Excavating Detroit

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INTRODUCTION My interest in Detroit began with a lecture by landscape architect/professor Joe McBride regarding plant successions on vacant lots around Berkeley, California. In his lecture, McBride discussed Detroit as the foremost example of a modern city being transformed into a haven for plants and wildlife. As I started looking into the present conditions of Detroit, I realized that the city, besides being a sanctuary for wildlife, also told an interesting story about 20th century modernism. Out of this, the idea of Detroit as a testing ground for a future archaeology was developed.

THANKS TO: David A. Garcia, Christer Malmstrรถm, Sten Gardestrรถm, Henry Stephens, Joanna Attvall, Krysta Ryzewski, Markus Fjellstrรถm, Fredrik Stenberg & Uglycute, Lisa Sigebrand, Matthew Toth, Kyle Steinfeld, Carl Pisaturo.

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INTRODUCTION


EXCAVATING DETROIT: ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH CENTER, DETROIT, MI ""). %FHSFF QSPKFDU JO "SDIJUFDUVSF Hannes Frykholm Arkitektskolan LTH, May 2012 *OTUSVDUPS: David " Garcia Examiner: Christer Malmstrรถm

SUMMARY This project is a speculation on a future archaeology of the 20th century. Using the empirical research method of archaeology and the analytical design process of architecture, the project investigates the city of Detroit as a case study for how remnants of modernism can be excavated, analyzed, archived and exhibited. The project proposes a series of archaeological excavations adjacent to an existing railroad system, combined with a research center placed in a disused automotive plant. The center becomes a global node for industrial archaeological research, as well as a tourist attraction with curated exhibitions and training grounds for volunteers taking part in the remote excavations. Hence, the future archaeology of Detroit is turned into a public event, activating the local community as well as generating globally relevant research on the heritage of 20th century modernism.%

INTRODUCTION

3


PART III - PROJECT PROPOSAL

PART II - ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

PART I - HISTORICAL RESEARCH

INTRODUCTION Thesis statement

6

A brief history of Detroit

8

Archaeological research methodology

16

Introduction

38

Method

6

Detroit before industrialization

9

Theories on archaeological field work

18

Excavation stations

42

Relevance

6

Ford urbanism: 1900-1950

10

Current archaeological research in Detroit

20

Packard Plant Research Center

44

Urban Crisis: 1960-1980

11

Site 001: St. Aubin & Scott St

24

Main entrance

46

Urban Prairie: 1980-2010

12

Site 002: East Poletown

28

Archaeological laboratories

50

Essay conclusions

13

Site 003: Packard Automotive Plant

32

Artifact archive

54

Field research conclusions

36

Visitor center

58

4

INTRODUCTION


Montage based on historical resarch PART III - continued

PART IV - PROCESS DOCUMENTATION & REFERENCES

PART IV - continued

Exhibition hall & Exit platform

66

Project schedule

78

Sketch Princess Motor Car Co Excavation

89

Site model 1:500

72

Making of field instruments

79

Precedents

90

Iteration models Visitor center 1:500

73

Existing structures on site 003

80

Litterature

91

Sectional model Visitor center 1:100

74

Typology and scale

83

Sketch model Excavation station 1:100

75

Sketch perspective excavation station

84

Conclusion thesis project

76

Iterations Visitor center

86

Early sketches Packard plant

88 INTRODUCTION

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INTRODUCTION

THESIS STATEMENT (...) auto pioneers reconstructed the city into an industrialized landscape of massive factories and tool-and-die shops and parts depots. They even attempted to mass-produce its residents into sober, thrifty, English-speaking workers, and they melded machines and the humans into a production process that seemed chaotic as a thunderstorm but could be as precise as a ballet. Bill McGraw, Life and Ruins of Detroit, 295.

Due to domestic recession and structural changes in the global economy, the city of Detroit has undergone a radical transformation during the last three decades. As the automotive industry, the traditional engine of Michigan’s economy, is in decline, the city is being abandoned at a pace exceeded only by hurricane stricken New Orleans. Entire neighborhoods are turning into post-urban prairies, with scattered remains of housing and industry as the only traces of this once bright harbinger of industrialism. In the light of these conditions, Detroit can be read as a case study of a possible future to come for industrial and oil-based urban systems in general. Is Detroit turning into a ghostly monument of Fordism? If so, what happens to the memory of Detroit as entire parts of the city disintegrates? In a greater scope, the urban blight of Detroit allows an analysis of the environmental and cultural footprints of our society, and how these could appear when seen through the lenses of future microscopes. This project is a speculation on a future archaeology for the 20th century. Using the empirical methods of archaeology and the analytical design process of architecture, the project intends to speculate on how remnants from Detroit can be excavated, analyzed, displayed and interacted with. The intention is to highlight the heritage of modernism and industrialism on a global level. As a starting point for the entire process a series of questions are asked: What will an archaeological excavation reveal about the history of Detroit? What are the artifacts and spaces found? What is the future interpretation of these remnants? How can excavations and artifacts be exhibited and experienced spatially? How can the archaeological research process be reinvented to interact with these experiences?

METHOD Rather than starting off with a clearly defined architectural program or a site, this project is a tentative process, based first and most on research. The intention is to generate new ways into the design process, based partly on written research and empirical field research, partly on speculations on the future. In regards to this, the thesis project is divided into three separate parts, each an autonomous research module, as well as part of a coherent body of work. The first part is a written essay on the urban, economical and social history of Detroit. The second part of the project consists of three archaeological excavations in Detroit, where data and artifacts are collected using archaeological methods of field work. Using the data and observations from the first two parts, the third part of the project proposes a design intervention. Site and program is to be chosen based on research data. As research is a central part of the entire thesis, the proposed architectural design should take its rationale and expression from the empirical data rather than from intuitive readings of the site or arbitrary formal gestures. Hence, the architecture is developed as an active response to the archaeological science - its needs, program, functions and potential spatial qualities. However, just as in any interdisciplinary process, the science of archaeology can and should also be changed by architecture. In this project, the traditional domain and method of archaeology is to be questioned, in order to open up for speculations on a possible different future for the discipline.

RELEVANCE

become obsolete at a higher pace than ever before. The artifacts from the industrial era remain, but their meaning and purpose are rapidly becoming alien to us. A scientific analysis of these lost objects can provide a better understanding of the origins of massproduction and consumerism. 3. Industrial archaeology is a relatively young academic discipline, still positioning itself among the other more established fields of archaeology. In the post-industrial era it will nevertheless play a vital role in understanding the recent past. A large scale analysis of Detroit would provide invaluable research data, pushing the global discipline of industrial archaeology forward.

USA

PART I HISTORICAL RESEARCH

P PART II A ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD R RESEARCH

Michigan

Canada

Why is an archaeological excavation of Detroit relevant? 1. Detroit can be seen as a monument of 20th century modernism, an era whose impact on life is hard to grasp in its entirety. In many ways we still live in the environmental and cultural shadow of past industrial worlds. Industrial archaeology provides a tool for reading the near past in a way that can give us an understanding of our own footprints. By preserving the memory of modernism we give future generations a frame of reference for tracing the origins of their own society. 2. Objects produced in our high-tech, consumer society

Detroit

PART III PROJECT PROPOSAL Canada

Basic three parts of the project

Metropolitan Detroit 6

INTRODUCTION


PART I: HISTORICAL RESEARCH

Schedule for thesis project week by week INTRODUCTION

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PRE-INDUSTRIAL DETROIT ca 12000 BCE - 1900

A BRIEF HISTORY OF DETROIT Detroit is the most thoroughly modern city in the world. Modern, not of course for its great works of architecture or its progressive social advancements, but modern in the sense that this city has exemplified the assumptions of enlightened modernity like no other. Among those assumptions was a tacit belief that technological advances stemming from empirical knowledge of the world could necessarily lead to social progress.3

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PART I: HISTORICAL RESEARCH

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195

For the first half of the 20th century the city of Detroit was the harbinger of industrial wealth and progress in the United States and in the world. It was the embodiment of an engineered, rational approach to production, innovation and to life in general. As Detroit expanded to become one of the biggest cities in the US in the 1950’s, it seemed to prove the rationalist ideology on which it was built. At some point all of this changed. Just as fast as it had expanded, Detroit became a shrinking city set in a permanent recession. Industries closed down, entire neighborhoods turned vacant and public institutions were abandoned and left to crumble. At present the physical decomposition of parts of the city is already advanced. How did this happen? The purpose of this essay is to pinpoint some of the factors behind the social, economical and physical changes in Detroit during the last century. The questions asked are: Which are the main factors behind the rapid changes that the city went through during the 20th century? What where the reasons for the decline of the urban environment in the last half of the century? The historical investigation will focus on questions of architecture and planning and to some extent the social and economical changes, as these phenomena are deeply intertwined. The analysis will emphasize three different themes in the history of Detroit: The interrelation between fordism and urban planning, the interrelation between ethnicity and space in Detroit and finally the changes to the city during the ongoing recession.

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Analytical drawing of Detroit’s history 18502010 (original drawing 1500x1500mm)


DETROIT BEFORE INDUSTRIALIZATION: 12000 BCE-1850

Detroit, 1850 Total Population

21,019

Total Land Use sq.mi. People per Square Mile

5,85 3592

% Foreign born of Tot. pop.

47,7

% of Total Housing in One Unit Structures % Black People of Tot. pop.

74.3 2,8

% Irish-American of Tot. pop.

15,6

Historical drawing of the first european settlement in Detroit, Fort Ponchartrain du Detroit, ca 1701

Although there are numerous examples of historical accounts on Detroit beginning with the colonization by lieutenant Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac in 1701, the area and the surroundings had in fact been inhabited for many thousands of years before the French arrival.2 Native Americans and what archaeologists refer to as paleo-indians, i.e. nomads before the tribe societies, lived in upper-Michigan as far back as 12000 BCE. They where hunters and gatherers for the most part, migrating from place to place within a given area. There are significant archaeological findings of these cultures, such as spearheads, bones and ceramics from dwelling sites and tombs. Even at the arrival of the European colonizers, the native Americans were present and constituted a significant power in the wars that followed between the French and the English, as well as during the American war for independence. Hence, one should be skeptic about the grand narrative of Detroit, beginning with a small French settlement in the early 18th century. The richness of the area is far greater than traditional, westcentered scholars let us know, albeit admittedly also more mysterious due to the relative lack of traces and remains. As mentioned, the first European settlement in the area was a French fortress, made to be the bastion for the expansion of the empire. In 1701, around 100 explorers and soldiers sent out by king Louis XIV arrived at the strait of future Detroit. The new settlement was named Fort Ponchartrain du Detroit, the word Detroit meaning strait. The commander of the explorers, lieutenant Cadillac, described the lands as wild and untouched: The banks are so many vast meadows where the freshness of these beautiful streams keep the grass always green. The same meadows are fringed with long and broad avenues of fruit trees, young and old [which] droop down under the weight and multitude of their fruit. In this soil so fertile, the ambitious vine forms a thick roof with its heavy clusters over the head of whatever it twines around. Under these vast avenues you may see assembling in hundreds the shy stag and the timid hind with the bounding roebuck, to pick up eagerly the apples and plums with which the ground is paved. It is here that the turkey hen calls back her numerous brood and leads them to gather the grapes. The golden pheasant, the quail, the partridge, the woodcock, the teeming turtledove swarm in the woods and cover the open country intersected and broken by groves of full-grown forest trees. 3

Besides the colonial claim to the area, the fur-trade was one of the most essential reasons for the French settlement. Native Americans came to Detroit to trade their furs, and the business was profitable for the French colonizers. Within a year from the establishment of the fort, 6000 native Americans lived adjacent to it.4 Land surrounding the fort was divided into farming lots for the use of soldiers. By the year 1710 a total of 74 families lived in the city.5The first built structures were made out of logs from the surrounding woods. As Detroit became more populated the buildings were made to be more permanent and the general housing conditions improved, nevertheless for long Detroit remained a town mostly built of wood. In 1750 Detroit had grown to a population of 900 people, and the city had expanded north and south of the original fort settlement. In 1773 Detroit’s population was 1367 people, covering 2602 acres of land (roughly 1000 hectares).6 For most of the 18th century the city played an essential role in the ongoing wars between England and France over territory and trading. In 1760 Detroit was conquered by British forces, and the following years the fur-trade was expanded even more, producing 200000 skins marketed every year.7Gradually the parts of the land still controlled by native American tribes was turned over to European colonizers. In 1769 the Belle Isle was sold by the native Americans to the Europeans for “8 barrels of rum, 3 rolls of tobacco, 6 pounds of vermillion paint and a belt of wampum [native American decoration belt].” 8 In 1805 a fire devastated the entire town, and following this a new plan for the city was laid out by judge Woodward. The plan was centered around a number of circle shaped plazas. Inspiration came from the planning of Washington DC and in the long run the French enlightenment architecture. This plan is still visible in downtown Detroit, and although it was never followed up as meticulously as planned, the street grid of the inner city is characterized by the central circle planning. As civil wars and wars with native Americans raged, it is clear that violence was ever present in Detroit. The foundation of the city rested on an exploitive power structure where native Americans skills in hunting was paid for with rum and powder. In 1820, Detroit’s population had risen to 3000 and growth of the city was encouraged through the expansion of settlers moving into the country. As waterbased infrastructure such as steam-boats became more

regular, the population grew. By the early 19th century Detroit also enjoyed congressional representation and this resulted in infrastructural support for the construction of proper roads and post-service. However, still by 1818 the fortification structure of the city was apparent and a stockade fence encircled all of the town. In the 1820’s Greek, German and Irish immigrants moved to the city, boosting the population to 7000 in 1836.9 Drawings from the time shows more brick houses than earlier, but Detroit was still predominately a city built of wood frames. At this time streets going from the waterfront to the inlands became significantly better, furthermore leading way for the city’s expansion. In the 1850’s Detroit was the biggest city in the state of Michigan, with a population of 21000. At the time there were a number of industries and business such as sawmills, breweries, iron and brass foundries and the manufacturing of tobacco.10The river was the driving force for the city at this time and lumber, mining, and wool were major exports from the harbor. The riverfront was also the first area of the city to become more industrialized, with the establishment of railroads and factories adjacent to the water.

2. Miroslav Base, Junior Fellow, The Development of Detroit 1701 – 1920: A Planning History (Detroit, 1970). 3. David Lee Poremba, Detroit: A Motor City History (Detroit, 2001), 11. 4. Ibid., 12. 5. Ibid., 15. 6. Ibid., 42. 7. Ibid., 27. 8. Ibid., 42. 9. Ibid., 65 10. Ibid., 69.

PART I: HISTORICAL RESEARCH

9


FORD URBANISM: 1900-1950

Detroit, 1950 Total Population

1,849,568

Total Land Use sq.mi. People per Square Mile

138 13249

% of Total Workers not Working % Black People of Tot. pop.

7.9 16.2

% White People of Tot. pop.

