From decay to dazzling. Ford restores grandeur to former eyesore Detroit train station
The once-blighted monolithic Michigan Central train station — for decades a symbol of Detroit’s decline — has new life following a massive six-year, multimillion-dollar renovation to create a hub for mobility projects in the rebirth of the Motor City
DETROIT — The once-blighted monolithic Michigan Central train station — for decades a symbol of Detroit’s decline — has new life following a massive six-year, multimillion-dollar renovation to create a hub for mobility projects in the rebirth of the Motor City.
The windowless hulking scavenger-ravaged structure that ominously shadowed the city's Corktown neighborhood is now home to Ford Motor Co. and the centerpiece of a sprawling 30-acre (12-hectare) mobility innovation district.
The building's first tenant, Google’s Code Next Detroit computer science education program, is expected to move in by late June. Grand opening ceremonies include an outdoor concert on Thursday, with tours for the public starting Friday.
“The train station… it is perhaps the most powerful story in Michigan of the power of historic renovation,” Detroit Regional Chamber President and Chief Executive Sandy Baruah said. “To turn something that was blight into something that is hugely attractive and is an anchor as opposed to a deficit is huge.”
The restoration effort — part of the automaker’s more than $900 million project to create a place where new transportation and mobility ideas are nurtured and developed — was just as massive as the size of the more than century-old, 500,000-square-foot (46,000-square-meter) building.
In numbers:
__ More than 3,100 workers spent about 1.7 million hours of labor on the station and its surrounding public spaces
__ 29,000 Gustavino tiles were restored in its Grand
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