Detroit showed what it’s about during the draft! Smashed attendance records, a beautiful atmosphere and no major incidents. It still has some of the most amazing architecture in the country at one point in history it was thee place to be! It’s lost 1.5 million people since it’s hay day. Dan Gilbert is the man’s name you were thinking about and he’s done tremendous things for the city. He moved his Rocket Mortgage headquarters downtown around a decade ago I believe, he was also paying his employees to move downtown. He and his wife are huge philanthropists.
It's so refreshing to see Detroit embracing its heritage. Most other cities would look down upon their old buildings as "obsolete" and tear them down for something. It's so nice to see leadership that actually respects their city's history for once. Meanwhile, in the New York metro area, we've torn down so many historic buildings, you could write a whole book about all of them. I'm young, and even I mourn the loss of them. Especially Old Penn Station.
Yes you covered many of the dramatic renovations, restorations, & developments going on in Detroit. You need another video to show so much more like the whole innovation campus around the old Michigan Central Station that Ford Motor Company has backed. The Joe Louis Greenbelt Way that ties the near west side past the Michigan Central Station to the Detroit waterfront. Through downtown to connect the near eastside. The Ralph Wilson Centennial Park on the waterfront west of downtown, but east of the Ambassador Bridge to Canada. Farther west is the erecting of the Gordie Howe Bridge between Detroit & Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Can't forget America's #1 waterfront park. Detroit's Riverfront Walk will run from the Ambassador Bridge to the west all the way past the McArthur Bridge to Belle Isle in the east. A new apartment building has already been built, & soon a hotel will be built on the site of the former Joe Louis Arena site. Campus Martius Park has a beach in the summer, & skating rink during the winter. It was voted America's #1 gathering place. On the site of the former Hudson's Department Store site is the multipurpose Hudson Building. Shops, restaurants, hotel, & residences will be added to General Motors world headquarters. Blight is being torn down. Illegal dumping is being eradicated. Community gardens are popping up all over the city. Small neighborhood parks are appearing. Detroit has had an amazing transformation in the past 10/15 years. 👍🏻
Dan Gilbert, yes the current mayor, not so much. Most of these projects were visualized in the early 2000s. The major push was to get the city ready for the Super Bowl. Mike Illich, who owned Little Ceaser Pizza before his passing, also owned Little Ceaser Pizza, and the Detroit Tigers was the largest developer in Detroit before Dan Gilbert. I work for the general contracting company Barton Malow Hunt, and I can tell you with absolute certainty projects like these take years of planning.
I have numerous fond memories of the train station. It was a treat for the eyes & would take numerous dates there for coffee & snacks. When I was drafted into the Army in 1966, everyone left from this station to Fort Knox, Campbell or Sill for basic training. I shocked my parents by kissing a gorgeous brunette goodbye "Sailor & Nurse style" from the WW2 Life magazine photo. What a thrill. I also left in this station on New Year's Day 1967 to report to Fort Carson Colorado due to overbooked flights out of Metro airport & saw parts of the country where there were no roads. Great memories.
Thank you this video. I am a native Detroiter who lives very close to Baltimore now. I have not lived in the Detroit area for 33 years. However, my heart is still there!
It's taken many years to get to this place. A lot of the credit goes to Dan Gilbert and Mayor Duggan, they had the influence and vision. I live in a suburb outside of Detroit and am so happy to see this comeback in my lifetime 🤩
From the west side of Michigan and went to Detroit for the NFL Draft. I was blown away by how nice it is downtown with all the bars and restaurants and how clean it was.
(1:05) the Ransom-Gillis house renovation was a neat project; I know the woman who restored the glass...she restored our front door, which is mostly glass...and is brilliant! I am more interested in restoration and preservation, but the come-back of Detroit is exciting.
My family visited Detroit for as long as I can remember, both parents had extended family living in Detroit, I lived there for 12 years in my 40’, 50’s, Enjoyed it, saw a lot, did a lot, spent a lot, I met Peggie Lee, Robert Goulet, Aretha was at the same Patti Label Concert I attended, I met people who worked as movie stand ins, for production companies working in the metro Detroit area, a Richard Gere movie was filmed across from my Apartment complex in Ann Arbor one evening. Detroit was a great experience for me to live through.
