Archinect - News

Michigan Central Station: Ford hires EverGreene Architectural Arts to revive historic interiors

2021-02-08T13:45:00-05:00

Ford Motor Co. of Dearborn has brought on New York City-based EverGreene Architectural Arts, one of the largest specialty contractors in the U.S., to revive the grandest areas of Michigan Central Station, including the main waiting area, arcade, ticket lobby, and restaurant. The company specializes in restoring historic buildings.

Ford purchased Detroit's historic but long-vacant Michigan Central Station in 2018 with plans to redevelop the hulking structure as the shining centerpiece of the company's new 30-acre Corktown mobility innovation district. PAU was brought on as the lead architect and strategic planner, and in November 2020, the new site plan was revealed to the public. Collaborator Gensler was tasked to revitalize the Book Depository, one of the development's four key buildings.

Previously on Archinect: Design plans released for Ford's Michigan Central site and Book Depository by PAU and Gensler. Rendering courtesy of PAU.

In a recent statement, the company revealed that specialty contractors EverGreene Architectural Arts were tasked to "replicate and restore approximately 56,000 square feet of decorative plasterwork."

Update Feb 8, 2021: This article has been corrected to better reflect PAU's involvement in the project.

Design plans released for Ford's Michigan Central site and Book Depository by PAU and Gensler

2020-11-20T12:16:00-05:00

At a community meeting this week, Ford Motor Company revealed the site plan for Michigan Central, a new walkable mobility innovation district in Corktown, Detroit’s oldest neighborhood, as well as designs for some of the district’s first buildings. Ford’s multiyear development, including the restoration of the iconic Michigan Central Station, is underway.

Michigan Central site plan. Courtesy of PAU.

The 30-acre site plan was developed by lead architect and strategic planner Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU). It will be a walkable community that is anchored by a train station. According to Ford, the new development will prioritize the needs of residents and businesses as well as the 5,000 employees who work there.

Vernor Plaza. Courtesy of PAU

Mobility Platform. Courtesy of PAU

“This project is about preparing Ford for another century of innovation and success,” said Mary Culler, Ford’s Detroit development director and Ford Fund president. “At Michigan Central, we are taking ...

Ford Motor Co. to renovate Detroit's Michigan Central Station into “future mobility” research center

2019-07-18T16:48:00-04:00

This all makes what is happening now all the more remarkable. Last summer, Ford Motor Company announced it had bought the building, with plans to invest $740million to transform it into a world-leading research centre for ‘future mobility’. The very industry that signed the station’s death warrant in the first place is now set on resuscitating it as a beacon of sustainable transport.

Oliver Wainwright pens a piece on the upcoming renovation of the Michigan Central Station, which was a celebrated icon of Detroit when it first opened in 1913. After the station closed in 1988 and was abandoned, it became the epitome of the city's ruin porn.

After buying the building last summer, Ford Motor Company will transform the ground floor into a public market-style space, while offices in the upper floors and neighboring buildings will house their 1.2 million square-foot “future mobility” Headquarters and Research Campus, which Snøhetta is designing.

In the article, Ford's construction manager Richard Bardelli tells Wainwright that the renovation project aims to turn Detroit into “the mobility capital of the world”.

Michigan's central role in the Modernist movement leaves lasting impacts

2018-09-07T13:51:00-04:00

If Michigan isn’t the first place that comes to mind when considering [the Modern era] — unlike, say, Germany or France in the 1920s — it should be. The presence of Ford in the city and Booth in the country was enough to make Michigan ground zero for the Modernist experiment [...] making the state home to perhaps the most diverse and best-preserved collection of early Modernist experiments in the world.

A look at Michigan's history in the Modernist movement and the story it tells for our future. M.H. Miller traces three main convergences in the state: Henry Ford's first Model T factory, the Cranbrook school's presence, and numerous influential architects most notably Albert Kahn and Minoru Yamasaki. While this all leaves Michigan with several noteworthy sites, Detroit and surrounding areas are also cautionary markers of modernism's relentless pursuit of "progress" for future generations.

