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50-649: The Virginia Park Historic District is located on the north side of New Center , an area in Detroit , Michigan , along both sides of Virginia Park Street from Woodward Avenue to the John C. Lodge Freeway access road. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The Virginia Park Historic District is an example of a well–preserved late nineteenth to early twentieth century residential community. The residences are testimonials to

100-558: A $ 10.2 million plan to renovate the four-story, 44-unit, 42,200-square-foot Casamira Apartments at 680 Delaware St., built in 1925. In 2018, a local investment group purchased the 125-room Hotel St. Regis, and plans a $ 6 million modernization, and that was followed by the purchase of the Albert Kahn Building by a joint venture with a $ 58 million plan to convert it into 211 apartments, and more than 75,000 square feet of retail and office space, and renamed, The Kahn. In 2022,

150-429: A collection of refurbished single-family homes on the north side of New Center. With the revitalization of Virginia Park, New Center has two distinct historic residential neighborhoods within its boundaries. General Motors also facilitated the rehabilitation of some multi-family dwellings. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, new townhomes and condominiums were constructed in what had been empty areas of New Center, including

200-404: A large factory on Third, and the following year Cadillac built an assembly plant just to the east of Burroughs. In 1915, Henry Ford bought the financially struggling Detroit General Hospital and its lands on Grand Boulevard and Hamilton (just west of Woodward) and reopened it as Henry Ford Hospital with 48 beds. Soon after, Ford broke ground on a 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m ) facility at

250-409: A location just west of Woodward Avenue on Grand Boulevard. At the time, the area was a residential district of private homes and small apartment buildings. Durant hired Albert Kahn to design his building, and ground was broken in 1919. The building was originally to be called the "Durant Building", but Durant left the company before the building was completed, so when it opened in 1922, the building

300-523: A new Pocket park along Cass Avenue. New Center has also seen redevelopment of existing structures. This includes U-Haul 's 2013 restoration of the 250,000-square-foot, seven-story historic NBC-Nabisco Building, built in 1920 at 899 W. Baltimore St. and, in 2014, the conversion of the Hotel St. Regis annex into a 58-apartment residential building, now known as Regis Houze. In 2015, Central Detroit Christian Community Development Corporation announced

350-509: A new General Motors plant , portions of East Grand Boulevard were reconfigured. This was part of a controversial use of eminent domain by the City of Detroit which allowed for demolition of a substantial portion of the nearby Poletown neighborhood in order to make way for the plant. The controversy sparked opposition within the neighborhood. The Michigan Supreme Court, in the 1981 case of Poletown Neighborhood Council v. City of Detroit , settled

400-503: A point approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) from downtown. The Boulevard was originally thought to represent the absolute limit of the city's expansion, although tremendous growth at the beginning of the 20th century quickly pushed the city limits far beyond Grand Boulevard. In the 1890s, major railroad infrastructure known as the Milwaukee Junction was built just south of Grand Boulevard to facilitate industrial expansion in

450-520: A retail section, primarily along the Woodward and Grand Boulevard corridors. The Cadillac Place state office complex and the Fisher Building are National Historic Landmarks in the area. An area south of Grand Boulevard along Woodward contains some retail stores in the district which have existed at their present location since the 1920s. The boutique Hotel St. Regis, Detroit is adjacent to

500-696: A section along Woodward just north of Grand Boulevard. Additional loft renovation (as well as TechTown , the WSU research and business incubator hub) took place at the same time within the New Amsterdam Historic District. New Center served as a kind of corporate campus for GM for 70 years. However, the company left the area in the 1990s, moving their headquarters to the Renaissance Center downtown. The old General Motors Building—now called Cadillac Place—is owned and occupied by

550-659: A skywalk across West Grand Boulevard to connect it to the Henry Ford Hospital, opened in January 2021. In February 2023, Henry Ford Health announced plans for a major $ 2.5 billion development, and will partner with the Detroit Pistons and Michigan State University. Additional new construction in New Center includes Wayne State University 's, $ 92 million Integrative Biosciences Center (IBio),

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600-722: Is centered just west of the intersection of Woodward Avenue and Grand Boulevard , and is bounded by, and includes the Virginia Park Historic District on the north, the Edsel Ford Freeway (I-94) on the south, John R Street on the east and the Lodge Freeway on the west. New Center, and the surrounding areas north of I-94, are sometimes seen as coterminous with the North End , while in fact separate districts. The heart of New Center

650-616: Is considered to mark the northern boundary of the New Center area of Detroit. In 2022, one of Detroit's last remaining brick streets, built in 1907 in Virginia Park, began a $ 2 million rehabilitation. Stretching three blocks along Virginia Park Street between Woodward Ave, and the Lodge Freeway. As many as 20,000 age-appropriate Nelsonville block pavers have been assembled for the repair work. The Virginia Park District