From a person who actually DID live downtown Detroit, the buildings where you say "closer to downtown" aren't "closer" to downtown. They are VERY MUCH a PART of downtown. I absolutely LOVED every minute of living there and would move back in a MINUTE if I could afford it. Thanks for these updates to many places in a city richly filled with beauty !
Thanks much. Greatly appreciated knowing that the country and its history is being preserved and will once again be appreciated and this time around will be taken better care of.
Wellington Square Apartments, The Strathmore, David Broderick Tower, Wurlitzer Building (Siren Hotel next to Metropolitan), Book Depository (next to Michigan Central Station), Elaine Lofts, Dreamtroit (at Lincoln St Art Park), 7 Mile & Livernois, Detroit Pizza Bar and The Lantern (near Indian Village) are yet more examples of new life for old structures.
I’ve lived in Detroit all my life. I love this city. The my kids live here and my sister too. Sister and I are creeping towards ancient and have never had break ins or robberies. City was depicted as crime ridden and dangerous. No problems. Now all those people who had nothing good to say want to be here. Gentrification is pushing some people out and all the new residents are expecting it to be like suburbia. I’m feeling quite cranky about this attitude. Not saying there aren’t good things happening in the city just would appreciate some respect for those of us who have always been here.
St. Louis needs better leadership to attract the minds and money going elsewhere… crime needs to be addressed, so does the culture of fatherless homes… boys out at all hours become men out at all hours.
This was really nice to see. I hope these renovations continue into the residential areas. It would be nice for the locals to have their neighborhoods restored while keeping costs workable for them.
Detroit is a beautiful city and has many historical buildings. i grew up just south of detroit and have lived in the area my entire life. Its nice to see that they are finally doing something about all of these abandoned beat up houses and buildings. My concern about the work they are doing in detroit is that it will not last. The people are what plagued the city and turned it into the wasteland it looks like. Until that is addressed and they dont need colored lights at gas stations to tell you how safe the areas are at night or police pulling you over telling you it isnt a safe area and to not stop at red lights.... We still have a long ways to go...
My two favorite restoration projects downtown are The Book Cadillac Hotel (one of the first ones undertaken) and The David Whitney Building (my favorite building of all.)
It was an interesting video, seeing my home town come back to life. I was born in Detroit and lived over half my life there. I’m really happy they are bringing Detroit back to the beauty it once was. I just wish they were as focused on getting the gangs and crime out of the neighborhoods. If I didn’t have a front row seat(from my living room window) in watching the crime scene people clean up a murder scene, I’d probably still be there.
Very cool video! I heard Detroit was coming back but you’re vid really shows how much that’s true. Gives us hope that other faded cities and towns can do the same.
@ 8:40… sorry to see those two classy homes go on Cass… they could not have been moved ? a glimpse of what that strip was like is now gone… thank you for an otherwise uplifting view of change and renovation in the D.
Note on the second one, Ransom Gillis House?, there is a scale to size of buildings near the old house on the corner. Scaled up going away and down coming to. This puts emphasis on the old house.
Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston's characters in Jim Jarmusch's 'Only Lover's Left Alive' (2013) explore Detroit at night and say it will one day rise from the ashes. Very good movie.
Thanks!! Been working on the video editing skills so definitely plan to put more out going forward (and hopefully they’ll be a little more polished than this one 🤣)
I have seen similar things in east Germany. With some buildings one would have thought they were too far gone, but they managed to bring them back. One villa in particular (also with a turret) I remember as a ruin with graffiti. A few years later architects had bought it and did a nice renovation. They used it for their company afterwards. Always great to see when this happens, because once these buildings are gone, they’re gone. They don’t build them like they used to!
Two items: Ford Motor Co. purchased the Michigan Central Station and will use it for some portion of their business. Recently I heard a presentation by someone from an economic development organization and he said that the city has had to turn away tens of millions (maybe more; I didn't take notes 🙂) in convention business because currently there is a lack of hotel space to handle all the guests. The message being there is a lot of interest in the city. I live in a suburb just north of the city.
Great video! I was born and raised in Detroit and that last hotel you showed behind the arena, I used to work there when it was Salvation Army Harbor Light, a substance abuse facility. Nice to see it renovated!
