Sanford Kwinter and Daniela Fabricius published The American City during the turn of the century. In regards to urbanism, they state "Cities are always epiphenomenal: they are the expressions of a broader and more remote developments and sets of forces, specifically economic and social."
*Enter Detroit*
"Detroit is following an almost "natural" logic of self-inflicted destruction and abandonment. Between 1950 and 1960 Detroit lost 1/4 of its population and has lost another 1/3 since. Possibly nowhere else on earth has an international economic center actually begun to revert back to farmland or to renew itself, like a forest, through fire."
The Heidelberg Project
Detroit Infill Housing
Abandoned Michigan Central Depot
An abandoned house, check out more here.
Extant neighborhood
The Fisher Building
Forgotten Detroit
Detroit as a once autonomous city is now a fragmented preservation project. To efficiently allocate renovation efforts, these fragments have been prioritized based on their urban importance. Some pockets are active with a unique economic and social order one would expect in a city, like Detroit's Little Mexico. Others have become novel preserved monuments, like how a tombstone marks a fallen hero. While many are remnants of a collapsed empire, like the area around Fort Wayne.
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