83.6

Median Income in $ (1959)

6,838

1905-19077 1873-1891 1842-1857 1824-1836 1815 1806

Detroit Annexations, 1806-1907

10

PART I: HISTORICAL RESEARCH

By the turn of the 19th century Detroit was a fast growing city, driven by a rapid industrialization. The city went from being the 13th biggest in the US in 1900 to the 4th biggest by 1920, mostly because of the expanding car industry.11The car industry was in a phase of transformation, changing from small scale manufacturing to large scale production of cheap cars. From the 1920’s this industry was a seminal economical generator in the city, even though a number of other industries, such as breweries, salt mines, pharmaceutical manufacturer and chemical companies continued to prosper.12 Initially the physical centre of this development was the Detroit river and the riverfront. Access to transportation via the river made the waterfront attractive for business and it soon became a densely populated urban area for both industries and small town business.13 However, the establishment of Ford’s new Highland Park auto plant in the early 1920’s, resulted in a number of industries migrating away from the waterfront. Hence, the expansion of Detroit seem to have been initialized first and most by the industry, spreading north west along the axis of Woodward Avenue, the street perpendicular to downtown’s Grand Circle.14 This expansion of the city also seemed to have no apparent boundary. During the first half of the 20th century the urban grid of Detroit colonized a vast area of its surroundings with industrial complex and singlefamily houses, often adjacent to each other. Detroit became a low-rise city. The gradual migration of the city’s economical focal point also led to a depletion of the historical downtown, a trend further accelerated by the riots of 1943 and 1967.15 In the long run this resulted in a greater segregation of the city. On the one hand a greater metropolitan Detroit with a prospering economy, on the other hand the inner city Detroit, populated mostly by poor and unemployed and without any significant industry or business.16 In hindsight it is interesting to note that the first signs of the downtown recession began to show as early as the 1940’s. In an analysis of the mechanism behind this intense sprawl, Georgia Daskalakis emphasizes three factors that literally paved the way for the city’s changes: “the innovation and implementation of techniques of mass production, the fabrication of desire and demand for consumption in mass markets, and the decentralization of both production and consumption through transportation and communications infrastructure.”17 The product of this apparatus can, according to Daskalakis be labeled a “mature Fordist urbanism”.18 With a similar conclusion, Patrick Schumacher writes “(t)he totalizing notion of Fordism became instrumental to the underlying rationality of modern architectur and urban-

ism.” 19 Joe Darden labels the urban sprawl of Detroit during the middle of the century as “auto industry decentralization”. 20 The industrial system known as Fordism stems from a rationalized method of production, developed by mechanical engineer Frederick W. Taylor. Taylor’s ideas were adapted by Henry Ford as a method of rationalizing the production line. The basic idea was to decompose labor tasks into a number of separate moments placed out on an assembly line. This way a preferable pace could be given to every work moment. The new production techniques made it possible to speed up the assembly pace and lower the costs of production. Furthermore, the applied fordist method transformed manufacturing work into science. The production could now be objectively measured, observed and revised and the individual worker could be compared with others in terms of efficiency level.21 These ideas were first implemented with Ford’s Highland Park on Woodward Ave, opened in 1910. It set the standard for the auto industry to come, although most of Ford’s automobile production was moved to the River Rogue plant in the 1920’s. The architecture of the new auto plants were tightly intertwined with the rationalist approach to production. The Highland Park facility used a construction of reinforced concrete in order to allow greater flexibility and adjustment to the changing demands of production. This production apparatus also showed great ability to rapidly transform itself when needed. Hence, during the second world war, the major auto plants shifted from producing cars to producing tanks and airplanes within less than a year. Detroit became the “arsenal of democracy”, and the car industry laid the foundation for the military-industrial complex. When the war was over most of the production facilities switched back to auto manufacturing.22 During this time the size of the plants grew and began to take on the scale of the city, where a single operation could be an entire building, linked to buildings adjacent in the assembly order. Here again the connection between Ford’s modus operandi and the urban composition of Detroit becomes apparent. Is it possible to regard the entire city of Detroit as a mechanical production system? A conveyer belt extended to every aspect of life? The principle of the industrial production was projected onto the planning and architecture of Detroit. The car industry, rather than the architects or planners, defined the physical appearance of the city and the method of its expansion.23 Using the rationalist tools of science and engineering, the urban grid was just as possible to assemble as the motor vehicles, and the stretched out urban weave needed cars for its existence.

The mechanized and fast sprawl can also be an explanation to why the population of the city exploded during the first decades of the 20th century. In the year 1900 the population of Detroit was 285,700 and by 1950 it had grown to 1.85 million. 24 11. Melanie Archer, "Small Capitalism and Middle-Class Formation in Industrializing Detroit 1880-1900", Journal of Urban History (21)1995:2; 228. 12. Thomas J. Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Princeton, 1996), 18. 13. Joe Darden, Thomas June M., Richard C. Hill, Detroit: Race and Uneven Development (Philadelphia, 1987), 44. 14. Bosse Bergman, Catharina Dyrssen, Stadsfronter: Chicago, Detroit, Montreal (Göteborg, 2003), 97f. 15. Bergman, Dyrssen, Stadsfronter, 98. 16. Darden etc, Detroit, 11. 17. Georgia Daskalakis, Charles Waldheim, Jason Young, Stalking Detroit, (Barcelona, 2001), 10. 18. Daskalakis etc., Stalking Detroit, 10. 19 Daskalakis etc., Stalking Detroit, 51. 20. Darden etc, Detroit, 28. 21. Lisa Brunnström, Den rationella fabriken: Om funktionalismens rötter (Umeå, 1990), 54; Schumacher, Rogner, “After Ford”, 49. 22. Wilma Wood Henrickson, Detroit Perspectives: Crossroads and Turning Points (Detroit, 1991), 395f. 23. For a convincing analysis of the impact of fordism on the physical environment of Detroit, see Schumacher, Rogner, “After Ford”, 49ff. 24. Daskalakis etc., Stalking Detroit,, 14; Robert Sinclair, Bryan Thompson, Detroit: An Anatomy of Social Change (Cambridge MA, 1976), 30.


URBAN CRISIS: 1960-1980 Violence, then, repeated again and again, marks the end of Modernism’s urban narrative, of which the present moment in Detroit’s history might be looked at as a sort of epilogue. 25

Detroit, 1970 Total Population

1,511,482

Total Land Use sq.mi. % of Total Workers not Working

138 32.6

% Black People of Tot. pop.

43.7

% White People of Tot. pop.

55.5

% Foreign Born of Tot. pop.

7.9 (26, 1930)

Hungarian German

Polish Italian

Jewish Black

Ethnic communities in Detroit, 1950 (Sinclair, 11).

Migration paths, 1900-1950

The question of ethnicity is definitely one of the most essential when trying to grasp the radical changes of Detroit in the last century. Just as much as Detroit was a city of opportunities in the first decades of the 20th century, it was a city of ethnic segregation.26As the need for unskilled manual labor increased, immigrants from Europe and black people from the poor southern states, migrated to Detroit. Each ethnic group settled in different segregated enclaves of the city. The lack of housing, combined with a negative attitude among white landlords and neighbors against black people, soon resulted in the establishment of black ghettos. “Paradise Valley” was the nickname given for an almost entirely black housing area on the northeast and lower east side, adjacent to the more and more anemic downtown. Characteristic for this area was rarely maintained houses of poor quality, sometimes missing basic plumbing and kitchen facilities. By the 1940’s two thirds of all residential buildings in Detroit were single-family houses. Often these where small bungalows with a wood frame construction, tightly packed on 25 by 100 feet (roughly 8x30 meters) lots. 27 Furthermore the rents in the area was not in proportion to the apparent deficiencies of the houses. Because of the low standards, old wood-frame buildings and the outdated electrical systems, fires were a problem in Paradise Valley and a common cause of death.28 Another efficient way of maintaining the geographical segregation of the city was the building of several new freeways. These were usually planned to go through poorer areas, and thought of as “handy devices for razing slum”, leaving behind them a “no man’s land of deterioration and abandonment.”29In regards to this, one important factor in the understanding of Detroit’s urban prairies can be found in the planning and building of the freeway system. Despite the obvious segregation in terms of geography, black people did indeed get hired at the auto plants. They were however often assigned to dangerous or dead-end jobs. This substandard social strata was an integrated part of the economical success of Detroit in the first part of the 20th century. 30 In the situation where black people had the financial resources to move away from the poor areas, this tended to result in a “white flight” from the neighborhoods where they settled. The white middleclass would protest violently or move out of the area as soon as black people started buying properties. Thus, the ethnic

segregation in the urban areas continued into modern days. Between 1970 and 1980 310,000 white people moved from the inner city to the suburbs. If the expansion of the city during the initial phase of Detroit’s economic boom was driven by the industries, the urban sprawl in the latter half of the 20th century seem to have been the result of ethnical tensions and growing poverty in the inner city. With the migration to the outer suburbs, downtown Detroit lost some of its strongest sources for taxes, and fell even deeper into decline. By the early 1960’s the recession within the traditional industries began to show, and the following two decades Detroit went through a deindustrialization process that seemed just as swift as the industrial expansion had been only a couple of decades earlier. This resulted in unemployment, and well-educated people leaving the city. The recession within the auto industry also hit the small supplier businesses hard, further deepening the critical situation. There were attempts to revitalize downtown Detroit in the early 1970’s. A group of investors from the city’s major industries, lead by Henry Ford II, invested in a commercial center called the Detroit Renaissance Center. The project included five cylindrical skyscrapers located on the riverfront, with offices, hotels, shops, theatres and restaurants. The intention was to generate new energy back into the downtown area. Within only a few years the centre was struggling economically. 31 Jerry Herron argues that the turning point for Detroit came in the 1960’s, where the “city stopped being believable as a story” and “violence became the compensation: the radical, interruptive gesture whose ‘rhetoric’ could not be refused; a desperate literalization of democracy”. 32 It was as if the ideological base for the modernist project was finally revealed, and with it the inherit power structures came into the light of day. Parallel to the grand narrative of prosperity and economical growth in the 1940’s and 50’s, there seems to have been undercurrents of distrust, oppression and polemics between people of different ethnicity. These all culminated in the riots of 1943 and 1967, and left mental and physical scars in the city.

25. Jerry Herron, AfterCulture: Detroit and the humiliation of history (Detroit, 1993), 120. 26. For an extensive analysis of the institutionalized racism in Detroit, see Thomas J. Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Princeton, 1996). 27. Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis, 37. 28. Ibid., 37. 29. Ibid., 47f. 30. Heather Ann Thompson "Rethinking the Politics of White Flight in the Postwar City: Detroit 1945-1980", Journal of Urban History 25 (1999):163; Nicola Pizzolato, “Workers and Revolutionaries at the Twilight of Fordism: The Breakdown of Industrial Relations in the Automobile Plants of Detroit and Turin, 1967–1973” Labor History 45(2004): 4, 424f. 31. David Lee Poremba, Detroit: A Motor City History, 138. 32. Jerry Herron, AfterCulture, 120.

PART I: HISTORICAL RESEARCH

11


URBAN PRAIRIE 1980-2010 While flexibility, mobility, and speed made Detroit an international model for industrial urbanism, those very qualities rendered the city disposable. (...) This of course was the genius of Ford's conception: a culture that consumes the products of its own labour while consistently creating a surplus of demand ensuring a nomadic operational, and ceaselessly reiterated model of ex-urban arrangement.33

Detroit, 2000 Total Population

951,270

Total Land Use sq.mi. People per sq.mi.

138 6,858

% of Total Workers not Working

22.8

Number of Vacant Lots % Black People of Tot. pop.

44,000 81.55

% White People of Tot. pop.

12.25

% Persons Below Poverty Line

26.1

Major Deterioration Adv. Signs of Decline

Housing conditions 1990

Beg. Signs of Decline

Abandoned/partly abandoned industrial areas, 2000 12

PART I: HISTORICAL RESEARCH

By the end of the 1970’s the employment situation in the city was critical. One-third of the population did not earn their income and 60% received public assistance. Adding to the burden, the auto industry experienced its greatest recession since the Great Depression. In 1980 more than 500,000 plant and supplier workers were laid 34 off. Between 1958 and 1982 the manufacturing industry decreased by 48% and a similar slump hit retail and service business in the city. This decline continued at the same high pace during the 1990’s. 35 All of this resulted in a continued migration out of the inner city to the suburbs, and also in people leaving Detroit for good. Today, roughly 12,000 people move out to the suburbs every year. Not surprisingly this has resulted in a city far too vast for its population. In 1950 the density of Detroit was 14,400 people per square mile. In comparison, the density was estimated to be 6,500 people per square mile in 2006. In 1993 there were 66,000 vacant lots in the city, and the total area of vacant lots today is estimated to be 60 square miles, this in a 137-square-mile city. 36 The abandoned houses were a problem for the neighborhoods, as they tended to attract violence, drugs and arsons. Once a house was vacant, the value of adjacent realties tended to drop, resulting in even more people abandoning their houses. Fire easily spread between the old wood buildings, and in the late 1980’s the arsons on empty houses became a yearly tradition called ‘Devil’s Night’, where hundreds of vacant buildings where set ablaze on the night before Halloween. 37 The scale and pace of the de-urbanization in Detroit is unique. As the built structures crumble, burn down or get bulldozed away, what remains is a vast grid of paved streets and vacant lots. On these sites lawns grow wild, plants and trees thrive and animals not seen for the last century return. Journalist Rebecca Solnit reflects on the ongoing process: This continent has not seen a transformation like Detroit’s since the last days of the Maya. The city, once the fourth largest in the country, is now so depopulated that some stretches resemble the outlying farmland and others are altogether wild.38

The process of decay in an urban environment is regimented by the inevitable forces of nature. In his book The World Without Us journalist Alan Weisman speculates on what an American city would look like if all the humans just walked out. Within the first couple of years pavements and roads would start to deteriorate as temperature changes and roots causes the asphalt to crack open. A decade later water and moist would have penetrated most built structures, with corrosion and 39 mold slowly reducing the stability of the buildings. Furthermore, fires would according to Weisman be reoccurring, as gas lines ignite, electricity grids fail and lightning strikes, without any firemen to stop the spreading. All of Weisman’s predictions are already happening in some areas of Detroit. Streets and concrete pavements are cracked and garbage clogs the sewer systems. Buildings get striped of anything of value, such as metals or architectural details, and arson fires burns the remainders.40 Trees and bushes colonizes the structures still standing. The Ailanthus altissima, also known as the “tree of heaven”, is one of the most dominating tree species in the new Detroit biotope, and it can be seen even on the rooftops of the abandoned car plants. Animal wildlife has also started to recolonize the city and some areas of Detroit seem to be returning to the wild. The peregrine falcon is nowadays a common sight in central parts of Detroit, as well as beavers, 41 coyotes, raccoons and foxes. As the re-greening of Detroit continues, some social activists argue for farming and gardening of the vast unused areas. By turning the vacant suburbia into growing fields, the production mechanisms of the ford urbanism can be transformed into agriculture, producing food. 42 33. Daskalakis etc., Stalking Detroit, 2. 34. Darden, Detroit, 27. 35. Darden, Detroit, 23. 36. Bill McGraw, “Historians in the Streets: Life in the Ruins of Detroit”, History Workshop Journal 63(2007), 293. 37 McGraw, “Historians in the Streets”, 295. 38. Rebecca Solnit, “Detroit Arcadia: Exploring the postAmerican landscape”, Harper’s Magazine July (2007), 66. 39. Alan Weisman, The world without us (New York, 2007), 26f. 40. Melanie Grunow Sobocinski, Michele V. Ronnick, Marlise Beaudoen, Detroit and Rome: Building on the Past (Michigan, 1997), 4. 41. Author unknown, “Outside the Fences: The Rewilding of Detroit Viewed From a Prison”, Slingshot 106 (2011), 13. 42. John Gallagher, Reimagining Detroit: Opportunities for Redefining an American City (Detroit, 2010).


