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Detroit’s J.L. Hudson Building: From historic landmark to modern skyscraper<\/p>\n
Explore the transformation of Detroit’s iconic J.L. Hudson building from its origins in 1911 as the world’s tallest department store to its dramatic implosion in 1998, and finally to the rise of a new skyscraper in 2024 that revitalizes the city’s skyline.<\/p>\n
A striking mid-century sculpture by renowned artist Harry Bertoia, once thought lost for decades, now graces the atrium of Detroit\u2019s new Hudson\u2019s\/General Motors headquarters.<\/p>\n
Originally commissioned for Flint\u2019s Genesee Valley Center in 1970, the piece featured two large \u201cclouds\u201d of brazed metal rods \u2013 dubbed \u201csunlit straw\u201d \u2013 that hung in the mall\u2019s multi-story court. After the mall\u2019s sale and renovation in 1980, the sculptures vanished from public view.<\/p>\n
In 2017, Terri Stearn of Detroit Fine Arts Appraisal and Jeffrey Lygon, owner of Fantoni \u2013 both former members of the Southfield Arts Commission \u2013 were called to the basement of Southfield’s Northland Mall. Beneath layers of dirt, they unearthed the long-lost sculpture and immediately recognized the work as a Bertoia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said, \u2018If it\u2019s just good metal, we can scrap it and get some money for it,\u2019\u201d Stearn recalled. \u201cWe had hard hats on, it was dirty, there was no electricity down there; we had flashlights, and I\u2019m looking at this thing with Jeff, and it\u2019s corroded in dust. You can\u2019t even knock the dust off; it\u2019s been there for decades. And I look at Jeff, and we both go, \u2018Bertoia!\u2019 at the same time. It was so exciting. We screamed, we were so excited \u2013 like kids in a candy store. I said, \u2018Jeff, this is something that has been missing, I bet you.’<\/p>\n
\u201cBack in that day, it was really normal to spend a lot of money on nice sculptures for malls. They were really expensive for the time, like maybe $30,000 or $40,000, but are worth hundreds of thousands now. Malls were really starting to pop up and be really important, and they were making them luxury malls.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in Italy in 1915, Bertoia moved to America at age 15, attending Cass Technical School and, later, the College for Creative Studies, then Cranbrook Academy of Art. He grew to become one of the mid-century art movement\u2019s internationally praised masters. In 1943, he married another Cranbrook student, Brigitta Valentiner; Valentiner\u2019s father, Wilhelm, was the director of the Detroit Institute of Arts at the time.<\/p>\n