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The Quo Vadis Preservation Foundation needs your help
posted by
savetheqv
on
November 30, 2007 at 11:00 am
WESTLAND, MI — Why save the Quo Vadis Entertainment Center? This is a great question to ask and a better place to start.
Well… to get all the negative out of the way, first of all, its an old, run down building. It needs work, obviously. But people tend to ignore the history it has in favor of “its old, tear it down, build a generic drug store”. No, drug stores and condos aren’t what Westland needs. Michigan’s economy is bad enough, we need something to bring revenue into the city.
The old Quo Vadis Entertainment Center (herein refered to as QV) stands empty, much like many other buildings, such as the BP station on Wayne and Warren, the Denny’s and Sams Club on Central City Pkwy. There are many potential uses for this old building, it could be turned into a meeting place for teens, an arcade, a theatre, or even used as a movie theater again. We’ve seen one local theatre (George Burns Theatre) meet a dreadful end as a Walgreens (which closed less than 2 years afterwards and sits vacant, mind you) and condos.
But enough about the uses and money. If your anything like us, your probably thinking “You said something about history, tell me about the history!”. You want history, you say? Alrighty then…
The theatre does have great historical value as well. The QV was designed in 1966 by Minoru Yamasaki. That name sound familiar? No, well it should. Yamasaki (December 1, 1912 – February 7, 1986) was an American architect of Japanese descent, most well known for designing the World Trade Centers. Yes, thats right. The World Trade Centers, the very same ones destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist bombings. Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century, designing more than 45 different structures in the United States! His firm, Yamasaki & Associates continues to do business even to this day.
Who Are We?
The Quo Vadis Preservation Foundation is a group of people from the Metro Detroit area of Michigan, interested in seeing the Quo Vadis Entertainement revitalized, not destroyed. We don’t want to see another generic drug store or condos to replace this great theatre. We won’t argue that this is going to be a tough idea to sell, or that the theatre doesn’t need work. Obviously almost 6 years of abandonment and vandalism is going to take a little elbow grease, but were willing to do what it takes.
