Jay Jurma
Venus Bronze Works' Giorgio Gikas, center, puts the finishing touches on Detroit's long-awaited RoboCop statue, with help from assistant Nadine Chronopoulos. Now the statue just needs a home.
In the spring of 2011, Brandon Walley and Jerry Paffendorf were hard at work in Corktown. Starting with two long-vacant houses near Michigan Central Station, their group, Imagination Station, had dedicated itself to commissioning local public art projects.
They'd already helped make a few attention-getting pieces a reality, such as the Hygienic Dress League sign that once graced on the Roosevelt Hotel with solar-powered neon seagulls, or "Monumental Kitty," Jerome Feretti's brick-and-mortar sculpture near the old Tiger Stadium site.