{"id":155274,"date":"2020-11-06T11:13:03","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T16:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=155274"},"modified":"2020-11-06T11:14:57","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T16:14:57","slug":"ford-using-new-technology-to-help-restoration-of-old-train-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2020\/11\/ford-using-new-technology-to-help-restoration-of-old-train-station\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford Using New Technology to Help Restoration of Old Train Station"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Chairman Bill Ford led the charge to make the Michigan Central Depot the automaker’s technical campus after its renovation is done in 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Civic leaders hailed the Ford Motor Co. in 2018 when it announced plans to renovate and re-occupy the old Michigan Central passenger train depot on the west side of Detroit.<\/p>\n

During the previous decade, the station had become a famous urban ruin and a symbol of the City of Detroit\u2019s precipitous economic decline from the glory years during and after World War II when the station\u2019s grand waiting room with its tiled ceiling was the center countless arrivals and departures.<\/p>\n

By the time Ford purchased the building, the old depot had been completely vandalized during the years it had stood vacant and open to the weather during the harsh Michigan winters. Since then, the company’s plans to make it the hub for its development of autonomous vehicles and a new mobility innovation district have run into a few snags.<\/p>\n

(Ford pushes ahead with neighborhood redevelopment.)<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Those challenges include the company\u2019s financial difficulties to the COVID-19 pandemic which has emptied Ford\u2019s offices spaces further west in Dearborn. The restoration has also run into some issues related to the building itself.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The restoration effort requires new technology to rebuild parts of the old train station.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Plans called for the building to be restored, for the most part, to its former glory, but time has taken its toll and some of the parts of the century-old building are unrecognizable. However, the automaker that plans to use the site to develop future tech is using current tech to move the project along.<\/p>\n

The renovation of the station, which is now supposed to be finished in 2022, has brought to bear some of Ford\u2019s technical skills, such as 3-D scanning, on the building and its lost history and missing pieces.\u00a0Ford is using hand-held laser scanners recreate some of the station\u2019s original architectural elements as the restoration moves into rebuilding the inside of the station.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany pieces of these intricate features no longer exist, and we don\u2019t have drawings of them because they\u2019re so old,\u201d said Rich Bardelli, Ford\u2019s construction manager for the Michigan Central development project.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo ensure the historical accuracy we need the right level of detail. This technology allows us to scan what\u2019s left to get a full digital picture of what it used to look like. Then we can 3D print them in the material that would get put up; like a plastic or\u00a0synthetic material or even print them as\u00a0molds or casts for plaster or iron,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

(Ford spending $740M to revamp dilapidated train station, campus.)<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

To help with the scanning, Ford called in engineers from one the company\u2019s suppliers of 3D printing software and hardware, Computer Aided Technology. The engineers from Chicago-based CATI spent several days this past summer scanning architectural pieces at Michigan Central Station and at Ford\u2019s Advanced Manufacturing Center in suburban Detroit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A rendering of what Ford’s new campus, including Michigan Central Station, in Corktown will look like.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After completing the scans, CATI delivered more than 20 digital files of missing or damaged pieces that will be rebuilt for installation during the reconstruction of the station.<\/p>\n

The scanner makes 15 cross sections of a physical object, measuring the fine details to generate digital mesh files. The technology makes the restoration project more precise, which enables developers to take measurements that might have been impossible to obtain any other way.<\/p>\n

Ted Ryan, Ford archivist and heritage brand manager, says that 3D printing is becoming increasingly popular in historic restorations. \u201cIf we can use 3D printing to help us build cars, we can use it to help us restore the train station,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

(Ford charging ahead with its new\u00a0autonomous vehicle unit.)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

The restoration is expected to create not only office space but also retail space, turning it into an anchor for more development throughout Detroit\u2019s Corktown neighborhood and connect it to an ambitious park that\u2019s being planned for Detroit Riverfront.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Civic leaders hailed the Ford Motor Co. in 2018 when it announced plans to renovate and re-occupy the old Michigan Central passenger train depot in Detroit. However, the project’s hit a few snags, including trying to replicate some of the building’s historic features. The automaker is using new technology to accomplish just that, reports TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20009,"featured_media":141163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,12,9],"tags":[],"make":[56],"post-state":[],"category_old":[118,286,150,151,313,287,131,318,319,289,299,248,317,132,130,284,125,124,297,137,139,290,128,291,278,288],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155274"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155274"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=155274"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=155274"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=155274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}