Thursday, February 14, 2013

Flint Photos: Riverbank Park in 1979

Riverbank Park in 1979, shortly after construction and before the sculpture in the background collapsed. Thanks to David Mata for the photo.


14 comments:

  1. While teal and rust, Flint's official colors, would have been the best choice for the sculpture, that hideous shade of yellow is a worthy second choice. You know that given time some sloppy 'toid would have spilled coney mustard all over it.

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  2. What was that sculpture's name? I would have called it "Calderdash."




    Wakka wakka wakka...

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  3. They shoulda hired Sid Atkinson instead...

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    1. You've seen his work- it was (and is) all over Flint. The sculptures on the traffic triangles at Miller/Ballenger, Ballenger/Brownell/Greenway/Welch are his work, but I think the one on Miller was sold for scrap. "River" is behind City Hall. I believe the "walking wood" and "orange spider" that used to be at FIA were his as well. I think he has something up on the Mott or UMF campus... maybe it was Baker College. His mobile sculpture "Little Big" used to make the rounds.


      http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/river-by-syd-atkinson/view/?service=1

      http://www.dkgallery.us/dk/About_Syd_Atkinson___An_artist_at_dk_Gallery.html

      Check out this hippy artist group photo. Sam Morello was a trip too:

      http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/flint/index.ssf/2011/11/pioneering_artist_the_late_tom.html

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  4. Marshall Fredericks (Friendly Frog, Cross In The Woods, and many others) would have been much better. I don't know if he was still working when this was commissioned. Both of those structures are still standing. To be a good sculptor of grand projects, you have to know a lot about engineering and materials science. Art alone doesn't cut it.

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    1. Indeed it does not cut it. You gotta stick it in the wind tunnel at some point. Place did look good at this time though. Need a picture of the sculpture tethered to the ground with cables.So pretty.

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    2. After it blew down,the guy who created it -Duane Hatcher or Hatchet, supposedly took it back for repairs and re-engineering. What happened to it after that, I don't know. Don't forget the equally embarrassing (and aptly named) Archimedes Screw.

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  5. Wasn't the sculpture's collapse just art imitating life (in Flint)?

    BADDA BOOM! Thank you. Thank you. I'm here for the next five minutes. Try the veal, it's great!

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  6. > I don't know if he was still working when this was commissioned.

    He did Star Dream in Royal Oak in 1997.

    Not my favorite work of his by a long shot, but that's not the point. Star Dream is tallish, but well designed for environmental survival.

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  7. Bernard "Barney" Mann-HallFebruary 17, 2013 at 9:02 AM

    Remember Rockin' Robbie Naismith, the world's youngest DJ in the mid to late 1980s, from Foxy 101 in Pinconning and WDRQ 1030 in Sterling Heights? Those kids in the picture are his cousins.

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    1. No, I do not remember Rockin' Robbie Naismith from Foxy 101 in Pinconning, but I wish I did. I know this isn't Bay County Expatriates but PLEASE tell us more.

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    2. Bernard Barney Mann-HallFebruary 24, 2013 at 6:13 AM

      Rockin' Robbie Juarez-Naismith is the son of Bob Naismith, a Flint Expatriate and radio and TV station entrepreneur who began his radio career while a teenager at his own carrier current station, WDAW 1200, which did remotes at businesses in the Fenton Rd. and Atherton Rd. area in the mid 1960s. He also interned and did shows at a couple of other Flint radio stations. He owned five radio stations at one time, including WFXZ 100.9 Pinconning (Foxy 101)(what is now WLUN), WDRQ 1030 Sterling Heights (what is now WUFL), and WFGE 94.3 Mackinaw City (Fudgie 94.3)(now WLJZ 94.5).

      Robbie was about five years old when he began doing radio shows on Foxy 101, and was promoted as the world's youngest Disk Jockey, and had numerous newspaper and TV news stories worldwide about him doing his show. You could hear WFXZ and WDRQ in Flint, though not well. Robbie has more recently been involved in producing Spanish language radio shows in Flint on WFBE and WWCK-FM with a sister and some of the Mata Brothers.

      Bob wanted to put a station in Flint, but there were no frequencies available on FM, and an opportunity for an AM station would have required a large number of towers and many acres of land to construct. It would have been an extremely costly station to construct, at a time when AM was beginning to decline. The Detroit area AM required only two towers and was much more valuable due to market size.

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  8. Bernard Barney Mann-HallFebruary 19, 2013 at 9:47 AM

    Isn't that the building, just to the right of the sculpture, that WFDF used to have its offices and studios in after they moved out of the 16th Floor of the Mott Foundation Building and before they moved to the Phoenix Building on Saginaw Street?

    What is in that building now?

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.