motor city's train station
June 28, 2024 3:11 AM Subscribe
In the Grand Hall, miles of new grout secure 29,000 Guastavino ceiling tiles, while in the south concourse a glass roof now protects original brickwork (miraculously intact despite flooding). All throughout Michigan Central Station, stonework has been refreshed or replaced, lighting faithfully reproduced, and period details revived thanks to some 1.7 million hours of work. “They poured their memories and love for Detroit into this project” [Architectural Digest] previously
I’ll admit I laughed at the “before” photo of the exterior where it was winter. I get they put a lot of work into it, and the restoration is marvelous, but that felt like stacking the deck.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:29 AM on June 28 [1 favorite]
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:29 AM on June 28 [1 favorite]
8 Mile, every moment is a chance to turn it around ∞
posted by HearHere at 5:12 AM on June 28 [1 favorite]
posted by HearHere at 5:12 AM on June 28 [1 favorite]
Alas, the one original detail they didn't restore was the train service!
posted by miguelcervantes at 5:34 AM on June 28 [12 favorites]
posted by miguelcervantes at 5:34 AM on June 28 [12 favorites]
I have a friend who was involved in this refurb and seeing the before/during/after photos on her social media has been a delight. I love seeing old buildings brought back to life.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 5:57 AM on June 28 [8 favorites]
posted by gentlyepigrams at 5:57 AM on June 28 [8 favorites]
Is it still a functioning train depot?
posted by Czjewel at 6:20 AM on June 28 [1 favorite]
posted by Czjewel at 6:20 AM on June 28 [1 favorite]
8 Mile , every moment is a chance to turn it around ∞
Eminem at grand re-opening. WIth Detroit Symphony Orchestra backing him up.
Also Diana Ross.
Also, Jack White, who claimed to have written Seven Nation Army two blocks away.
posted by tempestuoso at 6:55 AM on June 28 [2 favorites]
Eminem at grand re-opening. WIth Detroit Symphony Orchestra backing him up.
Also Diana Ross.
Also, Jack White, who claimed to have written Seven Nation Army two blocks away.
posted by tempestuoso at 6:55 AM on June 28 [2 favorites]
Is it still a functioning train depot?
No trains since Amtrak ended service in 1988. I visited the station during the Open House a couple of weeks ago. The station is pristine and looks great, the renovations were meticulous. The tracks are still there and the renovation was done so as not to preclude future train service.
posted by plastic_animals at 7:38 AM on June 28 [7 favorites]
No trains since Amtrak ended service in 1988. I visited the station during the Open House a couple of weeks ago. The station is pristine and looks great, the renovations were meticulous. The tracks are still there and the renovation was done so as not to preclude future train service.
posted by plastic_animals at 7:38 AM on June 28 [7 favorites]
if you're thinking of going, it's on the Wolverine line [Amtrak]; New Center is where the station was relocated after Central Station closed in 1988 [wiki].
posted by HearHere at 8:03 AM on June 28 [1 favorite]
posted by HearHere at 8:03 AM on June 28 [1 favorite]
Wonderful resurrection! For video of what it was like before, in the 1990s, see the begnning of 'Naqoyqatsi.'
posted by Rash at 8:59 AM on June 28 [1 favorite]
posted by Rash at 8:59 AM on June 28 [1 favorite]
Thank you so much for posting this! I wanted to, but since I work for the architectural firm that designed the rehabilitation and worked on the project myself (as a historian, not an architect), it felt too close to the self-promotion line ;).
It is an absolutely incredible transformation and hard to overstate how important this is for the city of Detroit - this building was the symbol of the city's decline and to see it restored and with such care still chokes me up.
Ask me anything!
posted by Preserver at 10:56 AM on June 28 [12 favorites]
It is an absolutely incredible transformation and hard to overstate how important this is for the city of Detroit - this building was the symbol of the city's decline and to see it restored and with such care still chokes me up.
Ask me anything!
posted by Preserver at 10:56 AM on June 28 [12 favorites]
That makes me happy, thank you
posted by BWA at 11:01 AM on June 28 [1 favorite]
posted by BWA at 11:01 AM on June 28 [1 favorite]
Also, the links above don't include one of my favorite things about the rehabilitation - the decision to keep the graffiti in one short corridor, to acknowledge the building's history.
