Good-Time Foundry

The controversial student high-rise going up at 413 E. Huron finally has a name: Foundry Lofts. It doesn’t seem like the obvious moniker for a fourteen-story mixed-use building, or even a very appealing one. What were they thinking?

Ryan Sundling, the creative coordinator at Denver-based Cardinal Group Properties, says he drew inspiration from the Ann Arbor Foundry. In operation on Jones Drive from 1920 to 1972, it was a workers’ co-operative through most of its history.

“I was reading how that foundry was a co-op space,” Sundling says, “and that went along with having some of the community spaces [in the building] be very inviting to people outside of our residents. Ace Hotels is helping to design the building, and one of their principles is they want their space to be used by more than hotel guests. They want people who live in the city to come, have coffee, sit in the lounge, work on their laptop, meet with people and talk with people, and that’s kind of a similar concept to what we’re trying to get.”

The Ann Arbor Foundry was a model of comity. The last members of the co-op were Tom Cook, a Jewish refugee from Russia, and Charles Baker, whose people were former slaves who’d found refuge in Canada. But no one ever dropped in just to hang out. As Grace Shackman noted in the Observer in 1992, “Melting metal and pouring it in molds is notoriously hot, dirty, and dangerous work. Ernie Jones, who worked at the Ann Arbor Foundry from 1948 until it closed in 1972, remembers that some new employees hated the heat and heavy lifting so much they quit after their first day on the job.”

Judging from foundryloftsannarbor.com, the heaviest lifting expected of the Foundry’s tenants is a drinking glass. Everyone touring “Ann Arbor’s most exclusive residence” is promised a chance to win a $200 gift certificate to a local bar. A video shows a giddy group of student types clinking champagne flutes and riding in a stretch limousine.

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Foundry Lofts

Fran Wright