Architecture
Detroit's waterfront panorama shows a variety of architectural styles. The past meets the present as the city's historic Art Deco skyscrapers blend with the post modern neogothic spires of the Comerica Tower at Detroit Center (1992). Together with the Renaissance Center, they form the city's marque. Examples of the Art Deco style include the Guardian Building and Penobscot Building downtown, as well as the Fisher Building and Cadillac Place in the New Center area near Wayne State University. Among the city's prominent structures are the nation's largest Fox Theatre, the Detroit Opera House, and the Detroit Institute of Arts.
While the downtown and New Center areas contain high-rise buildings, the majority of the surrounding city consists of low-rise structures and single-family homes. Outside of the city's core, apartments and high-rises are found in neighborhoods such as the East Riverfront extending toward Grosse Pointe and the Palmer Park neighborhood just west of Woodward. Many of the city's neighborhoods were constructed prior to World War II, and feature the architecture of the times. Wood frame and simple brick houses in the working class neighborhoods, larger brick homes in vast middle class neighborhoods, and ornate mansions in neighborhoods such as Brush Park, Woodbridge, Indian Village, Palmer Woods, Sherwood Forest, and others. The oldest neighborhoods are along the Woodward and Jefferson corridors, while newer neighborhoods, built as late as the 1950s, are found in the far west and closer to 8-mile Road. Some of the oldest extant neighborhoods include Corktown, a working class, formerly Irish neighborhood, and Brush Park. Both are now seeing million dollar redevelopments and construction of new homes and condos.
Detroit's architecture is heralded as some of America's finest; many of the city's architecturally significant buildings are listed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as among America's most endangered landmarks with the city containing one of the nation's largest surviving collections late nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings.
The city has an active community of professionals dedicated to urban design, historic preservation, architecture, and investment in the city. A number of downtown redevelopment projects — of which Campus Martius Park is one of the most notable — have revitalized parts of the city. In 2006, a state-of-the-art cruise ship dock was added to Hart Plaza. Grand Circus Park stands near the city's theater district, Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions, and Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers.
The Detroit International Riverfront includes a partially completed three and one-half mile riverfront promenade with a combination of parks, residential buildings, and commercial areas from Hart Plaza to the MacArthur Bridge accessing Belle Isle (the largest island park in a U.S. city). The riverfront includes Tri-Centennial State Park and Harbor, Michigan's first urban state park. The second phase is a two mile extension from Hart Plaza to the Ambassador Bridge for a total of five miles of parkway from bridge to bridge. Civic planners envision that the newly reclaimed riverfront with pedestrian parks will spur more residential development. Other major parks include Palmer (north of Highland Park), River Rouge (in the southwest side), and Chene Park (on the east river downtown).
(Source: Wikipedia.org)
