Time for Detroit renewal
June 19, 2018 7:19 AM   Subscribe

Michigan Central Station was originally a grand train depot in the style of the early 20th Century, complete with an office building that made it the tallest train station in the world. It fell into disrepair as Detroit's own automotive industry killed the trains, and has stood as one of the preeminent examples of "ruin porn". But earlier this month, Ford bought the structure, intending to redevelop it as a hub for its autonomous vehicle development. The news was hailed across Michigan as a sign of recovery, attracting even the attention of scavengers, returning one of the antique clocks that had been taken from the depot during its long abandonment.
posted by Etrigan (32 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
Here is the sad, Pizza-Hut-looking building that you arrive at today if you take an Amtrak to Detroit. It's pretty dismal, even if you haven't been laid off by phone while en route, as I was the last time I rode the Wolverine.

The old station is really something. Photos don't do a good job of capturing the degree to which it towers over everything around it. I hope there is some public use element in Ford's plans.
posted by enn at 7:34 AM on June 19, 2018 [15 favorites]


Now that's the kind of Detroit porn I go for.
posted by ocschwar at 7:37 AM on June 19, 2018


It's a really impressive building in person - like a lot of Detroit buildings. It's a really beautiful city. I'm happy that it has a future, although there's a sad irony that it's going to be taken over by Ford.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 7:50 AM on June 19, 2018 [4 favorites]


Are those seriously bathtubs in the original floorplan?
posted by Hypatia at 7:57 AM on June 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


Great news! The building is a gem, and Detroit deserves its saving. Whether Ford is a good fit or not I leave to others better informed than I am, but a project like this needs lots of money and a single vision/occupier which pulls it through, and if not Ford, then who?

There's a counterpart example in Buffalo's Central Terminal, a gorgeous Art Deco monument which fell on hard times, where the owners went so far as to strip it of all copper wiring to pay city taxes. There are restoration efforts there as well, with semi-regular events being held. Without a massive influx of cash, though, the best that can be hoped for is for the building to keep pace with degradation. A true restoration is just a dream without a major backing tenant, and I'm glad that Detroit seems to have found one for its station.
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:06 AM on June 19, 2018


This makes me so happy. The story of the clock is so heartwarming.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:08 AM on June 19, 2018 [4 favorites]


It seems like a strange use for the building, but I will be very happy if it is restored.
posted by praemunire at 8:11 AM on June 19, 2018


I know it isn't practical for reasons, but I can't help thinking about a scenario where autonomous cars and trucks leverage existing railroad right of ways from station to station at high speed, then reach these stations to get driven from there to their final destinations.
posted by davejay at 8:15 AM on June 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


Are those seriously bathtubs in the original floorplan?

There are bathtubs in the Capitol - it might have been a Thing in that era:

https://gizmodo.com/the-secret-solid-marble-bathtubs-in-the-us-senates-boil-1569094492
posted by LSK at 8:41 AM on June 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


It’s not that strange. It’s basically a large 18-story office building with train station attached. It sound like Ford was looking for an large office building in the area and this fit the bill.
posted by jmauro at 8:47 AM on June 19, 2018


People needed to clean up and not everyone had home plumbing in the 1910s. Hence public baths.
posted by killdevil at 8:50 AM on June 19, 2018


i hope they can get batman to pay for some of renovations since that jerk tore the place up pretty badly when he was fighting superman
posted by entropicamericana at 8:55 AM on June 19, 2018 [5 favorites]


It’s not that strange. It’s basically a large 18-story office building with train station attached. It sound like Ford was looking for an large office building in the area and this fit the bill.

Oh, this is a Gesture by Ford with a capital G, and no mistake. Think about all of the fraught expectations surrounding this site and about how much cash will need to be spent to restore its grandeur. Ford certainly would have been better off building an office park from a strictly economic point of view.
posted by killdevil at 8:56 AM on June 19, 2018 [10 favorites]


Great post! I've been following the news but had missed the clock story which was quite sweet. I'm excited to see what Ford brings to that area. In addition to the train station, they've been buying up other spots around Corktown over the past few years. The best part to me is prying it out of the hands of the Moroun family, who are just colossally scummy.

