Quo Vadis Entertainment Center
7420 Wayne Road,
Westland,
MI
48185
7420 Wayne Road,
Westland,
MI
48185
9 people
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Showing 26 - 44 of 44 comments
The plan is to demolish it in the next three to four weeks, or so I hear.
I don’t see that the theater has been demolished as of today, 3/14/08. It may be in the works. By the way, quo vadis means “where are you going?” in Latin.
another one bites the dust :( such a shame for such a unique theater
The Quo has a date with the wrecking ball this spring, what a shame.
View link
A foundation to preserve the Quo Vadis has been started. We feature a gallery of almost 70 photographs and a lot of information spanning the Quo’s nearly 40 years.
www.savetheqv.org
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7420 Wayne Road
Parcel ID: 015-03-0004-001
Zoned: CB-3 General Commercial Business
Permitted uses: Wide variety of commercial retail and service uses
Approximately 6 acres Located at the NE corner of Wayne and Warren Roads, across from Westland Shopping Center
For further information contact Bruce Thompson AICP, Planning Director, City of Westland (734) 467-3219
There are some good interior and exterior pictures of the Quo Vadis at View link towards the bottom of the page.
I haven’t been to Detroit in nearly 30 years and forgot what the Qua Vadis looked like.
Yamasaki’s use of the narrow windows and tinted aluminum give it an eerie resemblance to to a single floor of The World Trade Center. Minoru Yamasaki was awarded the design commission for The World Trade Center in 1962, and he was busy with the design and construction phases for the next 14 years until it was completed in 1976. He may have used this and other smaller jobs his office was working on during these years as a ‘petri-dish’ for his ideas for the WTC. For instance, here they used aluminuium with a gold-tint surface coating for the exterior facade. In accounts of the design and construction of the WTC, Yamasaki was going to clad the Twin Towers in stainless-steel, even though aluminum is a lighter and cheaper material, because he didn’t like the color of untinted aluminum or the way the surface tinted aluminum weathered over time. In the first photo posted by Lost Memory, the fading and streaking is obvious. The result at the WTC was that Alcoa, wanting to win this large contract, changed the alloy composition to a silver alloy that “had the uncanny ability to reflect different shades of sunlight”.
As clearly shown in the photo above, the upstairs theaters were called the Penthouse I & II, not the Playhouse I & II as indicated in the first comment.
My parents took me there for dinner at the restaurant and to see Airport in 1974. At that time, you had to exit through the outside staircase — chilly in Detroit in January!
Can someone tell me the realtor for this theatre? I have a really good idea of what to turn it into. thanks
It never ceases to amaze me that anyone who might be serious about such a thing doesn’t know how to research the availability of a building. Call any commercial real estate broker (on the web or in the phone book or plastered on a sign on almost any vacant building in town) and he or she will be able to provide you with more information than you could ever want. Commercial real estate has what is essentially a multi-list service that allows any agent to access any listings.
The SHOWCASE CINEMAS EAST in Monroeville, PA [Pittsburgh, PA suburb] closed in September 2004. Still remaining are the SHOWCASE CINEMAS NORTH & SHOWCASE CINEMAS WEST.
well,
last year we took out the seats and put them into our Wayne Theatre in Wayne.
I think like ½ the seats are removed. Other then that I don’t know of anything else going.
Showcase Cinemas owned the building for a little after it closed, they amy still own it. When we removed the seats they owned it. I’d give them a call. It had a for sale sign on it, but I think driving by it alst week I didn’t see it.
Does anyone actually know who owns this building? I’ve seen people move things in and out of it. I’m assuming that it is being rented out partially as a storage area.
yes, and also the 101 Woodward in Detroit. Yamasaki actually lived in Troy.
The architect, Yamasaki and Associates, was later the architect of of the now-destroyed World Trade Center in New York.
A very similar theme and story to THE PARAMOUNT in Sydney Australia, built in 1965, Modern outside and Roman inside then demolished in 1983 with the cinema next door and all made into a horrorplex which mutated with another next door concrete plex and all now are one big monsterplex in George St Sydney, now containing 18 screens. I put the whole story and pre history on another PARAMOUNT THEATRE site, so if you can find that one it is here – and there. PAULB.
The city had plans about half a year ago to do some cultural theatre there, but I think it is halted. Half of the seats have been removed and placed in the Historic Wayne Theatre and a near-by church.
8/2002: I have worked for National Amusements for quite a few years. Our chain’s being creamed by the competition in Metro Detroit (and the Dedham, Mass company doesn’t seem to care much, which is sad)! Quo is an odd place that couldn’t offer modern enough amenities. Plus, it is an ugly, UGLY building. I don’t see what anyone could have done with it. Though, I love theater nostalgia, I hate to see it go. My theater’s demise is coming soon too, I’m sure. FYI: Quo closed the same day as Showcase Pontiac 1-5. Look up articles on them at www.freep.com or detnews.com.