Ford Motor Co. unveiled the results of its 6-year renovation of Michigan Central Station on June 6 at the kickoff of a community open house that runs through June 10 in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood. Ford purchased the long-derelict building and its 30-acre campus for $90 million in 2018, embarking on an ambitious and extensive restoration and update project that took a reported 1.7 million hours of work from more than 3,000 tradespeople. Media reports indicate Ford invested $950 million in the project, including restoring the train station and other buildings and public spaces in the Michigan Central innovation district, as the area is now known.
According to the Detroit Historical Society, New York architects Whitney Warren, Charles D. Wetmore, Charles A. Reed, and Allen Stem designed the building in the Beaux Arts style. Reed and Stem were among the chief architects of New York’s Grand Central Station, considered a gem of the style. Dedicated in 1913, Michigan Central Station was Detroit’s primary railway depot until the final train departed the station on Jan. 5, 1988. The building had become a symbol of Detroit’s economic decline for many and stood abandoned and derelict until Ford’s purchase. The building’s 1975 listing to the National Register of Historic Places and its sheer size rescued it from demolition in the decades since its closure.
HistoricDetroit.org says that Michigan Central Station “consists of a 3-story train depot and an 18-story office tower. It is made up of more than 8 million bricks, 125,000 cubic feet of stone, and 7,000 tons of structural steel — plus another 4,000 tons in the sheds. The foundation has 20,000 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 station’s main waiting room has 54 ½-foot ceilings and 21-by-40-foot arched windows and is a marble, brick, and bronze showpiece. The office tower attached to the train depot had over 500 offices on 18 floors.
Ford employees will use Michigan Central as the headquarters for the Ford Model e and Ford Integrated Services teams. Ford anticipates bringing 1,000 employees to the area by the end of the year and up to 2,500 workers by 2028. Additionally, the building will be the hub of an organization called “Michigan Central,” bringing multiple companies, startups, and engineering and design firms onto the campus to work on “pioneering autonomous vehicle technology to implementing sustainable transportation solutions,” with the goal of redefining mobility for the modern age.
