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ON GUARD FOR 189 YEARS

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021 | FREEP.COM E2 K1 PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK Doctors: Vaccine deaths rare Despite some fatalities, they say shots are safe Inside h Kristen Jordan Shamus calls. Answers “We were assuming he felt tired or some- to your USA TODAY NETWORK thing and went to bed early and never woke questions METRO, 4A up,” William Simpson said. “My brother Dan about Daniel Thayne Simpson, a retired accoun- went over as he often does at 5 in the evening COVID-19 A trailblazer in tant from Chesterfield Township who served . ... He found my father dead.” and the Detroit TV news in the Navy during the Korean War, got his Health officials say the vaccines are safe, vaccines, 7A first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and individual reports of deaths after a h We Karen Hudson-Samuels on Feb. 3. COVID-19 immunization must be considered in remember remembered for role with The next day, Simpson, 90, was dead. the context of several factors, including the some metro 1st Black-owned station. “He told my brother he was getting and overall death rate among people who’ve gotten Detroiters he had a sticker showing that he got it,” Wil- the vaccines compared with the overall death Doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine wait to the liam Simpson of Ann Arbor told the Free to be administered in a parking garage at the virus, 9A Press. But then, he stopped returning phone See DEATHS, Page 6A TCF Center. RYAN GARZA/

MICHIGAN CENTRAL STATION ON TRACK FOR 2022 FINISH Biden aims

METRO, 12A to erase Dog survives icy river ordeal mark of The pooch was rescued after a coyote encounter and four ‘former guy’ days on the . Masks, flurry of executive orders show the difference

Jonathan Lemire and Calvin Woodward

WASHINGTON – When walked into the Oval Office for the first time as presi- dent a month ago, his pens were ready. Al- ready. HOUSE ENVY, 8D Lining a fine wooden box, they bore the presidential and an imprint of his signa- Perfect spot for ture, a micro-mission accomplished in ad- vance of his swearing-in. a fitness fanatic Four years ago, pens were just one more lit- Regulation-size pool, private tle drama in ’s . exercise room in $1.9M The gold-plated signature Bloomfield Hills home. Christman/ pens he favored had to be Inside Brinker placed on rush order in his h construction opening days. Over time, he Biden gives a tour of came to favor Sharpies over declares Infection totals ‘A PHOENIX the Michigan the government-issued disaster as cleanup Michigan: 15,359 deaths, Central pens. begins in the 579,919 cases Station after On matters far more pro- two years of found than a pen, Biden is South, 21A U.S.: 497,568 deaths, cleaning out out to demonstrate that the 28,072,124 cases debris and days of a seat-of-the-pants presidency are World: 2,459,049 deaths, surveying the over. 111,032,169 cases structure for He wants to show that the inflationary cy- (As of 8 p.m. Saturday) restoration in Sources: Johns Hopkins University cle of outrage can be contained. That things and state of Michigan RISING’ Corktown. can get done by the book. That the new guy Phoebe Wall Howard PHOTOS BY can erase the legacy of the “former guy,” as Bi- Armies of craftsmen are Detroit Free Press KIMBERLY P. den calls Trump. USA TODAY NETWORK MITCHELL/DFP On policy, symbolism and style, from the Inside today’s Free Press restoring delicate plaster Earth’s climate to what’s not on his desk ❚ Obituaries...... 22A, 28A-33A in Beaux Arts building One by one, expert plasterers are replacing by hand (Trump’s button to summon a Diet Coke), Bi- ❚ Business ...... 1B more than 3,000 decorative pieces on the walls and den has been purging Trumpism however he ❚ Entertainment+Life...... 1D ceilings of the waiting room in Michigan Central Sta- can in an opening stretch that is wholly unlike ❚ Puzzles...... 6D-7D tion. the turmoil and trouble of his predecessor’s Workers are perched atop scaffolding that stretch- es 50 feet high. See BIDEN, Page 8A The latest project, which involves Inside Weather 15 to 20 craftsmen a day working to h Ford F-150 ❚ restore about 56,000 square feet of High 32° Low 30° plasterwork, will last 18 months. with Cloudy. Forecast, 2A “We’re inventing some modern generator finishes to replicate some of the old gets finishes. There will be skill involved, worldwide artistry,” said Jeff Greene, 67, chair- attention for man of New York-based EverGreene powering WEAHII-40000x Architectural Arts. He spoke to the homes in Free Press recently from an Italian Texas, 4A chapel between Naples and Rome, a Volume 190 | No. 293 ©2021 $3.00 project he was finishing up before heading to Detroit. Home delivery pricing inside Subscribe: 800-395-3300 Christman/Brinker construction and EverGreene “We’ll get the textures and colors just right. And Mask in place, in contrast to his Classified: 586-977-7500; Architectural Arts are working together to restore once we have the methodologies down, the predecessor, President Joe Biden prepares 800-926-8237 the plaster ceiling to look like stone at the Michigan to sign executive orders in the Oval Office Central Station. It’s expected to take 18 months. See TRAIN STATION, Page 16A on Jan. 20. He has been in office a month. AP 16A | SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021 | DETROIT FREE PRESS