You can see it here, toward the end of the photo stream.
posted by Preserver at 11:04 AM on June 28 [7 favorites]
You can see it here, toward the end of the photo stream.
posted by Preserver at 11:04 AM on June 28 [7 favorites]
One more link (maybe ;) ) - we developed a visual guide to the restoration if you are interested in seeing more. This has a short history of the station and historic photos, pre-rehabilitation images, and details on how some of the restoration work was done.
posted by Preserver at 1:10 PM on June 28 [4 favorites]
posted by Preserver at 1:10 PM on June 28 [4 favorites]
This restoration looks great! So many of these old central stations were like secular cathedrals and they need to be treated as such. Regular train or subway stations tend to be a bit too utilitarian but for whatever reason the powers that be have the good sense to at least make the central ones look good. I'm always a bit awed when I step into the main hall of Toronto's Union Station and I remember driving through Cincinnati a couple of years back and I looked to my right and the Hall of Justice (Cincinnati Union Terminal) was right there. Some of my favorite buildings in Japan are train stations too: Kyoto Station and Osaka Station City.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:01 PM on June 28 [3 favorites]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:01 PM on June 28 [3 favorites]
Preserver, thank you both for contributing to this thread & for your beautiful restoration work! i'm a bit in awe: 10/10
i don't want to miss an opportunity to ask you questions though. are there more details on the laylights mentioned in the restoration guide?
also, Czjewel's question:
how realistic are possibilities for transit being reconnected?
posted by HearHere at 4:35 PM on June 28 [2 favorites]
i don't want to miss an opportunity to ask you questions though. are there more details on the laylights mentioned in the restoration guide?
also, Czjewel's question:
how realistic are possibilities for transit being reconnected?
posted by HearHere at 4:35 PM on June 28 [2 favorites]
HearHere, you are welcome! I'm still a lot in awe myself. It's a cliche but it really was a labor of love for so many people. Shortly before the reopening, Ford held a "worker appreciation day" for all the designers and tradespeople who worked on the project. I saw so many people dragging their friends over to some part of the station and pointing proudly to the work they'd done.
One of the many amazing stories is that we found the quarry where some of the stone had been quarried back in 1913. The quarry itself had closed down but sitting on the property were blocks that had been quarried at the same time as the ones from MCS - sitting there for over 100 years! They were able to cut a road back to it and use some of those blocks to recreate column capitals.
Regarding the laylights, the concourse used to have a flat ceiling with translucent panels (the laylights). You can see what it looked like here. By the time the project started, all of that was completely gone and only the framing you see today was present. As you can imagine, there was a lot of discussion whether to replicate that or not with factors including the quality of the light, cost, etc. In the end, the team decided to let that be one of the elements that tell the building's history, similar to the graffiti hall and a few other things around the building.
I'm not really dialed in to the discussion about reconnecting the building to transit, but it is definitely a realistic possibility. The general intention is to put that area into active use and provide better connections to the surrounding neighborhoods. Southwest Detroit (Mexicantown) is "behind" the building and part of the process was ensuring that the building didn't feel like it was presenting its "back" to the neighborhood. The design deliberately left several of the historic tracks in place with that possibility in mind and I know that there have been talks to reactivate it, although it would be up to Amtrak to carry it out.
posted by Preserver at 6:28 PM on June 28 [3 favorites]
One of the many amazing stories is that we found the quarry where some of the stone had been quarried back in 1913. The quarry itself had closed down but sitting on the property were blocks that had been quarried at the same time as the ones from MCS - sitting there for over 100 years! They were able to cut a road back to it and use some of those blocks to recreate column capitals.
Regarding the laylights, the concourse used to have a flat ceiling with translucent panels (the laylights). You can see what it looked like here. By the time the project started, all of that was completely gone and only the framing you see today was present. As you can imagine, there was a lot of discussion whether to replicate that or not with factors including the quality of the light, cost, etc. In the end, the team decided to let that be one of the elements that tell the building's history, similar to the graffiti hall and a few other things around the building.
I'm not really dialed in to the discussion about reconnecting the building to transit, but it is definitely a realistic possibility. The general intention is to put that area into active use and provide better connections to the surrounding neighborhoods. Southwest Detroit (Mexicantown) is "behind" the building and part of the process was ensuring that the building didn't feel like it was presenting its "back" to the neighborhood. The design deliberately left several of the historic tracks in place with that possibility in mind and I know that there have been talks to reactivate it, although it would be up to Amtrak to carry it out.
posted by Preserver at 6:28 PM on June 28 [3 favorites]
Wow!
posted by mazola at 8:02 PM on June 28 [1 favorite]
posted by mazola at 8:02 PM on June 28 [1 favorite]
« Older —Admit that Homer was no good. —No. —Admit. —No... | Tractor Supply Ditches DEI, Climate Goals After... Newer »
posted by evilmomlady at 4:21 AM on June 28 [1 favorite]