Incredible projection on the Michigan Central Train Station

[e-dub]

Ford put on quite the show projecting this video onto the Michigan Central station in a neighborhood called Corktown - just down Michigan avenue coming out of downtown. If you leave from downtown on Michigan, you'll pass by the old Tigers Stadium site on the right. Directly across Michigan is a place called Bucharest Grill that serves a MEAN shawarma. Also in the neighborhood are Astro Coffee and the Detroit Institute of Bagels.

 

The Michigan Central station is kind of, well... I guess "iconic". It's a staggeringly beautiful helping of Beaux Arts that's magnificent when you see it in person. The scale, the details, everything. It's lovely. It face some years of neglect before FoMoCo bought it. The first time I went to visit the city and saw the windows being replaced nearly put a lump in my throat. Anyway, I figured you guys may like this, too. Check it out!

 

 

[rookzie]

On 1/27/2019 at 10:33 PM, e-dub said:

Ford put on quite the show projecting this video onto the Michigan Central station in a neighborhood called Corktown - just down Michigan avenue coming out of downtown. If you leave from downtown on Michigan, you'll pass by the old Tigers Stadium site on the right. Directly across Michigan is a place called Bucharest Grill that serves a MEAN shawarma. Also in the neighborhood are Astro Coffee and the Detroit Institute of Bagels.

 

The Michigan Central station is kind of, well... I guess "iconic". It's a staggeringly beautiful helping of Beaux Arts that's magnificent when you see it in person. The scale, the details, everything. It's lovely. It face some years of neglect before FoMoCo bought it. The first time I went to visit the city and saw the windows being replaced nearly put a lump in my throat. Anyway, I figured you guys may like this, too. Check it out!

Thanks for the post, which I hadn't noticed until this day 9-16-2019

I made a long sought pilgrimage to MCS (Michigan Central Station), when I visited Detroit last April for a course at Wayne State Univ.  It has been one of my favorite of North American iconic passenger train stations. Originally serving primarily the New York Central and Baltimore & Ohio RRs, Amtrak abandoned it in 1988.  It’s now being restored by Ford Motor Company, which acquired it in 2018, after it survived several near-misses at demolition since then.

The then-owners before Ford Motor, the Morouns, put in plain windows in 2015, after being forced by the Duggan administration (of Detroit).  That at least stopped further weather-element intrusion. Now they'll all be ripped out by Ford, since they're not historically correct for Ford's planned restoration.   If Ford is successful in consortium with the state of Michigan to get intercity passenger rail into MCS, then it would be in line with the proposed return of service via the former MC tunnel (I believe now utilized by CN) to Windsor and Toronto.  But such service couldn’t include the existing connection north, from the North End via Milwaukee Junction to Pontiac.

It also would mean that the Qline streetcar would need to be extended with a new route via Michigan Ave (US-12), from downtown through Corktown, in order to serve MCS and make the Qline functionally and civically more attractive.  That in turn would require capital improvement funding from the city, applied with fed and state matching, and maybe even a public-private. partnership with Ford.

The Michigan Central Station (MCS), in Corktown, Detroit. -4/09/2019- (my photos)

 

[MLBrumby]

Wow! I hope this happens. It's such a beautiful building that should be restored... and USED!

[archilove]

I have many fond associations with this station dating back to my childhood when I would take the Royal Palm to Chattanooga on summer vacation to visit my Dad. I still remember waking up as we came into Tennessee and going to the dining car for a Southern breakfast that I could not get in Detroit. It included grits, of course, bacon, biscuits, sunny side up eggs, etc., served on a starchy white tablecloth by a waiter in a starchy white apron. It was the highlight of my year to enjoy this breakfast as the scenery rolled by and the train, pulled by a 4-6-2 Pacific steam engine clickety-clacked ever closer to my destination where my Dad and Great Uncle would be waiting with my Uncle's model A Ford.  So long ago and so far away.

Edited February 3, 2020 by archilove

[ArchitectBarbie]

On 9/16/2019 at 4:20 PM, MLBrumby said:

Wow! I hope this happens. It's such a beautiful building that should be restored... and USED!

I just stumbled upon this thread today - but you should check this out, its one of the best stories on a once abandoned building. 

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/found-decor-iconic-detroit-station-revival-inspires-return-of-stolen-artifacts/

They recovered so many stolen artifacts that they showed them off to the public.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/01/11/ford-reveals-recovered-michigan-central-depot-artifacts/2541879002/

[e-dub]

8 hours ago, ArchitectBarbie said:

I just stumbled upon this thread today - but you should check this out, its one of the best stories on a once abandoned building. 

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/found-decor-iconic-detroit-station-revival-inspires-return-of-stolen-artifacts/

They recovered so many stolen artifacts that they showed them off to the public.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/01/11/ford-reveals-recovered-michigan-central-depot-artifacts/2541879002/

There's a cafe pretty much across from the train station I go to every time I go back to Detroit (it's called Astro Coffee) so I soak in the station every visit. I'm looking forward to having a look at it again this summer