DETROIT - RESEARCH
ANNEE 2018/2019 -
2EME QUADRIMESTRE -
BA3
For much of the early 20th century, Detroit was the industrial capital of the United States and for a time, the world. The de- velopment of the Ford Model T, regarded asthefirstaffordableautomobile,andthe images of men building cars on moving assembly lines captured the public’s’ ima- gination. As the automotive industry trans- formed Detroit’s economy, the city’s po- pulation grew as well as its infrastructure.
During these decades, ornate office buildings, regal academic buildings and grand manors sprouted across the city and the region, largely because of the ingenuity of architects like Albert Kahn. He was frequently referred to as “the architect of Detroit,” and designed around 900 buildings in Detroit alone. Kahn’s portfolio of work contains a va- riety of Architectural styles because of his time studying European Architecture. His ambition was to recreate these styles in Detroit, such as Neo-Renaissance, Greek Revival and Art Deco. A few of the buildings have been demolished, an unfortunate reality of redevelopment, and pronounced urban decay. Scores of archi- tectural beacons, including the Art Deco Fisher Building and Belle Isle Aquarium.
Building on Louis Kamper’s influential Art Deco movement in Detroit, the Smith group continued Kamper’s philosophy and ideals but on a larger scale. The Smith group focused their work on Wood- ward avenue, the central axis of Detroit in 1827. The Guardian building (1927), The Penobscot building (1928) The Da- vid Stott building (1950) which were all made with Limestone facades carved by Italian-American sculptor Corrado Par- duccci which are unique to Detroit’s buil- dings due to the regions geology and the economic serge at that time. These buildings also share a series of design fea- tures such as multiple recessed facades, giving these buildings light through making plans and sections which are more alike a Church than a skyscraper.
New technological developments played major role in forming a new aesthetic in Detroit for example Lafayette park by Mies van der rohe. In the first half of the century an increased emphasis on ma- chine and mass production opposed the more decorative approach to architecture and design that had characterised the late nineteenth century. Reinforced concrete facilitated greater freedom in the design of interior spaces. External walls were also liberated from load bearing neces- sities. Throughout Detroit modernist ar- chitects created, geometrically inspired and sparsely decorated houses and villas. We can see the modernist architecture in ‘The the D.J. Healy Co. Building, that was influenced by the Louis Sullivan’s Gage Building. The facade contrasts with its neighbours by the reduction of the terra cotta exterior to a minimum in order to express the underlying structure of the steel frame.Since 2009, urban regenera- tion in Detroit commenced in Corktown and has moved through Downtown to Midtown Detroit. The investments have brought with it a host of graduate jobs for example engineers in GM’s new Reissence centre but the unequal em- ployment opportunities has inhabited the renewal outside of the city centre.
In order to compose an overview of De- troit’s regeneration, we decided to create a group to search for buildings under the guideline that they are regenerated and accessible.
