Griswold Lofts (1217 Griswold Street)

01 / The story of this place

Make time for these

In the early 1990s, a run-down loft building at 1217 Griswold Street, overlooking Capitol Park in downtown Detroit, became an informal clubhouse for the city's third-wave techno scene. Renters screen-printed flyers, built a skate ramp, and threw all-night parties in the raw industrial space, drawing DJs, promoters, and dancers who kept Detroit's underground alive through the decade. Jason Huvaere lived here in the 1990s, and it was in this building that he crossed paths with the future co-founders of Paxahau, the promotion company that later took over the Detroit Electronic Music Festival and turned it into Movement. Rent stayed cheap, sometimes as little as five hundred dollars for a 2,300-square-foot loft, for nearly twenty years. In 2014, Dan Gilbert's company bought the building along with much of Capitol Park, and the remaining artists and musicians were evicted so it could be renovated into upscale apartments and retail. Renamed 1215 Griswold, the building still stands today, its techno-era history mostly invisible from the street.

1. Home to Detroit's underground techno and rave scene through the 1990s
2. Where Paxahau's founders first crossed paths
3. Cheap raw lofts rented for as little as $500 a month
4. Artists evicted in 2014 when Dan Gilbert's company bought the building
5. Renamed 1215 Griswold after its 2014 renovation into market-rate lofts