Taubman Center goes back to the future

The Argonaut Building was where the modern car was invented decades ago. Today, it's CCS's Taubman Center, a place where design is just important now as it was back then. Metropolis magazine writes about it this month.

Excerpt:

Creating that level of student engagement was a goal of CCS's president, Richard Rogers, when he undertook the restoration of this historic building in Detroit's New Center district. Originally called the Argonaut, the Art Deco structure was designed by Albert Kahn in 1928 for General Motors, and it housed the first design department in the history of the auto industry. The structure takes up an entire city block, and when GM relocated its headquarters more than a decade ago to the Renaissance Center on the waterfront, the building joined the growing number of vacant sites in downtown Detroit.

In July, at the tag end of a $145 million historic restoration undertaken by CCS, the Argonaut was rechristened the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education. The building, which was donated to the school by GM, now serves as a second campus for the college, just a few miles from its first. It is home to CCS's five undergraduate design departments and its new M.F.A. degree programs in design and transportation design. The restored building contains classrooms and faculty offices for the college as well as loft-style residence halls for up to 300 students. It will have retail and offices, both aimed at reinvigorating the street. Eighty thousand square feet have been set aside for future development, including incubator space for start-up design companies. Rogers envisioned a building where design practice could thrive, from early education to professional development and production.

Read the entire article here.