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Philip A. Hart Plaza

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1979, Isamu Noguchi and Smith, Hinchman and Grylls. Woodward Ave. at the Detroit River
  • (Photograph by Balthazar Korab)
  • (Photograph by Balthazar Korab)

In the center of the plaza named for Philip A. Hart (1912–1976), U.S. senator from 1959 to 1976, the Horace E. Dodge and Son Memorial Fountain, a monumental abstract aluminum and steel sculpture by Noguchi, rises above a bubbling circular fountain spraying water from its ring in computerized configurations and providing a focus for the pedestrian urban space. A spacious amphitheater near the fountain attracts crowds for summer festivals and winter ice skating. At Woodward and Jefferson avenues a sculpture of a twenty-four-foot-long arm and fist suspended above street level from a pyramid of bronze beams (1986, Robert Graham) honors heavyweight boxing champion of the world from 1937 to 1949, Joe Louis [Barrow] (1914–1981), “the Brown Bomber.”

Writing Credits

Author: 
Kathryn Bishop Eckert

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