The Railroad Magazine's and Ford's Restoration of the Michigan Central Station
Railroad magazines have published extremely laudatory essays about Ford’s restoration of the depot on Twelfth Street.
The December issue of Railfan and Railroad [[Available for $6.99 at railfan.com) has an essay by the architectural historian and rail photographer, Emily Moser. I learned a great deal. Both Grand Central Station in New York and our station opened in 1913. The Vanderbilt family, who controlled the New York Central, wanted to capitalize upon air rights by building large structures on the property near or next to their Detroit and New York depots. In New York, they owned a great deal of land so the hotels and office buildings they erected were not directly at the station as in Detroit. The original architectural reviews of the Detroit structure were not laudatory since critics thought the 18-story office tower greatly detracted from the exceptional elegance of the depot. The Reed and Stem architectural firm won the competition to design the two stations but the Warren-Whitmore firm also entered the competition. The Vanderbilt’s made the two firms cooperate and it was not, I infer, a happy collaboration. Whitney Warren had studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and strongly influenced the exterior design of the stations. He was a Vanderbilt cousin so he was influential. He chose as his model for the exterior of the Detroit station, the Chapelle Notre Dame de Consolation on rue Jean Goujon in Paris.
In Detroit, the Vanderbilt’s had trouble buying land from the 100 or more residents who lived in the area. Perhaps they bought less land than they wished so the Detroit office tower was constructed directly adjoining the depot. The essay makes it clear that the upper three floors were never completed finished. but now they will be completed but there is still indecision about whether they will be used for condos, a hotel or offices.
The January issue of Trains magazine [[Kalmbach.com, $6.99) has an equally impressive and informative essay by Thomas Garver and Oren Helbok. This one focuses more on how very well engineered the station was when it was built. It also desceibes, in considerable detail, the engineering work now underway and the exceptional attention now being paid to restore the original artwork and details. It includes interviews with people responsible for the redevelopment. The authors have nothing but extreme praise for this project.
