A City Invited In

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In 2018, Ford Motor Company quietly acquired Michigan Central Station — a legendary Beaux-Arts landmark that had stood vacant in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood for decades. The plan was ambitious: transform the station into the centerpiece of a new mobility district, and announce that vision to the city in a way that felt less like a corporate press event and more like a genuine civic moment.

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I led our team through a series of creative sprints to develop the concept and programming for a multi-day public event. Rather than treat the building as a backdrop, we embraced it as the statement itself — proposing large-scale light shows projected across the station's facade on the nights leading up to the announcement, turning a long-neglected structure into something the neighborhood had never seen before.

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During the event and for months after, exhibits inside the station celebrated the history of the building and the Corktown community, while inviting residents to respond to Ford's plans for the future. The announcement became a conversation.