Michigan Bell Building Renovations to House 155 Homeless in Highland Park

The nonprofit Neighborhood Service Organization (NSO) is planning a $50 million mixed-use renovation of the historic Bell Building. The NSO supplies housing support for the homeless in Detroit, Michigan, and gained the rights to the old Michigan Bell building in Highland Park, Michigan. O'Brien Edwards Construction Company will be working with the NSO develop and renovate the buildings 269,000 s.f. space into NSO's corporate offices in addition to providing housing apartments for the homeless in Detroit. The project won a state brownfield tax credit worth $7.1 million and will create six jobs.

The Michigan Bell and Western Electric Warehouse is a former commercial warehouse building located at 882 Oakman Boulevard (also numbered as 14300 Woodrow Wilson)in Detroit, Michigan. In 2009, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is now known as the Neighborhood Service Organization.

This structure was built in 1929-30 as a warehouse, garage, and office space for Western Electric. Western Electric used the building as its Michigan headquarters until 1958. The next year, the Yellow Pages operation moved into the building, and was used by Michigan Bell until 1999.

For some years until the mid-1980's, the building was notable for its "Weather-Phone" sign, under the Yellow Pages logo. This translucent white plastic sign, modeled after the Western Electric model 500 desk telephone, was backlit with lights of different colors, providing a basic weather forecast to motorists on the Lodge Freeway at night. A red telephone meant warmer weather was forecast in the next 24 hours, blue meant cooler, and yellow, no change in temperature. The lighting would blink when precipitation was expected, whereas a steady light meant neither rain nor snow was expected.

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