Brothers turn century-old Detroit steel plant into massive source for public art
Junkyard dogs shouldn’t be friendly like these two guarding a factory of art.
But they mimic their owners, two outgoing brothers who converted their late father’s century-old steel plant into metro Detroit’s best-known source of big public art. With cutting torches, arc welders, grinders and gantry cranes, they’ve repurposed truckloads of salvaged steel, turning a Motor City heritage of metal into can’t-miss art like this:
At Belle Isle Park, an eight-ton wheel of see-through steel, split in half, landed at the island’s east end last fall, although lighting for night viewing was installed just this month. The piece, called “One World... Under Michigan Stars,” anchors the south end of the 1,000-mile Iron Belle Trail that, once completed, will reach from Detroit to Ironwood, at the far west end of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
In progress, a 42-foot tall, welded-steel-and-glass sculpture called “The Path of Life,” made from I-beams salvaged from the razing of Joe Louis Arena, is scheduled for installation in May at the new Detroit riverfront park just south of the former arena site.
Elsewhere, dozens of the brothers’ welded-steel abstractions, many with colored glass panels, are landmarks on public sites across metro Detroit, including a piece at 14th Street and Michigan Avenue in Detroit’s Corktown district, near their steel factory-turned-studio.
Under repair is a 20-foot-tall, stainless-steel suggestion of two boat masts sporting blue-and-silver sails, named “Sails of Two Cities,” which had graced Detroit’s border with Grosse Pointe Park. Private donors funded it to adorn a traffic roundabout and send a message of inclusion on Kercheval Avenue, a stone’s throw east of Alter Road, until a speeding drunk driver smacked it.
Suburban plans include big works slated for civic sites and parks this year in Shelby Township, Clinton Township and Mt. Clemens, the last set to get a 30-foot abstract take on Michigan pine trees.
Sculptors Erik and Israel Nordin have done numerous works for private collectors, but they upshifted in recent years to create art for public spaces.
“We really want our work to play a role in society. We want it to be a backdrop for public communication and conversation,” Israel said.
Added Erik, “There is so much divisiveness in the world. Our goal is to create things that unify people, that give communities a landmark, something that everyone knows and feels connected to.”
Across metro Detroit, the post-COVID era is bringing fresh momentum to public murals, outdoor sculpture and civic monuments. The Nordin brothers are key makers of big public sculptures made of steel. Other artists are the swelling ranks of local muralists.
The City Walls mural campaign already had tripped a nationwide buzz about Detroit, ranked fourth best city for outdoor art last year by USA Today. On Wednesday, Mayor Mike Duggan announced 23 new locations for murals with plans for a total of 40 to be painted this year.
Public, too, are outdoor murals commissioned by private interests, like the vibrant colors being painted on formerly bland walls outside Stellantis’ Mack Assembly Plant on Detroit’s east side. Urban planners say murals are a way to discourage vandalism while showing neighborhood pride and supporting artists as entrepreneurs. Among Detroit’s must-see murals are:
The Stevie Wonder mural, a 100-foot-tall replica of a late-1970s photo, which beams Wonder’s smile from the back wall of downtown Detroit’s Music Hall Center.
“The Spirit” mural by Detroit artist Waleed Johnson, glimmering with uplift at the corner of Mack Avenue and Van Dyke, conveying a fresh sense of racial and gender inclusiveness when compared to the much older but still inspiring Spirit of Detroit sculpture in downtown Detroit.
Eastern Market’s murals, painted on aging but worthy brick facades in and around Detroit’s historic farmers’ market, many of which can be seen simply by driving south on Gratiot Avenue past the outskirts of the market.
Besides its striking murals, Detroit is innovating artistically at neighborhood scale in areas long relegated to debris and rats: the alleys. Art projects that entail alley clean-ups, followed by projects proposed by residents, will land in four spots this summer.
In the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood, on Detroit’s far-east side, homeowner Victoria Thomas had long nurtured a dream to create a community recreation area behind her backyard, to be studded with mini-displays of key figures from African American history, “for the children who can’t get to the museum,” Thomas said, referring to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, eight miles away. This summer, the city will make it happen.
“People almost don’t believe me when I say I’ve been planning this for 10 years,” she said.
Alleyway art can turn decrepit lanes into sites of enrichment. Downtowns that gain public art can enjoy that, and something more — economic impact.
“People see it and feel good about it and just start liking being in that setting,” said Jason Gittinger, who runs the Detroit School of Rock and Pop Music in Royal Oak. He also chairs the Royal Oak Commission for the Arts. Gittinger said public art lures visitors to downtown Royal Oak for everything from shopping and dining to taking guitar and drum lessons.
Spring tends to unleash creativity, psychologists say, and Royal Oak is planning just that for its civic spaces. The city’s arts group will resume placing in the downtown, after a pandemic pause, at least eight discarded pianos, each still in playable condition and whimsically painted by a team of community volunteers, Gittinger said.
Aside from economic impact, as well as community building and adding beauty to civic spaces, public art can be commemorative. It may honor a community’s historic activities or notable individuals from the past.
In Southfield, Police Chief Elvin Barren recently decided it was time to rescue the city’s police memorial from behind shrubbery that had grown around it outside City Hall, Detective Kevin Snook said. Barren’s wish? To put the 2,000 pounds of polished granite in front of police headquarters, there to remind citizens that, twice in the history of Southfield, officers gave their lives.
The chief’s wish led to a tense scene in early April when four men, led by John Noseda of St. Clair Shores, lay hunched around the ton of stone as it dangled from the business end of a power shovel. Watching from nearby, Southfield Mayor Ken Siver spoke softly to a reporter about Mt. Clemens-based J. Noseda & Son Moving Co.
“John’s company, they’re astounding. They’ve moved a lot of art for us. The care they take, to make sure things aren’t damaged – it’s incredible,” Siver said.
Noseda’s crews have moved a lot of art for Southfield because the city is known for having donors who purchase a lot of art, which then goes on public display. A decade ago, Siver engineered the privately funded rescue of dozens of works, all salvaged from Northland Mall, when the big shopping center that put Southfield on the map in 1954 went into receivership. Among that art was Northland’s much-loved “Boy and the Bear” sculpture, now drawing fond gazes inside the Southfield Public Library. Noseda & Son placed it there without so much as nicking the fragile terrazzo flooring, Siver said.
The city requires developers to set aside 1% of the value of any new project or major renovation, capped at $25,000, for art that will be visible to the public and that can’t promote the business. Either that, or they pay 1% into a city till that goes toward public art. In May, the city will install a 10-by-14-foot metal replica of a monarch butterfly alongside a walking/biking trail beside Northwestern Highway, funded by a consortium of businesses, said Souzan Hanna, a city planner coordinating the trail’s art.
“We hope it attracts people using our trail system to an educational panel” about the endangered insect, Hanna said.
For the move of the police memorial, Noseda and his crew bent to their work. As serious as was the message carved on the monument – “In Valor There is Hope” – came moments of muscled arms nudging the ominously shifting mass. A ton of granite had to fit over two steel pegs, just so. They tried, missed, tried again, missed again. Finally...
“All right, coming down!” Noseda shouted. Shovel operator Joel Chapman Jr. finessed a lever, eight arms pressed on stone, and the massive monument slowly came to rest.
“Beautiful!” the boss shouted. “And everybody’s got their fingers,” quipped his son Jake Noseda, as smiles broke out all around.
Morning sunshine sparkled on the shiny black stone. From now on, no visitor could miss it.
Contact Bill Laytner: blaitner@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Public art is getting fresh momentum across metro Detroit
