Detroit’s lack of respect for its mighty industrial past baffles national, local historic preservationists

Smoke billows from Packard factory as it burns (Photo by Minehaha Forman, Michigan Messenger)

DETROIT — On a clear evening in June, a tower of black smoke billowed out of the historic Packard automobile manufacturing complex near the junction of I-94 and I-75. The smoke could be seen from miles away across the sprawling expanse of Michigan’s largest city, once the nation’s mighty industrial metropolis. As smoke gushed out of the abandoned factories, the surrounding neighborhood was shrouded in a dark cloud that filled the air with the scent of burning plastic and debris.

The Packard complex is a collection of factories and other manufacturing facilities that that once mass-produced its namesake luxury automobiles. When the plant closed in 1956, the complex was abandoned. And after a half century of neglect, the complex designed by famed architect Albert Kahn in 1902 is now 35 acres of shattered glass, floodwaters, rust, rats, and heaps of municipal waste such as shoes, dolls and tires.

While the June 28 fire at the Packard complex didn’t destroy it, Detroit firefighters have their orders: If it burns again and the fire can’t be fought from the exterior, let it burn. The buildings there are simply too dangerous to enter.

Earlier this month, when a battle to landmark a century-old steam power plant in New York City heated up, a local activist told The New York Times: “It’s just an amazing, ornate building. If this was Cleveland or Detroit, we could have had this building landmarked 10 times over.”

At least for Detroit, where historic properties are a dime a dozen, the opposite is often true. Tearing down the city’s past is usually an easier option than preserving it. And there are plenty of structures slated for destruction.

National preservationists are confused by Detroit’s frequent demolition of historic buildings.

Royce Yeates, the Midwest director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has seen a pattern develop over the years that puts Detroit at the top of the list of cities where historic structures are most endangered. “The city, particularly the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, continues to believe Detroit would be better without its history and we don’t understand why,” Yeates told Michigan Messenger in an interview.

One Detroit preservationist has a theory: Jeff Wattrick, former president of the Tigers Stadium Conservancy, who was at the forefront of efforts to save the now-destroyed stadium, thinks demolition in Detroit is political.

“You have these companies that are very politically connected and they make money knocking down these buildings,” Wattrick told Michigan Messenger in an interview. He noted that the city regularly gives demolition contracts to a handful of companies regardless of their history, namely the Adamo Demolition Company, which is hired often for city demolition jobs.

Wattrick cited a 2001 incident in which Adamo Demolition failed to remove asbestos before demolishing a structure and reportedly blasted asbestos dust into a nearby elementary school where students complained of discomfort before being sent home and the school was closed temporarily. “The old Burton campus is not used today,” he said, attributing its closure to the demolition incident.

“I think in a functional city with a functional government that’s responsible to citizens, a company like that would never get a public contract again but in Detroit they’re on the top of the list,” Wattrick said.

Yeates said the city has exercised “unthoughtful demolitions” including the Madison Lennox Hotel in 2005 and recently Tiger Stadium and the Lafayette building, all demolished by Adamo.

“We are concerned and frustrated with a chronic pattern [of demolition] when there is absolutely no reason to move forward with demolition,” Yeates said. He criticized the quasi-public Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC) which controls city development for razing historic buildings with no plans in place for new development.

“Empty ground is no attraction for development,” Yeates said.

But DEGC officials disagree, arguing that empty ground is more attractive to developers. In the case of the recently demolished Tiger Stadium, DEGC officials said the historic ballpark had to be removed before developers would make an offer. “Once the site is cleared then the EDC [Economic Development Corporation] has ability to entertain ideas from others,” DEGC spokesman Robert Rossbach told Michigan Messenger. “A proposal to do anything else there has to wait until it is cleared.”

Detroit has rehabilitated historic structures in the past but only in rare cases, Whittaker notes. The former Book Cadillac hotel downtown has been the scene of a $200 million renovation into the luxury Westin Book Cadillac Hotel that boasts “a legend reborn” slogan.

“There’s a history of successful hotel renovations around the country,” he said. “I don’t think the city of Detroit has ever wrapped their head around big and innovative projects. With Tiger Stadium they saw a project that never happened anywhere else. In a way they’re followers.”

With countless financial problems facing Detroit, Yeates said he understands that there is not a high demand for large buildings, even if they were reconstructed. But he doesn’t think a building should be torn down with no other plans for redevelopment. He said the city has “pockets of success,” namely the Midtown area where older buildings have been restored to create a new revitalized environment near Wayne State University’s campus.

He said preservationists had to fight for decades before cities caught on to the value of historic structures. According to Yeates “city after city after city” have reversed course on demolition.

But not Detroit.

“We don’t understand this pattern in Detroit. Most cities learned their lesson,” Yeates said. “They learned to quit tearing everything down around them.”

Images of Packard up in smoke June 28, 2009: