Detroit Is Changing Fast. Here’s What Locals Think Its Future Should Look Like
The Rust Belt city’s revitalization has been a long time coming. But designers stress the need to support the city’s creative culture amidst rapid development—and some want to keep it weird.
The Rust Belt city’s revitalization has been a long time coming. But designers stress the need to support the city’s creative culture amidst rapid development—and some want to keep it weird.
It’s a late afternoon in September, and long beams of golden light are gliding across the top level of Detroit’s Michigan Central Station. The space has been stripped bare and gutted down to its raw concrete subfloor, although graffiti still stains the pillars that run the length of the room. Through the freshly glazed, arched windows you can see the nearly complete Gordie Howe bridge to Canada and the downtown skyline, where a new SHoP Architects tower glimmers in the light of the setting sun.
From the top floor of Michigan Central Station, you can see the changing skyline of downtown Detroit. A Nomad hotel is slated to open on the level in 2027.
Photo: Mike Chino
Ford Motor Company invested $950 million—and over 1.7 million hours of work—to restore Michigan Central Station over the course of six years.
Photo: Mike Chino
Take the elevator 18 floors down, and you’ll find a building reborn—every finish, light fixture, and beaux arts detail restored in a nearly $1 billion renovation helmed by Ford. It’s kind of a miracle, and the metaphor tracks—in one wing, bits of the structure’s skin and bones are enshrined in plexiglass exhibit cases, like relics in the sepulcher of a grand cathedral.
A ground-floor gallery in Michigan Central Station displays bits of the building’s past salvaged over the course of the restoration.
Photo: Mike Chino
See the full story on Dwell.com: Detroit Is Changing Fast. Here’s What Locals Think Its Future Should Look Like
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