OK, not literally a factory of dreams, but it's filled with artists and creatives and those people are producing dreams (or at the very least art). The Russell Industrial Center is one of those places that make Detroit feel like Detroit.
Excerpt from
Fortune:
This is a story of two Detroit factories, one a symbol of despair and
the other of promise. On the one hand is the old Packard car plant on
East Grand -- 3.5 million square feet on 38 desolate acres. Broken
windows, crumbling bricks, creeping vines, and a FOR SALE sign that's
been hanging there for years. "Most of the interest," realtor David Wax
told us, "is to tear it down for the steel in the building."
On
the other hand, just down the road, stands an icon of hope, a gargantuan
factory complex, the Russell Industrial Center. It has the same lofty
pedigree as the Packard plant (both were designed by Albert Kahn) and a
similar vintage (it was built in the 1920s). As the former headquarters
of Murray Corp., which made bodies for Ford in the glory days, this
plant, too, is inhabited by ghosts. Here, however, the ghosts share
quarters with some spirited company: a menagerie of glass blowers,
cabinetmakers, architects, seamstresses, a sneaker designer, and three
women who teach pole dancing, among others -- 160 small-business tenants
in all, most of them operating on the frontlines of Detroit's
burgeoning creative economy.
Read the entire article
here.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.