Tracing two centuries of rise, fall, and rebirth in the heart of downtown Detroit.
Downtown Detroit is in the midst of an astonishing rebirth. Its sidewalks have become a dreamland for an aspiring creative class, filled with shoppers, office workers, and restaurant-goers. Cranes dot the skyline, replacing the wrecking balls seen there only a few years ago. But venture a few blocks in any direction and this liveliness gives way to urban blight, a nightmare cityscape of crumbling concrete, barbed wire, and debris. In Dream City, urban designer Conrad Kickert examines the paradoxes of Detroit's landscape of extremes, arguing that the current reinvention of downtown is the expression of two centuries of Detroiters' conflicting hopes and dreams. Kickert demonstrates the materialization of these dreams with a series of detailed original morphological maps that trace downtown's rise, fall, and rebirth.
Kickert writes that downtown Detroit has always been different from other neighborhoods; it grew faster than other parts of the city, and it declined differently, forced to reinvent itself again and again. Downtown has been in constant battle with its own offspring-the automobile and the suburbs the automobile enabled-and modernized itself though parking attrition and land consolidation. Dream City is populated by a varied cast of downtown power players, from a 1920s parking lot baron to the pizza tycoon family and mortgage billionaire who control downtown's fate today. Even the most renowned planners and designers have consistently?yielded to those with power, land, and finances to shape downtown. Kickert thus finds rhyme and rhythm in downtown's contemporary cacophony.
Kickert argues that Detroit's case is extreme but not unique; many other American cities have seen a similar decline-and many others may see a similar revitalization.
在底特律市中心追寻两个世纪的上升，下降和重生。
底特律市中心正处于惊人的重生之中。它的人行道已经成为一个有抱负的创意阶层的梦想世界，那里到处都是购物者，办公室工作人员和食客。起重机点缀在天际线上，取代了几年前在那里看到的破坏球。但是，在任何方向上冒险走几步，这种活力就被城市的枯萎所取代，这是一场梦concrete以求的混凝土，铁丝网和碎屑的城市景观。在梦之城，城市设计师康拉德·科克特（Conrad Kickert）研究了底特律极端景观的悖论，认为当前对市中心的改造是两个世纪底特律人相互冲突的希望和梦想的表达。 Kickert用一系列详细的原始形态图展示了这些梦想的实现，这些图描绘了市中心的上升，下降和重生。
凯克特（Kickert）写道，底特律市中心一直与其他街区不同。它的增长速度超过了城市的其他地区，并且下降的幅度有所不同，被迫一次又一次地重塑自己。市区一直在与自己的后代（汽车和郊区启用汽车）进行争斗，并通过停车减员和土地整理实现了现代化。从1920年代的停车场男爵到如今控制着市中心命运的披萨大亨家族和抵押贷款亿万富翁，各种各样的市中心大亨参与其中。即使是最著名的规划师和设计师，也一贯屈服于那些拥有权力，土地和资金来塑造市区的人。凯特（Kickert）因此在市区当代喧闹中找到了韵律。
凯克特认为，底特律的案件是极端的，但并非唯一。美国其他许多城市也经历了类似的衰落，而其他许多城市也可能经历了类似的复兴。
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