DETROIT CITY COUNCIL VOTES TO DEMOLISH M.C.S.!

NOOOOO!!! City Council wants to tear down Detroit's historic Michigan Central Station, a grand train station built in 1913 and on the National Register of Historic Places since 1975 - it'll only cost 6.3 million to do so, too :rage:! I hope preservation-minded folks can band together and save this beautiful example of Beaux Arts architecture.

Here's the story: City Council votes to demolish historic M.C.S.

And, here's some history: Michigan Central Station

I hope this is the correct forum to post this, if not - bartenders, feel free to move it.

That is horribly sad. Some of those pictures are breathtaking.

The building is clearly a wreck, as is much of Detroit, from what I read. So many rust belt cities have the same dilemma. Recycle the magnificent sturcture at great cost as . . . what? The whole economic underpinnings of the region are dissolving. This looks like a sad story that will have a bad end.

This building looks like it's almost right up there with the great Chicago School buildings, it should never have been allowed to deteriorate so bad.

Despite the national focus on the failings of the domestic auto industry, it's not Detroit's auto-centric economy that's keeping the city down. I don't think I'm talking politics when I say - the Detroit city counsel is a freakshow and is the biggest thing holding back that once-great city. That's a bipartisan belief here in Michigan.

I heard about this the other day, and I'm really shaken. Hopefully this will prod the (private) owners of the station to make some real preservation efforts rather than just talking about it as they have for many years. The Michigan preservation community will act, no doubt, but the counsel and the mayor are not particularly sympathetic to historic preservation in Detroit.

The big problem with the station is, as it has been since it was built, that it's not at the city center. Back when there were still street cars (and, believe it or not, the Motor City had them through the 1950s), it wasn't too big a deal, but it was still inconvenient. Now that all rennaisance efforts are focused on the downtown, however, there's little interest in spending money to revitalize something so far from the core.

There was talk that the Ambassador Bridge (international bridge into Windsor, ON) Project would end up creating a use for the old station, but it seems to have had the opposite effect, having drawn attention to the station's blighted condition.

-Dave

My parents both grew up in the city of Detroit and when they would come visit me in Chicago they would get angry at the contrast. They both felt that the Detroit they knew in the 1940s and 50s was gone forever and they felt nothing but despair for the city's future. Looking at these pictures breaks my heart.

I too have friends who grew up south of 8 Mile. When they reminisce it is really like people from Newark or Bridgeport, remembering the world of their past - bustling and thriving cities now wiped from the earth.

Almost the exact same situation in Buffalo. A once great city, now barely scraping along. They built their magnificent terminal on the east side of town, to encourage development, in 1930. Talk about bad timing.

Waitaminnit, I thought once it was on NRHP it was protected by Federal law?

There is a common misconception that being listed on the National Register of Historic Places offers some kind of protection. Not the case, unfortunately.

From the National Park Service website ( http://www.nps.gov/nr/ ) - and the NPS administers the Register - is this definition:

"Listing in the National Register honors a historic place by recognizing its importance to its community, State or the Nation. Under Federal law, owners of private property listed in the National Register are free to maintain, manage, or dispose of their property as they choose provided that there is no Federal involvement. Owners have no obligation to open their properties to the public, to restore them or even to maintain them, if they choose not to do so."

Listed buildings can be demolished, in which case they are "withdrawn" from the List. According to the NPS:

"Properties that were designated before December 13, 1980 can only be withdrawn because they have ceased to meet the criteria for designation. Loss of integrity (through alteration, addition, or demolition) is the most common reason for the withdrawal of Landmark designation."

A surprisingly incomplete list of withdrawn properties can be found here:

http://www.nps.gov/nhl/DOE_dedesignations/Dedesignations_intro.htm

I say "surprisingly" because this list does not include the now-demolished Mapes Hotel in Reno, Nevada. According to this website:

http://www.onlinenevada.org/mapes_hotel_and_casino,_reno

"In September 1999, the Reno City Council voted to demolish the hotel, in spite of the objections of area preservationists and historians. Clauss Construction imploded the hotel on a wintry Super Bowl Sunday morning, January 30, 2000. It was the first building on the National Register of Historic Places to be demolished since 1949."

Local and State designations offer moderate legal protections which depend, of course, on the state and/or municipality. In California, for example, we have a law called CEQA - the California Environmental Quality Act. The demolition of Listed properties requires a long process, including Environmental Impact Reports and a lengthy public hearing process. The structure may still be demolished after all of that, but the purpose to the law really is to act as a delaying process. During this time there is room for negotiations, which has saved many buildings.