ESSAY CONCLUSIONS

This essay has briefly described and analyzed four chapters in the history of Detroit during the 20th century. The chapters are placed in a chronological order and thus also provides a timeline for the changes in the city during the last century. The first theme briefly described Detroit before the European colonization and the first decades under french and british rule. The second theme discussed the interrelation between fordism and urban planning. Here it was shown how the fordist model of production was projected on the larger scale of the urban planning. The grid of the different production units were all laid out with few other regards but efficiency. In the third theme the complex relationship between ethnicity and space in Detroit was discussed. The palpable power relations between poor black and European immigrants on the one hand and the white middle class on the other defined much of the city’s housing situation. Injustice was built into the urban grids. The fourth theme investigated the effects the ongoing recession has had on the physical environments of the city. The essay has shown how different forces and parameters all play parts in the shaping and reshaping of Detroit. There is indeed something nomadic about the urban sprawl of Detroit and about the entire phenomena of the city’s industrialism. The swift expansion to the north west, the continuing reorganization of production lines and institutions, the planning of new auto plants paralleled with new worker housing, all tells about the nomadic character of this city. Furthermore it is clear that the prosperity of Detroit was based on a power relation between different social groups in the city. Already from the start there were strong undercurrents to the dominating social engineer ideology and as these currents gained more strength, the tensions in the city burst into open air and rapidly changed the situation. In terms of the built environment, Detroit is far from a modernist utopia. It was never subordinated the grand gestures of architects such as LeCorbusier and Niemeyer. On the contrary, the architecture and planning seems to have been dictated mostly by the motor companies and the rationale of industrial production. The city’s icons of architecture are mostly related to this prosperous future. Hence, one interpretation could be that the physical structures in Detroit are merely production facilities, planned and built as part of an apparatus producing modernistic objects of desire , such as cars. If Herbert Marcuses

concept “technological rationality” was ever applicable to a specific geography, it must be Detroit.43 The traces of the industrial, mechanistic approach to planning can be seen everywhere in the city. Quoting former Detroit major Coleman Young, Corine Vermeulen notes that Detroit was always a symbol of future urban lifestyles.44 Today this is perhaps more true than ever. Just as Detroit was the harbinger of modernism in the first decades of the 20th century, it is now a symptom of changes to come in the life of post-oil cities. Maybe it was this strong attachment to the grand modernist project that made the sinking so fast. Detroit seems to be a one line city during the first decades of the 20th century. When things started to go downhill economically, the recession also hit the city at its very ideological core. The city just was not believable any more, and citizens lost faith in the future of Detroit. The large scale growth during the first half of the century stands in direct correlation with the rapid decline of the system in the latter half. How will the city of Detroit be viewed in hindsight? Perhaps, as time passes, the entire industrial era is read as an ephemeral impulse, a less than a hundred year long parenthesis, and a failed attempt at modernist utopia? In this attempt Detroit is not unique, but rather a good example of last century urban planning. The traces of the industrial, mechanistic approach to planning and architecture can be seen everywhere in the city. These traces and remains are a possible future field of study for archaeologists excavating 20th century industrialism and modernism.

43. Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society (Boston, 1991). 44. Corine Vermeulen “Your Town Tomorrow”, Bracket Almanac 1: On Farming (Barcelona, 2010), 249.

Downtown Detroit

Razed housing area, East Poletown

PART I: HISTORICAL RESEARCH

13


Detail disused factory, East Poletown.

Abandoned single family housing, central Detroit

Building 92, Packard Plant, east Detroit

Collapsed factory building, Packard Plant

Disused factory complex along Dequindre rail track, east Detroit.

14

PART I: HISTORICAL RESEARCH

Razed housing lot, Packard Plant, east Detroit


PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

East Poletown, site 002, former working class housing area turned into marshland PART I: HISTORICAL RESEARCH

15


ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Using existing archaeological methodology, the collection of field data was divided into 7 steps. These steps were repeated at every site, creating the possibility of comparisons between sites:

Detroit is today the automotive center of the world - the greatest example of collective community effort, based on modern industry [---] ‘Here are found solid homes of brick, frame bungalows, all of an artistic architecture which is a tribute the most progressive city in this progressive age. Here the homes of the workers reflect an aestethic sense, a love of beauty, that in many places can be found only in homes of the leisure class.’

1. Walk the entire site, observe conditions of site, note buildings or other large objects. 2. Perspectival photography, panorama and stereography from interesting/characterizing viewpoint. 3. Pick three sample spaces, one from each typ of zone on the site. These sample spaces should be particularly interesting or include something worth investigating. Photograph 10x10 meter square of each sample space using the vertical camera. 4. Excavate 1 square meter per sample site if possible. Dig 50 mm at a time and then document with vertical camera. 5. Collect soil samples and possible artefacts. 6. Write concluding remarks, take additional photographs or measurements 7. Briefly document surroundings and larger context of site.

Polk’s Detroit Directory, 1927

The second phase of the research process has a twofolded purpose: Firstly, understanding the incentives for a future archaeology of Detroit and secondly laying the ground for the design problem posed in phase three. This was done through an empirical approach, i.e. going out into the fields, collecting data using archaeological research methods and instruments. The intention was to carry out archaeological field work as accurate as possible to collect data relevant for the architectural intervention to follow. The central questions for the archeological research was: What will an archaeological excavation reveal about the history of the Detroit? What are the artifacts found? What are the conditions of these findings and the remaining structures? Archaeological analysis and excavations on three sites in Detroit was carried out in October 2011. The trip also included visits to archives and museums with historical documentations for the sites, and conversations with a representative of the archaeological faculty at Wayne State University, Detroit. By visiting the archaeological department the project was informed on current ongoing research in the upper-Michigan area, as well as the specific conditions of doing excavations in Detroit. Prior to the field trip, initial research was done in the form of a short essay on archeological theory. A visit to the archaeological department at Stockholm University informed the project on the instruments used for laboratory post-excavation analysis. Using available historical documentation and satellite photography the three excavation sites where chosen based on their presumed archaeological relevance. The ambition was to have sites that included several different zones, such as for example housing, industry and education. Upon analysis every site would be divided into three or sometimes four parts based on there documented zone typology. 16

An index matrix was used to document all the observations and field data. For photographic documentation of the ground a vertical camera was constructed. This technology is common in archaeological field research, as a way of revealing patterns and structures difficult to spot at a first glance. The constructed device allowed high resolution photographs of the ground. Used at the right angel and height it covers 2x1,5m per frame. The camera was used to create three 10x10m high resolution images of the ground per site. Throughout the field research, it has been the ambition to approach the study of Detroit from a nonpicturesque, non-sentimental point of view. Looking for historical meanings and contexts, rather than nostalghia and apocapyptic ruins, represents the scientific approach of the archaeologist.

Excavation, site 001

Excavation, site 001

Excavation, site 001

Excavation, site 003

Excavation, site 001

Excavation, site 003

Findings of red brick, site 001

Vertical camera in use, site 001

PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH


Index matrix used to document observations and field data. PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

17


THEORIES ON ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD relationship between different layers is the relationship between different contexts in time. Hence, the stratiWORK Soil in a sense, is the medium for the art of the archaeologist. It contains and conceals, but also constitutes the object of the archaeologist’s search. 1

An archaeological research project can be divided into a number of steps. The process of archaeological research can be compared to the work a detective. By collecting traces and fragments, the greater picture slowly gets revealed. Archaeological research is, just as the detective work, the result of a combination of different clues put together. Having said so, the methods used within archaeology varies with the site and with the purpose of the research project. Before going out into the fields, the archaeologist turns to any possible existing sources, i.e. old maps or written descriptions of the site. These documents can provide useful hints on previous structures and the position of these. After consulting the archives, the archaeologist turns to the fields. The initial approach to the field is the prospecting and it consists of a number of different methods: Walking the site and observing the landscape; scanning the soil for magnetic properties or large objects; taking aerial photographies and analysing soil samples. Industrial archaeologist Marilyn Palmer lists the intial data recordings of any prospectation and the level of resolution of these. Writing, photography and drawing are the first basic steps according to Palmer.2 Each of these methods can be elaborated and given greater detail. For example, initial data collecting by drawing might include a rough sketch with some basic measurement, whereas a more advanced use of this method would be a drawn 3d-projection including details. The data input from these instruments provide indications on where it might be relevant to begin an actual excavation. 3 The excavation is often done through sampling, since excavating an entire site is usually far too labour intense. A sampled excavation can still give a representative understanding of the site and its historical function. On a grid with a given unit, e.g. 1 m², a number of squares are excavated. This is done by digging 50 mm down at every square. As one square is evenly digged 50 mm down, the layer is documented and the digging goes on. The excavation is also very much a question of analysing the different layers of soil, i.e. the vertical structure of the site.4 The ordering of these different occupational layers is called stratiography. This is a central concept to understanding the basic methodology of archaeology. The 18

PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

graphic layering reveals a chronology. This sectional reading should be mapped and plays a pivotal role in understanding and dating the observations done on site. The analysis of the soil is mostly done through measuring the level of phosphor in the soil. Unusually high values of phosphor may indicate that the site was once occupied by some kind of human activity. The chemical analysis also makes it possible to distinguish different phases from each other and to identify periods with low levels of phosphor and sterile soil, where the site was not used. The first excavation layer is usually contemporary soil, followed by the cultural layer with its possible reminiscents of past dwellings. The cultural layer can also be mixed with layers of sterile soil. A stratigraphy of an excavation can sometimes cover a large span of time. For example, the excavation of Sitagroi in northeast Greece generated an 11 meter deep section, spanning between 5400-2200 B.C., i.e. more than 2000 years to read in the stratigraphy. 5 In archaeology, the objects found in excavations are always categorized according to their historical use. A distinction is made between structures and findings. The former are large scale findings such as housings and roads. The latter are smaller objects, eg. tools, instruments, sculptures. The juxtaposition of similiar findings or structures is a common way of presenting archeological research. This provides both a possibility to compare different sites from the same time period, and also to see development over time. The categorizing and sorting of the findings seems to be a pivotal instrument within the field.

The major challenge that faces the archaeology of the industrial period in future years is the need to move beyond the documentation of machines and the history of technology, to create stories that highlight the individual and collective social experience of industrial worlds that are now fading, but which still cast a shadow over our post-industrial lifes. 6

Archaeology analysing younger remnants from the 19th century and onwards is usually referred to as “industrial archaeology”. A final definition for the discipline of industrial archaeology is still to be found. As scholars debate on the relation between industrial archaeology and traditional archaeology, it might be more rewarding to look at the pragmatic side of the field. Marilyn Palmer

1000-840 B.C.E.

1110-910 BCE.

990-810 BCE.

830-770 BCE.

830-770 BCE.

830-770 BCE.

810-550 BCE.

900-800 BCE.

820-770 BCE.

810-550 BCE.

810-550 BCE.

Neolithic longhouse dwellings, Skåne, Sweden. Cut surface marks load bearing column (based on Artursson, 2009).

810-550 BCE.


characterizes industrial archaeology as the “systematic recording and preservation that are required to enlarge our understandings of the ‘socio-technical systems and landscapes’ created by industry.”7 In this definition the field is clearly focused on industrialism as a structural and historical phenomena, leading into our own times. It could however also be argued that the field not only focuses on the industrial era, but also on contemporary and recent historical settings. Hence, industrial archaeology to some extent could be considered an archaeology of our own times. With David Cranstones words, industrial archaeology “should take its rightful place as a part of the broader archaeology of the later 2nd millennium, which engages as fully with production as it does with consumption (…), and with the spirit as well as the intellect, and which forms part of a broader subdiscipline of historical archaeology.” 8 As for the method of industrial archaeology it can be divided into two major parts: the process of recording, observing and describing on the one hand and the analysis of recorded data in relation to previous historical and archaeological research on the other. The questions of recording is the most pressing one in the context of this investigation. Marilyn Palmer points out the many different field techniques for collecting data, and emphasizes the need to adapt the recording method in relation to what is being analyzed.9 In an attempt to standardize all their recorded data, The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME) have issued guidelines on how to record a site. These are four different levels of resolution, level 1 being a simple “visual record” and level 4 being “a fully researched and illustrated record with photographs and measured drawings.”10 The research agenda sets the level of resolution and precision. Furthermore Palmer argues that no observation whatsoever can be perfectly objective. Instead of claiming an entirely relative and subjective position, the recording can be standardized and comparable through the use of certain specified techniques, such as pro-forma context sheets to “encourage consistency of data collection from one site to another.”11Aerial photography is yet another technique commonly used by industrial archaeologists, and an efficient way to discover earthworks and patterns hard to read from the ground. According to Palmer excavation is a problematic method of data recording, since it destroys the very thing it’s recording. Even so, this method is however sometimes the only way to collect data. Excavations are usually only carried out for one of three reasons: The rescuing of a site from planned built projects, the display of the site for public or for research purposes. Sometimes excavation sites are done as in situ and

open for public. A major problem with this method according to Marilyn Palmer, is that only the upper layers of a site can be excavated. The actual research value of a in situ excavation is therefore relatively low.12The research excavation focuses on the comparative analysis between several different sites and contexts: “In research excavations, the relationship of one context to another is as important for the industrial period as for earlier periods of archaeology, even though the length of time over which the layers were deposited may be very short indeed.” 13 An excavation can also reveal information impossible to otherwise gain. Palmer discusses an example where the analysis of the excavation layers contribute to a more elaborate understanding of the different uses of a certain space throughout time.

1.

1. Joseph B. Lambert, Traces of the Past: Unraveling the Secrets of Archaeology through Chemistry (Cambridge MA, 1997), 33. 2. Marilyn Palmer, Peter Neaverson, Industrial Archaeology: Principles and Practice (London, 1998), 86. 3. Lambert, Traces of the Past, 33f. 4. Ibid., 36f. 5. Eleanor Conlin Casella, “’Social Workers’: New Directions in Industrial Archaeology”, ed. Eleanor Conlin Casella and James Symonds, Industrial Archaeology: Future Directions (Illinois, 2005), 53. 6. Ibid., 5. 7. David Cranstone, “After Industrial Archaeology”, red Eleanor Conlin Casella and James Symonds, Industrial Archaeology: Future Directions (Illinois, 2005), 89. 8. Palmer, Neaverson, Industrial Archaeology: Principles and Practice (London, 1998), 79. 9. Ibid., 82. 10. Ibid., 79. 11. Ibid., 91 12. Ibid., 98. 13. Ibid., 100.

2.

3.

1. Excavation, Uppåkra, Sweden 2. Excavation, Bladensburg, Maryland, USA 3. Excavation, Teatro Romano, Lisbon, Portugal 4. Old Gang Lead mill, Swaledale, England 4. PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

19



1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

Field trips to Archaeological departments; Stockholm university and Wayne State University, Detroit. 1. Artifact storage, Stockholm 2. Artifact storage, Stockholm 3. Map archive, Detroit 4. Artifact storage, Detroit 5. Drill for samples, Stockholm 6. Chemical analysis laboratory, Stockholm 7. Artifacts being sorted, Detroit 8. Artifact storage container, Detroit 9. Spectrometer, Stockholm

10. Sample of pre-historic bone, Stockholm 11. Artifact storage, Detroit 12. Mount for artifact photography, Detroit

PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

21


2

3

1

4

EXCAVATED SITES

22

PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

1km

SITE 001 ST AUBIN & SCOTT ST 2011-10-13

2

SITE 002 EAST POLETOWN 2011-10-14

3

SITE 003 PACKARD PLANT 2011-10-15

4

DETROIT, MI 0

1

5km

SITE 004 HENRY ST & PARK AVE 2011-10-16 (Results inconclusive, not represented)


2.

1.

9.

16.

Selected artifacts from excavations 1. Artifact13 Site003, Unidentified object 2. A14S003, Unidentified object 3. A16S003, Unidentified object 4. A05S002, Lighter 5. A11S001, Glas fragment 6. A04S003, Unidentified object 7. A06S003, Unidentified object 8. A03S002, Concrete fragment 9. A01S003, Aluminum beer can

10.

3.

4.

11.

17.

18.

10. A09S001, Red brick fragment 11. A10S001, Red brick fragment 12. A05S003, Unidentified object 13. A01S002, Brick fragment 14. A08S001, Red brick fragment 15. A02S003, Tire 16. A03S003, Red brick 17. A07S003, Tire 18. A08S003, Toothbrush 19. A04S002, Toothbrush

5.

12.

13.

19.

20.

6.

7.

14.

8.

15.

21.

22.

