Students and faculty tour Detroit on the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning’s annual outing to the city Sept. 6. The day-long tour, which originated several years ago as part of the Urban and Regional Planning Program’s orientation activities, is intended to help familiarize students with Detroit’s history and new developments, its problems, and its potential. Continuing to grow in popularity, the tour opened to architecture and urban design students last year. More than 65 people made the trip this year, visiting sites ranging from the historic New Center area to riverfront brownfields.
“The tour helps our students develop a context for studying Detroit issues,” says Eric Dueweke, the college’s community partnerships manager and organizer of the tour. Students explored the soaring lobby of the Fisher Building, saw a panoramic view of downtown from the shore of Belle Isle, studied the intricate mosaic tile designs of the Guardian Building, and marveled at the grandeur of the Michigan Central Depot as Dueweke provided commentary (above). Now abandoned, the massive depot once accommodated traffic on the scale of New York’s Grand Central Station and Chicago’s Union Station.
“This tour was interesting to me because it meandered through areas of the city I had never visited,” says Jim Turner, professor of architecture. “Eric’s commentary was interesting from a planning perspective and included enough building information to make it enjoyable to architects as well. It was a Saturday well spent.”
