2023 | Detroit From Ruins to Riches

As cities die with the abandonment of buildings, they come back to life one building at a time. This presentation follows the rebirth of Detroit from the early 1990s through today and shows how each project leads to the next. Even severely deteriorated historic buildings can revitalize urban areas. In Midtown the rebirth of Detroit Cultural Center started with saving Orchestra Hall from demolition. In Downtown, the process started with adapting vacant retail buildings for use as residential lofts. The lecture tracks the steady improvement of Detroit.

 

Elisabeth Knibbe, FAIA (Lis), Quinn Evans Principal Emeritus, is an award-winning architect who specializes in the adaptive use of historic buildings. Her projects ranged from small traditional restoration of historic buildings to the creative adaptive use of long abandoned buildings and have included landmark buildings such as the Old Wayne County Building, Fox Theater, and Michigan Central Depot in Detroit; the Knapp’s Building and Ottawa Street Power Station in Lansing; and Fiberglas Tower in Toledo.