COVER STORY

EverGreene Superintendent Ed Magee, left, Michigan Central Station Project Manager Gary Marshall and Senior Safety Manager Ryan Darling survey the work. PHOTOS BY KIMBERLY P. MITCHELL/DFP

chitecture, there’s a cathedral effect.” ‘Sense of pride’ ing at the State Capitol to talk with a Train station Greene, a trained painter who attended French woman who watched in awe. the Art Institute of and studied “Ford is doing rapid prototyping of plaster “She said, ‘You don’t realize what you have Continued from Page 1A architecture, is a craftsman who works with pieces for this project,” Greene said. “Old and here. We have English buildings, Greek his hands. He restores train stations, new technology are being wed together. The buildings, French architecture. But only in techniques, and we train locals how to do it, churches and already 38 of 50 state capitols. result will be both preservation and some- America do you have that all in one building. it’ll run a little like a Ford assembly line,” he “By restoring these old buildings, we are thing new. It takes foresight to recognize the And you don’t get to see it unless you come to said. preserving the craftsmanship that built importance of these buildings. They’re like America,’ ” Magee said. The iconic Beaux Arts building in the them in the first place, which is dying,” he symbols, a sense of pride and place and be- heart of Corktown that came to represent the said. “In , there were 10,000 longing.” Stepping back in time disintegration of Detroit remains a priority stone masons and now there are just a few Workers are coming in from places includ- for Ford since the company purchased the hundred left and the buildings are still there ing and Ohio and New York, Medallions and rosettes will all be re- property along Michigan Avenue in 2018, just and need maintenance.” some of whom will rent apartments in metro placed in the train station, said Rich Bardelli, 7 miles down the street from its world head- Not only will his company bring in experts Detroit. Still, the majority of the crew will be 54, construction manager at Ford. quarters in Dearborn. but part of the contract with Ford is to train local. “It’s 65 feet to the top with vaulted ceil- local skilled trades so that they may carry on ings. They’re on ladders, on scaffolding up ‘A rebirth’ the work in coming years. ‘Watched in awe’ against the walls,” he said. “They came out a “Ford is making a concerted effort to leave year ago, took down pieces, did castings of The plaster, which covers most of the the knowledge base embedded in Detroit,” Ed Magee, 54, a plaster painter and Ever- them, so we could reproduce the plaster building’s first floor, was made to look like Greene said. “Detroit is one of the most ar- Greene superintendent, is honored to be on castings and put them back up. We’re start- stone as a cost-saving measure at the time of chitecturally rich cities in America. The the Detroit project. ing in the main waiting room, the ticket construction. EverGreene is planning to pre- boom time of the teens, 1920s and 1930s. The “It’s nice to be a part of history,” he said. counter area and then the arcade and main serve and clean any original material that buildings are still here and they’re reposi- “I’ve seen this train station in so many hallway that’s sort of perpendicular to the can be saved and re-create off-site pieces tories of everyone’s memory.” movies. I worked here two years ago on the ticket counter.” that are needed to refurbish the building, Every single type of plaster craft is being salvage, trying to save some of the unique, The train station closed in 1988. Pieces fell which was dedicated in 1914. employed in the train station, Greene said. ornamental pieces. We were doing mold off the walls. Graffiti covered the handmade “This is a Phoenix rising from the ashes,” From three-coat plaster to ornamental to ve- making early on.” tiles. After this project is done, Bardelli Greene said. “It was abandoned 30 years ago neer to plaster consolidation and plaster What Detroit has, Magee said, few under- promised, “you’ll feel like you stepped back and so destroyed. But it’s a noble building. conservation. All these techniques together stand. in time — with the marble floor, polished col- It’s got great bones. This will be a rebirth.” create a unique and seamless spectrum. “These are the treasures of America,” he umns, all the intricate plaster work. They The attention to detail on the train station said. “They’re not going to build any more.” in Corktown, Detroit’s oldest original neigh- Years ago, Magee climbed down scaffold- See TRAIN STATION, Page 17A borhood, continues the dream of Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor Co., which bought the 13-story building with a promise to restore it to its glory. The company says it is on schedule to fin- ish by of 2022. “What humanized the building initially was the warm Kasota stone color, a type of sandstone or limestone that comes from the Upper Mississippi in Minnesota,” Greene said. “There’s real stone and terra cotta on the outside and on the inside column shafts and the lower wainscoting is made of this upper Mississippi Kasota stone and also Mankato stone.” The terra cotta arch system was designed by the famous architect Rafael Guastavino, a Spaniard who moved to the U.S. in the late 1800s, Greene said. “They were building up until the Second World War,” he said. “They figured out how to use layers of tile so they could create col- umn-free domes, based on a Roman design. It had been forgotten and reinvented.”

