We finally had a nice spring day in Ann Arbor this past weekend and I decided to take the opportunity to wander around town with my camera. I took several shots, most of them using my 7-14mm wide angle lens. This particular shot shows the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum from what used to be the front of the building. The museum opened in 1982 in what was originally a fire station.

This image is of a local apartment building located near the University of Michigan medical campus. This part of town has many rental units, but most are either converted houses or more mundane apartment buildings. This building was built in 1929 and is a great example of the Mediterranean Revival architectural style. I took the shot mid-morning when the sun was shining on it at a nice angle and I really liked the strong shadows created by the unique architectural elements. I wasn’t able to get the shot of the building straight on, there were people working on a house across the street which prevented me from getting a good angle. I ended up taking the picture from a slight angle and then relied on Photoshop to help with some perspective correction. I made a few other changes to bring out the detail of the building which I discuss on my Image Notebook blog.

I was working through my Lightroom catalog this morning, working on adding keywords to some images when I came across this picture taken of Hill Auditorium. Hill Auditorium is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan on the campus of the University of Michigan. The architect was Albert Khan. This particular image showcases some of the fine detail work which exists in this building. In particular, this shot shows a tile embedded in the brickwork on the front of the auditorium. The tile was manufactured by Pewabic Pottery in Detroit, Michigan. This image has had minimal processing done to it, some simple curves and sharpening and that’s about it.

The Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan was built in the mid-70’s. At the time, the thought was that this new set of buildings would help provide for a ‘renaissance’ of the city of Detroit. Alas it wasn’t to be. The building was more of a fortress than anything else. It had large berms which faced the main street, and the other side was the river. This created a structure which was more of an island than anything else. A couple years ago, General Motors purchased the buildings and moved it’s world headquarters to it. There was a bit of irony in this, since the Renaissance Center (aka ‘RenCen’) had significant funding from the Ford family.

This shot was taken in front of Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The front area of the auditorium has a large plaza area, and near the edge of the plaza there are drainage areas. These areas are covered by the decorative metal work you see here. I originally worked with the color version of this image (seen here), but after revisiting, I decided that black and white might be good as well. I liked the color version because it highlighted the rusty color, but I like the black and white version because it focuses more on the geometric pattern.

This is a picture of the State Theatre in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The theater is located in the central campus area of the University of Michigan. The theater was designed by C. Howard Crane, who also designed the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan. The theater was built in 1942. Originally a single screen theater with balcony, it was carved into four theaters in 1979. Later, the bottom two theaters were closed and converted to retail space. The two upper theaters remain, occupying the original balcony space.

One day I was sitting at home when I noticed that some interesting clouds were forming in the sky. I took this opportunity to head in to town and do some architecture shooting. I had been wanting to get some more shots of the new Stephen Ross School of Business building on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The building offers some interesting opportunities for architectural photography. There are many different colors, textures and shapes to explore. …

This image was taken in the Depot Town area of Ypsilanti, Michigan. I was visiting the area to attend the annual Orphan Car Show held nearby. As I was walking to the show, I saw this sign. I really liked the vintage character of it. This part of town has some really nice old buildings and many of them have been rehabilitated. I took this shot with my 70-300mm lens on my Olympus E-3. Processing was fairly minimal.

This is a shot of the entrance to the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA). The building was originally built as Alumni Memorial Hall. A Beaux Arts style building completed in 1910, the building was built as a tribute to University of Michigan graduates who had died or were wounded in the Civil War, the Mexican-American War, and the Spanish-American War. The building became home to the museum in 1946. A new addition to the museum opens this weekend and architecturally is a dramatic contrast to the original structure (but in a good way.)

This is a shot of the marquee on the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The theater has undergone a restoration which took several years to complete. I believe they have at least one more phase to go. Part of the restoration was to install a ‘new’ sign which replicated the sign which was originally installed for the theater. In the 50’s the sign was taken down and a ‘modern’ marquee was installed. With the ‘new’ sign, the theater looks like it did when it was built.