I'm gen x and I remember going down to Detroit every other weekend back in 1984. The apartment building my dad stayed at after his divorce is in the pic at 4:30. That apartment building was called Trolley Plaza back then. There used to be trolleys and a station there in those days. I remember walking past the Hudson retail store just after it closed due to the new stores in the suburbs. The windows were boarded up. Detroit was DEAD in '84. The best restaurants were the London Chop House and Carl's Steak House and the restaurant at the top of the Ren-Cen. Lot's of closed retail spaces.
Really enjoyed seeing all the preservation and renewal going on. Years ago beauty brought back. One word of advice though, MOVE SLOWER on the clips. Very hard on the eyes with the speed you click through LOL Keep up the good info.
Thank you for the great review of Detroit building renovations. As a Detroit native, this is great to see. For future reference, please refrain from the twitchy image movement. It really makes the video hard to watch.
Four generations of my family called Detroit home, starting in 1880. I'm glad to see all the renovation going on and the black cancer that ran the city into the ground 😮 finally, not the main emphasis.
It’s the Shame the buildings that have been lost, Progress I know, I miss Old Tigers Stadium. I miss the smell of that place. I miss the restaurant across the street. I miss the kid who for a dollar would watch my car and make sure nobody breaks into it, Nobody ever broke one of my car windows in Detroit, Fun fun fun. Times in Detroit.
Marvelous -- don't apologise, you did a fine job as usual and are giving evidence that Detroit is coming back, as long and wishfully alleged. I hope they'll eventually restore a once-opulent high school there. Forget the name but I saw an UE video here on its tragic ruined state. Could easily have been mistaken for an Ivy League university bldg in its day.
Didn't like seeing those two houses being torn down and I'm in total agreement that addition put on that stone castle type home doesn't even try to blend in and is total eyesore.
That was two years ago … you’d hate to see how many unread emails I have now 🤣 But definitely agree about Detroit, it’s on the upswing for sure and great to finally see! Thanks for watching!
I wish they could have saved the churches even if, the buildings were used for a business instead. The steeples covered down town. My kids and I used to count them when we would park in the elevated garage by the hospitals. So many beautiful buildings were taken down when the hospitals were built and expanding. Rows and rows of brick houses. They were amazing.
Agreed! Despite all of these cool renovations, there are some many other cool pieces of architecture that have been lost. Love to see it when old stuff can be salvaged and repurposed!
So happy to see them saving the old buildings. What annoys me, is the owners of the buildings, often do nothing to keep them in good condition, they exploit them. They let them get so run down, to the point they are about to be demolished. Then they get some free money from the city, to renovate them. They are awarded tax abatements, for 20 years. Then they turn them into expensive condos. It doesn't serve the communities. The owners always win. Poor and lower income people are shut out and can't afford to rent any of the newly created, renovated apartments.
The train station was called Union Station when first constructed. The upper floors were offices. It is said that Motown Records once occupied one of those floors. It's amazing to see the building's new lease on life. There are a number of URBEX videos with this place showing how it had been almost stripped bare of its original architectural features in the train station area on the ground floor. I have to wonder if it has been restored to its original design or re-imagined.
The biggest renovation could do is educate the folks who live & work there is to clean up after themselves!! Things like...pick up trash, do not throw trash on ground, quite spitting on the ground, don't spray paint...you know real simple things.
It is unfortunate to see how prevalent that behavior is in a lot of these places... sad to see nice renovations that don't make it long term because of those things
Ideally YOU would KEEP YOUR COMMENTS to YOURSELF…. since apparently you either don’t know or deliberately overlooking the reason it ended up in this state of decline There’s a WHOLE HOST of REASONS it fell WITH the HELP OF THE GOVERNMENT giving low cost mortgages to YOUR GROUP in MASS to move out to suburbs taking the JOBS and TAX BASE along with ALL THE POLITICAL POWER while RED LINING BLACKS denying them those option s ..,, So don’t be blaming the people that were left behind with NO RESOURCES for what had been the 4th largest population in the country and also THE WEALTHIEST per- capita ,….. this city started it’s decline because of RACISM in the 50s and it’s been the state as a WHOLE AGAINST THIS CITY EVERY SINCE there was a reason the FIRST regional mall was northland…. That was when they 1st had plans to leave downtown Detroit
Really the best way to have people stay clean is to bring more businesses and jobs to Detroit. With everyone working you generate more money, have less people on the streets, and just more people involved in the cities economy which leads to happier people in the community who then care for their own property and surroundings.
