I can give you an exact date of when I noticed this building: September 13, 1999. I can even tell you the time: 4:55pm.

This was the first time we were told to explore downtown Detroit for vis comm. I was wandering around with my friend, Erin. We were a bit uneasy because we were not used to actually walking around the city. We stayed close to each other..."just in case."

The Vinton Building sits at the corner of East Congress and Woodward. This area houses many other significant buildings in Detroit. Buildings that are used on a daily basis. As a result, the fact this building stood abandoned really caught my attention. Afterall, it is quite an attractive building.

What further caught my attention were the remnants of glass in the windowpanes above the boards. I imagined a nice storefront that once was. Immediately, felt like I had stumbled across a ghost...and this is when this building became my favorite building in the city of Detroit.

The Vinton Building was designed by Albert Kahn. Albert Kahn was a phenomenal architect that almost single-handedly designed the face of Detroit. The man was genius and well-liked. It's almost as if you assume every old building in Detroit was designed by the man. It was completed in 1917 and was built for the Vinton building company which was founded in Detroit in 1858. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Currently the building is in the beginning stages of being converted into luxury condos. And they're not using the word "luxury" for the sake of using fancy words. A single unit will span an entire floor. Nice, huh?

all images taken during the fall of 1999 by jessica gates