Historic Preservation is one of Detroit’s weakest areas of urbanism. It is amazing that Detroit has such an uphill climb with historic preservation when not far from the city’s edge in neighboring Dearborn sits Greenfield Village, where so many structures have been moved from across the country in order to preserve them.

An ongoing concern is that a few people buy undervalued historic structures to speculate on future growth, then do not take care of the buildings and allow them to fall into decay.  Local ordinances are not enforced; if they were, either the city would get the money from the fines or the city would get a well-preserved building.  When the speculators are not creative enough to figure out how to restore the building and refuse to sell to someone who will, the speculator or the city makes the claim that the building must be tore down. We’ve seen this scenario in Detroit many times.

Over the past 60 years, each mayor has seemed to think that knocking down  buildings will somehow generate economic growth.  What they fail to realize is that historic structures are great assets and that once they are gone, they cannot be replaced. With the destruction of each building, each mayor or head of the DEGC proclaims the rebirth of the city.  This was true for numerous buildings that were destroyed under Coleman Young, including the Tuller Hotel. We lost the Hudson’s Building under Dennis Archer, as well as the many buildings near the stadiums that are not on the stadium sites. Under Kwame Kilpatrick, we lost the Madison-Lennox and the Statler Hotels, even though developers wanted to restore and reuse both buildings. Under Dave Bing, the city has destroyed the Lafayette Building and Ford Auditorium.

Two of the most endangered buildings currently are the Michigan Central Train Station and United Artist Building.  In the case of the Michigan Central, the city has neglected its duty to ensure that the building is properly mothballed. The building has been neglected so badly that six or seven figures of dollars should be ticketed annually. But the city looks the other way.

There have been many successes of Historic Preservation in Detroit.  Here are but a few.

Orchestra Hall - Back in the 70’s, Orchestra Hall was slated for demolition. Members of the orchestra, which was at that time performing at Ford Auditorium started the movement to save the building.  It has been renovated at least twice since then, and has been expanded to add two new smaller theaters.  It is now considered one of the jewels of the city.

Fox Theatre - Yes the grand building that had a date with the recking ball before Chuck Forbes did the major part of the restoration in the 1980’s.

The Book-Cadillac Hotel - After the city blew up the Hudson’s Building, the city’s next target was the Book-Cadillac Hotel. It was called an eyesore and all of the usual verbiage.  Preservationists countered by creating the Friends of the Book-Cadillac. Frank Nemecek produced a documentary called Checking In: The Story of the Book-Cadillac Hotel.  Eventually, the city put together a deal and renovations began, only to be halted by claims of cronyism.  While it looked bleak for a while, the city eventually put together an extremely complicated deal that included the county, the state, the federal government, and many other institutions. The renovations were completed in October 2008 and the Book-Cadillac is again considered another Jewel of the city.

The Fort Shelby Hotel - Completed with as little city interference as the developer could manage, the Fort Shelby reopened 2008.  The building is now a Doubletree Guest Suites and includes a bar and restaurant on the first floor.

The Gem and Century Theatres - When the city leveled many blocks of the city for the new stadiums, they included the Gem Theatre on their hit list. The owner, Charles Forbes, instead moved the theatres in an enormous task. At the time, it was the largest building ever moved intact. After the move, Mr. Forbes completed the restoration and has had many long-run shows since.

Currently, the GAR Building, the David Whitney Building, and the David Broderick Building are all in various stages of redevelopment.

There are many other success stories, such as The Detroit Opera House, The Kresge Building, and The Guardian Building, but each time preservationists try to prevent the destruction of another landmark building, the claim is made the historic preservation is too expensive.  If that were true, none of these success stories would have happened.