Forlorn

Anytime you visit Michigan Central Station, you can’t help but be overcome by a strong feeling of loneliness. It’s ironic really, because if you look around from this vantage point there’s plenty going on. To the left is the Ambassador Bridge to Canada, one of the busiest border crossings in this country. Two miles behind you is downtown Detroit. To the right is Michigan Ave (which you can drive all the way to downtown Chicago) and just beyond is I-75 which you can take all the way to Southern Florida. It’s at the crossroads of many opportunities. But from this angle, it almost seems like it’s in the middle of nowhere. The dark, cold, and gray Michigan winter only amplifies the desolate look and feel of this place.

Look closer and you’ll notice several subtle details that capture your attention – the way the directional signs point away from MCS and the Do Not Enter street signs all send subconscious signals to your mind that here is not a place to be. Then there are the unkempt streets in front of the station, only cleared of snow by the parade of tourists pulling up to gawk. The razor wire fence surrounding the building screams prison camp more so than architectural treasure. The architectural details present are too numerous to list – details that you just won’t see in any modern building. Details that were created in a time when craftsmanship meant something. “SAVE THE DEPOT” has been tattooed across the top with spray paint, sending a message of hope for a brighter future that is still largely uncertain.

Yet, this place is magnetic. There’s just nothing else like it in Detroit. Even Hollywood is infatuated with this place. Portions of The Island, Transformers 1 and (upcoming) Transformers 3, Detroit 1-8-7, and Eminem’s music video Beautiful all feature sequences filmed at MCS, to name just a few projects. When MCS was created it was intended to make a statement, and it has for every one of its nearly 100 years. These days however, that statement is a simultaneous burden – being a symbol of what Detroit was as well as the poster child of urban decay.

Still, in death it looks just as magnificent as it did in life.

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