For those in the area, looks like there will be a Community Open House this weekend.
posted by thatquietgirl at 8:59 AM on June 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


Anybody know what finally got Matty Maroun to let go of it?
posted by rocket at 9:00 AM on June 19, 2018


This is great news.

The old station is really something. Photos don't do a good job of capturing the degree to which it towers over everything around it.

Totally!

I've seen it up close, but my view was usually from Windsor. I could walk a few minutes from my door and have a clear line of sight to it. It really stood out against the sunset in this really forlorn way.

This drone footage gives a little bit of a sense of what it is - and isn't - surrounded by.

In terms of private hands, it's most definitely preferable to have it in those of Ford ("Ford's," as you would say in Windsor) than those of the Marouns.

New York Times: No plans for the station have been drawn up, but Mr. Ford would like the grand hall and ground floors to be a public space filled with stores, restaurants and coffee shops. “We really want this to be a hub of life for this part of town,” he said.

Metro Times: We don't know how much it will cost Ford to transform the derelict Michigan Central Station into a hub for autonomous vehicle technology, and we don't know how much the company paid to buy the building from the Morouns.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:01 AM on June 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


Ford certainly would have been better off building an office park from a strictly economic point of view.

The NYT coverage says:
The money for the station will come from a sum that Ford set aside in 2016 to overhaul its Dearborn headquarters and dozens of nearby buildings.

The money “was already in all the forward spending models we had,” Mr. Ford said. “We have added no new money to that budget.”
But then it also says:
He declined to say how much Ford expected the renovation to cost and acknowledged that the final sum could rise above current estimates. “Whenever you get into a renovation, you don’t know what you don’t know,” he said.
In conclusion, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. It's usefully big, it has sentimental value for many people around there (including Mr. Ford himself), and it has the potential to anchor a whole campus, especially considering how underdeveloped the land around it is.
posted by fedward at 9:10 AM on June 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


Anybody know what finally got Matty Maroun to let go of it?

That's a totally valid question since we don't know what the price was. He's been holding Windsor hostage for ages over a second international bridge span, so there must be some long game here even though he's almost as old as the station itself.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:13 AM on June 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


I love old train stations and I still marvel that Union Station here in LA is still a hub, still super active, still mostly preserved and freaking gorgeous. Still mad they pulled half the chairs in the waiting room for sales kiosks and that they built those god awful condos along the eastern side, but whatever. A friend of mine is working on the restoration and new brewpub going into the Harvey House which is a favorite of mine.
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:14 AM on June 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


That floorplan is a trip in a lot of ways. I know a lot of women's rooms have lounge areas in addition to the sinks and toilets, but look at the size of that one! It's almost as big as the restaurant! You could hold a suffragette rally in there!

And then to get to the men's toilets, if I'm reading the plan correctly, you must go through the smoking room, no other choice. Which, I mean yeah most everyone smoked back then, but what's the point of a separate smoking room if everyone (well, every man) has to go in there at some point? A designated cigar counter! On the floorplan! This is great.

Also, does it bug anyone else the way the article about the clock insists on calling the person a "thief" over and over? This person removed the clock to preserve, protect, and appreciate it--far more than any so-called "owners" of the building did as they allowed the building to rot for decades. Capital's cult of "ownership" is so extreme that it boggles the mind sometimes.
posted by Krawczak at 9:35 AM on June 19, 2018 [14 favorites]



Oh, this is a Gesture by Ford with a capital G, and no mistake. Think about all of the fraught expectations surrounding this site and about how much cash will need to be spent to restore its grandeur. Ford certainly would have been better off building an office park from a strictly economic point of view.

It's for Ford's tech hub for electric and self-driving car research. At least part of the reason is to attract tech workers.

