SONY's Star Theatre, in Southfield, Michigan. Designed by Rockwell Group from New York.

Opened in 1931, the Red Apple Rest Stop Restaurant was the half way point between New York City and the Catskills Mountains. It was open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day and was frequented by vacationers heading up to the Borscht Belt resorts. By 1955, they had already served a million customers and had bragged that in one week they would use  "four tons of potatoes." During their peak season, they could serve up to 20,000 customers a day.

A few years later in 1960, the NY thruway was completed, resulting in a huge loss of business. The restaurant lasted until 2006 when it became abandoned. The owners also operated the Red Apple Motel right across the street, which now operates as the Tuxedo Motel. I felt their restaurant was appropriate to include here, as it likely wouldn’t exist without the nearby resorts and hotels of the Catskills. Source

The derelict Reynolds Metals Regional Sales Office in Southfield, Michigan.  Designed by Minoru Yamasaki and built in 1959, right across the Lodge Freeway from the (now also derelict) Northland Center mall, the nation’s first regional shopping center.  In 1984 the building was taken over by Vic Tanny Fitness and alterations were made to the structure, pushing out the first floor walls to the perimeter of the building and filling in the moat.  It has been sitting vacant since 2013.  This link will take you to a great article on the building’s history.

The building strikes me most because of its signature feature, the lattice of interlocking rings on the exterior (referred to as a “grille” by Yamasaki) which Alden B. Dow also used (copied?) in the construction of the Midland Center For The Arts in my hometown, although the circles Dow used were much larger and not gold-anodized.  That design is almost an iconic representation of the MCFTA in Midland, and seeing it used so prominently in other architecture jumps right out at me.

Ant Farm Delivery | High Grade Gummie Buddies Double Dose (Assorted Strains)

Meet me at the plaza..darling