700-484: Is zoned to Detroit Public Schools . All residents are zoned to Thirkell Elementary School, Hutchins Middle School, and Northwestern High School . New Center, Detroit New Center is a commercial and residential district located in Detroit, Michigan , adjacent to Midtown , one mile (1.6 km) north of the Cultural Center , and approximately three miles (5 km) north of Downtown . The area

750-584: The Fisher Building and Cadillac Place (formerly the General Motors Building) are located. As early as 1876, Bela Hubbard and other Detroiters were cognizant of the efforts of Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann to make Paris into a beautiful city by designing parks, broad streets, and grand boulevards. These citizens proposed adopting Haussmann's concepts by surrounding Detroit with its own "Grand Boulevard." When Belle Isle

800-775: The 1970s Wayne State University held its criminal justice program classes in the 147,500-square-foot (13,700 m ) Criminal Justice Building, designed by Albert Kahn and built in 1920. By 2016 the university stopped use of the building, then used by the Detroit Police Department for training purposes. WSU sold it to real estate firm The Platform for $ 2 million and it will become a mixed-use development. Previously Sherhard K-8 served sections of New Center for elementary and middle school. Previously Hutchins Middle School served sections of New Center for middle school. Previously Murray-Wright High School and Northern High School served sections of New Center, while at

850-473: The 2015 M-1 Rail Penske Tech Center, the $ 60 million, 231 apartment & retail space complex, The Boulevard, the $ 137 million Detroit Pistons practice, training, and team headquarters building, known as the, Henry Ford-Detroit Pistons Performance Center, and the WSU Computing & Information Technology (C&IT) new Data center attached to the current Computing Services Center, along with

900-415: The 20th century. This was also true in the area that was to become New Center. At the turn of the century, a number of private homes were built along Grand Boulevard and in the neighborhoods to the north, notably including what is now the Virginia Park Historic District on the northern edge of New Center. Interspersed in the area were small apartment buildings. Larger apartment buildings were constructed in

950-571: The Argonaut building, or General Motors Research Laboratory). In 2012, Shinola renovated the fifth floor and turned it into their corporate office as well as a watch factory and bicycle workshop. In 2014, Shinola gifted the city of Detroit with four new 13-foot tall street clocks , installed at Cobo Center, Eastern Market, in front of the College for Creative Studies at the corner of Cass and Milwaukee, and near Shinola's own first retail location, at

1000-540: The Boulevard ) is a thoroughfare in Detroit , running east to west in some places and north to south in other places and is approximately 11 miles in length. It once constituted the city limits of Detroit. Grand Boulevard is named the "Berry Gordy Jr. Boulevard" in the area where the Motown Historical Museum is located and the "General Motors Boulevard" in the area of Detroit's " New Center " where

1050-484: The Clara Ford Nursing Home in 1925 to their high-rise clinic in 1955 to hospital apartments in 1976. In 1992, Henry Ford purchased the old Burroughs headquarters to the south and renamed it One Ford Place. The building is now the Henry Ford Hospital corporate headquarters. In 1966, the Hotel St. Regis was built on the north side of Grand Boulevard near General Motors' headquarters. In 1988, the hotel

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1100-569: The Fisher Building as its headquarters was more economical than a remodel of the Maccabees Building in Midtown where the district previously had its headquarters. Three schools, Golightly K-8, Loving Elementary, and Thirkell Elementary, serve sections of New Center for elementary school. Golightly K-8 and Durfee K-8 serve sections of New Center for middle school. All residents are zoned to Northwestern High School . In addition,

1150-655: The Fisher Theatre, the Hotel St. Regis , the Henry Ford Hospital , restaurants, and residential areas. In 1891, Detroit mayor Hazen S. Pingree broke ground on the construction of Grand Boulevard, a ring road that wrapped around the city of Detroit. The Boulevard ran for 12 miles (19 km), curving from the Detroit River on the west to the river on the east and crossing Woodward Avenue at

1200-662: The Fisher Theatre. The Consulate-General of Lebanon in Detroit is located in Suite 560 in the New Center One Building. New Center hosts the annual summer-long series of events in New Center Park and includes a 1,000 person outdoor concert venue with a center stage capable of hosting national acts. Grand Boulevard, along its entire extent, became an attractive residential address at the beginning of

1250-635: The Fishers to break off their plans to construct a complex of buildings in New Center, including a grandiose three-towered version of the Fisher building. In 1940 Saks Fifth Avenue opened their fourth full-line department store in this building. The store closed in 1978 and relocated to Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn. Henry Ford Hospital has continued to expand. The hospital has built numerous additions to their campus since its inception by Henry Ford, from

