Also, many businesses go broke. They have no money to pay movers. Office furniture, no matter how nice it looks, has less value than the cost of moving it, anyway. The music stuff was part of a non-profit little music museum run by volunteers.

[@browilliams]

Man, it stinks that those gorgeous buildings are empty... seen better days to be sure.

[@PUK1SVA]

I want to go there it´s amazing to see abandoned buildings and things like that. Greetings from slovakia.

[@embassyhotel]

wow as a musician myself that stuff is a gold mine! When I lived in Windsor,Ontario,Canada across from Detroit I always use to go to a concert venue called HARPOS which has been around since the early 1930's which was once a theatre for plays & movies then turned into a concert venue for heavy metal acts. I remember first going to HARPOS in Detroit & being blown away by how rough the city was in! & scared at the same time. When we parked our car way down the street from HARPOS a Detroit police

[@yrvelouria]

kind of, actually. in this case the power was shut off due to lack of payment by the building owner, so nearly all the tenants had to relocate.

[@hugejoint]

omg i wanna walk around so much, i love to explore abandoned houses, but i never been i skyscraper :)

[@mike48632]

So sad seeing Detroit destroyed like that ! you hardly see any traffic even . It will never recover from the decay and crime .

[@MrTitanicgeek]

The Book Tower, beautiful skyscraper, it's got potential to be something, it'd be a crying shame to take it down. I heard news of it going to be restored in 2010, but no new news about the renovations sense than.

[@brucebeamon5460]

300 million dollars and 10 years later and it’s about to have its GRAND REOPENING !

[@janelasdedeus]

An archeologists dream... instant ruins not buried under hundreds of years of history.

[@Brettwbeyer14]

thankyou im from michigan and i live in a summer resort area where there are like 30 lakes in about 10 square miles and people from out of state especially ohio flood the cottages. It's an outdoors recreactional type of state and people don't realize this. there are so many area's that i haven't explored and whenever i explore a new area, it constantly excedes my expectations. what part of the state did you visit?

[@jtno2]

Detroit would make an AWESOME movie set for a zombie movie!

[@dogcomb47]

What a beautiful building.

[@faridkazem6722]

Its funny how there is no homeless or people under the poverty line squatting in that building but there are a bunch of random guys in random rooms that look like staff of the office building.

[@Richard_K1630]

Mitt will buy it and then sell it to the Chinese and send the profits to the Caymen Islands. Heckuva job, Willard.

[@jew_world_order]

If i was in Detroit I would probably take the very top floor and clean it up and use it as a party place.

[@UtubeCreature]

I'm surprised that lots of property in Detroit has been abandoned but not looted out.With the city's poverty levels, the abandoned infrastructures, and an incompetent city government, you would have expected that those with enough common sense should use the opportunity to take anything of value. It seems that both the property and the valuables inside have been neglected by everyone including the citizens themselves. These antiques, in 1 or 2 generations, will be worth more than you think...

[@WorldEffigy]

Almost all those skyscrapers are old as hell, the all look pre 1960. No modern architecture except for the GM building in the distance. Which in itself isn't that new.

[@wingsfan13405]

No it's really abandoned. This was from 2008 I'm not sure if it was then, but right now the building is completely empty and shut down. Just saw it yesterday. The entire bottom is boarded off. Detroit native.

[@MrTolemo]

Meanwhile,I stayed at the Book Hotel across from this building in the panoramic view. It was fantastic. Best bed ever! I couldn't afford it but my company had some kind of deal with them. That said, I'm glad I didn't have to ride the bus from the bus terminal near this building. There were lots of other tall buildings in this area that looked abandoned,too. A real shame since the knowledge base, manufacturing capability, and location of Detroit are fantastic!

[@brucebeamon5460]

What a difference 10 years makes ! That building and I believe I can say ALL the others that were empty/abandoned have ALL been redeveloped / RESTORED for a BRIGHTER FUTURE !

[@RedClownKnight]

sadly
in this case
this part of the city wouldn't be put into a time capsule or something

[@MrMaypole14]

Looks like a lot of good garage sale stuff there. Shoulda set up some tables at the base of the building and sold the stuff.

[@winni223]

Someone called it 'modern archeology"

[@williambahr6863]

Wow! I can not believe they left those momentos some of which they boxed.

[@metalmassacrefilms]

I would like to make a professional photoset of these places. The people can freely enter in these abandoned buildings or they have to get a authorization? If an authorization is needed, is easy to get it?

[@jsbach15]

I grew up in Detroit, moved to the burbs in the early 60s, then I left altogether in 1980. However, I keep telling my friends that I can't recognize the skyline of Detroit, any longer; it's changed so much, and not for the good!

[@brucebeamon5460]

Well YOU MUST take a NEW FRESHER LOOK it has come FULL CIRCLE

[@IronheadOfScroteus]

I know! I'm an ebayer and I'd LOVE to have a day in that building!

[@zyrtec3]

What building that was? Everything was still in place? Looked like abandoned 2weeks ago! Was Ford Auditorium still in place there, or was it something simmilar? My father used to conduct there back in the 60's.

[@ArnoldPranks]

All debates aside, I find it sooo amazing and nostalgic to see awards and plaques, once Cherished and hung on walls by people, now Strewn about like garbage.

[@PrivateBAustin]

Crazy to think they had probably sat there for the best part of 20 years.

[@moonspheres]

It's the Cadillac Building... I used to see it from my office window at the Federal building every day. A crying shame really as it is one of the most classically beautiful buildlings in the city.

[@MrFullService]

This is the Book Tower - 1926 (attached to the older Book building - 1916). The Cadillac Tower - 1927, is on the east side of downtown, on Cadillac Square, clad in white terra cotta with a flat top. To confuse things further, the great hotel on Washington Blvd. is the Book Cadillac Hotel - 1924! Very confusing.

[@miamivicepastels83]

I would be taking some of that stuff with me and it would magically appear on ebay!

[@videojockeysword]

There is a small fortune of valuable stuff in that building! It looks like the people just abandoned everything, did not even moved out...weird!

[@Darylcfamily]

What is the current situation in Detroit? Resumption of growth is occurring, or not? That's because I read a few days ago that investors would be getting some mega abandoned areas in suburban Detroit in order to establish farms. Also read about the challenge of relocating the current mayor in the city center, the few inhabitants of the suburb, to reduce the cost of maintaining street lighting, street cleaning and security, it already thinking about the transformation of the suburb on farms.

[@Juija011]

How could this be that this skyscraper got abandoned? It was closed for major maintenance?

[@TheHappyjack1]

you can never stop the march of time. everything must come to a end at one point.

[@perjanan]

Very good video, The best i´ve seen so far

[@newdefsys]

There's been a whole lot of "Black Flight" from Detroit too !

[@jefflewis6316]

looked like a lot of ebayable stuff in that office - must have been a music company.

[@kletterman]

It's sad to see all of that history rotting away....

[@risdubs]

How did you guys get inside, they have camera's in the alley between the building and the transit station. I was looking for ways in and a cop walked out of the Rosa Parks station. The north end of the bulding is pretty sealed and Im not sure there is a way to get from there to the tower. I was thinking about climibing the scaffoldings out front, then again there are camera's present... Any insight would be appreciated, Im not looking to vandalize or lute, just explore more urband ruins.

[@whotolduso]

i think the downtown area has hit its lowpoint a while ago. nowadays a lot of renovation has happened and going on. seems like the old generation of people running away from the city is being replaced by the more open minded and curious people. The Book is going to be tough though since it's sooo huge. but there is talk about renovating it. Just like the Broderick I'm sure it will be spectacular if it happens.

[@StyrbjornStarke]

Omg so fucking awesome, a UE dream come true. Is it easy to go in there or is there a fence around it?

[@mustange550]

How did you get access into that building. I would love to get in it and look around! Who owns all that stuff? This is cool!

[@YesItsMeGuys68]

why would people just get up and walk out of a office tower and leave EVERYTHING behind ?? Did someone just blow a whistle in the hall way and say GET OUT NOW.. or were the door locked one morning and no one was allowed in to retrieve their personal belonging ???? too weird !!

