My research demonstrates that this dichotomous landscape is the direct outcome of the tensions that have shaped it over the past two centuries. Today's downtown is the materialization of the often conflicting hopes and dreams of thousands of Detroiters - even those dashed in the maelstrom of growth and decline. This book will introduce you to the aspirations and exasperations of a surprisingly unexpected cast of downtown powers, from the broken dreams of an early 19th century judge, 20th century nostalgics and progressives, the ambiguous urbanism and anti-urbanism of industrialists, architects and traffic engineers, to the growing empires of a car body salesman, a pizza tycoon and a mortgage billionaire. The book will also demonstrate Detroit's struggle to integrate these past dreams in its unwavering gaze toward a brighter future, illustrating how the past transformed from a burden to growth, an embarrassment to decline to an asset for rebirth. Thousands of books, articles, newspaper records, government reports and interviews come together into an unprecedented level of detail and insight on the transformation of downtown.
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Growth of parking and vacant lots in downtown Detroit.
Sequence of morphological transformation 1805-2011.
Presentation on downtown Detroit at the University of Michigan, 2015.