DETROIT (WWJ) -- The marble floors shine to the point where you can see your face in the reflection. The columns are exceptionally clean. The 29,000 Guastavino ceiling tiles are bright.
After six years of restoration, involving 3100 workers putting in 1.7 million hours, the old Michigan Central Station is ready to shine again.
“It’s probably in its most pristine state, perhaps, ever,” says Michigan Central CEO Josh Sirefman, who took us on a tour of the redone facility.
The goal was to recreate the feel of the station when it reopened in 1913. But have a building that’s ready for the years ahead.
“This was the future of mobility and innovation,” says Melissa Dittmer, Head of Place for Michigan Central. “The ways in which we’re carrying it forward through the next 100 years is through that same lens.”
For example, ticket windows are there, but nobody’s selling railroad tickets. Benches were removed from the Grand Hall. The Grand Hall and the waiting room will now be used as public spaces where events will be held.
Long term, retail shops will be added, as will restaurants. No announcements on specifics, and the building doesn’t seem ready to house amenities like that right away.
No timetable either for occupancy of the higher floors. It will involve Ford workers and those at suppliers. Their goal will be to work on future mobility projects. Google is also involved. But exact details remain vague.
The top floors could be used for condos or a boutique hotel. The area where people used to board trains is still sealed off. It could be used for that purpose at some point in the future, but that’s likely to be a distant future.
Be it trains, cars, drones or other forms getting from one place to another, the train station building is the centerpiece of a thirty acre Michigan Central district in Detroit, all dedicated to future mobility.
“The future is this becomes a thriving epicenter of the tech and innovation hub that we are developing at Michigan Central,” says Sirefman. “It becomes a real hub of activity unlike anywhere, not just in the city, but anywhere in the country.”
The people who run Michigan Central giving us a few “quick facts” about some of the work that went into the restoration:
● 3.5 million gallons of water were pumped out of the basement and 3,990 cubic yards of debris were removed from the building in the initial stages of renovation.
● Michigan Central Station is made up of some 8 million bricks – if laid end to end, they would stretch for 883 miles.
● 1,300 square feet of terra cotta cornice was restored.
● 102,000 square feet of windows were replaced or restored.
● 5.6 miles of plumbing and 300 miles of new wire and cable were installed.
● 4,200 new light fixtures were installed, including re-creations of three massive chandeliers in the Waiting Room and Grand Hall.
The train station closed January 6, 1988, and remained empty until restoration work began in 2018. It had become one of the nation’s largest examples of “urban blight”, with extensive water damage, and graffiti that filled almost every inch of the interior walls.
While most of that graffiti has been removed, some remains. Dittmer says it was a significant part of the building’s history.
“Every chapter of a building’s history is important, because of people who have used this building, experienced opportunity in this building.”
The Thursday concert and weekend tours will begin a summer full of events at the station and on its grounds. Sirefman says they want to to be welcoming to people who may have be experiencing a range of emotions when they first see the transformation of the facility.
“So many have personal connections to the building. Even if you don’t, you can feel the history. You can feel the extraordinary power of it.”