The depopulation of once-major central cities is no longer an uncommon occurrence. Between the years 1950 and 2010, over 350 large cities worldwide lost a significant number of residents, businesses, and industries. Following nearly a half-century of shrinkage, a few urban centers rediscovered the benefits of density and traditional pedestrian street life and began to regain jobs and residents in inner-city neighborhoods. In other regions, however, the migration of residents from the central city to the periphery continues. The city of Detroit remains the prominent example of American regional restructuring due to its still-ruinous downtown, general lack of central employment, and unyielding population loss.
Since 1950, Detroit has lost over 50% of its population, 165,000 industrial jobs, and 147,000 housing units. The depopulation that the city has experienced over the last sixty years created a fractured and dislocated urban environment divided by over 66,000 vacant lots. Generated by default rather than intent, these discarded, neglected, and forgotten spaces evoke strong memories of past turmoil and abandonment within the city. This thesis investigation uncovers the historic factors and city-responses associated with the extensive suburbanization and the subsequent emergence of urban empty space in Detroit. Emphasizing the historic formation and strange identity of Detroit’s vacant land becomes the design measure in which to re-imagine and regenerate these urban conditions.