In Cincinnati, GE built a new Global Operations building at the riverfront park, and right on the streetcar line that runs to historic Over The Rhine north of downtown. Their highly paid workers want to be in the city.
posted by jjj606 at 9:42 AM on June 19, 2018


After looking at the drone footage I have to wonder how much freaking money the renovation is going to cost. That site is huge and they'll have to gut everything. If completed it would attract the tech workers, that's for sure. Certainly a good thing for Detroit.
posted by Ber at 9:58 AM on June 19, 2018


Some railfan drone footage as well - it's quite well done.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:11 AM on June 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


More footage of the station from the non-narrative film Naqoyqatsi.
posted by rmannion at 10:24 AM on June 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


I love Detroit, and I am so happy that Michigan Central Station is being restored. One of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. I do think Ford will be a good steward for the building.
posted by sundevil87 at 10:53 AM on June 19, 2018


I know a lot of women's rooms have lounge areas in addition to the sinks and toilets, but look at the size of that one! It's almost as big as the restaurant! You could hold a suffragette rally in there!

A number of female passengers would probably also have children in tow, though.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:06 PM on June 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


I saw this headline in my news feed earlier and just assumed Google had summarized incorrectly because it's so out of left field. That said, it's always nice when civic interest aligns with capital's interest. People probably wouldn't hate capitalism so much if TPTB ensured that such circumstances were the normal state of affairs rather than such an oddity that one assumes error when news like this pops up.
posted by wierdo at 12:33 PM on June 19, 2018


Station, not terminal, sorry. Words have meanings. :(

(Also one should actually read what one actually posted before correcting oneself, not work from memory and correct something removed in the revision process)
posted by wierdo at 12:49 PM on June 19, 2018


I am simultaneously thrilled about this, because it's a gorgeous building with a tremendous history and probably everyone who's seen it rotting longed to see it resurrected. But having grown up in the area, I also couldn't help but read the headlines as "dying industry buys expensive decaying building as a sign of thrilling new renaissance", and fear for its fate if Ford suffers a downturn (and the auto industry has Always suffered downturns).

But having marveled at the station when meeting my brother on the train in the 80s and admired its desolation from outside the Corktown hipster bars in the 2010s, the Thrilled part of me loves reading stories like this.
posted by ldthomps at 2:03 PM on June 19, 2018 [4 favorites]


Station, not terminal, sorry. Words have meanings. :(

Ah, there you've brought up a topic. It's definitely not a terminal, but is it a station or a depot? Detroit's historical community can't seem to agree on that, any more than they can agree on whether the top floors were ever finished and used.

That site is huge and they'll have to gut everything.

As pretty much anyone who has been in there recently, legally or not, will tell you, it wasn't much more than a shell already. What was left when the Marouns finally secured the building probably got cleaned out during the window installation project a few years ago.
posted by Preserver at 3:12 PM on June 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


Also, aside from what this indicates about the city's and state's economic recovery in general, I can't say enough about what this means to the Michigan historic preservation community. We are fighting to reinstate our state historic rehab tax credit, but despite the support of both the Michigan house and senate (miraculous enough, as they are both Republican-dominated), the governor is lukewarm on signing because he was the one to get rid of it in the first place. If anyone can put enough pressure on him to sign, it will be Ford wanting to get their full 25% credit for this rehab.

A fully rehabbed Michigan Central would be a huge preservation win.
posted by Preserver at 3:19 PM on June 19, 2018 [4 favorites]


I took the Fast Michigan bus from the airport to downtown Detroit a couple weeks ago. I'm so glad to know what that amazing building that I saw from the bus was and excited to hear about its future.

I had a fantastic time at our conference and really loved going to restaurants in these gorgeous old buildings that were obviously recently restored. Also, the Riverwalk is amazing, and every city that has already abused the heck out of their river ought to at least make it accessible to the people. Detroit seems to be doing redevelopment very well.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:24 PM on June 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


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