From Sun City to the Motor City

Part 12 of 13 in our journey from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo
(Connecting Landmarks in Michigan and African History)

Palace of the Lost City

Centuries before tall ships were ever dreamed about and long before the dawn of a western civilization, nomadic people from northern Africa set out to seek a new world. Eventually they found a land of peace and plenty in a secluded valley, shaped by an ancient volcanic crater. The Gold these people mined brought them great riches and they built a mighty palace for their benevolent king, whose hospitality became renowned throughout Africa.

Palace of the Lost City

Sun City Resort

Billionaire developer Sol Kerzner's Sun City Resort was constructed for $260 million. It sits in the South African Northern Province in a region established by the former apartheid government as the black independent homeland called Bophuthatswana. Designed by the late American architect Jerry Alison, it reflects his and his design team's substitution of a fictional legend for local heritage in finding inspiration for the buildings they designed. As Louis Gates, Jr. explains in a conversation with Alison, unlike most other places he had worked at, such as Malaysia, "this area of Africa didn't have much of a heritage."

But on a terrible day an earthquake destroyed their homes, aqueducts, fields and mine shafts, sparing only the palace on its foundation of rock, and the people fled. Vegetation slowly concealed the ruins and all that remained was a memory, the legend of a Lost City… until 1991 it was "rediscovered" at Sun City and restored to its former splendor by the following year.

The 28 Legends of Sun City

The Bridge of Time

The four hotel complex is designed based upon twenty-eight fabricated legends related to each site at the resort, with the Palace of the Lost City at its heart. The palace is surrounded by the largest man-made forest ever created, complete with imported trees. Monkey Springs Plaza is designed based upon the story of monkeys that saved the village during a drought by going to the treetops to gather juice for the village people. The Bridge of Time shakes every hour to commemorate the disastrous earthquake that destroyed the "ancient ones". At the Valley of Waves, swimmers drop just over 55 feet down a chute from the Temple of Courage before splashing into the pool below. And boat rides are offered along the Lazy River.

Valley of Waves

The most painful aspect of Dr. Gate's story is his brief survey of tourists staying at the resort, who nearly all thought the designer's imaginary legends to be true. And to add salt to the wound, a few hundred miles away, lay the ruins of the Great Zimbabwe, believed to be the capital of the Shona Empire. Nearly 1,000 years old it was only discovered some 70 years ago. And yet, for the typical South African remains unknown.

Gary Player Championship
Golf Course

The true history of African people must not only be studied and reconnected with its descendants, but must also overcome popular pre-fabricated stories devoid of any fact, but sweeten with enough mis-information to make people believe them. As amazing as the architecture may be at Sun City, for all the riches it may generate for its owners, for all the tourist it may bring to South Africa, I can't help but believe that for the cause of raising people's awareness of sub-Saharan history, it is doing more harm than good.

1985 Sun City Boycott

Sun City is best known to Americans through the 1985 apartheid protest song. The collection of singers and actors who recorded the song pledged to refuse any and all offers to perform at the resort's Super bowl. Though the laws and physical barriers of apartheid have since been removed, the legacy of replacing the lies of African inferiority remains to be overcome. It is the same legacy that slavery has left for African-Americans.

Casinos come to Detroit

Wagner Bakery

Desperate to attract new sources of tax revenue, US cities began to grapple with the legalities of building casinos. For Detroit, the idea became earnest in the 1990s. And with the approval of Proposal E in 1996, the idea came to fruition when three casinos were licensed for construction. Motor City is the only locally owned casino and appropriately chose for its location the site of Detroit's Wagner Bakery, abandon since the 1970s. Unlike its competitors, it decided to incorporate the existing factory building into its new design. And unlike the Sun City Resort, its designers decided to blend the site's true history with the making of its future.

The Wagner Baking Company 

Continental Baking Company was founded as the Ward Baking Company in New York City in 1849. In 1921 William Ward, grandson of the company's founder, formed United Bakeries, which was renamed Continental Baking in 1925. In 1924 Continental

Baking acquired the Wagner Baking Company of Detroit, and in 1925 Continental Baking bought Taggart Baking and became the largest bakery in the United States. The company's products were sold under two widely advertised trade names: "Wonder" for its bread products and "Hostess" for its cake products. And in 1933, Continental Baking introduced to the world Hostess Twinkies. The original factory complex was designed by Walter W. Ahlschlager, who would also design two of the grandest buildings in the country in the late 1920's: New York City's "Cathedral of Motion Pictures" Roxy Theater and Cincinnati's 49 story Carew Tower.

Motor City Casino

Motor City Casino

Designed by Michigan architects Giffel/Norr with the help of hot-rod designer Chip Foose, the reborn building was completed in 2007 and meshes the old factory with the sleek and stream lined design of the 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air, suked up with tail fins and chrome detailing. The hard corners of the brick factory are softened with aerodynamic metal panels that swoop along the building's cladded sides, cutting through the wind like the cars zooming along the Lodge Freeway below. At night, movement is again expressed through neon lights flickering in choreographed patterns along its elevation like the flickering high beams of a hot rod's headlights, looking for attention while cruising along Woodward Avenue.

1957 Chevrolet Bel Air

At times the clash between the weathered brick and modern metal panels can be abrupt and clumsy. But the overall idea of creating a hot rod out of an old wonderbread factory comes through louder than a Buick revving its 300 horsepower engine. I believe the design breathes new life into a once forgotten building. And instead of ignoring its history, pays respect to the past and creates something new.

Conclusion

New Housing in the
Shawdow of Motor City

With so many lifeless Detroit buildings, Motor City stands as an example of the architect melding an old spirit with the new life he or she breathes into it. Like a grandchild listening to stories told by her grandmother, the building speaks to a past as well as to a present. A rejuvenating architect uses an understanding of original intentions to create new innovative and unique solution. They allow the ghosts of the past to harmonize with life in the present.

But one shouldn't let the architecture blind one to the project's true goal.  Though we can easily debate the success of the architecture, it remains to be seen whether the project can breathe new life into its declining surrounding community.