Not this barn, another one. (Deposit Photos)
One of Corktown's many charms is its diversity, of both people and structures -- a working-class neighborhood with the usual latter-day gentrification creeping in, its population a melange of young and old, newly arrived hipsters and long-time residents, brick streets and row houses and modernist one-offs creeping in here and there.
Soon we might be able to add another architectural odd duck to the mix. A barn.
So writes Bill McGraw in the Freep.
Not this barn, another one. (Deposit Photos)
Scott Lowell and Carolyn Howard, owners of Traffic Jam & Snug and other Midtown real estate, want to reassemble a century-old barn they've had in storage for several years now, on land they own at 14th and Dalzelle in Corktown, and rechristen it a restaurant and event space.
That's one block from Michigan Central Station, where -- maybe you've heard? -- Ford Motor Company recently took ownership and plan to make it the centerpiece of a new Detroit campus devoted to their electric-vehicle and autonomous-vehicle work.
Lowell and Howard own the land and the barn, but the project still faces questions about zoning and, possibly, style. While the barn’s quirky, rural, old-school mojo could redefine farm-to-table cuisine in Detroit and make it a popular destination, it’s not known what the new player on the block, Ford Motor Co., feels about an antique barn next to its closely watched train station project, on which it is expected to spend millions.
...“We bought that property quite a few years ago with one purpose in mind, because it was the most ideal spot in the entire city to build this barn,” Howard said. “We are not speculators. We are multi-decade supporters.”
As one of Detroit's oldest neighborhoods, Corktown streets have certainly seen horses before. So a barn wouldn't necessarily be a stretch. But time will tell.