1300-689: The New Center area houses the administrative offices of the University Prep Schools system, along with the following schools: The College for Creative Studies (CCS) is a private, fully accredited college with campuses in Midtown and New Center, that offers Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees . The New Center campus contains the Henry Ford Academy: School for Creative Studies, an art and design charter school for middle and high school students. Beginning in

1350-580: The State of Michigan. The economy of the New Center area is largely dominated by Henry Ford Health , the Detroit Public Schools system with their headquarters in the Fisher Building, and more than 2,000 State of Michigan employees in the high-rise office complex Cadillac Place. Shinola has its headquarters, and 30,000-square-feet in the College for Creative Studies , – CCS – (originally

1400-631: The Virginia Avenue Improvement Association. The association proposed to re-landscape the subdivision, and it developed an attractive entrance to the community. The neighborhood continued to thrive during the 1920s. It suffered in the 1930s from the Great Depression , the effects of which continued through the 1940s. By the 1950s and 1960s, many of the houses had absentee landlords, or were divided into rooming houses. The Algiers Motel, at one time located at

1450-519: The area in the 1920s to serve the population of workers and visitors to the area after larger office buildings had been built on Grand Boulevard. The 2010s have seen a growth of new development in the New Center area. One of the first major projects, begun in 2010, was by the Henry Ford Health System of a $ 500 million revitalization effort of 300 mostly blighted acres for hospital expansion and neighborhood redevelopment just south of

1500-420: The beginning of the 20th century quickly pushed the city limits far beyond Grand Boulevard to its north, its east, and its west. By 1913, Grand Boulevard was completed, encircling the central most and oldest portion of the city. It was generally recognized as a major attraction of the city; the entire length was decorated with trees, shrubbery, and flowerbeds. By the early 1980s, to accommodate construction of

1550-638: The city of Detroit. To take advantage of the rail line, industrial plants were built in this area on both sides of Woodward Avenue, with the automotive industry prominently involved. Part of this area east of Woodward is now the Piquette Avenue Industrial Historic District , while the area west of Woodward and south of the railroad tracks is the New Amsterdam Historic District . Most notably, in 1904, Burroughs Adding Machine Company built

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1600-510: The construction of Grand Boulevard, a ring road that wrapped around the city of Detroit. The Boulevard ran for 12 miles (19 km), curving from the Detroit River on the west and returning to that river on the east, crossing Woodward Avenue at a point approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the downtown area. The Boulevard was originally thought to represent the absolute limit of the city's expansion, although tremendous growth at

1650-550: The corner of Cass and Canfield. Midtown Detroit, Inc. , has become a driving force behind the planning, investment, and future development north of Detroit's downtown area, and has expanded those area boundaries, and of the New Center area by going north to Philadelphia Street, east to the Chrysler Freeway (I-75), south to the Edsel Ford Freeway (I-94), and west to Rosa Parks Boulevard. New Center has

1700-444: The corner of Virginia Park and Woodward, was the scene of an incident of police brutality during the 1967 Detroit riot where three men were killed and others were beaten. In 1979, General Motors announced its plan to renovate the area north of its World Headquarters. This fostered rehabilitation in the Virginia Park district. The Algiers Motel was demolished in 1979, and replaced with a park space. The Virginia Park Historic District

1750-481: The former WJBK-TV studios building was purchased, and donated to the nonprofit Midnight Golf Program to become their new headquarters. A $ 10-12 million reconstruction is planned. In the Greater New Center area, the 1913, nine-story, so-called Rainbow Building, now known as, Chroma , completed a $ 16 million redevelopment with large floor-to-ceiling windows all around the building. Further redevelopment

1800-488: The historic character of neighborhood. Non-contributing structures included an apartment building at 650 Virginia Park, an office building at 613 Virginia Park, and a hospital (demolished in 2014) at 801-831 Virginia Park. Fifty-one of the contributing structures were used as homes, two as offices and one as a rest home. The residences were constructed between 1895 and 1915, with the older structures placed closer to Woodward, and newer ones, in general, farther westward. The area

1850-405: The main hospital campus on the western edge of New Center. The first development on the new South Campus site was the construction of a $ 30 million, 275,000-square-foot, Medical Distribution Center on 18-acres, built for Cardinal Health, Inc. Further plans were announced in 2017, with the construction of a new $ 155 million, 187,000-square-foot, six-story, Brigitte Harris Cancer Pavilion, along with

