The Detroit Packard Plant is one of the most famous industrial ruins in the world. Once a symbol of cutting-edge American manufacturing, it later became an icon of urban decline but recently, the city’s mayor Mike Duggan announced a major redevelopment plans including affordable live work housing, community space, Detroit’s first indoor skate park, and the so called “MODEM” : the Museum of Detroit Electronic Music, paying homage to Detroit’s musical heritage.
The Packard Automotive Plant was a massive car manufacturing complex built between 1903 and 1911 for the Packard Motor Car Company, one of the premier luxury automakers of its era. At its peak, it covered 3.5 million square feet across 47 buildings — essentially a self-contained industrial city.
But when Packard ceased production in 1956 the site was abandoned and over decades it became stripped by scrappers, partially collapsed, covered in graffiti and eventually a popular urbex site for photographers, explorers, and filmmakers. In short, it became a symbol of Detroit’s industrial rise and fall.
In 2010, it came back to the spotlight when In 2010, Banksy visited Detroit while promoting his film Exit Through the Gift Shop. During that trip, a mural appeared inside one of the abandoned industrial buildings at the Packard Plant. The piece showed a child holding a paintbrush, with the words: “I remember when all this was trees.”
Banksy piece in its original place within Detroit’s Packard Plant [📷: billyvoo]
And it seems like Banksy was heard as the new development with includes more than 2 acres of indoor/outdoor public green spaces and recreation areas, plus mixed community programming areas.
Overall cost of the project is estimated to exceed $50 million and If all goes according to plan, portions of Packard Park (like MODEM and community spaces) could open around 2029.
📷 : Albert Duce / Svetlov Artem. CC License.
