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Michigan Central Station Turning the Past into the Future
Michigan Central Station
TURNING THE PAST INTO THE FUTURE
With plans on track for an end of 2022 opening, Detroit’s historic Michigan Central Station—Ford Motor Company’s vision for a 30-acre walkable innovation hub in Corktown—is getting a new lease on life. The renovation of the 1913 rail station is part of Ford’s plan to reshape the future of global mobility. The once railway hub, which in its heyday served 4,000 travelers a day, will be a centerpiece for developing tomorrow’s electric vehicles—a new innovation hub bringing together employees, partners, entrepreneurs and businesses to create a new way of moving.
When completed, Michigan Central Station will include: % Renovated, revitalized buildings honoring the history of the original rail station. % A first-of-its-kind mobility testing platform where Ford, its partners and competitors will create the products and solutions that will be the future of how we move such as autonomous vehicles, smart infrastructure, and micro-mobility. % Many outdoor plazas, open spaces. % 1.2 million square feet of commercial public space.
The project is part of the Michigan Mobility Corridor on Michigan Avenue, which will link Corktown and Downtown Detroit to Ann Arbor.
Right: An historical interior photo of Michigan Central Station
A rendering of the Main Hall of Michigan Central Station, as planned by Ford
RECREATING HISTORY
Ford is using 3D scanning technology to re-create some of the more intricate, precious pieces of 106-year-old Michigan Central Station, as transformation of the iconic building enters a phase of heavy masonry and interior restoration work. Laser scanners, some of which are hand-held, are being used to create 3D models of various elements of the station, allowing workers to repair or replicate large, ornate cast iron windows, decorative trim and elaborate ceiling tiles.
“Many pieces of these intricate features no longer exist and we don’t have drawings of them because they’re so old,” said Rich Bardelli, Ford’s construction manager for the Michigan Central development project in a Ford press release. “To ensure historical accuracy we need the right level of detail. This technology allows us to scan what’s left to get a full digital picture of what it used to look like. Then we can 3D print them in the material that would get put up; like a plastic or synthetic material or even print them as molds or casts for plaster or iron.”
Engineers from Chicago-based Computer Aided Technology (CATI) scanned items at Michigan Central Station and at Ford’s Advanced Manufacturing Center in Redford, delivering more than 20 completed digital files of missing or damaged pieces. The parts will be fabricated and reconstructed by Christman Brinker, the construction manager on the project.
The 3D scanner uses 15 laser crosses that capture the shape of a physical object, and measures fine details, down to the thickness of a human hair, and records free-form shapes to generate digital mesh files. It makes the restoration project more precise and enables developers to take measurements that otherwise may have been impossible to obtain.
In addition, in February 2021, Ford announced it was bringing on EverGreene Architectural Arts, one of the largest specialty contractors in the U.S., with a lengthy résumé of restoring historic buildings, to revive the grandest areas of the train depot, including the main waiting area, arcade, ticket lobby and restaurant.
The New York City-based company will replicate and restore approximately 56,000 square feet of decorative plasterwork. A distinguishing feature of the station’s Beaux Arts architecture is the plaster, which covers most of the building’s first floor and was made to look like stone, a cost-saving measure at the time of construction. EverGreene will preserve and clean what original plaster material can be saved and re-create new portions where needed.
The 18-month project will use three plaster techniques—traditional three-coat plaster, ornamental plaster and veneer plaster—and will require replicating more than 3,000 cast plaster pieces, including the coffers, medallions and rosettes that adorn the waiting room’s walls and ceilings. The work will be choreographed in a way that creates a seamless transition of old and new in the areas most visible to visitors.
The plasterwork is taking place at the same time as extensive repairs to the Guastavino vaulted ceiling in the waiting room. The impressive ceiling features 22,000 square feet of clay tiles covering three selfsupporting arches. The next phase of interior restoration will involve bringing new piping, floors, plumbing and electricals to the building and finishing structural repairs. Construction is on track to be complete by the end of 2022.
HISTORY COMES ALIVE
From its earliest beginnings, the location was rich with history. Consider this: % The station opened in 1913. The first train left the station for
Saginaw and Bay City on Dec. 26, 1913; that same day, the first train arrived from Chicago. At its peak, trains bustled in and out of the station and served approximately 4,000 customers per day.
According to the Detroit Historical
Society records, on Jan. 5, 1988,
Train No. 353, bound for Chicago, was the last train out of the depot. % The original Michigan Central
Station consisted of a three-story train depot and an eighteen-story office tower. It is made up of more than eight million bricks, one hundred and twenty-five thousand cubic feet of stone and seven thousand tons of structural steel—plus another four thousand tons in the sheds. The foundation has twenty thousand cubic yards of concrete. When the building opened, it was the tallest railroad station in the world, and the fourth tallest building in Detroit.
