Philip A. Hart Plaza

Philip A. Hart Plaza

Philip A. Hart Plaza Photograph by Balthazar Korab
Photo 2 of Philip A. Hart Plaza
1979, Isamu Noguchi and Smith, Hinchman and Grylls. Woodward Ave. at the Detroit River

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.”

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