WOOD DRIVEWAY GATES 37

Driveway Gates 37 are Base Price + 40%
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Detroit, Michigan

Now and again Prowell Woodworks is commissioned on a design-only status. The entrance wood gates for this driveway in Detroit were ultimately built by the homeowner’s father, a local builder and master carpenter. Provided with detailed drawings, and corroborating conversations, the result made its debut in 2017, six months after the home was bought in a bidding auction that capped at $87,000!

Detroit, Michigan

The columns were constructed with repurposed bricks matching those of the house. While the gates were painted with a two-tone color as a close match to the brick, and the white house trim.

Detroit, Michigan

The revitalization of Detroit has been a slow and painstaking process. Neighborhood by neighborhood, house by house, rescued from neglect and in a state of neglected abandonment, the lucky ones reconnect with a new generation of owners and preservationists with the resources and determination to breath life back into the bones of an era of indescribable excess. The Gilded Age architecture of the late 1800s and early 1900s was a testament to unparalleled economic growth–for some–with a nod and a wink to its associated opulence. The wealthy got wealthier, and the poor got poorer.As Prowell’s fourth commission in the Detroit area within a few years, the distinct history of a collapsing economy had been thoroughly researched, while also recognized in its similarity to St Louis and Pittsburgh and Akron at a time when manufacturing plants were relocated overseas. The real estate market disappeared, entire neighborhoods populated with empty abandoned residences stripped of their salvageable accoutrements (windows, fixtures, wiring) and left to the occupancy of squatters.

Now, so many decades later, what have we learned?  How can we avoid the mass displacement of an entire manufacturing middle class culture?  We might think twice about swapping jobs toward increasing the shareholder’s profits by outsourcing overseas.
An interesting YouTube discussion on this.

Detroit, Michigan

Inspired by the precededent of the surviving trelliswork and the arched pediments above the window casings, Prowell presented the design for driveway gates #37.