The railroad invested a total of $16 million (nearly $332 million today) on the new station, office building, yards and the underwater rail tunnel, which was inaugurated on Oct. 16, 1910. The price tag for the station alone was about $2.5 million ($55 million today). % Ford Motor Company purchased the building from the Moroun family for $90 million in June 2018 with plans to spend hundreds of millions more to turn it into a technology hub for electric and autonomous vehicles. % To retain the historical integrity of the station, the limestone blocks being used to replace the deteriorating stone on the façade will be sourced from the same
Indiana quarry that provided the limestone during the original construction. Some of those early blocks of limestone still lie in a field a few feet from where they were first mined more than 100 years ago. The Dark Hollow
Quarry where the unique patterned limestone is found was officially closed in 1988. The remaining blocks of stone are now within a forest of 30-year-old trees. Local trades will construct a new haul road to access the stones and remove trees to get access to the historic material. % Workers will remove 1,200 feet of cornice, a decorative molding around the top edge of the building, to examine the steel behind it and make repairs. Terracotta cornices will be replaced and 106,000 square feet of roof structure repairs will be completed in this second phase of construction. % Additionally, 1,184 tower windows will be restored to preserve the station’s historic appearance. % A new 11,500-pound replica of an original capital stone has been created and installed in the Waiting
Room façade of Detroit’s historic
Michigan Central Station after more than 400 hours of work by a mid-Michigan stoneworker. John
Goodrow Sr., of Capital Stoneworks
Inc., located in Bridgeport, Michigan. Goodrow spent 428 hours carving the capital stone from a 21,000-pound limestone block. % According to a Ford announcement,
Crews working at Michigan Central Station recently stumbled upon a pre-Prohibition-era Stroh’s beer bottle with a mysterious message neatly rolled and stuffed inside.
The message, which has faded, is believed to have been written by two men who worked on the station’s original construction in 1913.
Workers found a message in a Stroh’s beer bottle, perhaps left by the original builders.
NOT JUST PRESERVING HISTORY
History is not the only thing being preserved at Michigan Central Station. The project is focusing on sustainability, including goals to protect natural ecology and habitats in the area and create new public green spaces and productive landscapes.
When Michigan Central reopens after the three-year renovation and construction, it will be a dynamic center of mobility innovation in Detroit’s oldest neighborhood. A space beautifully combining the history and the future of the city.
BY SUSAN THWING
As a young girl growing up in Chicago, Adrienne Bennett loved science. When the Apollo space mission took place, she was inside watching the excitement rather than playing outside. She remembers her childhood being surrounded by science magazines, eager to read, learn and explore. She loved going to hobby stores and buying aircraft models to put together
“My parents were readers, so I emulated them. I was brought up to be responsible. To work hard,” she said. “My mother and sisters were and are strong women who take care of themselves.”
So it was no surprise that at the age of 30, while surrounded by men, Bennett became the first black female master plumber in the United States.
Bennett has been a Detroiter since she was nine years old. After graduating from high school at 17, she attended engineering school. She applied for an entry-level training program with an engineering firm in Detroit intending to attend Lawrence Technology University to study mechanical engineering. But a racially incident with someone at the firm prompted her to leave the program. She never attended college.
Then at a 1976 presidential rally, she was approached by a recruiter who wanted to bring more women into the skilled trades in Michigan. The rest is history.
Along the way she learned how to adjust and succeed. “The thing women need to know in this industry is you’re going to get dirty. And you need to be strong, mentally and physically.” At 119 pounds, trying to lift and carry supplies across job sites, “at one point my mom bought me a corset to help strengthen and protect my back. The job sites became a gymnasium.”
Four decades ago, when Bennett earned her plumber’s license, she became the first woman in Michigan to successfully complete a plumbing apprenticeship program in the state. A few years later, when she became a licensed master plumber and plumbing contractor, she was the first female in North America to do so.
Now the owner of Benkari, with her son A.K. Bennett launched the commercial plumbing and water conservation company in 2008. The years in between were not easy as she forged her way through a male-dominated industry. While making strides in her career, she said for the first 25 years she was told “we don’t want you here” more often than not. But she did not give up. “I’ve been a journeyman plumber, a master plumber, project manager, plumbing inspector and code enforce-
Adrienne Bennett, the nation’s first female master plumber
ment officer for the city of Detroit for a decade. There was no place left to go but become an independent contractor,” she said.
In addition to being North America’s first female licensed master plumber and plumbing contractor, she’s also America’s first African American female plumbing inspector and certified medical gas inspector and installer. “I’m a member of UA, The United Association which includes Canada. I was informed there is another woman that has obtained her master’s license. I welcome her and wish her well,” she said.
Bennet’s company, Benkari has been involved in several high-profile projects, including Little Caesars Arena.
Now, she’s part of the Michigan Central Station project, making history alongside the revitalized train station by playing a major role in resurrecting it.
In the early days of the Michigan Central project, Benkari was responsible for helping winterize, dewater and dry out the iconic station, which has sat empty for more than 30 years. Benkari installed a temporary system to get water out of the building and protect it from any further deterioration. Now Benkari is working on the plumbing systems and fixtures that will become permanent features of the reborn building.
“I’ve always been awestruck by the train station,” Bennett said. “It is great to be back in Detroit and working on something that has that much history. It’s an honor to be involved in its restoration and play a part in bringing it back to life.”
And people can be awestruck by Bennett as well. She said that while it has taken a lot of fortitude and resilience to forge her career, “It took the test of everything I had. It showed me what I was made of.”