20. A05S002, Toothpaste 21. A12S002, Makeup cream 22. A10S002, Wood fragment

PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

23


SITE 001 ST AUBIN & SCOTT ST SITE NAME(S) possible historical reference etc Koenig Coal Co, Dequindre cut, Scott St., St. Aubin APPROX. AREA m² 76819

ELEVATION m. above sea 190,1

STRUCTURES qty. PROSP. DATE yyyy:mm:dd 11 2011-10-13 DATA COLLECTING METHODS USED measuring drawing plan photo. persp. photo. excavation

soil sampling

collected findings

stereograph. photo. SITE OCCUPIED estimated year-year 1836-2011 EXCAVATED M²-SQUARES qty, lat/long; lat/long 1, 42°21’10.54”N/83° 2’19.33”V READING METAL DETECTOR lat/long; lat/long -

SITE/PARTS OF SITE AT RISK In use Partly in use Planned construction

Disused

The site is located in the periphery of the east downtown district, about a kilometer from the eastern market, a somewhat gentrified area dominated by restaurants, small scale industries and warehouses. Going from east to west, the site can be divided into four different typologies; housing, industry, railway yard and warehouses. The eastern housing area has three houses standing, one of which is inhabited (1). Judging from the remaining structures and the fire insurance maps from the 1950’s this was a typical Detroit working class area. The houses are small, 1 or 1 1/2 floors, mostly frame constructions, usually with a gable porch towards the street and a small garden in the back. Some houses also had a small building in the backyard. We don’t know when the 24

PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

area was first settled, but it became a part of Detroit in 1875 and it is likely that the area was fully settled after 1900. As many other similar areas the housing blocks are going back to nature. Long grass instead of lawns, wild grown trees and a seemingly large population of peregrine falcons nesting in these (2,3). West of the housing area is a brownfield that used to be the Peter Koenig Coal Company (4). Not much information is available on this enterprise. The company was established around 1870 but the plant at the site came about later. The plant seem to have been mostly a storage and transportation facility, consisting of 9 concrete silos 100 feet (30 meters) high for storage (5), coal hoppers for loading on trains (6) and three 26 feet (8 meters) high piles of coal (7, 8, 9). At some point after the 1950 there was an additional building south of the silos, possibly a refinement plant (10). The entire plant was razed in 2010 and today no traces of the business can be found except two disused, highly corroded oil storage cylinders (11). Using the adjacent rail tracks Koenig company delievered coal to among others the Dodge Car Plants in Detroit. It is unclear when the Koenig Coal Company haulted their operations on the site, but a fire insurance map from 1996 indicates that the plant had been operated by Spaulding Feed Co. for storage of grain mash and then turned vacant. It is also noticeable how close the housing area was to the coal yards. One can only imagine living 50 meters away from three 30 meters high coal piles, and the consequences of that for the neighborhood. West of the coal plant is the disused Dequindre rail track (12). This used to be a major transportation artery for the industries in the city, going from the docks and the river, northbound through a series of industrial facilities. The tracks were lowered in a small dell, roughly 2 meters under street level and a series of bridges connect the streets on each side. A map of the city’s expansion indicates the existence of the rail tracks as far back as 1836. The fire insurance map from 1950 shows a series of parallell tracks, all of these but two are now removed or covered by soil and vegetation (13). West of the tracks is an empty field used as a water pipe yard in the 1950’s, and north of this a meat warehouse, the latter still in use and inaccessible for investigation (14, 15). According to older maps this area used to be mixed small business and housing.

Koenigs Coal at Scott St ca 1930 Abandoned housing adjacent to site

Disused coal silos at site, now removed Findings of red brick on site

Fire insurance map of the area in 1950. Disused silos from coal plant


OBJ 1

SITE 001 ST AUBIN & SCOTT ST vertical camera documentation

OBJ 8

OBJ 5

OBJ 6

OBJ 7

OBJ 4

OBJ 3

OBJ 2

OBJ 9

10x10m sample space nr 1

10x10m sample space nr 2

OBJ. 1 Location: 42°21’12.84”N/83° 2’20.66”V Date: Ca 1960-1980 CE. Description: Car tire, 570 mm diameter.

OBJ. 2 Location: 42°21’12.85”N/83° 2’20.53”V Date: unknown, possibly 20th century or later. Description: Unknown object, pieces of wood panel. Thin plastic sheet with perforated holes, wrapped around wood, possibly as a carrying device.

Obj. 3 Location: 42°21’12.83”N/83° 2’20.39”V Date: unknown, 20th century or later. Description: Blanket or possibly carpet, flannel texture, ripped at pieces and partly covered in plants.

10x10m sample space nr 3 OBJ. 4 Location: 42°21’12.86”N/83° 2’20.32”V Date: Ca 1977 CE. Description: Video game console with 2 joysticks, Atari VCS/2600, inside electronics partly missing, top part gone. Since this part of the site was industrial when in use the object is most likely part of garbage dumping adjacent to sample space. Obj. 5 Location: 42°21’12.91”N/83° 2’20.37”V Date: unknown, possibly 20th century or later. Description: Empty glass bottle with washed out paper label, cap missing. Possible liquor bottle. Obj. 5 Location: 42°21’12.77”N/83° 2’20.24”V Date: unknown, possibly 20th century or later. Description: Dissassembled machine parts, rusting steel.

Obj. 7 Location: 42°21’9.66”N/83° 2’21.35”V Date: Ca 1910 CE. Description: Partly burned wood train sleeper. Length approx 1,8 m. Possibly part of a disused track parallell with the existing track, connecting the former coal plant to the main rail system going south-north. Obj. 8 Location: 42°21’9.62”N/83° 2’21.58”V Date: Ca 1980-1990 CE. Description: Stained wadded jacket. Size L. Located on the existing tracks. Possibly part of a garbage dumping.

Obj. 9 Location: 42°21’9.75”N/83° 2’21.44”V Date: unknown Description: Unidentified object, perforated holes in a grid on one side, grooves on the other side, thin folded sheet plastic, possible color change due to age.

PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

25


08:10 INITIAL OBSERVATIONAL WALK THROUGH SITE STARTING POINT 42°21'7.65"N/83° 2'25.41"V

2011-10-

N

SECTION A 1:500 ° /83

42° 21' 8.6 6"N 2'2 6.4 3"V 08:46 VERTICAL CAMERA 10 SQM SAMPLE SPACE 1 START: 42°21'12.17"N/83° 2'20.46"V

42° 21'8 .66

42°23 '28.32

14

" ° N/83 "V 2'5.92

5 1'6.3

2'21.43"V °21'9.53"N/83°

42

SECTION A

10:33 VERTICAL CAMERA 10 SQM SAMPLE SPACE 3 START: 42°21'10.13"N/83° 2'21.76"VV

42°2

"V 6.98 ° 2'1 83 "N/

° 2'2

83 "N/ 09:48 VERTICAL CAMERA 10 SQM SAMPLE SPACE 2 START: 42°21'12.70"N/83° 2'20.52"V

6.43 "V

° /83

2 42° 1'1 2'2

0.1 3"N

5

1.7 6"V 11:23 PERSPECTIVAL PHOTO NR 1 42°21'12.53"N/83° 2'18.23"V

11:08 COLLECTED ARTIFACT: RED BRICK, POSSIBLY FROM BUILDING ( 42°21'10.94"N/83° 2'20.33"V

SITE 001 ST AUBIN & SCOTT ST

PLAN 1:500

15 9 Vertical ca sample spa

12 8

13

6 Sample space 3

7 10


11:34 PERSPECTIVAL PHOTO NR 2 42°21'11.01"N/83° 2'18.09"V

"

8 0.8

42 °2 1'1

Sample space 2 21 3°

12:44 STEREOGRAPHIC PHOTO NR 4 42°21'11.54"N/83° 2'21.74"V

12:31 STEREOGRAPHIC PHOTO NR 3 42°21'9.36"N/83° 2'18.90"V

12:23 STEREOGRAPHIC PHOTO NR 1 42°21'10.79"N/83° 2'18.66"V 12:26 STEREOGRAPHIC PHOTO NR 2 42°21'9.80"N/83° 2'18.77"V

8 N/ /8 2'1 8.0 9"

V

42°21'1 2.15"N /83° 2 '20.46" V 13:23 EXCAVATION NR 1 COLLECTED ARTIFACTS: FRAGMETNS OF RED BRICK (#102) FRAGMENT OF CERAMIC, BLUE GLAZE (# CORRODED PIECE OF METAL (#104) FLAT HEADED NAIL (#105) 42°21'10.54"N/83° 2'19.33"V

N

42°21

"N/ '12.11 83° 2'1 2.79"V

'11.

21 42° '15. 20" N °2 /83 54" V 14:30 PERSPECTIVAL PHOTO NR 4 42°21'14.16"N/83° 2'13.81"V

14:03 PERSPECTIVAL PHOTO NR 3 42°21'13.93"N/83° 2'14.55"V

3° 2

42°2 1'14 . /8 24"N '5.69 "V

3 1

amera ace 1

2

4

11

PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

A


SITE 002 EAST POLETOWN SITE NAME(S) possible historical reference etc East Poletown, RC Mahon Steel, Concord St. APPROX. AREA m² 60042

ELEVATION m. above sea 191,8

STRUCTURES qty. PROSP. DATE yyyy:mm:dd 2 2011-10-14 DATA COLLECTING METHODS USED measuring drawing plan photo. persp. photo. excavation

soil sampling

collected findings

stereograph. photo. SITE OCCUPIED estimated year-year 1895-2011 EXCAVATED M²-SQUARES quantity, lat/long; lat/long 1, 42°23’30.93”N/83° 1’58.07”V READING METAL DETECTOR lat/long; lat/long 42°23’30.93”N/83° 1’58.07”V

SITE/PARTS OF SITE AT RISK In use Partly in use Planned construction

Disused

The site is located in the north east part of Detroit inner city, just east of the historical polish settlement called Poletown. In the first half of the 20th century, the area appears to have been a predominantly polish and slovacian neighborhood. The site covers three different typologies, school, single-family housing, and industry. In the mid 1990’s the area was included in the Detroit Renaissance Project, as the “I-94 Industrial Park”. This meant the few remaining house owners were subdued to eminent domain by the city, and vacant houses were razed to make way for the establishment of business. However, the establishment of any industries in the area is yet to happen, and when the Renaissance Project expires in 2017 the site is likely to be left completely uninhabited. 28

PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

On the east side of the site are the remainders of the Jane Cooper Elementary school (1). Opened in 1927 it served the neighborhood for 80 years until closing down in 2007 due to the expansion of the I-94 Industrial Park. The building was razed recently and the lot is now a ground fill. A playground, a track and a basketball court are the only remaining traces of the school(2). Information on the history of the housing site is scarce. From the fire insurances maps we know that this was a densely populated singe-family housing area in the 1950’s, and that stores and churches were within walking distance. Looking at the relatively modest size of many of the houses we can also guess that the majority of the inhabitants where working class or lower-middle class. This was probably a thriving neighborhood until early seventies, when a lot of people seem to have left the area for the suburbs. The housing blocks are going back to nature at a seemingly high pace. Bushes, high grass and trees cover a large part of what used to be lots (3, 4, 5, 6). According to the Roman Catholic church in Detroit the polish/slovak community founded a catholic school called SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary at the corner of Foster St & Heintz St in 1895, a simple brick building of which there are no traces today (7). Based on this it is likely to have been some settlement in the area at the time. Further back there are no indications of urban settlements on the available historical maps. On the west side of the site is an industrial site, with a three floor factory building in steel, bricks and corrugated iron sheating (8). Parts of this building is still in use. According to the fire insurance maps this used to be the “RC Mahon Structural Steel Co.”, producing steel structures and roof trusses for industrial buildings. It is also noticeable that there are several industries close to the housing area, sometimes even on the same block (9, 10). For example, just north of the site is a still active industry on a lot that used to house the Dibble Color Co., a company using thinner paints and toxic chemicals in their production. We can only speculate on health conditions of the people living accross the street from the factory, but general statistics on Detroit shows comparatively high levels of lead in the soils of historical brown field areas.

Koenigs Coal at Scott St ca 1930 Former single family housing sites Factory floor at RC Mahon Steel Structure, ca 1940.

Jane Cooper Elementary in 2009, before final demolition.

Fragment of red brick

Fire insurance map of the area in 1950. Disused street/pavement East Poletown


SITE 002 EAST POLETOWN vertical camera documentation

OBJ 9

OBJ 6 OBJ 7

OBJ 3 OBJ 4 OBJ 2

OBJ 8

OBJ 1 OBJ 5

10x10m sample space nr 1

10x10m sample space nr 2 OBJ. 1 Location: 42°23’28.28”N/83° 1’59.28”V Date: Ca 1990-2000 Description: Part of car interior, brand Cadillac. Possibly from bottom of back trunk or from inside of passenger door. Plastic and carpet, engraved letters reading “Cadillac”. Object most likely dumped on site and dissassembled with time. OBJ. 2 Location: 42°23’28.25”N/83° 1’59.80”V Date: Ca 2009-2011 Description: Pile of wood, planar cuts in the ends. Could be fuel or possibly dumping from a garden clear up. Varied dimensions and some burned pieces in the piles. Possibly a fire hearth. OBJ. 3 Location: 42°23’28.32”N/83° 1’59.19”V Date: unknown, 20th century or later. Description: Red plastic bag or possibly sheet, stained and with some holes. Name “Santander Consumer” printed on side. Santander is a bank with autoloan business in the US.

10x10m sample space nr 3 OBJ. 4 Location: 42°23’30.76”N/83° 1’58.47”V Date: Unknown, 20th century. Description: Soft toy horse, stained and with a few holes, eyes missing, otherwise intact. Polyester material and leather details. OBJ. 5 Location: 42°23’30.82”N/83° 1’58.46”V Date: unknown, possibly 20th century or later. Description: Composite roof shingles, folded in two pieces. Asphalt layering peeling off. Commonly used roof material in the US, object probably from adjacent burned down house. OBJ. 6 Location north point: 42°23’30.70”N/83° 1’58.25”V Location south point: 42°23’30.32”N/83° 1’58.30”V Date: Ca 1910 Description: Utility pole from previous housing, collapsed on ground. Approximately 12m long. Pieces of insulation ceramics found adjacent to pole on drive way.

OBJ. 7 Location: 42°23’30.94”N/83° 1’59.16”V Date: Ca 1960-1993. Description: Disused boat of brand “Hydrodyne Ski-boat”. Company cancelled production 1993. Plastic material. Mechanical details and metal materials removed. Object filled with plastic bags, leafs and pieces of wood. Text printed on side: “MC 1808 LG”. OBJ. 8 Location: 42°23’30.93”N/83° 1’59.07”V Date: Unknown, probably 20th century Description: Unknown object, plastic rod, broken at one end, pointy at the other end, with a blue color mark. Extruded cylinder in one end, possibly for gripping. Adjacent to obj. 7, possibly part of boat mechanics. OBJ. 9 Location: 42°23’31.12”N/83° 1’58.83”V Date: Ca 1910 Description: Fire post, presumably still connected to sewer system. Paint peeling off, partly overgrown. Side bolts in good condition. PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

29


SECTION A 1:500 .92"V

3° 2'5

"N/8

° 2'1

42° 23'2 8.70 83 "N/ .19"

10:34 COLLECTED ARTIFACT: UNIDENTIFIED PIECES OF SCRAP METAL (#201)

'28.32

42°23

09:55 VERTICAL CAMERA 10 SQM SAMPLE SPACE 2 START: 42°23'30.61"N/83° 1'58.38"V

42°23'28.32"N/83° 2'5.92"V

09:05 VERTICAL CAMERA 10 SQM SAMPLE SPACE 1 START: 42°23'28.25"N/83° 1'59.10"V

08:43 PERSPECTIVAL PHOTO NR 1 42°23'28.14"N/83° 2'8.53"V

42°23'28.19"N/83° 2'13.88"V

08:20 STOPPED BY POLICE OFFICERS 42°23'28.16"N/83° 2'1.61"V

08:08 INITIAL OBSERVATIONAL WALK THROUGH SITE STARTING POINT 42°23'27.99"N/83° 2'14.11"V

V

11:20 ARTIFACT: DISUSED PLASTIC BOAT “HYDRODYNE”, DOCUMENTED WITH VERTICAL CAMERA 42°23'30.83"N/83° 1'59.26"V

10:53 COLLECTED ARTIFACT: CERAMIC INSULATION PRESUMABLY FROM ADJACENT UTILITY POLE

10:41 WORK STOPS DUE TO RAIN

11:00

10:00

09:00

SITE 002 EAST POLETOWN LD NOTES

10

PLAN 1:500

N

9

SECTION A

8 7


1.09"N

Sample space 3

6

Vertical camera sample space 1

/83° 1'5

12:55 EXCAVATION NR 1 COLLECTED ARTIFACTS: PLASTIC COMB (#203) SCRAPS OF RED BRICK (#204) STRAP, UNIDENTIFIED MATERIAL (#205) 42°23'30.95"N/83° 1'57.73"V

12:19 COLLECETD ARTIFACT: RED BRICK, PROBABLY FROM BRICK WALK ON RAZED HOUSING LOT (#202) 42°23'30.23"N/83° 1'57.02"V

11:36 VERTICAL CAMERA 10 SQM SAMPLE SPACE 3 START: 42°23'30.99"N/83° 1'59.09"V

42°23'3 8.34"V

42°23'3

0.50"N

5

/83° 1 '54.75" V

0"

