There is Gold in Your Future

In April, Stamps Professor Nick Tobier and students in Visualizing and Depicting Ideas transformed research into storytelling with There is Gold in Your Future, a public window installation at 210 S. Ashley Street — the building originally built in 1896 as Hertler Brothers, and renamed as Downtown Home & Garden from 1997 – 2025.

Students went behind the scenes of this eccentric and iconic building with owner Mark Hodesh, who uncovered layers of local lore, from basement horse stalls and hidden grain elevators to the long-forgotten factories and rail yards of Ann Arbor’s West Side, mysterious gold teeth, and Lewis, the beloved store cat. Hodesh also revealed his thoughts on the building’s potential future with ideas that would continue to center community gathering on Ashley Street, from yoga and line dancing to exhibitions and cabaret shows.

This research provided inspiration for the students’ window installations, where teams created dimensional work that chronologically tells the story, in four chapters, of the past, present, and future of the landmark based on Hodesh’s anecdotes and observations.

The installation was featured in an April 17 MLive article by William Diep.

Walking past the once-beloved Downtown Home and Garden, you may notice a suite of new artwork.

Red wagon wheels, cartoon-like renditions of a kitchen and an old photograph of the store adorn the windows at the 210 S. Ashley St. location in downtown Ann Arbor.

No, this does not mean a new business is imminent. It’s a project by University of Michigan art students.

They took it upon themselves to fill the beloved spot’s windows with a decorative project, said longtime property owner Mark Hodesh.

Although Hodesh, 81, is unsure of what business will take over the spot, the art display fills a void in downtown Ann Arbor.

About 15 to 20 students, guided by Nick Tobier, professor at the UM Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, came by Monday, April 13, to design the artwork, Hodesh said. Tobier, of Ann Arbor, said a smaller group of about five students came back the night of Tuesday, April 14, to do additional work. About eight of them returned Wednesday, April 15, to finish it up, according to Hodesh.

​“They took it on and just did a fine job,” Hodesh said. ​“They were just so fast and it’s just interesting. It’s fun to look at. It’s worth walking by.

Old Downtown Home and Garden spot has new artwork, but no business replacement yet | MLive