Ford May Rethink Renovation Plans

Ford Authority is reporting that Ford Motor Company is rethinking the plan to renovate Detroit's Michigan Central Station. The original plan was to convert the upper floors to apartments but the plan may change to make those floors into a boutique hotel. A decision on the potential change should come at the end of the month.

Ford is spending tons of money on the restoration of the abandoned property and has invited other automakers to join them in using the revamped facility. (Ford is planning on bringing in 5,000 workers for autonomous and EV development. The station will be the anchor of a 1.2 million square foot campus.)

The hotel will occupy the twelfth and thirteenth floors, although due to superstition, the top floor will not be so named. A Ford spokesman said the floors lend themselves to hospitality and conferencing more so than residential space.

Scaffolding will soon surround the structure as repair of the exterior begins. 227,000 gallons of water has been drained from the building along with removal of 3,000 carloads of debris. The project is slated for completion in 2022. Ford received $239 million in local, state and federal incentives to build the campus.

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Here's Your Chance to Own a FLW House

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation is reporting that the T.A. Pappas House in Town and Country, Missouri is for sale. The Usonian House was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1955. One of only two Wright-designed homes in St. Louis, the sale price of $1.2 million includes all the furniture FLW designed for the house.

Theodore A. Pappas House in 2017.
Photo by LittleT889 for Wikipedia, used by CC BY-SA 4.0

FLW passed on before construction began but the family wished to expand the original floor plan. The expansion was handled by architects at Taliesin Associated Architects who saw the project through to completion.

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