Michigan Central Station PART I of IV

[Zissou]

The design that that particular firm did for Grand Central Terminal in New York is symmetrical so my guess is that they grew tired of that and wanted to make MCD a bit different. I know when im doing drawings or sketches of buildings it gets stale and boring when everything is symmetrical sometimes so i try to change things up.

[RustTown]

I'm sure it had more to do with function than anything else. I really think the architects for the building spent little time on the office portion and rushed it, because it's plainly known that the office portion of this building was sparse from the very beginning. It's one of the few historic dinosaurs in the city that really seems rather architectural insignificant and wouldn't get half the attention it gets know for the simple fact that it's not downtown and sits empty. That's just my opinion, though, and I would love to see it used again.

[wolverine]

I recently read that the stations mysterious "peeling" marble walls are in fact, not marble at all. With that said, why the heck is the cost of renovation so high? Something isn't adding up right. This building isn't going to require nearly as much cleanup as the Book-Cadillac. I mean, there's a whole bunch of floors already stripped clean. I'm wondering if there might be some facade problems or something?

BTW, last Sunday we noticed they were taking down all the equipment from the filming. There was a leak of two photos of the filming, but the site that had them is currently down.

[Allan]

My guess is that there are a lot of facade problems. The facades of buildings were attached to the structure with steel ties. As the flashing is destroyed, water gets behind the facade, rusting the supports that attach the facade to the structure. Then the facade pulls away from the structure. Adding to the problem is missing mortar. And who ever said that the facades were properly supported in the first place? I know of at least one building in Detroit where the facade was not adequately supported 80+ years ago and is now in need of significant repair.

As you pointed out, the demolition budget would be very small in a renovation. By far the biggest portion of the budget would be the interior buildout and upgrade of the mechanical systems. I'd be interested to know what the square footage of the train station is. I don't think $200 million is that out of line, considering the amount of work to be done and the renovation costs of much smaller buildings like the Broderick and Book-Cadillac.

[RustTown]

Yeah, it must be the facade and mechanical updates, because even after the station was finished, the top 10 or so floors were never used or only a few being used for storage, meaning most of the building sat empty of most of it's existence.

BTW, the tower portion is 500,000 gross square feet of office space, and 250,000 sqaure feet for the actually train terminal.

[mn_body_detroit_hrt]

This may be something that has been touched on previously but I dont understand why one of the Casinos dont look into renovating MCS. There seems to be more then enough space, plus room to expand and still have parking, the location is great, not quite in downtown, but not too far out...

I assume that massive money has been spent on the temporary structures and will be spent on the final buildings, why not spend it to save a architectural jewel (no offence to those who dont really care for the building but I think that it has a magnificent presence and absolutly is a jewel)? Wasnt that a topic at one time, a casino there? What happend?

[mn_body_detroit_hrt]

By the way Wolverine...great series...great pictures....thanks for posting em.

[RustTown]

The casinos have no intentions to move, and never did. People like to blame city government for the failed casino plans, but the thing is, the casinos have been less than enthusiastic about moving. They are incredibly cheap.