Welcome to the Curbed Cup, an annual award to Detroit's neighborhood of the year. The ultra-prestigious (and entirely fake) trophy is our way of asking readers which 'hood had the very best 2013. We have 8 competitors for this year's cup, with one matchup each day. Voting ends 24 hours after it begins.
Downtown and Corktown romped through the first round with ease, but now they're going head to head in the opening matchup of our second round. Who deserves the Curbed Cup more?
Let's talk hotels. The David Whitney Building was downtown's flagship hotel renovation in 2013, while the highly-publicized (and gorgeous) upgrades at Cobo Center injected life into Detroit's sparse hotel selection.The 25-story Pontchartrain Hotel awoke from a 5-year hibernation, but that didn't stop developers from planning a new boutique hotel at the historic DFD headquarters next door. The RenCen Marriott finally had to admit its 1,329 rooms were hilariously outdated, initiating a $30M renovation effort. Even downtown's run-down Holiday Inn announced upgrades.
Corktown's 2013 was defined by a multitude of new food/drinking establishments, but Detroit's oldest 'hood also saw action at its three most stubbornly abandoned buildings. Windows suddenly began to appear at the abandoned Roosevelt Hotel (though we're not entirely sure why) while Michigan Central Station taunted us with an equally mysterious window venture. The CPA Building might have found a buyer, but not before absorbing a splash of turquoise graffiti and a joyriding SUV.
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