A film director would savor the setting for Tuesday's first official sit-down for creditors, city representatives and a judge mediating Detroit bankruptcy case negotiations.
Courtroom 734 in Federal Court downtown is known as "the million-dollar courtroom," Amy Haimerl writes in Crain's.
Those called to appear . . . will find the stark realities of Detroit then and Detroit now as they try to work through $18 billion in debt and how to handle pensions, unions, retirements and more. . . . They'll find an opulence to remind them of Detroit's former wealth.
It's a touch of symbolic irony in a process marked by dramatic flourishes and high stakes.
Chief Judge Gerald Rosen's courtroom has carved ceiling beams and 30 types of marble on its walls, according to Haimerl, whose description almost sounds like a trip report from Versailles or the Taj Mahal:
The judge's bench itself is carved of East Indian mahogany and flanked by two 12-foot columns imported from Italy, topped by lions, and made of white and pink marble. Decorative medallions adorn the room, made of Mexican onyx and white, pink and black marble.
The ornate space originally was created in 1896 for an earlier federal courthouse downtown, then disassembled and rebuilt in the current one at Lafayette Boulevard and Shelby Street in the early 1930s at the direction of Judge Arthur J. Tuttle.
Creditors participating in the bankruptcy mediation sessions that start this week include representatives from the city's police and fire unions, the General Retirement System, Police and Fire Retirement System, UAW, AFSCME and the Downtown Development Authority.
