There was a time (shortly after the Free Press published their "Dirty Dozen" list) during which Detroit's 34-story Broderick Tower was famous for introducing the world to the idea of an abandoned skyscraper. It didn't take long for the word to spread across internetland that Detroit was home to not one, but a couple abandoned >30-story office towers, and soon it came to pass that Detroit was dubbed the "Urbex Capitol of the World," regardless of whether such a title was deserved—or in good taste—or not.
Nevertheless I had already made a few trips inside by the time the Broderick's internet fame had reached its zenith, so I have a lot of photos that show what the place looked like before it was totally vandalized (this was also before the great scrapping boom hit the city).
Yes, there have been other abandoned skyscrapers in the world, but I don't think any of them quite enjoyed the fame that Detroit's have, simply because they generally weren't as readily accessible as Detroit's. Not to mention Detroit didn't just have one, in those days it had like 20 vacant or abandoned buildings taller than six stories—and an internationally-known artist (Camilo José Vergara) promoting it as the "Skyscraper Graveyard" in his books. Also, not many of them were nearly as gorgeous as Detroit's collection of fancy 1920s towers.
Nowadays the Broderick has been renovated into apartments, and is filled to capacity with new residents, though I can't say I'm totally happy with the gut-job of a renovation they did to most of the building. I doubt that the financing would have worked out as well if they had lovingly restored all of the original surfaces however.
The Stott Building and the Book Tower subsequently took over the title as the tallest abandoned buildings in the city after the Book-Cadillac and Broderick were renovated.
There was something about the gaudiness of the Broderick's upper details that made it so enticing to try and climb, something magnetic about its grotesque state of ruin that drew us to it. And look at all those penthouse balconies to play on!
It took a minute but we soon realized that there were other ways...
