Restored Book Depository Next to Michigan Central Opens

Printable View

April-25-23, 07:06 AM
Lowell

pictures

Restored Book Depository Next to Michigan Central Opens

A great day in Detroit as another formerly crumbling and embarrassing fabulous ruin of Detroit has come back to life. It was not that long ago that urban explorers in 2009 found a body partially encased in ice in its basement—ice also used as an impromptu ice hockey venue.
Attachment 42589
Joining its opening are 14 edge technology startups that encompass mobility and society befitting its name NewLab. Read about the companies here.

The redesign of the Albert Kahn structure has added to ground floor to glass ceiling atrium. Also being opened is an underground passageway to the nearing-completion Michigan Central Depot.
Attachment 42588
April-25-23, 07:10 AM
stasu1213

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lowell

A great day in Detroit as another formerly crumbling and embarrassing fabulous ruin of Detroit has come back to life. It was not that long ago that urban explorers in 2009 found a body partially encased in ice in its basement—ice also used as an impromptu ice hockey venue.
Attachment 42589
Joining its opening are 14 tech startups that encompass mobility and society befitting its name NewLab.

The redesign of the Albert Kahn structure has added to ground floor to glass ceiling atrium. Also being opened is an underground passageway to the nearing-completion Michigan Central Depot.
Attachment 42588

Is it open to the public
April-25-23, 07:13 AM
ndavies

Quote:

Originally Posted by stasu1213

Is it open to the public

No, it is by invite only.
April-25-23, 08:52 AM
K-slice

Quote:

Originally Posted by stasu1213

Is it open to the public

I rode my bike by last week and looked in all the windows. Security guy came out and I talked to him for a while about the building. Asked to come inside real quick but got turned down.

The transformation of the building is great to see of course, but what it represents is even better. Silicon Valley didn't get to be a center for high paying, high skill jobs through complacency and longing for the "good old days". Detroit has for too long waited for the next factory to open, betting it's future on what made it successful in the past.

Between Ford's Corktown campus, the U of M Center for Innovation, and the MSU medical research facility/ HFHS project, Detroit has a real shot to rise above local [[read Midwest) competition for the most desirable jobs of the 21st century, and see a new crop of startups within the city limits.
April-25-23, 06:50 PM
RO_Resident

pictures

I was lucky enough to take a tour of the Book Depository and train station back in December, 2022.

Depository
Attachment 42594

Train Station
Attachment 42595
April-25-23, 10:25 PM
Lowell

Awesome photos! Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RO_Resident

I was lucky enough to take a tour of the Book Depository and train station back in December, 2022.
April-26-23, 08:05 AM
renf

The beautifully restored building adjoining the Michigan Central depot is now referred to as the Book Depository Building. In the detailed comments in the press there is mention that it was designed by Albert Kahn for use by the postal service.
In the past when mail was delivered quickly, it was transported from city to city in postal service cars transported by passenger trains. I believe
that the lower floors of what is now known as the Book Depository building had railroad tracks when Michigan Central switch engines would position
rail cars of arriving mail. The incoming mail would be unloaded and than the car filled with out going mail. There is a small literature describing how very efficiently and quickly first class mail was distributed through out the
country by rail in the first five or six decades of the last century.
April-26-23, 04:33 PM
southen

I was fortunate enough to see and walk around the space last night and it really is stunning. It is a shame that the public won't be able to experience that atrium because it is gorgeous. Much of the building is still under construction, like everything over there, but the tenants in there seem thrilled with the space and support they are getting.

I am left wondering what will happen with the post office facility that is there and the trucking business just south of the Book Depository. You are about to have these gorgeous buildings and campus come online and both of those spots are an eyesore that takes away from what they are trying to accomplish.
April-26-23, 08:22 PM
Burnsie

Quote:

Originally Posted by southen

I am left wondering what will happen with the post office facility that is there and the trucking business just south of the Book Depository. You are about to have these gorgeous buildings and campus come online and both of those spots are an eyesore that takes away from what they are trying to accomplish.

