Autopia's End: The Decline and Fall of Detroit's Automotive Manufacturing Landscape
Name
Autopia's_ End_preproof_2013
Size
4.66 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
a180994486790ece793d1833a5fc4038
Author(s)
Ryan, Brent D.
Campo, Daniel
Date Issued
February 2013
Journal
Journal of Planning History
Publisher
Sage Publications
Citation
Ryan, B. D., and D. Campo. “Autopia’s End: The Decline and Fall of Detroit’s Automotive Manufacturing Landscape.” Journal of Planning History 12, no. 2 (May 1, 2013): 95–132.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Since the 1980s, Detroit’s once- monumental building stock of historic automotive manufacturing facilities has mostly disappeared. Demolition, redevelopment, and abandonment have left little to mark the city’s twentieth-century history as the world capital of the automobile industry. Planning and policymaking have been complicit through publicly subsidizing destructive redevelopment and by failing to argue for retention or preservation. Even today the city calls for the demolition of one of its last remaining historic auto factories. This paper surveys the disappearance of Detroit’s auto factories, and documents the histories of three of the largest complexes: the Chrysler-Chalmers Plant, cleared for a redeveloped factory; the Cadillac Plant, cleared for a failed economic development project; and the Packard Plant, slowly abandoned over 60 years. The paper calls for a revised theory and practice of preservation that accommodates the weak markets, imperfect condition, and informal uses that characterize abandoned industrial buildings in shrinking cities.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1177/1538513212471166
