Bringing together energy research and biotechnology, greencollar
industry could be best defined as turning bio-ecological
improvements into capital gains. Considering that Detroit
has a surplus of brownfield sites and the means to support
heavy research, environmental remediation can become a new
industrial export. As in micro-economics, supply vs. demand:
the United States demands the recovery of contaminated urban
sites for development, Detroit supplies research expertise
and manufactured mechanical-computational apparatus to
public and private markets. In order to achieve such a model,
an incubator could be established in the form of a catalytical
institution to harbor green-collar organizations: the Detroit
Institute for Remediation Technology (DIRT).

The former Globe Trading Building and Dry Dock Complex
serves as the site for the DIRT. A brownfield industrial site along
the Detroit River, the facility has a long-standing industrial
history of shipbuilding. The Dry Dock in front of the complex
has now become an inlet for the river, with part of the site being
developed into a state park. The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy
is building a trail that will stretch along the site all the way to
Belle Isle. The Dequindre Cut trail also travels the east side of
the building. Without any adjacent structures, the Globe stands
as a monumental ruin in the current landscape. Its renegotiation
for the DIRT will institute manipulations of scale, material
conservation as a historic property, public interaction, and
ecological phytoremediation strategies.