Photo: Courtesy of Michel Arnaud/Abrams Books
Photographer Michel Arnaud’s new book, Detroit: The Dream Is Now, captures the art-and-design boom taking place in of one of America’s great cities.
Detroit has seen its fair share of challenges, but as Michel Arnaud’s new book, Detroit: The Dream Is Now (Abrams) illustrates, the city is brimming with talent and ingenuity. This book, as with his previous one, Design Brooklyn: Renovation, Restoration, Innovation, Industry, also gives a wonderful list of resources in the city.
Photo: Courtesy of Michel Arnaud/Abrams Books
Street art doesn’t get any more beautiful than this.
Photo: Courtesy of Michel Arnaud/Abrams Books
Meet Olayami Dabls, a self-taught artist, who started the MBAD African Bead Museum.
Photo: Courtesy of Michel Arnaud/Abrams Books
Olayami Dabls covered this derelict house with paint, wood, and mirrors, turning the once forlorn building into a resplendent art project.
Photo: Courtesy of Michel Arnaud/Abrams Books
Mike and Lynne Savino turned this massive old bank into a house.
Photo: Courtesy of Michel Arnaud/Abrams Books
The Savinos’ living area takes advantage of the original terrazzo floor, luxurious marble wainscoting, and giant arched windows. The modernist Barcelona chairs and TrueModern sofa lay low while the mural by local artist Ken Dushane III grabs the spotlight, accentuating the height of the ceiling and enlivening the stately space.
Photo: Courtesy of Michel Arnaud/Abrams Books
Christopher Burcham purchased the Bullock-Green Hardware Company building, built in 1905, and hired architects Kevin Crosby and Shane Burley to transform it into his own home, with two rental units. Burcham preserved as much of the original interior as he could and commissioned muralist Louise Chen (a.k.a. Ouizi) and MC Bevan to paint an eye-popping mural on the side of the building.
Photo: Courtesy of Michel Arnaud/Abrams Books
Dai Hughes and his wife, Jess, brought this 1893 house in Corktown back to life in 2013. He is quoted in the book as saying, “The challenge of Detroit, as well as its opportunity, is that all this brilliant architecture can be lost any day. If somebody doesn’t save one of those buildings or stores or homes, it’s over; it will never come back.” Hughes is the co-owner of Astro Coffee.
Photo: Courtesy of Michel Arnaud/Abrams Books
Hughes’s colorful music room is painted Sherwin-Williams’s Frank Blue.
Photo: Courtesy of Michel Arnaud/Abrams Books
The Hughes family’s front porch offers a chance to unwind and commune with their neighborhood.
Photo: Courtesy of Michel Arnaud/Abrams Books
Arnaud’s passion to tell the story of Detroit’s revitalization started with a trip there in 2013. “That first visit was an eye opener, the seeds had started to take hold not in any obvious way, but if you looked hard enough you could see them.” He took ten trips of four to five days over a three-year period to complete this book. “I wanted to create a sense of time and seasons to frame the story.”
Photo: Courtesy of Michel Arnaud/Abrams Books