1900-519: The matter by ruling that the project did constitute a legitimate use of eminent domain authority and that the evictions could proceed. Many years ago, the streetcar route which traveled along much of Grand Boulevard, as well as on neighboring streets parallel to Grand Boulevard, was formally called the "Grand Belt" line because of Grand Boulevard's belt-like configuration around the most central part of Detroit. The subsequent bus route which likewise traveled on some, but not all, of Grand Boulevard retained

1950-482: The name Detroit Auto Scene . From 1923 to 1996, General Motors maintained its world headquarters in New Center (in what is now Cadillac Place ) before relocating downtown to the Renaissance Center ; before becoming a division of GM, Fisher Body was headquartered in the Fisher Building . Both Cadillac Place and the Fisher Building are National Historic Landmarks . In addition to the government and commercial offices along Woodward and Grand Boulevard, New Center contains

2000-446: The original plat. The developers placed a number of restrictions on the area to ensure an attractive community. This quiet boulevard attracted a mix of businessmen and professionals. The first houses were constructed in 1895. By 1908 more than two dozen houses had been constructed in the district. By 1910, homeowners became concerned about the effect of the increasing commercialization of Woodward Avenue on property values, and they formed

2050-399: The same location; the larger hospital opened in 1921. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, the automobile industry in Detroit grew rapidly. The economic surge made land in downtown Detroit difficult to obtain. The lack of suitable parcels frustrated William C. Durant in his search for the optimum location for his planned General Motors headquarters. Durant looked to the north, and settled on

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2100-690: The same time, the Fisher Brothers of Fisher Body followed General Motors to the area. They broke ground on their eponymous Fisher Building in 1927, located across Grand Boulevard from the General Motors Building. The Fisher Brothers also hired Kahn, and spared no expense to construct their headquarters building. The followed this up with the construction of New Center Building (now the Albert Kahn Building), completed in 1932. The Great Depression , however, forced

2150-573: The time Northwestern High School did not serve New Center. During the 1950s and 1960s, the studios of WJBK (then a Storer Broadcasting -owned CBS affiliate) were on Second Avenue in New Center. After WJBK moved to Southfield in 1970, WTVS (Detroit Public Television), the city's PBS station, took over the New Center site and operated there until 2008. 42°22′09″N 83°04′37″W  /  42.3693°N 83.077°W  / 42.3693; -83.077 Grand Boulevard (Detroit) Grand Boulevard (commonly known by residents simply as

2200-419: The wealth of early Virginia Park residents, as the area was conceived as an upper-middle class enclave. Many homes were completed by prominent Detroit architects, and display a diversity of architectural styles. The district was laid out in 1893 by developed by John W. Leggett, Frank E. Snow, and Joseph C. Hough. Ninety-two lots were platted and each given a name (such as Tanglewood, Thisteldown, and Sorrento) in

2250-627: Was called the " General Motors Building " (now the Cadillac Place). As General Motors continued to grow, the company required more space. In the later 1920s, they built a second building, the General Motors Research Laboratory (also known as the Argonaut Building ), also designed by Kahn, directly south of their headquarters. The building was built in two phases, and was completed in 1930. Around

2300-490: Was developed in the 1920s as a business hub that would offer convenient access to both downtown resources and outlying factories. Some historians believe that New Center may be the original edge city —a sub-center remote from, but related to, a main urban core. The descriptor "New Center" derived its name from the New Center News , an automotive-focused free newspaper begun in 1933 that continues to operate under

2350-417: Was doubled in size. In 1980, General Motors built another addition to the heart of New Center, New Center One, located across Grand Boulevard from their headquarters. The new eight-story building housed retail stores, offices, and some divisions of General Motors. In 1977, General Motors began refurbishing some of the residential neighborhoods north of Grand Boulevard. The result was the "New Center Commons",

2400-441: Was platted as a series of lots 50 feet wide and 163 feet deep. The original restrictions in the neighborhood ensured a uniformity in the streetscape. All buildings are constructed of brick or stone, and have the same setback from the street. All are single family houses, with no more than one house on each fifty foot lot. At the time of its historic designation, the district included 57 structures, all but three of which contribute to

2450-400: Was transferred from the state to the city of Detroit, Michigan legislator James Randall included a rider calling for the construction of this Grand Boulevard. However, the city government refused to begin work on the road right away, although a few people built homes along the Boulevard's proposed route. Finally, in 1891, Detroit mayor Hazen S. Pingree supported the idea and broke ground on

2500-475: Was underway at 3040 E. Grand Blvd and John R St, on the Albert Kahn historic 1901 designed sandstone constructed residence for Robert Robertson. New Center is within the Detroit Public Schools district. DPS has its headquarters in the Fisher Building. The district paid the owner of the Fisher Building $ 24.1 million in 2002 so the district could occupy five floors in the building. Officials claimed leasing

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