A Special Report by Rebecca Binno
The landmark Sears Highland Park store was built in 1939 by the architectural firm of Nimmons Carr & Wright, and constructed by Patterson Engineering Co. of Detroit. The Sears building was featured on the cover of Architectural Concrete Magazine (who knew there was such a magazine) in 1939. Cast concrete architecture is unusual in Detroit, and the Sears store is one of the last remaining examples in the city.Sears operated in the building until it closed in 1992. Sears Roebuck and Co. then donated the building to be used by the Society of St. Vincent De Paul as a distribution center for one year. That year was up, and the 250,000-square-foot building’s future was in question.
HP Devco Inc., a nonprofit economic development agency serving Highland Park, marketed the Sears building for development. What kind of development? Highland Park has had a recent infusion of strip malls, just like in the suburbs, but on Woodward Avenue. The new “Model T Plaza” just opened across the street from the Sears store. Another strip mall was developed directly to the north.
That’s what the city of Highland Park wanted more of—suburban development in the inner city. Blockbuster, Rite Aid, and Farmer Jack are now set back from Woodward Avenue with large parking lots in front. What we have lost is the street wall and the definition of the boundaries of Woodward.
The loss of the Sears store will be a loss to not just Highland Park, but a loss of an architecturally significant building to the entire metro area. They don't build them like that anymore, and it is possible to say that strip malls are the new blight on our inner city's architecture.