Скачать или смотреть Restoring the Tower at Michigan Central Station Webinar Recording - March 24, 2022

Michigan Central Station was built in 1912. At the time, it was the tallest train station in the world. With the decrease in train travel, it was closed in 1988 and has remained empty for the last three decades.
With the purchase of the property by Ford Motor Company in 2018, a team of historic building specialists led by Quinn Evans were brought together to restore the landmark.
The 18-story Beaux Arts style tower is comprised of the brick clad lower stories and the top 3 floors marked with ornate terracotta elements including Juliet balconies, a colonnade, and a projecting cornice. The initial investigations proved that despite the neglect and years of water infiltration the structure and masonry were repairable, and many details were salvageable.
The team used a series of probes and material assessments for initial understanding of the Tower’s viability. Countless hours were spent visually inspecting the structure and masonry details. The team was challenged with determining the proper repair strategies which included not only repair to the buried, back-up structure but the marrying of historic materials with new composite materials.
The architects and structural engineers worked closely with the contractor and masons on the job to make the repair of the Tower a fluid process as access to the whole structure would not be attainable prior to construction starting. Strategic probes and swing stages were implemented to get an idea of the worst of the worst conditions in order to determine the scale of repairs needed.
Restoration was divided in two phases. Phase one, the west half of the tower, has been completed and the second phase is underway.
This webinar aims to share the collaboration and design process and well as the lessons learned during construction that were needed to restore this portion of the historic landmark.

This webinar is supported in part by an award from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.