1.9

1'5

83°

42° 23'3

42°2 3'34 .43" N/8 3° 1 '48.6 1"V

0.9 / 4"N "V .93

1'50 14:41 STEREOGRAPHIC PHOTO NR 4 42°23'30.76"N/83° 2'1.36"V

14:39 STEREOGRAPHIC PHOTO NR 3 42°23'30.79"N/83° 1'59.84"V

14:32 STEREOGRAPHIC PHOTO NR 2 42°23'30.69"N/83° 1'58.82"V

14:20 STEREOGRAPHIC PHOTO NR 1 42°23'31.12"N/83° 1'58.66"V

14:08 PERSPECTIVAL PHOTO NR 3 42°23'28.80"N/83° 1'56.67"V

/8

6"

0.9

3'3

°2

42

13:18 PERSPECTIVAL PHOTO NR 2 42°23'28.70"N/83° 2'1.19"V

V

14:00

13:00

12:00

42°23'33.48" N/83° 1'51

15:00

.13"V

1

Sample space 2

2

A

4

PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

3


SITE 003 PACKARD AUTOMOTIVE PLANT SITE NAME(S) possible historical reference etc Packard Plant, German-Lutheran Cemetery, Concord St. APPROX. AREA m² 50571

ELEVATION m. above sea 192,4

STRUCTURES qty. PROSP. DATE yyyy:mm:dd 6 2011-10-15 DATA COLLECTING METHODS USED measuring drawing plan photo. persp. photo. excavation

soil sampling

collected findings

stereograph. photo. SITE OCCUPIED estimated year-year 1890(?)-2011 EXCAVATED M²-SQUARES quantity, lat/long; lat/long 1, N 42 22.436/W 83 1.496 READING METAL DETECTOR lat/long; lat/long N 42 22.2988/W 83 1.3176

SITE/PARTS OF SITE AT RISK In use Partly in use Planned construction

Disused

The site covers three different aspects of life in Detroit. On the east the singe-family housings, in the centre the Packard Plant and to the west the German Lutheran cemetery. Starting with the housing areas adjacent to Concord St (1), the fire insurance maps from 1950 tells us that this used to be a densely populated area. The area shows traces of working class singe family houses, common in Detroit during the first half of the 20th century. The houses were usually one and a half or sometimes two floors, with around 100 sqm per floor. The lots are narrow and deep, with the dimensions of roughly 9m by 35m (2, 3, 4). Most houses would also have a smaller cottage building in the back of the lot, possibly for stor32

PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

age or for car parking. A majority of the houses faced the street with their gable and this is where the porch and the entrance would be. Judging by the few remainding houses on the adjacent blocks the dominating technique was frame constructions in wood. Our excavation at one of the former housing sites did however also reveal traces of brick walls, possibly not loadbearing but used as an envelope. The Packard Plant was opened in 1903 and expanded and rebuilt several times (5). The auto plant cancelled its operations on site in 1958 and left one of the greatest ruins in all of north america. Today only a small part of the Packard Plant complex is still in use. However, the buildings on the excavation site have been abandoned since the late 1950’s. It can be assumed that the closed down plant had a negative impact on the conditions of the adjacent housing areas, which in combination with the general decline of the inner city environment from the sixties and onwards led to the present day conditions. The plant included a number of different functions, all in different buildings. The five floor building on the west side was used for die making (6). The now collapsed building to the east (7) was the main construction building for WW2 airplane engines, also party assembled in the existing structure to the south (8). On the south-west side of the plant was a warehouse for finished cars (9, 10). West of the plant was train tracks, today incorporated in the extension of the cemetery (11). Between the five floor building and the warehouse the fire insurance map reveals an earlier establishment, the Princess Motor Car co (12). This was a small manufacturer of “cyclecars”, ie. slimmed down cars but with less motor power. The German Lutheran Cemetery is presumably the oldest part of the site. (12) By the end of the 19th century the area of the site was largely dominated by german immigrants. The cemetery can be found in a smaller version on a Detroit map from 1891 but it could be even older. Considering that many of the cemeteries at the timewere placed in remote and quiet areas with the wild nature as backdrop, it is possible that the cemetery was planned before much else existed on the site. Regardless of this possibility we are left to speculating on the prehistory of the site. Looking at an historical map from 1880 the area remains unbuilt and not planned yet. However, in the 1890’s the area seems to have had some housing and the Detroit Grand Belt Streetcar appears to be going where tracks are still today (13). It is possible that the site was farm lands up until the 1890’s, or just unexplored wild land. By 1901 Concord St (1) is on the map, but it is unclear whether it was still to be exploited. Considering the Packard Plant was finished in 1903 it is possible that the planning for the industry was already happening by the late 19th century.

View of Packard Plant building 92 from cemetery Packard Plant assembly line, ca 1940-1950.

Fire insurance map of the area in 1950. Disused industrial tracks part of Michigan Central Belt

Fire insurance map of the area around 1905, indicating the Princess Motor Car co, preceding the Packard Plant complex. Excavation findings, bricks and concrete


OBJ 5

SITE 003 PACKARD PLANT Vertical Camera Documentation

OBJ 7 OBJ 8

OBJ 6

OBJ 4

OBJ 1 OBJ 9 OBJ 3 OBJ 2

10x10m sample space nr 1

10x10m sample space nr 2 OBJ. 1 Location: 42°22’30.26â€?N/83° 1’32.37â€?V Date: Ca 1910-1920 Description: 2 Hollow concrete blocks, part of collapsed wall. Three large holes objects. Traces of paint on sides. Dimensions: 390x190x190. OBJ. 2 Location: 42°22’30.25â€?N/83° 1’32.53â€?V Date: 20th century or later. Description: Leather or possibly fake leather mens shoes, rubber sole. Hole in heel of object to the right. Entirely intact including shoe laces.

OBJ. 3 Location: 42°22’30.12â€?N/83° 1’32.46â€?V Date: Ca 1910-1920 Description: 2 hollow bricks, part of collapsed wall. 10 circle shaped perforations in every brick. Blue paint on side, possi bottom side of right brick. Dimensions ca 200x100x55

10x10m sample space nr 3 OBJ. 4 Location: 42°22’29.86â€?N/83° 1’31.32â€?V Date: 20th century. Description: Car tire, 406 mm diameter, stains in center.

OBJ. 5 Location: 42°22’29.82â€?N/ 83° 1’31.21â€?V Date: 1910-1920 Description: 3 hollow concrete blocks, part of collapsed interior wall. Traces of mortar on sides, writing on blocks, “DANGERâ€? on the two on the top and “...ILLINGâ€? on the bottom block. Pos factory work. OBJ. 6 Location: 42°22’29.77â€?N/83° 1’31.78â€?V Date: Ca 1910 Description: Iron column, heavily corroded, partly collapsed. Plane cut surface on top suggests column was sawed off. Bolts on side still intact. Probably part of load bearing system for factory roof.

OBJ. 7 Location: 42°22’26.53â€?N/83° 1’29.61â€?V Date: Ca 2010-2011. Description: Empty plastic bottle, cap missing. Label visible, no aparent holes. Brand Gatorade G-series, energy drink,. No other visible signs of illegal dumping at site. Bottle could have been dropped by someone trespassing the site. OBJ. 8 Location: 42°22’26.35â€?N/83° 1’29.59â€?V Date: Unknown, probably 20th century Description: Grey plastic bucket, dented on sides, scratch marks on sides. Could be result of illegal dumping or used for razing of vacant lot. OBJ. 9 Location: 42°22’26.29â€?N/83° 1’29.98â€?V Date: Unknown, probably early 20th century. Description: Broken up pieces of concrete, probably part of building foundation or drive way for the single-family house that used to be on the site.

PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

33


2011-10-15 08:00

SITE 003 PACKARD AUTOMOTIVE PLANT

SECTION SE ECT CTIO ION A 1: 11:500 1:1000 :11000000 :10 42°2 2'25 .71" N/8 3° 1 '39.1

10:01 VERTICAL CAMERA 10 SQM SAMPLE SPACE 2 START: 42°22'29.64"N/83° 1'31.67"V

09:04 VERTICAL CAMERA 10 SQM SAMPLE SPACE 1 START: 42°22'30.09"N/83° 2'21.76"VV

08:47 PERSPECTIVAL PHOTO NR 2 42°22'23.92"N/83° 1'37.51"V

08:42 PERSPECTIVAL PHOTO NR 1 42°22'25.49"N/83° 1'36.75"V

0"V

12 .55" 42°22'25 N/83° 1'37.42"

10:44 VERTICAL CAMERA 10 SQM SAMPLE SPACE 3 START: 42°22'29.64"N/83° 1'31.67"V

V

1 3° .41

'33 "V

.15

42 °2 7 2'2 "N /8

13

11

SECTION A

9

12:17 FOUND ARTIFACT:

12:10 STEREOGRAPHIC PHOTO NR 2 42°22'29.38"N/83° 1'32.31"V

12:06 STEREOGRAPHIC PHOTO NR 1 42°22'28.91"N/83° 1'33.77"V

11:49 PERSPECTIVAL PHOTO NR 3 42°22'26.97"N/83° 1'31.12"V

11:16 STOPPED BY POLICE OFFICERS 42°22'26.03"N/83° 1'30.15"V

12:00

11:00

10:00

09:00

08:10 INITIAL OBSERVATIONAL WALK THROUGH SITE STARTING POINT 42°22'20.81"N/83° 1'43.45"V

FIELD NOTES

PLAN 1:500

N

6


12:56 EXCAVATION NR 1 COLLECTED ARTIFACTS: HEAVILY CORRODED STEEL TUBE (#302) CORRODED ENGINE PART (#303) RED BRICK PRINTED “ASSEMBLY” (#304) UNIDENTIFIED METAL SCRAPS (#305) PAGE FROM PHONE BOOK (#306) 42°22'26.13"N/83° 1'28.66"V

12:45 STEREOGRAPHIC PHOTO NR 4 42°22'29.39"N/83° 1'30.75"VV

12:37 STEREOGRAPHIC PHOTO NR 3 42°22'28.77"N/83° 1'32.00"V

HEAVILY CORRODED MACHINE PART 42°22'29.53"N/83° 1'31.34"V

42° 22'

Sample space 3

31. 71" N/ 83° 8.7

1'2 6"V 14:03 PERSPECTIVAL PHOTO NR 4 42°22'28.42"N/83° 1'26.19"V

13:00

42°22'2 9.85"N /83° 1'2

Vertical camera sample space 1

15:00

14:00

7.55"V

42°22'28 .45"N/8

Sample space 2 3° 1'21.0 8"V

7 2

5 1

A

3

8

PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH


FIELD RESEARCH CONCLUSIONS

In order to make all of the collected data more comprehensible, it is necessary to summarize the input from the field work. This is done by presenting some thematical discussions that the research generated.

Ryzewski, this higher degree of transparency would also be a way to make the research facilities more visible for the public. This question of the relationship to the public is a key issue for Ryzewski, as the contemporary archaeology of Detroit is likely to document much of the political tensions of the 20th century.

THE MYSTIFIED ARTIFACT The excavations have shown some of the likely artifacts and built structures to be found when excavating a modernist urban environment. Some of these objects and structures were easy to identify and place on a timeline, others were not. What happens to physical objects as the ideological basis on which they were produced changes or disappears? One apparent problem during the excavation work, was the number of objects impossible to identify or understand. This of course in part can be explained by the lack of professional training on my behalf. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note how fast even everyday objects become mysterious and unknown to us. For example, I was unable to identify a series of rusty machine parts. I did however identify a 1980’s video game console, which someone born today probably would find just as mysterious as the machine parts. A future archaeology would need to adjust its methods of analysis to the scale of 20th century massproduction. In the future, the excavated artifacts will not be a few recovered fragments, but rather large quantities of objects, sometimes identical, sometimes originals and copies, sometimes iterations or updated versions of a similar object. More than ever before, a future archaeology will be about the juxtaposition of a multitude of similar artifacts. As 5000 toothbruses are placed next to each other, they start to tell a story on many different levels about the 20th century; notions on hygiene, the extensive use of polymer, class and health, etc.

FUTURE PROGRAM NEEDS In a conversation on the future of archaeological science in Detroit, assistant professor Krysta Ryzewski at the archaeological department at Wayne State University, mentioned a number of functions that would be desired in the near future. Besides from better laboratory facilities, spaces for chemical analysis, climate controlled rooms and bigger archives, Ryzewski emphasized the need for a stronger visual connection between different kinds of analytical spaces within the department. According to 36

PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

ARCHAEOLOGY FOR WHOM? The interpretation of archaeological findings is always dependent on the context and the researcher. Hence, a fair criticism against historical research on Detroit is that it tend to over-emphasize the white middle-class community and its heydays in the 1950’s. Today a large part of this population belongs to what is refered to as the “Detroit diaspora”, a group inclined to regard the city as mainly a site for nostalgia. A future archaeology must aim to bridge the gap between the historical memories of different social and ethnic groups. Archaeology in Detroit today is perceived as almost non-existing, this despite attempt from the university to boost public intererst. One possible way to come about this problem is by trying to make archaeology more interactive. The archaeological field and lab work should be turned into public events through programmed participation and a higher degree of transparency.

SPATIAL UNDERSTANDING IN ARCHAEOLOGY In a sense archaeology can be understood as a very spatial science, and there are obvious references to architecture here. Archaeology has a given tectonic (the historical layerings of the soil) and a vertical order (the sectional excavations). Just as architecture, archaeology projects possible (but usually no longer existing) spaces through drawings, models or full-scale reconstructions. At least three central features in the spatial understanding of archaeology can be outlined: Firstly, the “palimpsestic reading”, ie the overlaying of plans. For the archaeologist the excavated ground constitutes a plan view that one can move above and observe. This plan is usually not final, but part of a sequence, regenerated for every 50th mm the digging continues. Hence, the space is a layered entity, consisting of multiple plans, each providing information on a detailed level - position of artifacts, structures and specific instances in time. Secondly, the sectional reading of archaeology.

A deep enough excavation can be read as an inverted elevation. In comparison to the detail and precision of the plan view, the section tells the story about structural changes over time, much like the radial rings of a tree trunk. This reading provides a large scale understanding of the chronology of the site. Thirdly, the perspectival movement through remains of buildings. Within archaeology this is usually percieved in a perspectival manner, similar to the way architecture would describe such a space. The movement becomes a narrative sequence, describing one or several historical conditions. Unlike architecture, the archaeological movement is focused on registering historically relevant details of the structure and its artifacts.


PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

Exterior view of visitor center from the courtyard PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH

37


INTRODUCTION PROJECT STATEMENT

KEY CONCEPTS

DESIGN PROCESS

This project investigates the footprint of 20th century modernism through the proposal of a combined archaeological museum and research center in Detroit. As a disused industrial railroad becomes the infrastructure for 20 archaeological excavation sites around the city, Detroit is turned into a physical research field generating knowledge about the recent past. Using Detroit as a case study, the project speculates on the possibility of a new kind of archaeology, adjusted to the scale of the industrial city. Located in the disused Packard Automotive plant (excavated as site 3), the research center becomes the node of the railroad system, gathering collected artifacts and samples in archaeological laboratories and archives. Partly adding new structures, partly using the existing buildings of the auto plant, the center combines archaeological research with curated exhibitions and training for archaeological volunteers wanting to take part in the remote excavations. Besides the mere economic gain from tourism and research fundings, for the city of Detroit the project means a reappreciation of the past, and a way to encourage public participation in the construction of the memory of the city. On a global level the research generated in Detroit have implications for a broader understanding of the 20th century modernist project. This project therefore suggests that Detroit becomes a node for industrial and contemporary archaeological research on a global scale. In this way the future archaeology of Detroit is turned into a public event, activating the local community as well as generating globally relevant research on the heritage of 20th century industrialism.

The design process started by identifying the most important results from the research, presented under “Essay conclusions” and “Research conclusions” . Based on these conclusions, the key concepts for the project were formulated:

Based on the abovementioned concepts, site 3 was chosen for the main design intervention, and a program was formulated. A series of initial program sketches were done, along with schematic sections or perspectives, sometimes laying out functional arrangements, sometimes describing a spatial quality or atmosphere (see part IV for representation of iterations). Parallell to the drawn sketches, a series of iteration models were produced, responding to different issues in the research process.

1. Artifacts - the excavation, categorizing, analyzing, archiving and displaying of artifacts is at the defining core of archaeology. The artifact can be understood as a container of memory, or as an alien object derived of meaning. What are possible architectural responses to this? How do we interact with artifacts spatially?

Whitefish Point Sugar Island Fort Michilimackinac

Sanilac

Spring Creek

Younge Apple Island Detroit

3. Transparency - A higher degree of transparency and visibility between different parts of the archaeological research units as well as between the research and the public.

Fort St Joseph North Maumee Bay

Remote archaeological excavations/findings in the Michigan state region

4. Interactivity - Opening up for public hands-on participation in the archaeological research process - generating interest for archaeology through interaction. 5. Sequences - The archaeological research and the visitor experience is developed as a sequence. For the visitors this means a sequence of spaces and memories when moving through the design project. For the research it means a sequence of different processing phases, using the assembly line logic of the existing auto plant.

3. Lab analysis, processing and archiving at research center.

2. Railroad transportation of artifacts and visitors to the Packard Research Center.

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

Keweenaw

2. Overlaying - The parallell reading of multiple layers is central to archaeology. This idea is translated to architecture through the overlaying of multiple programs. Functions and circulation of different kinds are stacked, generating new situations and constellations as they “collide” in unexpected ways.

1. Excavation of artifacts in different sites around Detroit.

38

Detroit as a node for global research on industrial and contemporary archaeology

4. Curated exhibitions of artifacts, at the research center. 5. International research conferences on industrial archaeology. Visiting scholars taking part in field and lab work.

6. Classes on basic archaeological field techniques for volunteers taking part in excavations on the remote sites.


10.26a 9.52a 10.56a 10.22a

Drawing mapping the excavation stations and their different historical themes. By using the legend, a series of thematical itineraries can be arranged.

10.18a 9.55a 10.48a 10.25a

11

5a

The Packard Plant Research Center

11 9.05a 9 .10 11. .35a a 40a

9.1 9a 9 5a Ev ery 9.4.30a 3 Ap 0 m 5a pro x. T until in. 7p ime Tab le CW CC W

10.55a 9.21a 11.25a 9.51a

SI

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.39

9.3

a

.09

a

SITE 007 42°24'46.45"N/8 3° 5'46.15"V First assembly line plant for auto production, disus ed production structure for Ford Moto rs. Category: Industry & Pre-hi story

a

.05

SITE 0 Zug Is 14 42°1 7'3 la used nd Site is 4.22"N/ fo a 8 indic r steel an heavily in 3° 7'35.2 ate 5 d d Catego working cole inds ustrialize "V d artif try, a ry: H hous dja ea in ic vy In dustry g and sm cent old al island m all &H ousing scale ind aps also ustrie s.

used

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9.3 10.379a 10.0 a 11.079a a

clear despite the former steel and coal plants towering in the horizon. 30 minutes later you are on the north-east side of the city. As the train stops at the Rosa Parks Blvd station, you watch artifacts from an ongoing excavation being loaded onto the train, bound for the same destination as you; The Packard Plant and the node of the museum complex. At the plant you watch artifacts being processed, you get your coffe in the visitor center, take part in a class on archaeological excavation and top it off with the curated exhibition “Detroit riots of 1943 and 1967: The struggle, the artifacts and the stories”.

, sm ali tri us nd yi arl ge rin du rs ke or rw "V fo .25 eas . '22 ar nts ° 4 ing ra ent 83 us mig num N/ ho m mo 3" st n i e sa 5.1 ld pea ute . stit y 9'3 e o ro con ntur °1 th eu 42 of by ing ion th ce e d s 0 9"V tat 8 2.4 tral s he 2 01 On late s hou ° 4'4 cen of t TE wn pu er /83 sused ades SI rkto po ork c "N i e 9 d Co stly y: W 0.0 he st d r '4 r mo go on T e fi °19 e i h t t 2 t a 4 t Ca ring al S 17 40’s E 0 Centr ure du on the 18 n t SIT ti a g a i t h r ruc built in 4"V Mic nfrast ranspo ation, i 5'46.2 install T ° : y of N/ 83 est military l housing egor 7.66" a ld Cat 2°17'5 etroit’s o arly industri D 016 4 E SITE yne One of allation & a st Fort W : Military in ry Catego / 83° 6'6.15"V SITE 015 42°18'15.84"N and related factory for car windows Ternstedt Plant Disused older remnants ed since 1930’s. Possible steel details. Factory disus under plant. istory Category: Industry & Pre-h

9.59aa 10.239a 10.2 a 3 10.5

1 9.4 1 0.31 7a 11 0.17 a .01 a a

10

ay eew y fr db har it h rea ial a ustr ind

10 9 .35 1 .44 a 10 1.05 a .14 a a

0"V le 7'6.5 all sca m 83° N/ Blvd S " 1 .7 n 24'8 kma 0’s. 42° & Oa e 195 09 th d E 0 ks Blv uring reeway T I r S nd &F a Pa Ros structio dustr y con gor y: In hed e t demolis a C .55"V ea partly /83° 6'31 class housing ar e 1950’s. "N 49 0. 8 42°24' bull St Working ge freeway in th SITE 00 um od St & Tr e John L W Grand tr uction of th ns e by th co sing ou H Categor y:

5a 10.1 9a 9.5 5a 10.4 9a 10.2 1 1 0.1 1 0.05 1a 10 0.41 a .35 a a

10.05 10.1 a 10.351a 10.41 a a

Take the archaeological train to Detroit’s past! “All aboard!” the conductor calls out as the whistle is blown and the engines start running. You’re on the 9.05 train leaving downtown Detroit for a journey through the city’s history. As the train starts moving you sit back in the comfortable coach chair and listen to the recorded audio guide. Interviews with citizens, lectures by archaeologists and historians, sound recordings from the city’s past. Ten minutes later you arrive at the disused Michigan Central station, once a landmark for the new engineered civilization, nowadays a monument of past times. As the train passes Zig Island on your left, you step out on the viewing plattform upstairs. The air is

igh ne ely let ils on p a "V om eta .16 a c ls d . 2'4 are ea ed 3° trial n rev g raz 8 s / u in io "N ind avat be m c .00 d '29 g an . Ex fro ity °23 usin 990’s area mun 2 4 e 1 n Ho ing 1 sav , Com 00 sing E letow dur m to using hou SIT st Po ned tivis , Ho ker "V sh wor Ea ando d ac ustr y 9 .8 li '59 of po ab rhoo y: Ind 3° 1 N/8 avation bo tegor c .11" Ca 2'52 des ex nants. 2 ° 2 lu 4 4 ite inc rial rem s t E 00 SIT wn The le indus ousing a H Poleto rge sc str y & la u and or y: Ind g .21"V te rs of Ca /83° 1'33 ith several laye l research w 24.52"N logica 3 42°22' sed auto plant Archaeo g. in su SITE 00 us di Plant A ell as ho Packard industries as w g precedin archive. d g an sin ou er cent &H Industr y Categor y:

5a 9.1 05a . a 11 9.45 5a .3 11

1a 9.2 55a 10. .51a 9 5a 2 11. 9.33a

10.43a 10.03a 11.13a

9.27a a 10.497a 9.5 a 11.19

0

1km

5km

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

39


1

13 10

4

5 3

12 14

7

10

8 2 9

15

RY

RITO

11

ER AN T

ADI

CAN

SERVICE AND ACCOMMODATION FOR VISITING RESEARCHERS AND TOURISTS

1. Coleman Young International Airport (DET) 2. Detroit Renaissance Center Hotel & Conferences 3. Dept. of Anthropology & Archaeology, Wayne State University 4. University Library & Burton Historical Collection 5. Detroit Historical Society 6. Packard Plant Research Center 7. Lafayette Part - Visiting scholar residence 8. Greek Town - Restaurant district 9. Cork town - Previous archaeological research 0 40

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

1km

5km

10. Belle Isle Park - Leisure 11. Canadian border access 12. Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit 13. Detroit Birth and death records 14. Eastern Market - Restaurant area 15. Cork town - Restaurant area Transit tailroad connecting to main Main archaeological railroad Excavation stations Interstate Freeway access points (Trains stop at call out)


DETROIT AS A GLOBAL RESEARCH NODE

The diagram gives three possible scenarios for itineraries in Detroit, based on different kinds of visitors. The archaeological railroad is connected to the existing tourist infrastructure of Detroit, such as hotels, conference buildings, restaurants and airport.

VISITING SCHOLAR (SHORT STAY) Day 1

Arrival airport (1)

Train to Packard Hotel Plant check in research Renaissance facilities center (2) (6)

Guided tour of research facilities (6)

VISITING SCHOLAR (LONG STAY) Month 1 Month 2

Arrival airport (1)

Introduction to lab Move into facilities at apartment Packard at Lafayette Plant park (7) (6)

VISITING TOURIST Day 1

Arrival airport (1)

Hotel check in Holiday Inn

Day 3

Day 2

Researchseminar Renaissance Train ride Dinner downtown Center and (2) (8) excavation work Month 3

Guest lecturer at Lab analysis Archaeowork, logical dept/ Packard Wayne State Plant (6) Uni (3)

Month 4

Lab analysis work, Packard Plant (6)

Day 2

Train ride around Detroit with Walk Cork town Dinner various around field visit downtown downtown stops at (8) excavations. (9) Detroit

Visit at Archaeological dept./ Wayne State Uni (3)

Day 4

ResearchWorkshop: seminar Cork town Wayne State Polymer lab analysis Free time Uni. Excavation field visit (6) (9) (3) (10) work

Month 5

Lab analysis Excavation work, work at site Packard 005 Plant (6)

Month 6

Researchseminar Wayne State Uni. (3)

Day 3

Train ride around Detroit with various stops at excavations.

Archive work, Packard Plant (6)

Day 4

Guided tour of Packard Plant research center (6)

Dinner Eastern Market (14)

Day 5

Day 6

ResearchWorkshop: seminar Renaissance Lithic lab analysis Center Excavation Free time (2) (6) (12) work

Field trip: North Michigan paleoindian excavation

Month 7

Holiday

Field trip: North Michigan paleoindian excavation

Lab analysis work, Packard Plant (6)

Month 8

Guest lecturer at ResearchArchaeoseminar logical dept/ Renaissance Wayne State Center Uni (3) (2)

Day 5

Take class on archaeological Voluntary Visit to excavations Sightseeing excavation Museum of Dinner for Belle Isle work on site Contempo- downtown volunteers, Park (10) 008 rary Art (12) (8) Packard

Month 9

Teach class on archaeologiWorkshop: cal Lithic excavations lab analysis Excavation for (6) volunteers, work Packard

Day 6

Visit to exhibition “Detroit riots of the Voluntary 20th excavation century�, work on site Packard Plant (6) 010

Day 7

Dinner Corktown (15)

Mobile research Workshop: seminar on Metal board lab analysis archaeologi(6) cal train

Day 8

Workshop: Brown field soil lab analysis (6)

Month 10

Workshop: Workshop: Polymer Metal lab analysis Excavation lab analysis (6) (6) work

Lab analysis work, Packard Plant (6)

Mobile breakfast Field trip: seminar on Detroit Birth and Concluding board dinner archaeologi- Departure Death Airport (1) cal train records (13) (14)

Month 11

Month 12

Workshop: Brown field soil lab analysis (6)

Researchseminar Wayne State Uni. Departure (3) Airport (1)

Day 7

Dinner Corktown (15)

Departure Airport (1)

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

41




PACKARD PLANT RESEARCH CENTER The proposed research center is placed in the disused Packard automotive plant, excavated as site 003. This vast complex (total area of ca 325000 m2) has been abandoned since 1958, when the production of automobiles was cancelled. The location of the site, the connection to the railroad system, the different adjacent historical zones and the number of existing buildings in good condition makes the site suitable for an archaeological research center in the proposed large-scale format. The center includes laboratories, artifact archives, café, library and exhibition hall. The field research provided data on the existing structures of the site. These are briefly presented and documented in part IV.

PROGRAM AREAS

1

Area accessible for visitors Restricted area visible for visitors

Unloading control room 150 m2

3

ARTIFACT ARCHIVE 18000 m2

Visitors restrooms 20 m2

Staff break room 100 m2

Conveyor/Elevator ctrl 100 m2

Visitors entrance area 120 m2

Storage 180 m2

Artifact elevators 300 m2

Circulation 700 m2

Artifact cleaning/sorting 700 m2

Train platform 230 m2

4

Circulation 440 m2

Climate controlled archive 14000 m2 Artifacts examination desks 250 m2

Dressing rooms staff 80 m2

VISITOR CENTER 1605 m2

Artifact overhead cranes 2500 m2 Archiving prep. 1000 m2 Archive reception/ office 250 m2

ARCHAEOLOGICAL LABORATORIES 6930 m2

Cranes for unloading 150 m2

Restricted access research area

The visit to the research center can be divided into five general areas: 1. Main entrance, 2. Artifact laboratories, 3. Artifact archives, 4. Visitor Center, 5. Exhibition hall. These areas will now be described in the given order.

2

MAIN ENTRANCE/ARTIFACT UNLOADING ZONE 883m2

Lecture room 150 m2 Research library 250 m2

Glass 300 m2

Head of research office 100 m2

Lithics 300 m2

Metals laboratory 700 m2

Sample ref. collection 70 m2

Human/Faunal remains 300 m2

Polymers 700 m2

Conference room 100 m2

Floral 300 m2

Unidentified materials 700 m2

aDNA analysis 100 m2

Soils/Chemicals 250 m2

Wood laboratory 300 m2

X-ray diffraction 250 m2

5

Volunteer preparation room 30 m2 Volunteer study space 75 m2

Staff/Volunteer restrooms 15 m2 Excavation training site 250 m2

Tool storage 10 m2 Open excavation site 50 m2

Café 225 m2

Curator office 130 m2

Circulation 270 m2

Café kitchen 75 m2

Ceramics lab 300 m2

CURATED EXHIBITION /EXIT PLATFORM 2160 m2

Exhibition staff office 200m2 Exhibition info stand 30 m2

Cloakroom and restrooms 75 m2

2

1

3

Artifacts unloaded at the Packard Plant Archaeological Research Facilities

Artifacts analyzed and categorized on conveyor belts, in Packard blg 37

ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH

VISITORS Exit train onto elevated walkway going through Packard ruins.

Researcher/visitor movement through research center

44

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

Walk past labs, display of ongoing archaeological research.

Exhibitions of ongoing research along walkway.

Exhibition reception 130 m2

Artifact browsing desk, public study spaces for artifacts

Exit ramp 150 m2

Exit platform 200m2

Exhibition preparatory room 250 m2

4

Artifacts stored in temp controlled archives, sorted by sites.

Exhibition hall 1200 m2

Research library and lecture room

Research library and lecture room

5

Café

Café Excavation training site and study space for volunteers

Curator office and prep. rooms Field access

Curated exhibitions Volunteer field access

Exit platform


A zinc clad walkway leads the visitor through the research center. At certain points the walkway folds to function as a bench, a railing or a platform for the display of a specific artifact.

3

2 4.

1

1

5.

Packard Plant Research Center Isometric 1:1000 Overhead crane path for artifacts

5

New structures/ walkway

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

45


1. MAIN ENTRANCE As the excavation train reach the Packard research center, visitors exit onto the platform placed alongside of the five story building historically refered to as “Packard building nr 52�. By the main entrance and the beginning of the walkway includes a reception desk, some info stands and restrooms. For the rest of the stay at the Packard Plant the zinc clad walkway guides the visitor and provides a simple way of orienting oneself. Historically used for die making of car parts, the poor condition of building nr 52, makes it unsafe for programmed use of any kind. Hence, visitors pass through the building in a reinforced tunnel clad in perforated corteen, allowing the passenger to observe the ruinous inside and providing shelter from falling objects. The entrance platform also serves as the unloading area for excavated artifacts from the remote sites. Artifacts are unloaded by cranes and placed on an overhead crane system, passing above the visitors. A controll tower in the far end of the main entrance building coordinates the train traffic and supervizes the unloading of artifacts.

