Dream City: Creation, Destruction, And Reinvention In Downtown Detroit

by Conrad Christiaan Kickert

Tracing two centuries of rise, fall, and rebirth in the heart of downtown Detroit.

Downtown Detroit is in the midst of an astonishing rebirth. Its sidewalks have become a dreamland for an aspiring creative class, filled with shoppers, office workers, and restaurant-goers. Cranes dot the skyline, replacing the wrecking balls seen there only a few years ago. But venture a few blocks in any direction and this liveliness gives way to urban blight, a nightmare cityscape of crumbling concrete, barbed wire, and debris. In Dream City, urban designer Conrad Kickert examines the paradoxes of Detroit's landscape of extremes, arguing that the current reinvention of downtown is the expression of two centuries of Detroiters' conflicting hopes and dreams. Kickert demonstrates the materialization of these dreams with a series of detailed original morphological maps that trace downtown's rise, fall, and rebirth.

Kickert writes that downtown Detroit has always been different from other neighborhoods; it grew faster than other parts of the city, and it declined differently, forced to reinvent itself again and again. Downtown has been in constant battle with its own offspring--the automobile and the suburbs the automobile enabled--and modernized itself though parking attrition and land consolidation. Dream City is populated by a varied cast of downtown power players, from a 1920s parking lot baron to the pizza tycoon family and mortgage billionaire who control downtown's fate today. Even the most renowned planners and designers have consistently yielded to those with power, land, and finances to shape downtown. Kickert thus finds rhyme and rhythm in downtown's contemporary cacophony.

Kickert argues that Detroit's case is extreme but not unique; many other American cities have seen a similar decline--and many others may see a similar revitalization.

Genres: Urbanism

456 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2019

Reviews

[Logan Knoper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating history of the construction and destruction of buildings in downtown Detroit since the 1800's. This book puts the current state of development in context. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in urban planning or history of Detroit.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm tempted to relegate this work to being merely a historical reference, but I'm confronted with the intention that Conrad Kickert has put this work together as a comprehensive history of the city of Detroit; from the beginning in the early 1800s, all of it. I believe the takeaway message is that Detroit has decades and decades of ebbs and flows of disjointed and reinvented dreams, and that what is needed is for some or all of these dreams to be captured and built upon, not just simply cast aside yet once again.

Kickert doesn't take any editorial or literary liberties, but simply summarizes the main plot points of Detroit's chapters, organized into reasonable historical eras. For that, it's pretty straightfoward, and each chapter is able to be digested on its own. There are many helpful illustrated maps and supporting photos, and in particular each chapter ends with a consistent recapping aerial map, interestingly tracking both the new construction and the deconstruction of that occurred during that era. This helps underscore the progressing narrative of not a singular story line, but various players and forces coming and going, leaving their marks (and scars) on the city. In this regard, reading this work end-to-end was rewarding to see this concluding diagram morph with each chapter into the familiar shape of the downtown core of today.

Kickert seems to end on an optimistic note, framing the recent investment efforts of Dan Gilbert as far more comprehensive and systemic than previous efforts. However the endcap is not guaranteed as a longstanding success, but merely the latest iteration of individuals' dreams and contributions to bringing new life to Detroit. Living in this present, it's sobering to see the city's recent recovery in full perspective with all of the traces of the past.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting.