Limestone Art Deco towers rise over broad straight avenues around Campus Martius Park, and Batman v Superman used the alley beside the Penobscot Building as Metropolis.
What Downtown Detroit looks like
Griswold Street runs between two limestone Art Deco towers from the late 1920s, the and the taller Penobscot Building, whose crown is lit gold with a red beacon each December. Wayne County's offices are inside the Guardian Building now, a few blocks from the domed, empty at Randolph and Fort.
sits two blocks north, a paved plaza around the Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument with red cafe chairs set between the surrounding office towers, continuing east under the same colonnade. Along Jefferson Avenue, the cylindrical glass towers of the rise over the riverfront, the tallest holding a hotel seventy three storeys up.
The Detroit People Mover runs on a single concrete track raised above the street, curving around downtown on a one way loop with no grade crossings. Its stations are glass and steel canopies bolted onto the buildings beneath them, looping above Greektown's brick storefronts and casino signage.
West on Lafayette Boulevard, 's blank white storefront sits beside its rival Lafayette Coney Island under matching striped awnings, an all night counter a block from where the Griswold Street towers close for the evening. Both stay lit long after the office towers around them go dark.
Shot in Downtown Detroit
Batman v Superman used the alley beside the Penobscot Building as a Metropolis street. The same film used the old police headquarters on Beaubien Street for a Gotham police scene and the Wayne County Building for a Senate hearing. Eminem's 8 Mile used the Penobscot Building itself fourteen years earlier, for the radio station scene where Rabbit goes looking for a break.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Griswold Street, Beaubien Street and the Wayne County Building. The production spread its version of Gotham and Metropolis across all three.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2016
Played an alley off Griswold Street, Metropolis, present day
Bruce Wayne turns off Griswold Street into the narrow alley beside the Penobscot Building, coming out on West Congress Street. Later in the film he stands near the same corner and watches Zod's ship pass low overhead. Street View
8 Mile, 2002
Played WJLB radio station
Rabbit visits the Penobscot Building on the promise of a break from the fixer Wink, hoping for a slot at the radio station WJLB inside. The visit does not go the way he hoped.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2016
Played Gotham City Police Department, Gotham City, present day
Clark Kent stops by the police department to ask about a man arrested with a Bat brand burned into his skin. An officer stonewalls him at the desk and Clark leaves without an answer. Street View
Griswold Street pairs two 1920s Art Deco towers with a civic building at one end, close in scale to the Art Deco skyscraper canyon LaSalle Street forms around the Chicago Board of Trade Building in the Loop. Chicago's own elevated Loop runs on a steel through truss over the street, unlike Detroit's smooth concrete People Mover, so a frame catching the tracks needs a tight crop. Try searching Art Deco skyscraper canyon now.
Downtown Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio
Carew Tower's limestone Art Deco tower over a shopping arcade is close in period and material to the Penobscot and Guardian buildings, on a similarly compact downtown grid. Cincinnati's downtown climbs toward hills on three sides, so a wide shot needs a level horizon and a crop kept tight to the tower fronts. Try searching limestone Art Deco tower now.
The Liberty Building and the Rand Building give downtown Buffalo the same run of 1920s limestone office towers over a compact grid, close in scale to Griswold Street. Buffalo runs its Metro Rail at street level rather than on an elevated loop, so keep any transit shot off the ground and on the towers themselves. Try searching 1920s limestone office towers now.
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