PROGRAM Unloading controll room

150 m2

Visitor restrooms

120 m2

Train platform

230 m2

Cranes for unloading

150 m2

Circulation

420 m2

Interior, unloading area

Detail, cranes for unloading

Main entrance perspective 46

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL


PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

47


MAIN ENTRANCE 1.

Ground level 1:400 1. Crane engine room 2. Artifact unloading platform 3. Visitor platform 4. Entrance/Visitor reception 5. Restroom 6. Main walkway to visitor center

2.

10.

3. A

5.. 4.

6.

PLAN CUT GROUND LEVEL +1

PLAN CUT

Section AA 1:400 48

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL


Level 1 1:400 1. Crane operation controll room 2. Railroad traffic controll desk 3. Artifact unloading cranes 1.

1. 2.

3.

6.

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

49


2. ARCHAEOLOGICAL LABORATORIES Laboratory analysis is the method archaeologist use to start making sense out of excavated objects. Before the artifacts are analyzed in the laboratory, they are sorted based on their material qualities. This is done on the ground floor (see archive plan). Artifacts made of plastic go to the polymer laboratory, samples of soil are transported to the soil and chemical laboratory, etc. Artifacts are placed on hanging baskets, transported and circulated through the lab on the overhead crane system. The laboratories are placed in the south part of a building complex historically used for assembly line production of cars and trucks. The Packard plant labs use the rational of the existing structure, turning the laboratory work into a series of analytical moments along a production line going in the east-west direction. Desks, computers, analytical tools and machines are placed between the load bearing columns. A number of side railings also allow artifacts to be moved north-south between different laboratories. When all the relevant data is collected the artifact is transported to the archive preparation hall for conservation and storage. As the ongoing excavations around Detroit constantly generate new data and artifacts, the laboratory is bound to be an active part of the structure. Visitors follow the walkway on the south side of the laboratories, having a view over the courtyard to the right and the laboratories on the left. Laboratories are separated from the public by transparent glass, putting the archaeological research on display for the visitors. PROGRAM

Program continued: Floral laboratory

300 m2

Glass laboratory

300 m2

Head of research office

100 m2

Human remains laboratory

150 m2

Lithics laboratory

300 m2

Metals laboratory

700 m2

Polymers laboratory

700 m2

Sample reference collection

70 m2

Soils and chemicals laboratory

250 m2

aDNA analysis

100 m2

Staff break room

100 m2

Artifact cleaning and sorting area

700 m2

Storage areas

180 m2

Artifact elevators

300 m2

Unidentified materials laboratory

700 m2

Ceramics laboratory

300 m2

Wood laboratory

300 m2

Circulation

700 m2

X-ray diffraction analysis room

250 m2

Conference room

100 m2

Conveyor controll room

100m2

Dressing rooms/restroom staff

80 m2

Faunal laboratory

150 m2

50

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

Archaeological laboratories and visitor walkway


PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

51


ARCHAEOLOGICAL LABORATORIES 17.

Plan level 1 1:400 1.

10.

2.

3.

4.

5.

9.

TO ARCHIVE

1. Soil and chemical analysis 2. Ceramics 3. Lithics 4. Human remains/Faunal analysis 5. Floral analysis 6. Laboratory equipment storage 7. aDNA laboratory 8. X-ray diffraction analysis room 9. Conference room 10. Artifact elevators 11. Metals 12. Info stands/artifacts from ongoing laboratory research 13. View points/benches for resting 14. Archive reception 15. Study spaces for artifacts 16. Archive admin office

7.

8.

6.

16.

15.

A 11.

14

12.

13.

13.

12.

13 TO VISITOR CENTER & EXHIBIITION

52

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

Section AA 1:400


Artifact lab analysis process

Artifact laboratory

Materials

Methods of analysis

Archival sorting

Archive artifact trolleys

Shackel for overhead crane connection 30mm Armored glass Typology analysis Ceramics

Differential Thermal Analysis

X-Ray Diffraction Analysis

Hatch for inspection

Labeling

1000mm SMALL SCALE >0,5 nm <750mm

Flotation

Typology analysis

X-Ray Diffraction Analysis

Labeling

Flotation

Scanning Microscope Electron observMicroscope ations

Labeling

Typology analysis

Scanning X-Ray Diffraction Electron Microscope Analysis

Labeling

Flotation

Capillary X-Ray Diffraction gas chromatography Analysis

Labeling

Typology analysis

X-Ray Diffraction Analysis

Labeling

Typology analysis

ThermoX-Ray luminescDiffraction ence dating Analysis

Labeling

Typology analysis

Polymer identification

Electron Microprobe Analysis

Labeling

Flotation

Labeling

1000mm

Faunal

Level 3 16. Head of research office 17. Research admin office 18. Unidentified materials 19. Wood 20. Glass 21. Climate controlled laboratory 22. Sample reference collection 23. Restroom 24. Storage 25. Staff break room 26. Conveyor/Elevator controll room 27. Polymer 28. Climate controlled laboratory

Floral

22.

16. 17.

28.

20.

18.

23.

19.

24.

Glass

27.

25. 26.

Human remains

Level 1 5. Artifact elevators 6. Soil and chemicals 7. Ceramics 8. Human/Faunal remains 9. Lithics 10. Florals 11. aDNA analysis 12. X-ray diffraction analysis 13. Conference room 14. Metals 15. Laboratory equipment storage

2000mm

9. 10.

2000mm

Lithics

11.

7.

6.

15.

MEDIUM SCALE >750mm <2000mm

12.

8.

14.

13. 4.

Metals

Polymers

Capillary gas chromatography

Ground level 1. Artifact elevators 2. Artifact cleaning and sorting area 3. Dressing room workers 4. Tool storage

3. 4.

1.

Phospor analysis

Soils and chemicals

Woods

LARGE SCALE >2000mm and larger 5500mm

Typology analysis

2.

3000mm

X-Ray Diffraction Analysis

Labeling

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

53


3. ARTIFACT ARCHIVE Archaeology is a science based on the sorting, analyzing and categorizing of artifacts. In regards to this the artifact archive plays a key role in the research done at the Packard plant. The archive gathers excavated artifacts from all the remote sites and store these based on the location of the finding and the size of the objects. Located north of the laboratory and the walkway, in a series of structures historically used for producing trucks, the archive consists of 20 climate controlled halls and a separate space for archival preparation work. Each of the twenty storage halls are connected to the overhead crane system. Artifacts are stored in containers of different sizes, ready to be called out and transported to the archaeological laboratories, the curator office or the exhibition halls. Visitors can access the archive on second floor for observation of ongoing work. Observations of specific artifacts by visitors can be done on demand at the artifact study desks on level 1.

PROGRAM Artifact overhead cranes

2500m2

Archiving preparation

1000 m2

Climate controlled archive Archive reception/office

250 m2

Artifacts examination desk:

250 m2

Part of archive seen from publicly accessible observation deck 54

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

14000 m2

Artifact archive


PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

55


ARTIFACT ARCHIVE SITE 005

Level 1 1:400 1. Artifact case repair room 2. Artifact archiving preparation 3. Large scale artifact analysis 4. Artifact elevators 5. Artifact sorting area 6. Staff locker rooms, restrooms 7. Tool storage 8. Lab sample elevator 9. Artifact cleaning 10. Storage spare casing 11. Artifact cleaning 12. Archive space 13. Local artifact loading dock

SITE 004

12.

SITE 003

B B SITE 002

11. SITE 001

1.

2.

TO ARCHIVE

1. 3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

10

Section BB 1:400 56

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL


POSSIBLE FUTURE ARCHIVE EXTENSION

SITE 020

SITE 019

Archive ground level 1:800

SITE 018

SITE 017

SITE 016

SITE 015

SITE 014

LARGE SCALE ARTI-

SITE 013

SITE 012

SITE 011

SITE 010

SITE 009

SITE 008

SITE 007

SITE 006

SITE 005

SITE 004

12.

SITE 003

B B SITE 002

11. SITE 001

1.

2.

TO ARCHIVE

1. 3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

10.

9.

13.

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

57


4. VISITOR CENTER The visitor center is an entirely new structure, connecting the archive and laboratories in the north to the exhibition hall on the south side of the site. The function of the building is twofolded: Firstly, transporting artifacts between the archive and the exhibition hall on overhead cranes. The central tower allows for a vertical parking of artifacts in case objects going in different directions meet. The second purpose of the structure is to provide an interactive area where researchers and visitors can study, teach, discuss or just visit the café. Just as interdisciplinary research gains its momentum from the discrepancies between different research cultures, the visitor center opens up for interaction between archaeological scholars and visiting laymens. Placed on top of several known historical layers and razed buildings, the structure aims at preserving the access to the ground below it. The construction of the building is based on a series of portal concrete frames, adjusting to different needs of the program. Using frames and a hanging constructions instead of concrete slabs for ground support reduces the impact on the soil, thus allowing for excavations beneath the structure to go on. Seen from the outside, the polycarbonate envelope of the building reveals the contours of people and artifacts moving through the structure. As the visitor enter the structure the research library is located on the left and a lecture room below on the right. Artifacts of different sizes and shapes circulate above. Passing the library the visitor enters the café and the excavation training grounds, where volonteers learn to carry out archaeological excavations and operate the necessary equipment. Visitors interested in volunteering for excavation work at any of the railroad excavations can sign up for a one-day introduction class. This includes lectures on architectural theory and field work, study and assessment of real artifacts and a workshop on excavation techniques. When the weather allows it, the revolving windows on the side of the facade opens up, making the bottom part of the structure open to the outdoor. Volunteer classes can then easily move from the lecture desks and out into the fields for a hands-on experience of archaeological research. The central part of the visitor center holds restrooms, a bar and the café with view of the urban prairies to the east. In the south end of the building is the reception and info stand for the exhibition hall.

Exterior view visitor center 58

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL


PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

59


VISITOR CENTER PROGRAM Lecture room

150 m2

Research library

250 m2

Volunteer preparation room

30 m2

Volunteer study space

75 m2

Café

225 m2

Café kitchen

75 m2

Cloakroom and restroom

75 m2

Staff/volunteer restroom

15 m2

Excavation training site

250 m2

Curator office

130 m2

Tool storage

10 m2

Open excavation site

50 m2

Interior view visitor center 60

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL


PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

61


VISITOR CENTER

1.

2.

3.

3. +0m

-0,5m

4.

4.

5.

7.

-1,5m -0,5m

-1m

+0m

7. -1m -1,5m

Ground level 1:400 1. Janitor office 2. Technique 3. Volunteer locker room 4. Restroom 5. Artifact study desks 6. Educational excavation grounds 7. Possible future excavation grounds

62

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

7.

-0,5m


E

1.

2.

3.

3.

2.

1. 4.

5.

C

C

3

4.

5.

+3m m

6. +3m

D

D

7. +2,5

Level 1 1:400 1. Auditorium 2. Lecture prep room/storage 3. Research library 4. Study desk 5. Reading chairs 6. Assembly space voluntary excavation units/ temporary stage 7. CafĂŠ/Bar 8. Kitchen 9. Restrooms 10. Coatroom

+1,5

Level 2 1:400

8.

9.

+1,5

10. +1m

1. Library reception/take out 2. Catalogue computer stands 3. Study desk 4. Auditorium 5. Shelving 6. Head curator office 7. Curator lab 8. Artifact inspection hatch

6.

7.

8.

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

63


VISITOR CENTER 1.

2. 2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

8.

7.

Exploded isometric 1:400 1. Polycarbonate envelope 2. Temporary artifact parking 3. Load bearing portal frames 4. Overhead crane for artifact trolley transportation 5. Research library/Lecture room 6. CafĂŠ/Bar/Kitchen 7. Curator office 8. Walkway 9. Volunteer training ground

64

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

9.


Section CC 1:400

Section DD 1:400

Section EE 1:400

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

65


5. EXHIBITION HALL & EXIT PLATFORM The exhibition hall represents the archaeological method of categorizing, juxtaposing and thematizing. The objects on display here are carefully selected by curators, to tell a story about a specific historical issue or event. Possible exhibition themes includes various chapters from the history of Detroit, or more generalized themes on modernist living such as “Polymer and hygiene in the 20th century� exhibiting 1500 different tooth brushes from the artifact archive. The point is to emphasize what the artifacts becomes when juxtaposed to other similar objects or placed in the context of a specific narrative. The exhibition hall also provides a space for reflecting on the subjectivity of memory as visitors re-encounter objects from their own past. The structure was historically referred to as Packard Plant building 39 and used for manufacturing parts of airplane engines during the second world war. The envelope and structural system of the building appears to still be in good condition. The original factory floor has collapsed however, leaving the basement visible. The easternmost part of the building is used for temporary storage and curator preparation of objects. Artifacts going out on display are transported on the overhead crane system that connects with the archive and lab. The system allows for objects up to 5,5 meters to be exhibited. The hall consists of a system of rectangular exhibition slabs, hanging from the roof trusses of the old building. The slabs are vertically adjustable to be below or above the visitor walkway that runs in east-west direction on the north side of the hall. As visitors move along the exhibition, parts of the basement of the old structure can be seen under the walkway and the hanging slabs. The existing windows on the south side and on the sides of the roof trusses provide a natural exhibition light.

PROGRAM Exhibition info stand

30 m2

Exhibition staff office

200 m2

Exhibition reception

300 m2

Exhibition preparatory room

250 m2

Exhibition hall

1200 m2

Exit ramp

150 m2

Exit platform

200 m2

Exhibition gallery 66

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL


PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

67


EXHIBITION HALL & EXIT PLATFORM Exhibition hall ground level 1:400 1. Exhibition info stand/souvenirs 2. Exhibition reception desk 3. Exhibition admin office 4. Temporary exhibition 5. Temporary storage, exhibition preparation 6. Exit platform

6. F

Exhibition hall and exit platform, plan 1:400

Section GG 1:400

68

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

Section FF 1:400


1.

G

2.

3.

5.

4.

F

G

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

69


5. EXIT WALKWAY Leaving the exhibition the visitor walk on an outdoor ramp on the south side of the complex, leading to the exit platform, where trains connect back onto the archaeological railroad system.

Walkway to exit platform 70

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL


PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

71


SITE MODEL 1:500 From the combined starting point of archaeological research and architectural design, the site model had two purposes: Firstly to illustrate the changes of structure, ods. Secondly, to provide a present day site analysis that

72

PART IV: PROCESS DOCUMENTATION & REFERENCES

site: Early industrialism, high industrialism and present

ent nuances of board in order to further emphasize the aspect of time.

colors, 5mm threaded rods


SKETCH MODELS 1:500 During the design process a series of volumetric sketch the visitor center as an object and it’s volumetric relationship to existing buildings.

PART IV: PROCESS DOCUMENTATION & REFERENCES

73


SECTIONAL MODEL 1:100 The model investigates the different vertical layers of program in the visitor center, and the basic principle for construction and permeability. Materials: 3mm wellpapp, 2 and 1 mm chipboards of different colors, 5 mm sheet of polycarbonate

74

PART IV: PROCESS DOCUMENTATION & REFERENCES


SKETCH MODEL EXCAVATION STATION 1:100 A sketchmodel was produced to study the possibilites of using the excavation stations as both exhibition spaces and loading areas for newly excavated artifacts. As all the stations have their own architectural expression, the model and perspective represents an iteration for a specific station (site 004, East Poletown). PART IV: PROCESS DOCUMENTATION & REFERENCES

75


CONCLUSIONS THESIS PROJECT

Rather than providing fully resolved answers to the questions posed initially, the project will be concluded with presenting three topics that the thesis has come to gravitate toward along the process. These topics shoud be considered as part of an ongoing discussion, developing questions raised during the thesis work.