The Detroit problem is very difficult. There is not much that a City can do to restore a sadly-decrepit building. They can order it boarded up or they can attempt to demolish it as in the present case. Certainly they could have attempted to go through some kind of redevelopment process. But given the present (and no-doubt future) state of Detroit, that's unlikely.

And so we will lose another one.

Tony

Grew up outside of Detroit and was in the building a few years ago. It's a total wreck, a modern-day Parthenon. The basements are full of water and the walls and ceilings are gutted. Whatever steel support the building relies on must be corroded beyond recovery. It is the black totem of a city neglected into a shameful state, and it leers over the landscape like an accusing seraph. The Book Cadillac was saved but this one is too far outside of downtown's economic hub. It should be allowed to pass into history. Detroit's future will have to arrive without it.

I thought some developer bought it, and was turning it into lofts.

There is no use for the station in that neighborhood that i can think of unless they want to continue to use it for movies. IMHO Detroit should concern themselves with making sure the Ren Cen doesn't get the same treatment in the coming years.

Isn't Ren Cen where GM is headquartered?

The last publicized plans were to renovate the depot and use it as Detroit Police Headquarters, replacing the building downtown at 1300 Beaubien.
This was during the Kwame Kilpatrick administration. The city does not own the building or property, it's owner is the same person that owns the Ambassador Bridge and the new bridge being built between Detroit and Windsor.

I read a article that cited a 1968 report on the MCS, and it stated that the steel used in the construction of the building was three times over what was actually required. The reason given was that when the depot was built, engineers did not fully understand how much (or little) was required as the type of construction used was so new (1913) at the time.

It would be great IF this building could be renovated. But the elements, vandals, and building strippers have taken their toll. I would hate to even guess how much it would take to at minimum seal it up and replace the electrical and plumbing. And then security during renovations to keep all the wiring and plumbing from being liberated.

There are so many buildings of true historical value, such as one of my favorites, the Grande Ballroom, that are left to ruin. Not to be a fly in the ointment, but with the crime problem, failing schools, corrupt city government, crumbling infrastructure, a city council that wishes to polarize urban vs. suburban, well you get the picture.

The city and school district can't even close and secure their own property.
Homeless have taken over a shuttered police precinct (8th, previously known as the 16th precinct) and vandals have ravaged shuttered school buildings. These same schools were left with supplies inside when closed, the same school district that can't buy toilet paper for the lavatories.

Vast areas of the city are vacant land. There is talk of creating urban farms there, and condemning blocks with one or two homes.

Until, IMO, they get a handle on the problems stated earlier and make LIVEABLE neighborhoods, saving MCS is just putting perfume on a pig so to speak.

The city of Detroit has several "gems", the Detroit Zoo, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Historical Museum. Whenever the city needs money for the operation of these venues, they go to the tri-county area for assistance. But if the suburbs want some say in how their money is spent, the fur starts to fly. Google "Cobo Hall" and see some stories. This is one of the gems. Check out the articles regarding this years Autorama, the annual custom car show. I was there and saw the cars that had to be covered with plastic due to the building leaking water during the rainstorm on Saturday night. Not to mention the buckets placed to collect the water in others. The city council has just rejected the latest offer of help, so the future of the North American International Auto Show is now in limbo.

I hope I have not stepped on any toes here, I too hate to see buildings of this type left to ruin or to be torn down and more prairie land created. But I can't see any private developers first buying up this building and then being able to rehabilitate it without a bottomless bank account. If it's so viable, why hasn't the owner done it?

Funny, when I told my father, who was born and raised in the city of Detroit, about this he said "Thank God. It's about time."

What they need to do in Detroit is level about 90% of the city and start fresh or turn it into one big prison.

Anselmo1,

With regards to your first comment, that's what they are now doing in Flint, Michigan. They have realized that this city is rather doomed, so they hope to keep a habitable central core. They are planning on demolishing the mostly abandoned subdivisions outside the town and just contract.

With regards to your last comment, Michigan can not afford prisons and is planning to close several. So that's not an option.

It's sad to see a city die, especially one that was so vibrant in the Golden Era.

Tony

Unfortunately, the owner of the building is a loser and has let it and many other of his properties decay over time. If they tear it down, he'll probably get the bill.

It's a shame to see such a beautiful building go to waste.
At this point it is probably better to tear it down. It would probably be more cost effective to tear it down and rebuild the exact same building than it would be to try and renovate it at this stage.

So sad.

If the city does tear it down they should send the bill to the owner. They really should be fining him right now. Seems like it is public hazard at this point.