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From the people who brought a refreshed on-trend urban vibe to Detroit's inner-city renaissance, with their bespoke bicycles, hand-made leather goods, and hand-crafted luxury watches, Shinola's next endeavour will take further advantage of Motor City's metropolitan rebirth with the upcoming retrofit of a prime downtown location. Their next project will convert a former turn-of-the-century warehouse into a beautifully designed boutique hotel. A joint venture between Shinola and local developer Bedrock Detroit, fellow lover of all things vintage, including Detroit's numerous heritage structures remaining in the core, the Shinola Hotel will take up part of a soon-to-be-revitalized block of buildings along Woodward Avenue, which was once home to many of Detroit's most beloved shopping and entertainment venues.
To be designed by a team that includes the Detroit-based Kraemer Design Group and the Manhattan-based Gachot Studios, the project, with three out of four partners based in Motor City, will emerge as a triumphant made-in-Detroit story, a welcome piece of development news to come out of the long-beleagured city. Set to open in 2018, the 130-room designer hotel will feature beautifully built interiors, while the exterior heritage elements will be restored to their former glory.
Viewed above and in detail below, the Shinola Hotel will take residence within a 1915-built structure located at 1400 Woodward Avenue, which was originally the home of the T. B. Rayl & Co. department store, followed by its more recent identity as the site of the Eastern Wig and Hair Co., which closed a few years ago. The restoration work, which will be carried out by Bedrock Detroit, will feature a full cleaning and repointing of the original brickwork, along with the re-opening of the many blocked-out windows that were covered during previous renovations in the 1950s and 1970s.
Once complete, the Shinola Hotel will be a welcome presence amid the slowly revitalizing Lower Woodward Avenue Historic District, the former high-end shopping district in the heart of downtown Detroit today showing many positive signs of new life, along with, for the first time in a long time, a bright future.
SkyriseCities will be sure to return to this pivotal project once construction begins. For more information, check out the associated Database file and Forum thread, and as always, feel free to join the conversation in the comments section below.