[@htool11462]

That would be so fun and amazing to go through hastily abandoned office buildings. I would love to do that.

[@BondisBourne78]

Can you take the stuff that is abandoned? Or is that considered looting? I see some items that could bring in some good cash.

[@Xamsims]

All that vintage stuff just sitting there gathering dust.
What a shame...

[@KeithCindyPanama]

If a piece of the building falls on your car or a person who is responsable for the damages?

[@mgabbard]

What the hell??? All of those Jazz items (photos, awards, posters, etc.) strewn about that abandoned office need to be saved and given to a Jazz museum.
Talk about disposable culture. Truly, very sad...

[@MoreThorin]

Why would someone leave so much important memorabilia behind? Were you able to save ANY of it? That was some incredible stuff you flashed past!!!

[@edgar8459]

The process of abandonment is intriguing... when it reaches that point where there's no one left who wants to occupy that space... and the last occupants just give up and leave. The "market" forces of "supply and demand" finally prevail. Sad, but also fascinating...

[@brucebeamon5460]

LOOK UP BOOK TOWER NOW 2023 !

[@jgstargazer]

Sad, these buildings were once buzzing with the noise of typewriters and people on the move.

[@MsChorong]

are you allowed to freely roam around the abandoned city in detriot?

[@livinthehighlife2310]

At 0:26 The book tower is going through a major renovation

[@TheLewisLightning]

I have my doubts this is an abandoned skyscraper. At 3:07 you can clearly see a light is on in through a doorway and at 3:14 that due flicks another light switch. Generally speaking abandoned buildings don't have power, because since they're abandoned no one can pay power bills.
I think more likely this was just one abandoned office in a skyscraper, because aside from the power alot of this stuff would've been looted and sold already.

[@tromboista]

Somebody used to listen to his jazz at the office. He just had to go

[@flaminglaughter]

it would have been nice to se the building that we are in or at least what floor we are on!

[@sidneylongfellow7196]

Turn it into a jail and round em up. You people had the opportunity to turn Detroit into the Atlanta of the north and you blew it.

[@paintur68]

I've been to Atlanta. What's so great about that dump? I remember gigantic homeless people swarming under the overpasses, and harassing me and my colleagues in our car as we maneuvered around the countless, gigantic homeless people in the downtown area. The place was dirty looking, and the subway smelled like urine. We were actually concerned for our safety in broad daylight. I never want to go there again. It makes Houston look like Disneyland.

[@bshaun2]

Then bar the doors and windows and burn the fu*^#*g thing to the ground

[@tracys7754]

Kwame Kilpatrick was the nail in the coffin for Detroit. The city was in it's death throws and in desperate need of a leader who'd make moves to at least attempt to turn things around.
The citizens elected who very well might be the most corrupted mayor in US history. To add insult to injury, they elected him a 2nd time. The first time was shame on you, but everyone who voted for Kwame in the 2nd election holds a part of the blame for Detroit's death.

[@Bbendfender]

Tracy S I agree with you Tracy. When you have stupid black leaders, elected by "something for nothing" black folks, you're gonna get something like Detroit. How sad.

[@paintur68]

Bbendfender Don't forget how Bush rewarded his billionaire cronies with NAFTA...Bush killed Detroit as much as any incompetent local politician. Bush went on to bankrupt America with his wars. Enjoy the Appocalypse to come. Thanks Bush.

[@tatavega2217]

This is so true. The host organism leaves after it has almost been bled dry, then the parasites are left to only feed off of themselves and the remnants the host organism left behind. Yet they STILL blame the host organism.

[@JeriChsk2]

Oh, I'd love to walk around in such an abandones skyscraper.

[@seekout123]

What building is that? I read there was a guy from Canada that bought a building or two down there.

[@MyTeelee]

Just because they're abandoned that doesn't mean they're not owned by someone who keeps the power on and occasionally has someone go inside of it to keep an eye on it. There are other videos of abandoned hospitals with windows completely busted out but the power is still on.

[@DetroitLove4U]

What kind of operations went on in this building?? When was it built??