The USPS Vehicle Maintenance Facility is not an "eyesore" and doesn't take away from what Ford is trying to accomplish. It's a nicely proportioned 1939-40 structure and has always been used as a Post Office garage. If the original window lite arrangement was restored it'd look even better.

If you take the time to read its cornerstone [[legible on Street View), you'll see that the supervising architect was Louis A. Simon, who designed the FDR Library & Museum and was a Fellow of the AIA. The consulting architect, Howard Lovewell Cheney, was also an AIA Fellow and designed the original Washington National Airport building. Even if those men didn't actually involve themselves on a minute basis with this Detroit facility, they set the standard for its overall look and quality, along with all the federal buildings designed under their supervision.

The garage is a contemporary of the Book Depository and obviously was meant to harmonize with its yellow brick. One of the things which makes big cities compelling is the juxtaposition of different building uses. There's nothing to be ashamed of in having a USPS vehicle repair garage across from a repurposed former Post Office building. After all, the repair facility focuses on "mobility," which is the theme of the whole MC development.

There are plenty of battles worth fighting in Detroit, without complaining about a decently maintained 83 year old building which employs a substantial number of people at good wages.

There's also no problem with the trucking business south of the Book Depository. The neighborhood doesn't need to be scrubbed of all "grimy" businesses.
April-27-23, 08:33 AM
southen

Quote:

Originally Posted by Burnsie

The USPS Vehicle Maintenance Facility is not an "eyesore" and doesn't take away from what Ford is trying to accomplish. It's a nicely proportioned 1939-40 structure and has always been used as a Post Office garage. If the original window lite arrangement was restored it'd look even better.

If you take the time to read its cornerstone [[legible on Street View), you'll see that the supervising architect was Louis A. Simon, who designed the FDR Library & Museum and was a Fellow of the AIA. The consulting architect, Howard Lovewell Cheney, was also an AIA Fellow and designed the original Washington National Airport building. Even if those men didn't actually involve themselves on a minute basis with this Detroit facility, they set the standard for its overall look and quality, along with all the federal buildings designed under their supervision.

The garage is a contemporary of the Book Depository and obviously was meant to harmonize with its yellow brick. One of the things which makes big cities compelling is the juxtaposition of different building uses. There's nothing to be ashamed of in having a USPS vehicle repair garage across from a repurposed former Post Office building. After all, the repair facility focuses on "mobility," which is the theme of the whole MC development.

There are plenty of battles worth fighting in Detroit, without complaining about a decently maintained 83 year old building which employs a substantial number of people at good wages.

There's also no problem with the trucking business south of the Book Depository. The neighborhood doesn't need to be scrubbed of all "grimy" businesses.

You chose to assume that I was talking about the structures or uses and not the fact that there are trucks parked all over the street, on the sidewalks to the point that you have to walk in the street, and resembles more of a haphazard parking lot than great neighbors to the new businesses and those that live there. I would hope that if USPS was to move that the building would be restored.

I don't agree with the concept that just because these are places that do repairs or are "grimy" that they have to look like shit and litter sidewalks with vehicles.
April-27-23, 10:57 AM
K-slice

Quote:

Originally Posted by southen

I was fortunate enough to see and walk around the space last night and it really is stunning. It is a shame that the public won't be able to experience that atrium because it is gorgeous. Much of the building is still under construction, like everything over there, but the tenants in there seem thrilled with the space and support they are getting.

I am left wondering what will happen with the post office facility that is there and the trucking business just south of the Book Depository. You are about to have these gorgeous buildings and campus come online and both of those spots are an eyesore that takes away from what they are trying to accomplish.

The guy I spoke with at the depository building said Ford was in the process of purchasing the USPS building and the Roosevelt Hotel. Take that with a grain of salt but that's what I was told.