‘Cathedral effect’

The plasterwork project is taking place at the same time as repair of the Guastavino vaulted ceiling in the waiting room, which features 22,000 square feet of clay tiles cov- ering three self-supporting arches. The vast space in the train station spot- lights this design. “It creates a big giant monumental space,” Greene said. “Unlike architecture that dehu- manizes you, like some modern or fascist ar- Every single type of plaster craft is being employed in the train station. The project’s planned completion date is in 2022. FREEP.COM | SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021 | 17A

COVER STORY

Debra Walker Train station lives several blocks from Continued from Page 16A the Michigan Central take pieces and literally put a mud set behind Station that it, stick it to the wall and attach it by hand.” is under These are masons, artists, who began renovation working in late January. The whole team be- from the gan working full force in February. Ford Motor This team has worked in Detroit previous- Co. “When ly on , the Detroit Public Li- you see the brary, the Detroit Institute of Arts and the activity, it’s , along with the Michigan hope,” she State Capitol. Nationally, EverGreene has re- said. “You stored Grand Central Station in New York know they’re and in L.A., as well as depots bringing in , Seattle and Sacramento. something to life. It’s Decay falls away positive.” MANDI WRIGHT/ Debra Walker, 67, is a retired Chrysler ex- DETROIT FREE ecutive who lives on Sixth Street and cur- PRESS rently serves as a member of Detroit’s Board of Zoning Appeals. She has lived in Cork- town for 15 years and serves as treasurer of the Corktown Business Association. She sees the resurrection of the train sta- tion as a perfect blend of preservation and progress. “When you see the activity, it’s hope,” she said. “You go by and, instead of seeing a building people would always show as ‘ruin porn’ to symbolize the decay of the city, it truly shows activity and hope. You know they’re bringing something to life. It’s posi- tive.” Detroit craftsmen budget, said Ford spokeswoman Marisa Training plasterers, wood carvers and Bradley. stone carvers will have a profound impact on “As with any construction project, we ex- Detroit, said Joel Stone, senior curator at the pect surprises and unforeseen costs along Detroit Historical Society. the way, especially for such an enormous and “A lot of buildings were torn down be- historical project like this one. But we plan cause the cost of renovating them was so for that up front in our construction cost esti- high, because these specialists didn’t exist mates,” she said. “To date, some areas of the here,” he said. “I don’t think we value it restoration have come in above budget but enough. When the price tag comes in, people others have come in under budget, so it all tend to go in another direction — generally balances out and is still contained within the demolition. Putting this kind of workforce approved project funding amount.” back into Detroit is going to save many build- In November 2018, then-Ford executive ings down the road.” Joe Hinrichs told a Barclays Global Automo- This project is important to so many peo- tive Conference in New York that the project ple, personally and professionally. would cost an estimated $740 million for the Ken Katz, 69, a world-renowned conser- station and neighboring properties — pur- vator of painted surfaces who has done ex- chase, renovation and new construction — tensive restoration of the Detroit Athletic and the company would seek more than Club and Belle Isle while working from his $238 million in tax incentives. Detroit studio, said he used to take the train The next phase of interior restoration will from Detroit to Toledo to Buffalo to go hiking include bringing new piping, floors, plumb- in the Adirondacks. ing and electricals to the building and finish- “This project represents the history of De- ing structural repairs. troit and its importance in the scheme of Plans for Michigan Central Station origi- transportation,” he said. “Until now, leaders nally intended it to be the centerpiece of a have had no vision and they were unable to new 30-acre mobility innovation district, see the importance. It took someone like with public access and local shopping. No Ford to really decide to make a commitment.” updates have been provided to the commu- nity on changes since the coronavirus pan- $740M project demic. Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: 313-222- The train station is on track to complete Christman/Brinker construction and EverGreene Architectural Arts work together to restore 6512 or [email protected]. Follow her construction on time and within its initial the ceiling at the Michigan Central Station. KIMBERLY P. MITCHELL/DETROIT FREE PRESS on @phoebesaid.

Ford Motor Co. has brought on EverGreene Architectural Arts to revive the grandest areas of the depot, including the main waiting area, ticket lobby and restaurant. PROVIDED BY FORD MOTOR CO.