[@crarazy]

I'm pretty sure this isn't abandoned anymore. I don't know the name of the building but I'm pretty sure its the book tower. Which now is completely renovated and is a full working apartment structure and its filled to 100% capacity now. There are other tall buildings downtown that have been renovated and are pretty full to capacity.

[@brucebeamon5460]

What you are saying IS VERY TRUE ( being 2023 ) not sure that was the case if at your writing ( 9 years ago )

[@funnyman228]

Seipher0615
thank you :) The only Caveat I would add, the unions and NAFTA have a large hand in relocation of American manufacturing.

[@wingsfan13405]

Just looked it up, this building was officially abandoned in 2009. So I'm sure all that memorabilia is gone.

[@DrCruel]

@StanHowse They aren't thieves. Just documenting an important event in Detroit history.

[@Kuxe]

Just want to point out that politics isn't the only factor determining wealth in a country. Bankruptcy of Detroit isn't necessarily related to the liberal policies that governed Detroit and Mississippi being the poorest country (which I don't know) isn't necessarily related to the conservative policy...

[@mrbisshie]

I'm more surprised that stuff wasn't looted before they got there.

[@Bouchon211]

Was that a box of records with some Charlie Parker at :40? You shoulda grabbed that as a reward for being in Detroit.

[@Tippet76]

The guy can barely figure out that he's looking at a drum but can properly appraise an organ?

[@judgegixxer]

Anyone know how long ago it was abandoned?

[@Tippy2forU]

@indyfan22k : The amazing thing is East Saint Louis isn't even in Saint Louis. It isn't in Missouri. I guess it is so bad over there Illinois doesn't claim it.

[@OrionSyndicate]

I would have taken the Walston & Co Inc. sign. Looks like brass or copper?

[@Gbemus666]

Which building is it? I recognize the architecture, but I don't recall the name.

[@beardo52]

You can thank Mssr's Frank, and Dodd for that debacle.

[@Membrane556]

It's unintentional but divide and conquer seems to be the only way to attack the problem at hand as otherwise it's just too large.
It will takes years maybe even a decade or two to fully rehabilitate the city as the situation was decades in the making.

[@sparx180]

I know I was thinking the same thing. Those guys probably don't realize some of that memorabilia is worth some money. They would have to be nuts not to. Sad.

[@AugustusLarch]

There is people living there. They sleep in crates and closets most of the day.
Notice the improvised caskets.

[@Troll-he1bf]

The department of justice stated that you are 70% more likely to get shot in this city than any other city in the country and the numbers are similar to other incidents like robbery. I'm so happy I don't live there.

[@bartofilms]

You are spot-on, ~Son. If you look back, you may find that the FRB Act just re-named the old 'Central Bank of the United States' - (charter twice revoked by Congress for usury). Every new US$ that is created today looses 10% of its value before it ever leaves the FRB. That's the haircut we all take as taxpayers so long as our fiat currency is controlled by THEM. Abraham Lincoln fought THEM, JFK tried to slow THEM (with EO 11110). When America wakes up for the 3rd time, it may be too late.

[@JFischer850]

How do you get into those buildings, are their not homeless people squatting their, just random people in random rooms?

[@betover68]

Detroit : a city we could easily do without.

[@bipolarexpedition]

What caused this once fine city to crumble & decay is one single word.... MARIJUANA.

[@RayManzarekGod]

I stand corrected. Michigan has the highest unemployment, although Mississippi has the lowest per capita income. Don't use Democrats and Liberals interchangeably though. I'm not all about pointing fingers or shifting blame, I'm all for working together to find solutions and medians. However, all our government cares about now is their own personal interests and pocketbooks.

[@MrQnator007]

Appears to be the Book Tower, for anybody looking to know.

[@SadegoGG]

@jerrytimes
Are you saying the federal reserve stealing 23.7 trillion dollars from the American people has absolutely nothing to do with the current state of Detroit?
And if rich people start businesses why can I provide you long lists of names of people who were not rich who started businesses and can you explain to me why so many rich people were not born into financial wealth?
Thanks.

[@mikey1978416]

I've always wondered what the inside of those buildings were like.