Plea for Preservation

"In recent weeks, this disconnect surfaced again as officials grappled with the fates of two vacant landmark structures near the city center. Neither the Lafayette Building, a 14-story office building from the 1920s, nor the iconic Michigan Central Station, designed by the same firm that built Grand Central in New York, bears any resemblance to a devastated foursquare, vacant or otherwise. The thing is, significant historic structures like the Lafayette building and Michigan Central Station are often dumped in the same bucket as any other vacant buildings and do not benefit from a comprehensive redevelopment strategy to get them back online. The result is the continued erosion of downtown Detroit’s world-class stock of pre-World War II urban fabric, despite the fact that there have been more successful rehab projects in the central business district during the last five years than in the last five decades.

The most frustrating thing for urbanists is that there is so little rhyme or reason to how the city disposes of these buildings. With no plan for replacement, the creeping creation of vacant lots in the name of “much needed” parking or blight removal is insidious. Since 1998, the city has spent at least $50 million to demolish well over two million square feet of Detroit heritage."