Snøhetta to design Ford's new Michigan headquarters & campuses

2018-06-21T17:36:00-04:00

More details on Ford's adaptive reuse of Michigan Central Station reveal that Snøhetta has been commissioned as the lead designer as part of Ford's $1 billion capital improvements project. Tasked with re-envisioning the company's Headquarters and Research Campus in Dearborn, Michigan, the firm will also design Ford's new urban campus in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood.

Michigan Central Station renovation rendering. Image: Ford.

The Corktown Campus project, estimated to cover 1.2 million square feet, includes renovating the historic Michigan Central Station, which has been in disrepair for 30 years since Amtrak last used the train station. Spanning 500,000 square feet, the updated building will house Ford and partner company offices along with public spaces.

Michigan Central Station current state of disrepair.

The project also involves developing mixed-use facilities close to downtown Detroit. The plans include restaurant and retail spaces on the ground floor, with residential provis...

Ford to give Detroit's iconic Michigan Central Station a new life as its future mobility lab

2018-06-20T17:19:00-04:00

Yesterday, Ford Motor Company announced its long-rumored plan to buy the abandoned Michigan Central Station and restore it as hub for its future mobility ventures. The news quickly created a sense of awe across metro Detroit. [...] On Tuesday morning, Ford laid out the details and made the purchase official in a public ceremony.

Rumors about Ford's intentions to purchase the iconic but dilapidated Michigan Central Station first surfaced in March, and now it's official: the automaker ('scuse me, mobility company) celebrated the announcement with a festive party on its new property hosting performers and city officials.

"Ford’s purchase of the station is a grand, symbolic gesture that seemed unlikely only a few years ago," Tamara Warren writes for The Verge. "As its intention materializes to transform the station into a center for autonomous driving and innovation in the next three to four years, it’s a poignant move that resonates deeply in the city and around the state of Michigan."

Detroit's abandoned Michigan Central Station may soon be bought and redeveloped by Ford

2018-03-23T15:19:00-04:00

Ford Motor Co. is in discussions to purchase the dilapidated Michigan Central Station in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood just outside of downtown, Crain's has learned from multiple sources familiar with the negotiations.

"A redevelopment of the depot, which has been abandoned and blighted for three decades since Amtrak stopped service in 1988, would be one of the most expensive and complex local undertakings in recent history," Crain's reports.

Google, Uber, Lyft, Ford and Volvo join forces to lobby for autonomous vehicles

2016-04-28T12:51:00-04:00

Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, a lobbying group with the express purpose of advocating autonomous driving. [...] "Self-driving vehicle technology will make America's roadways safer and less congested," [David Strickland, a former administrator of the NHTSA] said [...] "The best path for this innovation is to have one clear set of federal standards, and the Coalition will work with policymakers to find the right solutions that will facilitate the deployment of self-driving vehicles."

Lyft has also been in talks with General Motors (which is not a part of the Self-Driving Coalition) to put out its own group of autonomous for-hire vehicles. Models for Google's vehicles include both bespoke prototypes and Lexus SUVs, and Uber is developing its own testing grounds for self-driving cars in Pittsburgh.

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Building upgrades proposed for Roche + Dinkeloo's Ford Foundation Building

2016-04-21T14:10:00-04:00

The Landmarks Preservation Commission is set to consider a proposed $190 million renovation to the Ford Foundation...Although many aspects of the building have long been outdated...it is health and safety, not aesthetics or technology, that initially drove the foundation’s plans. The city has given Ford until 2019 to bring the building up to code for fire safety and handicapped accessibility...

“...But since they had to scratch the building’s surfaces, Ford Foundation president Darren Walker and his staff decided to go further, upgrading not just by adding sprinklers to the ceilings and greater access to the atrium, but new security, new lighting and mechanicals, and a new spatial organization.”

J Mays, Ford's head of vehicle design, discusses his architectural inspirations

2013-06-04T17:00:00-04:00

As the person in charge of design for Ford's entire vehicle porfolio, Mays looks at architecture a lot. And he's ever mindful of buildings and how they're designed whenever he sets about creating a new car or truck for Ford. What he's learned — and what he likes— about architecture, and Chicago architecture in particular, will be his focus when he joins the panel discussion "Big Ideas in Small Places" on Thursday at the Chicago Architecture Foundation.