"I consider us to be Fortress Warren. We are a fortress standing against the growth of crime coming at us from the south [Detroit]. I want to maintain the kind of police pres-ence that is a real threat to anyone who wants to come here to commit a crime." Mark Steenbergh - Mayor of Warren (neighboring suburb of Detroit) state of the city address, April 7, 2005
Unlike ancient cities where fortifications were designed to protect from invading armies, Detroit’s fortifications have been designed not to keep the enemy from getting in, but to protect the city from itself and to keep the city from getting out into the suburbs. In almost all cases the fortifications are designed mainly to disrupt pedestrian traffic. As such the pedestrians, or “urban guerrillas” as one GM executive called them, are the potential enemy.
The drawings describe six major fortification types found within the Detroit region. These are seen from the point of view of the pedestrian at street level with fortifications highlighted in red. The accompanying map shows the location of these drawings with arrows indicating the direction of their vantage point. The painted areas on the map describe not only the location of all major fortifications in and around Detroit, but also indicate the affected areas surrounding the fortifications.
“The Little Berlin Wall - 8 Mile & Wyoming (concrete wall)”
Built in 1943 by real estate developers the “8-mile Wyoming wall” was a mostly symbolic attempt to keep black residents from moving into white neighborhoods thus lowering property values. The wall still stands today at five feet high, a foot thick and three blocks long pleasantly separating the backyards of those it was intended to keep out.
“Interstate 696 (depressed open trench & sound barriers)”
With eight lanes of speeding, dense traffic surrounded by a high concrete barri-ers followed by service roads and another 12-foot concrete sound barrier, I-696 is per-haps the ultimate mote. It has created walled residential and industrial communities with limited access along its banks and functions nicely as a vast entrenched mote between the inner ring working class Detroit suburbs and the outer wealthier rings.
“Interstate 75 & Neighborhood (raised berm)”
I-75 was built with the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956 and was designed, in part, for the military to easily transport equipment and troops in the case of war. Constructed of tall earth embankments or depressed with chain link fencing, I-75 has six traffic lanes inside and four more lanes on the service drive. Like I-696, it is yet another mote like fortification strategically located to eliminate what was considered Detroit’s worst slums called “Paradise Valley,” while linking the newly built upper and middle class white suburbs to downtown offices. Known for its culture of in-novative and influential art, music, legal and illegal commerce, Paradise Valley was strictly owned and operated by its African, Jewish and Polish-American residents.
“Daimler-Chrysler Connor Assembly Plant (earth mounds & razor wire fence)”
Daimler-Chrysler assembles its most elite and expensive sports car the $85,000 Viper here. The plant’s fortifications are a mix of busy multi-lane streets, 10 foot high chain link and razor wire fences, tall earth mounds, thick pine trees and electric fences. Across the street from the factory the earth works block the view of both the factory and the neighborhood, cutting off all visual lines between the residents and the factory workers.
“Meijer’s Fresh - Suburban Shopping Mall (earth mounds)”
Meijer's Fresh is an example of a typical super-shopping mall mostly found in the suburbs, surrounded by parking lots, earth mounds and concrete walls. Although the mounds and walls designed to block the vast and unsightly parking lots from the view of surrounding residential neighborhoods, they also function as fortified embankments, that limit vehicular traffic to two points of entry/exit effectively creating “choke points” and a clean shot for the stores many security cameras.
“Renaissance Center (concrete berms & walls)”
Situated on the outer bend of the Detroit river and at the heart of the downtown business district, designed by John Portman and completed in 1977, the Renaissance Center is in the architect's words an “other world” having an interior that is a “total environment” and built to be a city within a building. Now the world headquarters for the General Motors Corporation this modern castle consists of four 39-story office towers around one 73-story hotel in the middle. Thick concrete facade walls, an entrance blockaded by 24 foot high concrete pyramid like barrier (recently dismantled by GM), bridges, catwalks, and guarded elevators all help limit and control access by making it difficult and intimidating to walk in from the street.
