By SUSAN SAULNY
c.2010 New York Times News Service
DETROIT - The last train pulled away more than 20 years ago from Michigan Central Station, one of thousands of "see-through" buildings here, empty shells from more auspicious times.
Many of the blighted buildings stay up simply because they are too expensive to tear down. Yet Michigan Central is in a class of its own. Some city officials consider it among the ugliest behemoths to pockmark Detroit and have ordered its demolition, but others see it as the industrial age's most gracious relic, a Beaux Arts gem turned gothic from neglect but steeped in haunting beauty.
Detroit has become embroiled in an urgent debate over how to save what is perhaps its most iconic ruin - and in the process, some insist, give the demoralized city a much needed boost.
Since the City Council voted last year to demolish the depot, the building has been granted a reprieve of sorts thanks to more urgent issues confronting the city, including a $400 million budget deficit and a lawsuit to halt the teardown (citing the station's historic landmark status). Further, several council members, elected since the vote, do not share the previous council's enthusiasm for land clearing.
"I don't want to bulldoze it, then find out later there could have been a viable use for it," said Charles Pugh, a newly elected member who took over as council president in January.
Preservationists, business owners, state leaders and community activists are taking what feels like a last stab at saving the 97-year-old building before it goes the way of New York's Pennsylvania Station or, more locally, Tiger Stadium and countless other pieces of old Detroit that have fallen to the wrecking ball in recent years.
Among the recent proposals have been to turn the cavernous brick, steel and stone facade into an extreme sports castle; a casino; a hotel and office park; a fish hatchery and aquarium; an amphitheater; or a railway station again, with high-speed trains.
Or just clean and secure it, and leave it the way it is as an attraction for tourists.