@@_saucyam_ ..idealist vision. That ain't real life for the folks in the really bad sections. Some have no history of work or desire to do so. They do not own or have a desire to own much of value. Trash a place & move on.
Always easy for ppl to say from the outside looking in. Extreme overnight poverty ruined Detroit. It's been taking years to turn it around. Go and learn about the real history of all these different districts. I was born and raised there. These days I only go back there for sports games.
M'Dad said James Scott was the most hated man in Detroit. He never said why. There's also a GORGEOUS marble water fountain at the southern tip of Belle Isle, the Scott Fountain. Detroit created a 50 year renovation plan after the city went bankrupt. Detroit had 2 big problems: a series of mayors stealing from the city, and white bankers unwilling to give loans to black potential home buyers.
detroit is like buffalo. the recovery is happening. restoration of architectural gems. how about the frank lloyd wright darwin house? it took 50 years & 50 million dollars to restore it. now people travel from all over the world to see it. toronto has the largest international airport in canada less than 1 hour from buffalo. on the way there is niagara falls. In buffalo you can see a bills game & a sabres game on the same weekend. great restaurants & amenities. how about fresh water shores?
That's really cool! From what I gathered from other videos I watched is that Detroit struggles with a lot of buildings and infrastructure but with a substantially smaller tax base than what was expected after de-industrialization. It's great to see things being rebuilt and renovated, but I wonder what changed in the economics of the city to make this possible? Are they directing resources to a more select number of projects and away from other areas 🤔 Really interesting topic, thanks for putting this together!
Yea Detroit is such a neat place! To go from the industrial powerhouse of the world to half deserted in less than a century is wild. You do raise a good question about how sustainable will the new development be? Is there enough of an economic base to support it beyond the initial reinvestment? Definitely will be cool to see how it goes in the future! I’m hoping to get up there this year to check it out and try to connect with some builders and developers to get their firsthand thoughts on it
Detroit has focused on specific areas to make sure they become attractive. Detroit is a massive city, a lot of it is still falling apart and it's basically abandoned. By focusing on the main parts, like downtown Detroit, Cass corridor and the mid city area, they're making possible to restart from a smaller area and eventually spread out to other derelict areas. Detroit 's suburbs are pretty good and wealthy in general, Dan Gilbert is like a Bruce Wayne. He is using his money to fix the city. I'm so Detroit is getting better. The architecture there is just stunning. If all the buildings get rehabbed, Detroit will probably be one of the most beautiful downtowns in america. If you have the chance to visit, go inside of some of the 1920, 1930 buildings. The lobbies are even better than the buildings themselves.
Detroit itself has a very cyclical history: decay/neglect/abuse of historic and former quality business and residential areas that become rehabilitated, only to fall into disrepair neglect and even abandonment, however quickly or slowly, over the ensuing years. Sad,...but that's our town
Its unfortunate to see for sure... I'm in Baltimore so we've been dealing with a similar pattern as Detroit. On the bright side it seems that at least right now both are on the upswing!
I've seen with my own eyes in this town how a beautiful upstairs apt was ripped into three apartments because of landlord greed. So I'm glad good buildings are being saved but at what cost?
The Grand Cental Station building is now owned by Sheila Hamp-Ford. She also owns the Detroit Lions. Grand Central Station is now the headquarters of Detroits only NFL team.
This is wrong. The Lions are headquartered out of their practice facility in Allen Park (Near Greenfield Village). The Michigan Central Station is owned by the Ford Motor Company and will be home to their office devoted to Autonomous Driving. They are also putting a hotel on the upper floors with talks of bring Amtrak train service back to the building with the possible restarting of train service from Detroit to Toronto. The also fixed up the old book depository next door and another old factory a couple of blocks away on Michigan Ave. that used to make hosiery. They took on the restoration of an old church nearby as well.
Referring to the Detroit Historical Board as beggars is very insulting. The area I'm speaking of is called Brush Park, which is located in downtown Detroit. During its heyday in the late 19th century, Brush Park was considered one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Detroit, and it was indeed home to some of the city's most affluent residents. Brush Park was first developed in the 1850s by entrepreneur Edmund Askin Brush. He envisioned it as an upscale residential neighborhood for the city's elite. If you are going to make a video about a city like Detroit, you should at least learn some of its history.