1. EXPOSING THE PROCESS From the visitors point of view, the traditional museum visit means observing a series of selected objects and images, all representing a prepared narrative. Speaking with Jean Baudrillard, the traditional museum can be seen as part of a visual system based on simulacra - a postcard experience of a site never visited, a map greater than the actual terrain it covers, or the replica more real than the original. In this context the traditional museum replaces a chaotic reality/history with a more coherent version of the same. By revealing the mechanisms behind the museum and the archaeological research process, this project speculates on a different kind of museum experience. In doing so the traditional museum has been turned inside out, exposing the systems of analysis, transportation and storage. In this context the artifacts are present with their volume, weight, materials, smells and sounds. The archaeological experience of Detroit is located not only in the exhibition gallery, but just as much out in the fields and ruins around the city.

2. WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE In this context the notion of worlds colliding signifies unexpected (but intentional) collisions of different programmed activites, spaces and circulation patterns that are usually kept apart. Generating these unexpected juxtapositions has been a way to experiment with and develop the idea of a future archaeology. What happens when activities that are usually separated are placed adjacent to each other? How will this affect the programmed activities? Will the constant presence of artifacts and excavation work change the visitors understanding of archaeology? How will the science of archaeology change when it’s performed on conveyor belts, in front of visitors? Exploring the consequences and possible benefits from situations when worlds collide has been a main purpose with this thesis. 76

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

3. CONTAMINATIONS This project has investigated how the architectural design process can be informed through a research method belonging to another discipline, ie. archaeology. By proposing a new kind of archaeology, based on the logics and principles of the assembly line workflow and large scale production, possible contaminations between archaeology and architecture has been explored. On the one hand archaeological methods and program needs, on the other the rationale and logics of industrial architecture. In this project the architectural design process has adapted not only the archaeological techniques of representation and investigation (drawing, observation, excavation etc), but also its spatial understanding and its analysis of sites: What is archaeologically relevant on the site? How to build a structure on the possible location of future excavations? What kind of circulation is the most informative from an archaeological point of view? The “mimetic” approach has been a way to understand the intentions of archaeological science. This understanding has proven useful when speculating on the programmatic needs of a possible future archaeology. The contamination between archaeology and architecture poses a series of questions that are also relevant outside of a strict archaeological realm. What is the relationship between scientific and architectural methods of understanding, representing and projecting the reality? In what different ways can architecture be informed using the perspective of a particular science? Is it possible to think of crossovers between architecture and other sciences? How does a dialectic relationship between architecture and science impact the disciplines?

View of artifact elevators, laboratory

Entrance to visitor center from laboratory


PART IV: PROCESS DOCUMENTATION & REFERENCES

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

77


12 13 14 15

Possible extension

*Presentation models/objects *Theoretical and conceptual reconnection to earlier research phase, “closure”. *Work on installation, exhibition space, printing etc.

Possible extension

MARCH

Finished exhibition Printing, digital presentation

11

Finalize physical installation/exhibtion

10

Meetup with David? March 27th

9

Week for any remaining work/polish up on details

8

Build site model/refurbish old excavation site model (from week 44)

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD WORK

Finished sitemodels

7

Build project models/objects/installation

6

Finished models/ objects

*Finalizing design proposal *Build presentation models/ objects *Finished with outlines for final presentation/installation *Finalize drawings/diagrams

Build project models/objects/installation

FEB

Meetup with David? Feb 28th

5

Preparation of 3d-models for rendering, rendering, finalizing perspectives

4

Finished perspectives,“martini shots”

*Outlines for design *Ongoing work on design proposal/investigation/specula proposal through reiterations of drawings and models tion *Begin with design work, drawings, models

Diagrams + refurbishment of old diagrams

*Analytical drawings, article based on research *Presentation of research results from Detroit Excavation *Outlines for possible design proposal based on research

Complete set of all diagrams

*Outlines for methods used at chosen site *Field trip Detroit *Excavation work Detroit *Cataloguing and analysing artefacts

JAN

Plan/section/elevation drawings

DEC

Complete set of drawings

NOV

2nd iteration based on mid-review critique

3

Iteration based on mid-review critique

2

Review: “Mid-review”, evaluation of ongoing work

OCT

Meetup with David? Jan 31st

75% complete set of drawings/ perspectives/ model

1

External critique?

52

Iterations in models

51

Meetup with David? Jan 10th

50

Sixth iteration, drawings

49

Space for siding, possible experiment/ plan exhibtion

48

Christmas: Additional Research reading

RESEARCH

Reading up on relevant architectural theory and precedents, ongoing design work

47

Fifth iteration, drawings

46

Meetup with David? Dec 6th

Second/third iterations, model iteration

Drawings, 3dmodel, models

45

Written formulation of proposal, finished program, fourth iteration

Written proposal for program, first iteration based on review and research

Written outline for program

Phase

g

Written project proposal+program Drawings, 3dmodel

Review: Presentation of research result from excavation: article and/or lecture, evaluate

44

Presentation, digital and printed

43

External critique?

42

Analysis of collected data/observations, analytical drawings, possible site model

41

Analysis of collected data/observations, analytical drawings/diagrams/text

Evaluation of field trip/cataloguing/analysis of artefacts

Meetup with David? Oct 18th

40

Field trip Detroit/archaelogical excavation on site

39

In Detroit

38

Finish device, preparation for trip, writing, gear up on excavation tools

*Research on theories and practical methods of industrial archaeology *Research on the social, economical, political and urban history of Detroit. *Research on possible excavation sites in the Detroit area

Working measuring device/tool

37

Construction of possible measuring device/ tool for excavation

36

Planning of excavation, chose site(s), define precise purpose and method

Months

SEPT

Meetup with David? Oct 4th

Write brief essay on key points in the urban/social/economic history of Detroit

Written essay

Weeks

35

Research on excavation methods within the field of industrial archaeology

Purpose of thesis project written

Written statement

Deliverables (to be adjusted)

PROJECT SCHEDULE

y

Time table DESIGN

NB! Every phase of the project should be well represented in final presentation, and also highly coordinated with the other phases, in order to create a coherent body of work.

APRIL MAY

Possible extension

2012 16 17 18

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL 78


1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

Assembly of archaeological field instruments 1. Assembling of five 30mm aluminum tubes 2. Mounting of camera pendulum 3. Mounting of camera pendulum 4. Initial calibrating of pendulum 5. Calibration of telescope in field 6. Try-out in field 7. First test shots using remote IR-control 8. Large scale try-out using measure tape 9. Making of stereographic camera mount 10. Camera mounted for stereographic photography

11. Instruments and excavation tools 12. Vertical camera in use, site 4, Detroit.

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

79


EXISTING STRUCTURES ON SITE 003 BUILDING name Packard Plant Building 92 YEAR(S) OF CONSTRUCTION yyyy 1926-29 STRUCTURE description Reinforced concrete, brick curtain walls, columns FOOTPRINT AREA sqm

TOTAL AREA sqm

ELEVATION ISO 1:1000 HISTORICAL USE brief description Die making for auto production, prep. for stamping PRESENT DAY CONDITION description Poor. Floor slabs and roof collapsing at several points. System of beams breaking down. Visible problems with cracks in concrete because of temperature fluctuation.

12

7m

PROPOSED USE description Due to the bad condition of the structure, it is left as a ruin. Circulation of artifacts and people going to the exhibition will be lead via a ruin-proof structure going through building 92.

PRINCIPAL FLOOR PLAN ISO 1:1000

ELEVATOR SHAFT

80 FROM PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL CEMETERY VIEW

m

45

COLLAPSED ROOF SECTION

CURTAIN BRICK WALL WITH ORNAMENTS


EXISTING STRUCTURES ON SITE 003 BUILDING name Packard Plant building 37 YEAR(S) OF CONSTRUCTION yyyy Approximately 1910 STRUCTURE description Reinforced concrete, brick curtain walls FOOTPRINT AREA sqm

TOTAL AREA sqm

ELEVATION ISO 1:1000 HISTORICAL USE brief description

Die making for auto production, prep. for stamping PRESENT DAY CONDITION description

Poor. Floor slabs and roof collapsing at several points. System of beams breaking down. Visible problems with cracks in concrete because of temperature fluctuation. PROPOSED USE description

Due to the bad condition of the structure, it is left as a ruin. Circulation of artifacts and people going to the exhibition will be lead via a ruin-proof structure going through building 92.

Historical production

View from south courtyard

View from Concord St, east side

View of roof

VIEW FROM CEMETERY

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

81


EXISTING STRUCTURES ON SITE 003 BUILDING name Packard Plant Building 39 YEAR(S) OF CONSTRUCTION yyyy Approximately 1930 STRUCTURE description Reinforced concrete, brick curtain walls, steel truss FOOTPRINT AREA sqm

TOTAL AREA sqm

HISTORICAL USE brief description

Assembly of Merlin airplane engine for war industry PRESENT DAY CONDITION description

Decent. Existing envelope of steel trusses and System of beams breaking down. Visible problems with cracks in concrete because of temperature fluctuation. PROPOSED USE description

Due to the bad condition of the structure, it is left as a ruin. Circulation of artifacts and people going to the exhibition will be lead via a ruin-proof structure going through building 92.

20m

Historical photograph from building in use

82

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

Abandoned building in present condition

m

98

Building seen from Frederick St

Gable of building facing Concord St


INITIAL STUDIES OF TYPOLOGY & SCALE Investigative drawings comparing scale of Ford’s Highland auto plant with typical Detroit 20th century singlefamily housing and an almost entirely abandoned housing area, scale 1:400.

PART III: DESIGN PROPOSAL

83


SKETCH PERSPECTIVE EXCAVATION STATION The perspective describes the atmosphere of a semi-permeable excavation structure (at site 002), in direct relation to the ground and surrounding nature.

Early sketches excavation station

Remote excavation station

Remote excavation station 84

PART IV: PROCESS DOCUMENTATION & REFERENCES


PART IV: PROCESS DOCUMENTATION & REFERENCES

85


VISITOR CENTER

ARTIFACT LOADING

ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH LABS

ITERATIONS VISITOR CENTER

CURATED EXHIBITION HALL

CAFÉ ELT

NB

TIO TA OR

EXCAVATION G

SP

T AC TIF AR

N RA

T

RESEARCH LIBRARY

PART IV: PROCESS DOCUMENTATION & REFERENCES

86


ITERATIONS VISITOR CENTER

PART IV: PROCESS DOCUMENTATION & REFERENCES

87


88

PART IV: PROCESS DOCUMENTATION & REFERENCES


PART IV: PROCESS DOCUMENTATION & REFERENCES

89


90

PART IV: PROCESS DOCUMENTATION & REFERENCES


LITTERATURE ARCHITECTURAL THEORY, et. al. Allen, Stan, ”America: Realism and Utopia”, Pamphlet Architecture 13: Edge of A City (1991, Princeton). Baudrillard, Jean, Amerika (Göteborg, 1990). Benjamin, Walter, The Arcades Project (Cambridge MA, 1982). Corine Vermeulen “Your Town Tomorrow”, Bracket Almanac 1: On Farming (Barcelona, 2010). Corner, James, MacLean, Alex S., Taking Measures Across the American Landscape (New Haven, 1996). Debord, Guy, Skådespelssamhället (Göteborg, 2002).

sålder 2300-500 f. Kr. (Göteborg, 2009). Bailey, Geoff, “Time perspectives, palimpsests and the archaeology of time”, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26(2007): 2. Balme, Jane, Paterson, Alistair, Archaeology in Practice: A Student Guide to Archaeological Analyses (Malden, MA, 2006). Banham, Reyner, A Concrete Atlantis: US Industrial Building and European Modern Architecture 1900-1925 (Cambridge MA, 1986). Industrial Archaeology: Future Directions, red Eleanor Conlin Casella and James Symonds (Illinois, 2005). Palmer, Marilyn, Neaverson, Peter, Industrial Archaeology: Principles and Practice (London, 1998).

Diamond, Jared Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (New York, 2005).

Turner, Cathy, “Palimpsest or Potential Space? Finding a Vocabulary for Site-Specific Performance”, New Theatre Quarterly 20 (2004).

Ignasi de Solà-Morales, “The Work of Architecture in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” in Differences: Topographies of Contemporary Architecture (MA, 1997).

DETROIT

Krauss, Rosalind, “Skulptur i det utvidgade fältet”, Kairos 3: Från 60-tal till cyberspace (Stockholm, 2005). Lim, CJ., Devices: A Manual of Architecture + spatial machines (Oxford, 2006). Marcuse, Herbert, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society (Boston, 1991). Mattsson, Helena, Arkitektur och Konsumtion: Reyner Banham och utbytbarhetens estetik (Stockholm, 2004).

Archer, Melanie, “Small Capitalism and Middle-Class Formation in Industrializing Detroit 1880-1900”, Journal of Urban History (21)1995:2. Bergman, Bosse, Dyrssen, Catharina, Stadsfronter: Chicago, Detroit, Montreal (Göteborg, 2003). Bragg, Amy Elliot, Hidden History of Detroit (Charleston, 2011). Brunnström, Lisa, Den rationella fabriken: Om funktionalismens rötter (Umeå, 1990).

Ferry, W. Hawkins, The buildings of Detroit : A History (Detroit, 1980). Gallagher, John, Reimagining Detroit: Opportunities for Redefining an American City (Detroit, 2010). Garreau, Joel, Edge city: Life on the New Frontier (New York, 1991). Heather Ann Thompson “Rethinking the Politics of White Flight in the Postwar City: Detroit 1945-1980”, Journal of Urban History 25 (1999). Henrickson, Wilma Wood, Detroit Perspectives: Crossroads and Turning Points (Detroit, 1991). Herron, Jerry AfterCulture : Detroit and the humiliation of history (Detroit, 1993). Jacobs, Jane, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (New York, 1961). Katzman, David M, Before the Ghetto: Black Detroit in the nineteenth century (1973). Nelson, Daniel, Managers and Workers: Origins of the Twentieth-Century Factory System in the United States 1880-1920 (Wisconsin, 1995). McGraw, Bill, “Historians in the Streets: Life in the Ruins of Detroit”, History Workshop Journal 63(2007). Pizzolato, Nicola, “Workers and Revolutionaries at the Twilight of Fordism: The Breakdown of Industrial Relations in the Automobile Plants of Detroit and Turin, 1967–1973” Labor History 45(2004): 4. Poremba, David Lee, Detroit: A Motor City History (Detroit, 2001).

Darden, Joe, June M., Thomas, Hill, Richard C, Detroit: Race and Uneven Development, (Philadelphia, 1987).

Oestreicher, Richard Jules, Solidarity and fragmentation: working people and class consciousness in Detroit 18751900 (1986).

Weisman, Alan, The world without us (New York, 2007).

Daskalakis, Georgia, Waldheim, Charles, Young, Jason, Stalking Detroit, (Barcelona, 2001).

Schumacher, Patrich, Rogner, Christian, “After Ford” in ed. Daskalakis, Stalking Detroit, (Barcelona, 2001).

WORKac, 49 Cities (New York, 2009).

Detroit: Imaginary Cities, Spring 2007 (Detroit, 2007).

ARCHAEOLOGICAL METHODOLOGY

Detroit and Rome: building on the past ed. Sobocinski, Grunow, Ronnick, Melanie, Beaudoen, Michele V., (Dearborn, 2005).

Sinclair, Robert, Thompson, Bryan, Detroit: An Anatomy of Social Change (Cambridge MA, 1976).

Artursson, Magnus, Bebyggelse och samhällsstruktur. Södra och mellersta Skandinavien under senneolitikum och bron-

Distributed urbanism : cities after Google earth ed. Gretchen Wilkins (Oxon, 2010).

Ray, Mary-Ann, “Seven Partly Underground Rooms and Buildings for Water, Ice and Midgets” Pamphlet Architecture 20 (1997).

91

PART IV: PROCESS DOCUMENTATION & REFERENCES

Solnit, Rebecca, “Detroit Arcadia: Exploring the post American landscape”, Harper’s Magazine July (2007). Sugrue, Thomas J., The origins of the urban crisis : race and inequality in postwar Detroit (Princeton, 1996).

Unknown, “Outside the Fences: The Rewilding of Detroit Viewed From a Prison”, Slingshot 106 (2011), 13. Zukin, Sharon, Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World (Berkeley, 1991). Widick, B.J., Detroit: City of Race and Class Violence (Detroit, 1971). Wylie, Jeanie, Poletown: Community Betrayed (Detroit, 1989).


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