Archinect - News

Quinn Evans' remake of the iconic Michigan Central Station debuts in Detroit

2024-06-13T19:18:00-04:00

Quinn Evans Architects has shared some photos of their completed work on the newly remade Michigan Central Station in Detroit. The home of the Ford Motor Company’s 1.2-million-square-foot technology hub in the historic Corktown district re-established the 110-year-old landmark through an expedited six-year process described as a "hybrid approach" by senior associate Angela Wyrembelski.

The project is the largest central piece included in the 30-acre master plan from Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU). The building re-opened for the first time since closing in 1988 over the weekend with a star-studded musical performance and remarks from special guests like Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Integral to the design team were several native Detroiters and proud alumni of the University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning (more on that here.) The project was completed at a cost of $950 million, helping the firm to be named as the AIA Architecture Firm Awa...

Detroit installs America's first wireless EV charging track

2023-12-08T12:24:00-05:00

Detroit has debuted an EV charging roadway concept from Electreon inside of its new Michigan Central Station innovation district they say represents a “major milestone in the future of mobility” as the first-ever wireless charging roadway in America.

The quarter-mile track through the city’s Corktown neighborhood was developed by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) after being announced by Governor Gretchen Whitmer in February of 2022. The track will serve as a five-year test pilot for the anticipated boom in EVs that are expected to hit the road in the next decade, cornering about half of the total market by the year 2035.

Similar concepts are been developed in Europe by Electreon, which hopes to open the new, eventually one-mile-long Detroit track to the public next year. The installation was also made possible by Ford (backers of the Michigan Central project), Jacobs, DTE, KIEWIT, Next Energy, and ROUSH CleanTech.

Related on Archinect: Detroit to host first public w...

Gensler and CIVILIAN team reimagines abandoned Detroit book depository as startup hub for mobility innovation

2023-04-28T11:55:00-04:00

A team including Gensler and CIVILIAN has completed the adaptive reuse of an old book depository in Detroit. The new center will serve as the headquarters for Newlab, a technology collective hosting startups in the field of decarbonization, energy, mobility, and materials.

Image credit: Jason Keen

Newlab’s headquarters sits within the wider Michigan Central campus; a 30-acre center advancing mobility-focused technologies and the vision of Ford executive chairman Bill Ford. On the campus, Newlab will create what the organization calls a “center of gravity for startups, entrepreneurs, engineers, and scientists to build breakthrough companies in Detroit.”

Image credit: Jason Keen

Image credit: Brian Ferry

The 1936 Albert Kahn-designed building housing Newlab was originally built as a post office and mail-sorting facility, before being used as the Detroit Public School’s Book Depository. The art deco building will now serve as a 270,000-square-foot center with purpos...

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”.

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.

Redevelopment of Detroit's Michigan Central Station slowly gaining momentum

2017-07-24T13:54:00-04:00

Talk about redeveloping the long-vacant Michigan Central Station in Detroit's Corktown area heated up again Thursday during an announcement about this year's Detroit Homecoming, which will hold the first significant private event in the 104-year-old train station since the mid-1980s. [...] "(Redevelopment of) the depot is going to take a marathon, but we're not at the beginning of the race, we're a few miles into it," said Matthew Moroun, whose father, Matty, bought the building in 1995.

"I said, 'there's one thing: Every time I read a damn national story about Detroit, there's a picture of the train station with the holes in the windows as the international image of the city's decline,'" Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is quoted saying, recalling his conversation with billionaire businessman — and the building's owner — Matthew Moroun. "I said, 'I want you to put windows in the train station. And if you do that, everything else will be just fine.'"

Renovation costs for the 104-year-old train station — once the tallest rail station in the world and the city's pride but sitting vacant and in an increasingly derelict state since Amtrak service ceased in 1988 — are estimated to exceed $100 million.